TOWSON, Md. - Pat Skerry was in his second season as a DI head coach. The Medford, Massachusetts native realized a dream he always had to become a head coach at the highest level of college basketball.

The dream started at DIII Tufts University. He was the point guard and two-time team captain. Skerry was called "The General," a nickname his coach, Bob Sheldon, would later claim he gave to himself. But there was one thing Shledon realized, coaching was in Skerry's blood.

"He was truly a coach on the floor and was the best leader I had in 33 years at Tufts. He was born to coach," Sheldon said.

After a two-season stint as the head coach of the DIII program Curry College, Skerry made the jumps to the DI ranks to pursue the ultimate goal of becoming a DI head coach.

"In college, I was at a pretty competitive level academically. A lot of my friends were doing internships at hedge funds, financial institutions and law firms. I was working eight to 10 weeks in basketball camps," Skerry said.

Skerry had various assistant coach roles before eventually coaching on the 2010-11 Pitt team. They were Big East regular season champions and the No. 1 seed in the Southeast Region of the NCAA Tournament. It was a dream season which Skerry turned into fulfilling his dream of becoming a DI head coach.

But sometimes dreams become nightmares.

The 2011-12 Towson University men's basketball team went 1-31. Skerry's first game was a 46-point loss at Kansas. Two games later, he followed up with another 46-point loss, this one against Belmont.
It was time to get to work. The relentless recruiter sat down with his staff and set their sights on retooling the roster. Over half of the 2012-13 roster was new. The Tigers were ranked 335^th in the country in minutes continuity of 345 ranked teams.

A few key players came back. Marcus Damas and Kris Walden led the team in minutes played during the 2011-12 season. Damas was one point shy of leading the team in points while Walden eclipsed 100 assists, more than double any other player on the team.

Then there were the reinforcements. Jerrelle Benimon and Mike Burwell sat out the previous season as transfers. Jerome Hairston came in for his freshman campaign to handle the ball. Big man Bilal Dixon returned to Skerry as a grad transfer after spending his freshman year with Skerry at Providence where he was an assistant coach. Rafael Guthrie was slotted in as the sixth man. The Tigers were ready.

The 2012-13 season started with similar ominous forecasts to the 2011-12 season. The first 10 games of the season were all away from home and the team had just been hit with a ban for APR scores. The Tigers started the season with a loss at Charleston but righted the ship, winning three of four at a neutral site tournament in Richmond, Ky. Towson had a winning record five games into the season for the first time since 2008-09. The 3-2 Tigers went 1-6 over their next seven games and had one game left before the start of the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) schedule; this one against Oregon State in Corvallis.
 
Towson was entering the game on a four-game losing streak. Oregon State was on a five-game winning streak. The now 4-8 Tigers looked destined for another loss. The Beavers opened up a 19-point lead by the 16:08 mark in the second half. The Tigers looked to turn the game around.

Hairston hit a layup with 15:12 left on the clock. Guthrie scored four points and the lead was down to 13 with 12:25 left to play. A Damas three-pointer followed by two Benimon layups cut the Oregon State lead down to seven at 47-40 with 9:12 remaining. The game remained close to that margin for the next few minutes with the Beavers up 58-52 with 4:37 left for the Tigers to complete the comeback.

Back-to-back layups by Damas and Benimon cut the lead down to two with 2:17 left on the clock. Dixon split a double team, scored a layup to tie the score with just 76 seconds left in regulation.
Oregon State gets to the line and drains both free throws for a two-point lead. The next possession down the court, Benimon gets to the free throw line for two attempts to tie the game. He had to hit both and did, tying the game at 60.

Overtime begins and Towson gets it first lead after 41 minutes and 28 seconds of play with a Benimon jumper. The Tigers do not trail for nearly the entire overtime period before the Beavers knock down a three with 17 seconds left. Towson calls a timeout.

Skerry sits down with his team in the huddle. The play is designed as an isolation play for Benimon who had put up 20 points and 21 rebounds in the game. Benimon starts the play just off the right of the top of the key, above the three-point line. As the play develops, he is double teamed and two more Beavers are on the same side of the court with the lone Oregon State player on the left side of the court standing on the block hedging to protect against the drive. The entire left side of the court from outside the key is open.

Damas was alone on the left side wing. Benimon dishes the ball to Damas. An Oregon State defender sprints from the low block, trying to close out. Damas pump fakes. The defender goes flying by him. Damas takes one dribble to his right. He is just inside the three-point line on the left side, free throw line extended. The help is late coming from the Benimon double team. Damas knocks down the jumper. Nothing but net. Towson wins, 67-66.

"Jerrelle's a pass first player," Damas said. "He's always looking to draw two and if he does that, he's passing it. We know that he was going to draw two or three defenders because it was the end of the game, so I was just ready."

"Everybody knows that I'm supposed to shoot," Benimon said. "I trust Marcus. I trust him with my life to this day. Marcus was a great free throw shooter so I knew he would hit the shot or get fouled and do what he has to do. The next day we celebrated as a team and realized that we're a pretty good team."

"We're pretty happy for our guys," Skerry said. "It was a big turning point for us. We get out to a 4-8 start and then we have an unbelievable win at Oregon State. It's not easy to win against power conferences."

Towson carried that momentum into the conference slate. The Tigers won their first game against UNCW and opened up a 17-point lead with 8:49 left on the clock against CAA preseason favorites Drexel. The Dragons fought back but Towson solidified the win, 69-66, ending Drexel's 17-game regular season CAA winning streak, which was just one shy of tying the league record.

