Unbeaten Toledo on rise after tough times

Nicole Auerbach | USA TODAY Sports

The losing had become too frequent and too frustrating.

Three seasons ago, then-first year Toledo coach Tod Kowalczyk was trudging through a 4-28 record and he didn't know how to make things better. His team hadn't won a game since mid-January, his four best players were transfers forced to sit out the season and he had started worrying for his mental health. In February he called a staff meeting.

"What would make it even worse was we'd go to practice and we'd lose — our four best players were on the scout team," Kowalczyk says now. "I told the staff, 'I'm coaching the scout team in practice. I can't take it anymore.' "

So he did, a slight reprieve during a most challenging season.

"It was a long year, but it was a long year that taught us a lot of valuable lessons," he says.

The next year, with freshman Juice Brown on the roster and those four players eligible, Toledo won 19 games. Last year the Rockets went 15-13 and won a share of the MAC West division title. (Due to NCAA sanctions stemming from past APR issues, Toledo was ineligible to compete in the postseason last year, and it also lost three regular-season games as well as some practice time.)

Now Toledo is 12-0 entering Monday night's game at No. 16 Kansas. It's the program's best start since the 1966-67 team opened with 14 consecutive wins. All five starters are averaging double digits in scoring. Three of them are transfers: senior guard Rian Pearson (who came with Kowalczyk from Wisconsin-Green Bay), junior guard Justin Drummond (Loyola-Md.) and junior forward J.D. Weatherspoon (Ohio State).

Building a roster with transfers is a common strategy for a new coach, and Kowalczyk was no exception. He looked for players who would commit to helping him build a program. He also sought out guys who wanted to graduate from Toledo; he needed to improve the program's academic standing.

"The shape of the program was much worse than we anticipated, but the job itself is much better than I anticipated," says Kowalczyk, who took the job without ever setting foot in Toledo. "I kind of just took a jump with blind faith."

Under Kowalczyk, APR scores have improved, and it's no longer an issue, he says. He expects a perfect 1,000 score this year. That's just a piece of this turnaround.

Certainly, recruiting better athletes and more skilled players is one part. Another has been a general culture change. The coaching staff encourages players to spend their time off the court together, promoting a family atmosphere that's proved attractive to transfers. Those team-bonding activities vary from team dinners to a group paintball outing (when the weather was better and "before the paint balls started freezing," Drummond says).

"Coach K recruits good guys, with good heads on their shoulders, good character, family people," Pearson says.

Says Drummond: "We're very comfortable with each other, and we have a lot of confidence in each other. That's how a great team wins."

That's something Toledo is learning on a daily basis, as the wins keep piling up. The goal for these Rockets is to win the MAC championship and make the NCAA tournament. Kowalczyk never reached it in his eight years at Wisconsin-Green Bay. Only two players on his current roster — Drummond and Weatherspoon — have gone to the big dance.

Every once in a while, Kowalczyk will ask those two to talk about their experiences. They know how special it is get to the tournament, and what it takes. They try to explain that to their teammates; they'll try to show them what it's like come March.

They're a far cry from 4-28.

"It takes time to actually get the program you want and to get it stable," Pearson says. "We're finally reaching that point."

Nicole Auerbach, a national college basketball writer for USA TODAY Sports, is on Twitter @NicoleAuerbach.