When Tobin Anderson was hired to become the Head Coach of the St. Thomas Aquinas College Men's Basketball program in 2013, the team had just concluded their previous season with a 5-23 record, and was watching the postseason from the outside for the fourth consecutive campaign. Since that time, Coach Anderson has turned the Spartans into a perennial powerhouse with significant name recognition not only in New York State, but on the East Coast and the national stage.
Over his eight seasons as head coach, Anderson has built and upgraded his roster each and every season with names like; Jonathan McNair, Chaz Watler, Marcus Henderson, All-American Justin Reyes, Shaquille McFarlan, James Mitchell, Demetre Roberts, Osbel Caraballo, Sekou Cisse, Grant Singleton and Kevin Lynch, among a cast of dozens. However, Coach Anderson's approach to each new season is like the one that came before it, as he and his staff consistently stress a culture of hard-work, a team-first mentality, attention to detail, a winning attitude and most importantly, making sure that everyone on his roster, both coaches and players alike, are treated like family. T-shirts with the one-word saying "Family" printed on the back are part of the wardrobe for everyone involved in the program each year.
Success has defined the St. Thomas Aquinas College Men's Basketball program since Tobin Anderson's arrival in Sparkill, as his teams have amassed a combined 180 victories, with only 56 defeats for a win percentage of 76.3% during his tenure. Breaking that down further, to date, the Spartans have posted win percentages of 76.7% (161-49) in the regular season, 81.3% (13-3) in ECC tournament games and 60.0% (6-4) in NCAA tournament games.
During that same period, regular season titles, post season appearances and championships, along with trophies, banners and rings have become the standard by which the Spartans are defined and measured as a program. Let's look at the team's amazing run, by the numbers.
In the Last Eight Seasons
ECC Regular Season Championships - 4 (2015, 2016, 2017, 2021)
ECC Tournament Appearances - 8 (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021)
ECC Tournament Championships - 5 (2016, 2017, 2018, 2020 & 2021)
NCAA East Region Tournament Appearances - 6 (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021)
NCAA East Region Tournament Championships - 1 (2017)
Elite Eight Appearances - 1 (2017)
While there have been both ECC and NCAA tournament defeats along the way, the only non-basketball related season derailment came in 2020, when the NCAA canceled it's tournaments across Divisions I, II and III due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
As team successes have been the highlight of the St. Thomas Aquinas College Men's Basketball program, individual achievements have also been a large part of who the Spartans are and it is all thanks to Coach Tobin Anderson and his staffs' teaching the game of basketball and the game of life. Now let's look at those individual achievements, again by the numbers.
Since the 2013-14 Season
1,000-Point Scorers - 8 (Omar Kellman, Aaron Cust, Chaz Watler, Justin Reyes, James Mitchell, Shaquille McFarlan, Osbel Caraballo, Demetre Roberts)
2,000-Point Scorers - 1 (Justin Reyes)
1,000-Rebounds - 1 (Justin Reyes)
ECC All-Conference Selections - 22 (Omar Kellman), (Marcus Henderson-2), (Chaz Watler-4), (Justin Reyes-4), (Shaquille McFarlan), (James Mitchell), (Osbel Caraballo-3), (Demetre Roberts-3), (Sekou Cisse-2), (Grant Singleton)
ECC Player of the Year Awards - 3 (Justin Reyes-3)
ECC Defensive Player of the Year Awards - 1 (Kevin Lynch)
ECC Rookie of the Year Awards - 4 (Chaz Watler), (Justin Reyes), (Jonathan Lawton), (Demetre Roberts)
ECC Coach of the Year Awards - 3 (Tobin Anderson)
D2CCA All-Region Selections - 3 (Justin Reyes)
D2CCA All-Region Player of the Year Awards - 1 (Justin Reyes)
NABC All District Selections - 4 (Justin Reyes)
D2CCA All-American Selections - 2 (Justin Reyes)
NABC All-American Selections -2 (Justin Reyes)
Basketball Times All-American Selections - 1 (Justin Reyes)
Division II Bulletin All-American Selections - 1 (Justin Reyes)
All-Met Selections - 11 (Chaz Watler-3), (Justin Reyes-3), (Osbel Caraballo-2), (Demetre Roberts-2), (Sekou Cisse-1)
All-Met Player of the Year Awards - 3 (Justin Reyes)
All-Met Coach of the Year Awards - 3 (Tobin Anderson)
Now, as the St. Thomas Aquinas College Men's Basketball program embarks on their sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament journey, let's look back at the 2021 season, the five previous tournament appearances and how the team got to the "Big Dance" each of those years.
