They could see this day coming. When the brackets were released on Feb. 26, Guilford coach Tom Palombo and Hampden-Sydney coach Caleb Kimbrough ’08 knew the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Tournament might unfold this way, but they were too busy surviving to think about it.
Now the brackets have brought them together as only March can do. The seventh-ranked Quakers and top-ranked Tigers play in the first of two national semifinals today at 5:30 pm in Fort Wayne, Ind..
Of course it’s more than that. Tom and Caleb have a history.
In 2004, Tom recruited Caleb out of Chapel Hill (N.C.) High School to attend Guilford. The player was everything the coach imagined and then some. He started a school-record 108 games for the Quakers, helping them to a four-year record of 75-36. With Caleb running the offense, Guilford went 48-10 in 2006-07 and 2007-08 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament both years.
“Just such a competitive player,” says Tom. “Caleb made his teammates better – not me – Caleb. His work ethic, his drive, he expected everyone to follow him and they did.”
As much as the media has tried to make today’s game about the coaches, the coaches have worked just as hard pushing back. “It really is just another game,” says Tom. “Me and Caleb aren’t playing so it’s really nothing. We’re just the coaches. The story is the players.”
Fair enough, but it’s also about a player, who for years looked up to his coach – first from the bench and then from afar as he embarked on his own coaching career. He started out as an assistant at Washington and Lee University for the 2008-09 season. Then he came back to Guilford to be an assistant coach and later associate head coach at Guilford for six seasons.
He left Guilford in 2015 to be an assistant at Huntington College in Montgomery, Ala., where he was elevated to head coach midway through the 2016-17 season. He stayed there for two seasons before Hampden-Sydney called. He has won 82 games in five seasons with the Tigers, and for the past two years has had Carson Long '19 on his staff as an assistant coach.
Caleb says much of his coaching style comes from Tom. Not just the Xs and Os, but the relationships he has with his players.
“One of the first things I learned from Coach was to treat your players like they’re family,” Caleb says. “Coach makes every player, starters to the last guy on the bench, feel good about themselves. He goes out of his way sometimes with his praise. I think that's why he’s been so successful, he gets so much out of his players because they want to play for him. I think a lot of us graduated trying to be that person with others in our own careers.”
Tom returns the love: “He was always going to be a head coach – and a good one,” says the long-term Guilford leader who has won nearly 400 games with the Quakers. “You could see that early on. He gets the most out of his players. They play so hard for him”
Tom and Caleb are either calling or texting every week. In season and out. That didn’t stop this week, though as the game drew closer, the calls and text slowed.
It’s not just Tom and Caleb who are close. Both families are tight. Last summer, when Tom and his daughter headed up to Philadelphia to watch his beloved Phillies play, they spent the night at the Caleb family’s home in Hampden-Sydney.
“It’s got nothing to do with basketball,” says Tom. “If there wasn’t this basketball thing our families would still be friends.”
But there is this ”basketball thing.” And with the winner advancing to Saturday's championship game, that’s a pretty big thing. “I mean, I get that folks are going to make something out of this, but the two of us know it’s just a game,” says Tom.
Three months ago Guilford handed Hampden-Sydney one of its two losses on the season, 80-71 at Ragan-Brown Field House. The game was pivotal for both teams. Hampden-Sydney would roll off 14 straight wins after the loss and the Quakers learned they deserved being included in any discussions about the nation’s elite teams.
“It was a great game and really got us going,” says Tom. “But that game’s over. Thursday’s the game that counts.”