For Caleb Kimbrough, the Hampden-Sydney men's basketball head coach, playing against his alma mater in Guilford and former coach in Tom Palombo is nothing new. The two Division III schools are in the same conference and play at least once a year.
Facing off in the Division III semifinals, however, is different. That will be the situation Thursday in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where the two Old Dominion Athletic Conference foes face off with a trip to the Division III championship game on the line. It's the first time two men's basketball teams from the conference have made the semifinals since 2010.
"I'm really proud of Caleb and how he carries himself. Embracing this is really important," Palombo said on a recent "Hoopsville" podcast. "We're trying to embrace it, enjoy it and have fun with it."
Kimbrough started a school-record 108 games for Palombo, now in his 21st season as head coach. A 2008 graduate of Guilford, Kimbrough coached under Palombo, as well, serving as assistant coach from 2010-14 and associate head coach from 2014-16. Carson Long, an assistant coach at Hampden-Sydney, also played at Guilford.
"All of my core values are definitely from (my time at Guilford). I spent 10 years with coach Palombo, four as a player and six as an assistant," Kimbrough said on the "Hoopsville" podcast. "As much as I wish me and coach were facing off in the title game, this means one of us gets to move on to the title game. It's going to be a really special moment for Hampden-Sydney and this program, and it'll be a really special moment for me and coach Palombo. I'm really excited about that."
As a player, Kimbrough twice helped the Quakers advance to the NCAA tournament, including one trip to the quarterfinals. From the sidelines, he's now led Hampden-Sydney to its first semifinal appearance since 2003 and third in program history.
"The all-time best competitor, no matter what we were doing in practice. It had such an effect on our team and how we went about our business to have a guy every day be as competitive as he was," Palombo said of Kimbrough. "He brought that as an assistant coach and now as a head coach, just a competitiveness, the will to be good, the want to win, the relentless pursuit of excellence. Obviously, you can see what kind of team he has and how they go about their business, and that's a reflection of him."
Guilford
Four of Guilford's top six scorers are a pair of tandems whose history as teammates go way back.
Tyler Dearman, leading the Quakers with 20.1 points per game, and Julius Burch, second on the team in scoring (11.2 per game) and first in rebounding (10.0 per game), are both fifth-year seniors who played high school basketball together. Even more, they did so at Southern Guilford High School, about 20 minutes south of the Greensboro, North Carolina, college they now represent. To get to Fort Wayne, Guilford knocked off defending Division III champion Christopher Newport with a go-ahead layup from Dearman with 2.3 seconds to play in the quarterfinals.
Dearman and Burch's lengthy connection is only outdone by Luke and Gabe Proctor, brothers one year apart. Luke, a junior, averaged 8.7 points per game, while his younger brother is second behind Dearman in 3-pointers made this season.
Trine
To say Trine has made its first NCAA tournament appearance worthwhile would be an understatement. The Thunder have set a program record for wins (27) en route to a series of firsts: first NCAA tournament win, first quarterfinals appearance and now first semifinal game.
The last step took some dramatics, however. Down eight with just over a minute to play, Trine clawed back and hit a pair of free throws late in regulation in its quarterfinal game against Wisconsin-Platteville to send the game to overtime. The Thunder topped that with an overtime buzzer-beater from Cortez Garland to advance.
After hosting its first four games of the NCAA tournament in front of packed arenas, Trine — located in northeast Indiana — will have the shortest travel of any of the Final Four teams when it takes on Trinity (Connecticut) in the semifinals Thursday.
Trinity (Connecticut)
Trinity (Connecticut) started its 2023-24 season with 20 straight wins before falling to Williams on a 3-pointer with two seconds to play Feb. 2. Since then, the Bantams haven't lost en route to a program-best 30-1 record and their first tournament semifinal appearance since 1995.
The lessons from their only loss have paid off, as the Bantams came out on top in a rematch with Williams in their conference tournament's championship game, 59-52. The Bantams, who will face Trine on Thursday, have won their last 10 games by an average margin of 13.6 points.