2020-2021: After a long delay in the start of the current season, which caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Thomas Aquinas College finally opened their 2020-2021 season on February 3. Playing a shortened schedule of just 12 regular season games, the Spartans have, to date, recorded a 13-1 over mark, 9-1 in the ECC. As a result of their impressive 11-1 regular season record, the team earned the top seed in the ECC tournament, an opening round bye and advanced to the conference semifinals, which were played at Aquinas Hall. STAC easily handled #4 seed Molloy College 110-73 on March 5 and went on to the finals, which were also held on the STAC Campus. In the tournament clinching matchup with #2 Daemen College, the Spartans took care of the visiting Wildcats, 83-67 to win the programs fifth ECC Championship in the last six seasons. The Spartans advance to the program's sixth straight NCAA Tournament, the first as the #1 seed going into the East Regional, which will be held in Albany, New York.
2019-2020: St. Thomas Aquinas posted an overall record of 25-5 and 13-3 within the ECC. The Spartans earned a first round bye in the conference tournament and went on to sweep their 2-game Washington, D.C. experience, defeating Daemen College 91-78 in the semifinals and the University of Bridgeport, 74-67 in the finals to win the program's fourth ECC crown and qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the fifth consecutive season. However, STAC's season was abruptly ended before the first game of the East Regional, as the NCAA canceled their Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments for Division's I, II & III due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
2018-2019: STAC amassed an 25-7 record and a 15-3 mark in the ECC, and qualified for the ECC postseason tournament, receiving a bye into the semifinals, which were held in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The Spartans lost to eventual ECC Champion Molloy College, 73-72 in the final moments of that contest. However, the team was invited to their fourth straight NCAA Tournament, and took down Le Moyne College (61-59) in the quarterfinal and defeated Dominican College in overtime in the semifinal 86-83, before losing to the top seed and host Saint Anselm College, 74-49 in the East Regional Final.
2017-2018: The Spartans finished their season with a 26-7 overall record, going 15-3 in ECC play and earning themselves a first round bye in the ECC tournament. St. Thomas Aquinas would sweep their semifinal and final contests held in Rochester, New York, defeating Daemen College, 60-57 and then besting the University of Bridgeport, 82-65 to win the program's third ECC crown and qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season. STAC would fall to Bloomfield College in the NCAA East Region Quarterfinal, 91-78.
2016-2017: Coach Anderson guided St. Thomas Aquinas to their best season ever, finishing with an overall record of 28-6, 15-3 within the ECC. STAC took care of both Daemen College (85-66) in semifinals and Molloy College (97-86) in overtime in the finals to win the ECC Championship for the second year in a row. The Spartans went on to win its second ever NCAA tournament game 91-72, with a rematch win over Saint Anselm College, who had knocked them out of the tournament the year before. STAC won two more NCAA games with a 73-70 win over Merrimack and a 69-66 win over Le Moyne to capture the program's first-ever East Region title, advancing to the NCAA Elite Eight in Sioux Falls, S.D. St. Thomas Aquinas fell 79-70 to Northwest Missouri State, who eventually went on to win the NCAA Division II National Championship.
2015-2016: Tobin Anderson led the Spartans to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history in 2015-16. The Spartans finished 27-5 and 18-2 in the ECC, winning the conference championship by defeating LIU Post, 85-88 in the semifinals and Daemen College, 80-63 to advance to the NCAA East Regional. The Spartans played their inaugural NCAA game on March 12th, earning an exciting 92-90 victory over Southern Connecticut State University, before falling, 77-73 in the next round to Saint Anselm College. The 2015-16 season was also highlighted by an exciting 90-58 win over NCAA Division I opponent, St. John's on November 4th.