"After that game, we knew we had arrived," Skerry said.
 
The Tigers continued their winning ways. They won their home conference opener against William & Mary in a double overtime thriller. Towson would drop their next game before rattling off two more wins to move to 5-1 in conference play, good for the second-best record in the conference. With the postseason ban in effect, Towson set its sights on winning the regular season title.

Towson went on a three-game losing streak followed by a four game winning streak to move to 9-4 in conference. The Tigers lost their next game and moved three games out of the regular season title with four games to play. The odds of winning the regular season championship seemed slim but that's when assistant coach Luke Murray noticed something.

"We can set an NCAA record." That simple statement uttered by Murray flipped a switch for Skerry. The record that Murray was referring to was the NCAA record for single season turnaround. If Towson won its final four games, they'd finish 18-13, a 17.5 game improvement, besting the marks set by 2003 Mercer and 2004 UTEP of 17.

Skerry did something out of character and looked past his next opponent. The coaching staff drafted up brackets, turning the final four games into Towson's personal March Madness.

"I'm a day-by-day guy. Let's get ready for the next game," Skerry said. "Normally we would never talk about winning four in a row. When you know when your last game will be, you try to think of ways to keep your guys motivated and locked in. Setting the record was the way."
The first game was on the road against Hofstra. The Pride entered the game at 6-19 and 3-9 in CAA play. After falling behind early in the first half, Towson used a 23-6 run to regain the lead. Hofstra could not make the comeback and Towson snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Pride and a 10-game road losing streak. One win down.

The next opponent was preseason favorites Drexel. Towson had a 14-point lead at the break. The Dragons fought back and the game was even with less than two minutes remaining. Benimon broke a 68-68 tie on a three-point play with 80 seconds remaining. Drexel answered on the next possession with a layup to pull the game back to one-point Towson lead. The score remained 71-70 and Drexel called timeout with 17 seconds left to go. With 9.9 seconds left on the clock, Hairston jumped the passing lane and stole the ball. He was fouled and made one free throw. The game was still within striking distance for the Dragons. Drexel drove into the lane, but Damas blocked the shot. A putback attempt was missed. Drexel got another offensive rebound and was fouled, earning two shots at the line. Drexel only made one free throw, and Towson was able to inbound the ball without being fouled. The game ended with a 72-71 victory. Two games down.

The third game was one of the most daunting games on the Towson schedule. The Tigers were traveling to Fairfax, Va. to face George Mason. Towson had not beaten George Mason in its past 20 attempts, dating back to Jan. 5, 2002, more than 11 years. Towson had not won in Fairfax in its past 14 attempts, dating back to Dec. 13, 1977, more than 36 years.

The Patriots scored the first bucket of the game but the Tigers pounced on their opponent from that point on and entered the locker room at half up 10 points. Towson was up seven with less than a minute remaining. George Mason made a comeback on the back of some hot shooting form beyond the arc. The game was tied at 79 and heading to overtime. The Patriots scored the first bucket of overtime to get their first lead since 19:20 in the first half. Benimon tied the game at 81. Dixon gave the Tigers the lead with 36 seconds remaining. A defensive stop and two free throws from Damas iced the game. Three games down.

The final game of the season was always going to be a big game. Towson men's basketball was going to move into the new arena that was being built for the 2013-14 season. A win would not only close out the Towson Center but it would set the NCAA record.

Benimon had a staph infection in the week leading up to the game. The star player was hurt and Hofstra came to town with a chance to be a spoiler. Towson was down by 10 after just over eight minutes of play. The Turnaround Tigers had one more turnaround to complete.

Towson battled back to be within two points going into the locker room but gave up the first five points of the second half to fall behind seven points. Towson immediately answered with a 12-2 run, to take a 40-37 lead forcing a Hofstra timeout. The Tigers would come out of the timeout and extend the lead to 12. Hofstra would pull the game close a few times, but would never take the lead back. The turnaround was complete. NCAA record secured.

"There were a lot of nerves, a lot of emotions. We were able to squeak out a win," Skerry said. "After the win, everyone stormed the court. It was super cool for our last game to be a win. It doesn't happen often."
 
The Turnaround Tigers broke the record that had been standing for 10 years after Mercer set it at the end of the 2002-03 season. The Tigers' record stood for a decade.

"I think with the limitation of us not being able to compete in the postseason, we wanted to compete for something and win something, leave a legacy behind. This was our final chance," Damas said.
"The fact that those guys all stayed when they could have transferred without sitting out a year because of the ban and we lost 31 games the prior season, I'm forever grateful for those guys," Skerry said.

The biggest turnaround for the team was in the tradition they set up. Towson men's basketball began a tradition of winning. In the next 13 non-COVID impacted seasons, Towson won at least 18 games 11 times. In the 54-year history of Towson men's basketball prior to the 2012-13 team, the Tigers had only won 18 games nine times, five times in the DI era. It had been 19 seasons since Towson had won 18 games.

Timajh Parker-Rivera, who was a freshman on the 2012-13 team and graduated as the winningest player in Towson DI men's basketball history, speaks to the culture that sparked the winning at Towson. "It was just constant competition," Parker-Rivera said. "We were being coached hard every day. The drills were physical, heavy contact and we got after it every day. It made us tougher. It prepared us so when we went on the road into other gyms, we had each other's backs. The drills challenged us mentally and physically. Our veteran guys held the young guys accountable. The staff was always on us to be better."

The 2012-13 Towson men's basketball team may have set an NCAA record for the biggest single season turnaround but the greatest turnaround they set forward was in the tradition of Towson men's basketball.