David Briggs: Why Toledo's Kowalczyk keeps scheduling a game others say is 'crazy'

Oct. 28—FINDLAY — It is one of the unique games on the college basketball calendar, a contest as palatable as it is puzzling.

"My coaching friends think I'm crazy," Tod Kowalczyk said.

Every other year, the Toledo basketball coach takes his team down I-75 to play an exhibition at the University of Findlay, where inside a two-story brick building in the middle of campus awaits a little gym and a big challenge.

It's the kind of game no other Division I team would entertain, a no-win scenario if there ever were one.

Volunteering to play one of the top Division II programs in the nation ... in their raucous sound trap of a gym? Have you lost your mind?

But, to his credit, Kowalczyk embraces the madness.

In fact, when Toledo visits Findlay on Saturday, he wants Croy Gymnasium — a high-school-sized bandbox with 12 rows of bleachers on both sides — to shake, rattle, and roar. The fire marshal lists a seating capacity of 2,000. Kowalczyk hopes for a crowd of 2,001.

"The exhibition games are purely there to help you prepare for the season," he said, "and what better way to prepare a relatively young team than to go into an unbelievable atmosphere against an extremely well-coached team, one of the top five Division II programs in the country? What better way than to go on the road and play in an environment where you can't communicate, you can't talk, because it's so loud. ... I want it to be an unbelievable college basketball environment."

How's that for a blast of fresh air?

The idea of a school venturing way out of its comfort zone to turn a tedious preseason game into a charity event that's fun for fans and challenges both teams might not seem like a radical concept, but it is.

Face it, most college coaches are more risk-averse than an actuary.

It's rare enough to find a major-conference coach willing to test their team in a mid-major venue. Only a few come to mind, including Michigan State's Tom Izzo — recall the Spartans' trip to Bowling Green a few years ago — and Muffet McGraw. The former Notre Dame women's coach took her powerhouse Irish to Toledo in 2016 and 2018, both as a favor to her good friend, Toledo's Tricia Cullop, and to steel her team for all the road had to offer.

Asked where the atmosphere at Savage Arena ranked nationally, McGraw said, "Oh, it's one of the top, for sure. There's only one or two places in the ACC that can compare. This is definitely one of the toughest places to play, especially with the band and the students right there."

Yet even the risk takers have their limits.

A Division I program playing a game — exhibition or not — at a good Division II school?

"I don't know of any others in the United States," Findlay coach Charlie Ernst said.

And why would they?

Look at a game at Findlay through the eyes of a DI coach: Win, and no one gives it a second thought. Lose, and — holy freaking Toledo — you lost to a Division II school. Fire everyone!

It doesn't matter that hoops is serious business at Findlay, which, memorably, beat Ohio State in an exhibition in 2007 and captured the DII national title the next season. Our society does not do nuance, and for coaches, the only thing more important than how their program is doing is how people think it's doing. Perception is everything.

"The first year Tod called me and asked me about doing this, I had to kind of had to rub my ears," said Ernst, who is 226-70 in 10 seasons at Findlay. "I had to make sure I was understanding him correctly. But my respect for him went up dramatically when he told me why he wanted to do it."

And it only kept going up when Kowalczyk called back ... after Findlay beat Toledo.

Indeed, the coach could have taken his ball and gone home after the schools' first exhibition in October 2017, when the Oilers beat Toledo, 89-86, in front of a packed house.

But just as the night was one to remember for Findlay — "That was awesome," said senior forward Anthony Masterlasco, a Liberty-Benton grad — Kowalczyk didn't forget it, either. He saw the game as a foundation piece of a successful season, as the Rockets — led by Mid-American Conference player of the year Tre'Shaun Fletcher — went on to win 23 games and advance to the finals of the league tournament.

"We lost a game where Findlay played better than we did," Kowalczyk said, "but that helped our season."

And so, yes, he called back — Toledo returned in 2019 (and won) — and intends to keep calling. The Rockets will visit Findlay on Saturday for the third time in five seasons.

"I tell Tod every year, 'Hey, we'd be happy to come up there,'" Ernst said, "and he says, 'No, no, no. We love coming down there.'"

Whether everyone thinks he's crazy or not.

"Will there be negativity if you lose from some of the people who think they're experts? Sure," Kowalczyk said. "Could I care less? No."

First Published October 27, 2021, 3:13pm