Briggs: For Toledo men's basketball, all's well that ends well after 'crazy' start to offseason

The Toledo men’s basketball program has won four straight Mid-American Conference championships, but Tod Kowalczyk is realistic about expectations going forward.

Now that the dust is settling on a frenetic offseason — which began with UT’s top three players declaring for free agency — he is not sure the Rockets will be as good next year.

No …

“I think we’ll be better,” Kowalczyk said.

What, expect anything different?

I stopped in the Rockets’ basketball offices the other day, and, as usual, the sun had found its way through the clouds of uncertainty.

In a transitory new era that has made it difficult for anyone to sustain success — let alone the mid-major programs that are turning into farm clubs for the big boys — Toledo endures as an exception.

Every year, it loses its best players — to graduation, the siren call of NIL riches, the NBA — and every year, for all the new detours, it finds its way to the same destination.

The motto for next season is already set: Get the Nickel, as in a fifth straight regular-season title. (You might note this works on another level, too, with Toledo in eternal pursuit of its fifth trip to the NCAA tournament.)

That might seem a little far-fetched, and it especially would have seemed that way a few weeks ago.

Think back to the last week of March.

Toledo’s three all-league guards were in the transfer portal, and, in a way, so was Kowalczyk.

He was deep in talks to become the next coach at Utah State, where he was one of two finalists flown down for an in-person interview, according to industry sources, along with Youngstown State coach Jerrod Calhoun.

But the limbo was short-lived.

While it’s unclear if Kowalczyk was formally offered the job — which ultimately went to Calhoun — he made his cold feet more than clear to Utah State.

The night before his interview, tears flowed in his hotel room. Appealing as it was to trade the high wire of life in the one-bid MAC for the Mountain West Conference — which sent six teams to the NCAA tournament last year — he and his wife, Julie, could not imagine moving their family across the country.

They had it too good in Toledo, and so did their kids, Race and Rose, a sophomore and freshman in high school.

“They’re in a great place and you can’t screw that up for them,” said Kowalczyk, 57. “I called another head coach for his advice, and he said, ‘Do not let your personal achievements and successes affect your family’s successes in a negative way.’

“We have so much invested in Toledo and this program, and our family loves this community. Do you want to give that up? And would this have been the right move? There are some places where you feel very confident, ‘Hey, this would be a great move for our family.’ There are other ones where it’s not black and white, and I’d prefer to stay with the black and white at this point in my life.”

So he returned, a little dazed — “a crazy week,” he said — but determined to assemble another championship contender.

And it appears he and his staff did just that.

It’s easy to focus on all the talent that Toledo lost: Dante Maddox (Xavier), RaHeim Moss (Oregon), and Tyler Cochran (Oregon State).

You also have to appreciate that its rivals probably lost their stars, too. Of the 10 all-league players with eligibility remaining, only two returned: Central Michigan guard Anthony Pritchard and Ohio forward AJ Clayton.

In that half-baked context, the Rockets are in good shape.

They bring back some very nice pieces (see: Javan Simmons, Sonny Wilson, et al.) and are bringing in many more, by way of a big-time recruiting class (6-8 forward Jaylan Ouwinga and 6-5 guard Tyler Ode are rated among the top five prospects in Michigan) and a portal that giveth almost as much as it taketh.

UT added two of the top returning players in the MAC — 6-6 forward Isaiah Adams (Buffalo) and 6-4 guard Seth Hubbard (Western Michigan) — along with a Division II deadeye in the image of former star J.T. Shumate — 6-8 forward Colin O’Rourke (Wisconsin-Parkside). It hopes to use its final available scholarship on a backup big man.

To answer your two big questions, the starting lineup projects as Wilson, Hubbard, Adams, O’Rourke, and Simmons, and Toledo will be better because … well, we’ll see. As Kowalczyk sees it, a longer, quicker Rockets team will take — and make — more 3s and be improved defensively.

“We could have more versatility to play more of a pressing style, more full court,” he said.

Again, we’ll see, but Kowalczyk has earned nothing if not the benefit of the doubt* (*in the regular season). And that goes double in these goofy times.

As it is, UT — which averaged 81.3 points per game the last four seasons, third only to Alabama and Gonzaga — has proven a top mid-major transfer destination.

Kowalczyk has also proven willing to embrace the new world with an open mind.

“We can all say we don’t like change, but if you don’t adapt, you’re not going to win,” he said. “We all like to win.”

With that, he’s working on growing Toledo’s NIL pot (goal: $300,000 per year) and even reimagining his recruiting pitch.

Consider: Since 2021, the Rockets have produced two MAC players of the year (Marreon Jackson and RayJ Dennis) and an NBA draft pick (Ryan Rollins), and sent five players on to bigger programs.

That’s such an exceptional record of development that I asked Kowalczyk if he would consider selling UT as a possible stepping stone to go after higher-level prospects.

“It's a conversation we're having all the time,” he said. “My staff thinks I need to do a little bit more of that. Maybe you say, ‘Listen, you come play for me, we'll get you to the Big Ten in two years.’”

Whatever it takes to assure the more things change, the more the top of the MAC standings remain the same.