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An in-depth look at Division III Posted Feb. 23, 2000 |
Notebooks Great Lakes Midwest Northeast Check out D3football.com |
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By Mark Simon
"It's nice to have for the memory bank," said Djurickovic, whose current squad is 21-3 and ranked No. 15 in the D3hoops.com Top 25. "It's more fun for my three kids to look at the rings and the watches and the newspapers." It also set one heck of a precedent for any future endeavors he planned to undertake. After leaving North Park in 1994, Djurickovic was out of basketball for three years, doing some consulting work for other colleges. He had the option to coach at the Division I level, helping to start a program at Florida Atlantic, but felt that it wasn't the right situation. He was looking for the best possible challenge at the Division III level. He found it with Carthage, which had a team that had won 14 games total over the previous three seasons. He found a commitment to improvement, with a president and an athletic director who wanted to build the program to a level of national respectability. It's taken a little time to climb uphill. Djurickovic had to endure his first losing season as a coach -- 12-13 in 1996-97 to begin the push. "I'd like to tell you that I'm a good coach," said Djurickovic. "We've been lucky in a couple of respects. You have to be lucky." The biggest bit of good fortune came last season with the arrival of 6-7 forward Jason Wiertel, who leads the team in scoring as a sophomore at 22.1 ppg. In the spring, Wiertel shifts from being an imposing presence underneath to being a force on the mound. Last season he went 7-0 as a southpaw starter for the Carthage baseball squad. "We knew that Jason was going to be excellent," said Djurickovic. "But we didn't know just how good he was going to be." This year's freshman class boasts two starters in Rob Garnes (who was an all-CCIW wide receiver in the fall) and Antonio McDaniel. As Bosko puts it -- "We kind of skipped over the experience-need thing." That's why at Carthage it looks like the best is yet to come. Though who says that it can't come this season. The Redmen have held their own against nationally ranked competition, including a win two weeks ago against Illinois Wesleyan before the largest crowd in the history of the program. A new gym is in the works as well. Thursday night Carthage plays No. 20 Wheaton with a chance to clinch the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin title and an automatic bid to tbe NCAA Tournament. Carthage has never been to the national tournament. The recent victory against IWU brought back memories of the days at North Park. "We won 62 home games in a row in my first four years," said Djurickovic. "At North Park, we played in a junior high gym, with a 1,200-seat capacity and from 1978 to 1992 there was never an empty seat for a conference game. It made for a great homecourt advantage." History has a funny way of repeating itself. Even if this team loses early, whomever beats it might be able to say in a few years that they were the last to topple a dynasty. "We know that we've got a lot of things that we can do better," said Djurickovic, "but I think that you will see Carthage as one of the top teams in the nation -- year after year after year." |
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Carthage men's basketball coach Bosko Djurickovic refers to the two national championships he won as a head coach, the three he got as an assistant coach and the 340 career baseball wins as ancient history.