Mike Maker Moves On to Marist

Editors Note: This article was co-written by editors Joe MacDonald and Adam Lamont

The news that Williams coach Mike Maker had formally accepted the head coaching position at Division 1 Marist came as little surprise to those familiar with Maker’s background and coaching ability. Maker spent years in the Division 1 coaching ranks as an assistant at places like Creighton and West Virginia before becoming a first-time head coach at Williams over six years ago. When Williams hired him they most likely understood that Maker did not view Williams as his final coaching job. Maker said as much when in his introductory news conference he described how the Marist job was the fulfillment of a longtime dream of his to be a head coach at the Division 1 level. Maker did not have the deep rooted connections of someone like Amherst’s David Hixon, who graduated from Amherst in 1978, to keep him from moving onto a greater professional opportunity. That does not mean, however, that his decision to leave was an easy one. Talking about saying goodbye to his Williams players, Maker visibly breaks down in a very touching and genuine moment starting at the 2:05 mark.

During his six seasons at Williams, Maker was known as much for his great basketball mind as his kind and generous nature, and led the perennially successful Ephs program to perhaps its greatest stretch of basketball in history. In the 2006-2007, the season before Maker became head coach, Williams went 4-5 in the NESCAC, 17-8 overall, and lost by 37 points to Middlebury in the NESCAC tournament quarterfinals. In just his second year Maker lead the Ephs to a 9-0 regular season NESCAC record, 30-2 overall record, a NESCAC tournament championship, and a national championship game appearance. Since that 2008-2009 season, Williams has barely wavered in being a threat to win the NESCAC and national title every year. Over six years Maker went 147-32 for an .821 winning percentage, the highest of any Williams head coach. Of course Williams returned again to the national championship this year losing in heart-breaking fashion to Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Even Maker himself has a hard time believing the level that Williams reached during his tenure. “What we achieved was beyond my wildest imagination,” Maker said.

Winning a national championship was really the only thing Maker had to prove as head coach at the Division 3 level, and considering how close he got, even that would not have changed the perception of his abilities very much

Maker’s teams played an uptempo, aesthetically-pleasing style of basketball that saw them routinely approach 100 points a game. The ultimate testimony to how devastating Williams could be when running Maker’s offense to perfection came in the national semifinals this year when Williams ran Amherst off the floor in a 98-69 victory. The Ephs shot 63 percent, had 24 assists on 38 field goals, and scored 51 of their 98 points in the paint. That loss put Williams back on top of the rivalry after Amherst had an eight-game winning streak against Williams entering that game.

The win was another validation of both the style of play and type of basketball player that Maker brought to Williamstown. Guys like Michael Mayer ’14 from North Carolina and James Wang ’12 from Australia were stars for Maker that might not have come to Williams if not for Maker’s ability to cast such a wide net in recruiting. In fact, the 2013-2014 Williams team had only two players who hailed from the same state; Massachusetts is the home of Ryan Kilcullen ’15 and Greg Payton ’14. That is an incredible achievement given how Williams is in a small remote town and is not a college familiar to most basketball communities around the country. Maker leaves Williams with the basketball program in a great place given the quality of students he has had play for him.

So what now for Williams? Unlike in Division 1, a head coaching change does not automatically lead to a mass exodus of the players as is often the case at top-flight programs. But that doesn’t mean the danger isn’t there. Duncan Robinson ’17, reigning National Rookie of the Year, would certainly have some suitors if he was interested in moving, and Maker recruited a talented, guard-heavy 2018 class (note that this is entirely speculation, there has been no indication that any current or future members of the Williams team is considering leaving Williamstown). Of course, the Ephs are losing a great deal of production with this year’s class of departing seniors, but if all of the underclassmen return, as expected, Williams will still have the potential to compete for and win a NESCAC title.

The search for Williams’ next men’s head basketball coach has likely already begun. There are a handful of Williams’ graduates in the coaching ranks. Mike Crotty ’04 currently runs the very successful Middlesex Magic AAU program. Kevin Snyder ’09 just finished his first year as the manager of basketball operations for the Bucknell Bison under former Williams’ head coach Dave Paulsen, one of the only other coaches to make the D-III-to-D-I jump in recent years. Harlan Dodson ’11 is currently an assistant football/basketball coach at the New Hampton School, a New England prep school power house.

However, it’s unlikely that any of these Eph alums have the track record at this point to warrant the head coaching job. Lisa Melendy became the full-time athletic director at Williams in April, 2011. She hasn’t had to make many head coach hirings yet, so Ephs’ fans and players don’t know what to expect in terms of what she will require from candidates.

But Williams has to be one of the most desirable locations in Division 3 basketball, not least because of the deep roster that the next head coach will inherit. Maker said as much last week; “It’s an attractive job because of the players — who they are, how they play, the incredible things they accomplish during their time at Williams and after.”

Of course, the academic requirements of Williams and the rest of the NESCAC shrink the prospective recruiting pool somewhat, but that plays both ways, as a first class academic reputation is often the difference for players choosing where to play college basketball.

Regardless of who takes over for the 2014-15 season, Williams will be dangerous. Congratulations to Coach Maker on his move to Division 1. He certainly left the Williams program in a better place than he found it.