Alabama sophomore Mateo Miceli has entered his name into the NCAA transfer portal, becoming the fourth Crimson Tide swimmer to explore other options so far this offseason.
The 6-foot-4 butterfly specialist cited the recent departure of associate coach James Barber “along with some of my close friends being cut from the program” as reasons for his decision. The Crimson Tide are now out two associate coaches after Ozzie Quevedo left two weeks ago to take over the SMU women’s program.
Miceli is coming off a 2022-23 campaign in which he qualified for the NCAA Championships in multiple events. He placed fifth in the 200 fly at the SEC Championships in February, shaving nearly a second and a half off his personal-best time with a 1:42.02. The time stood as a top-25 mark nationally at the end of the season.
Best Times (SCY)
- 200 fly – 1:42.02, top-25 time nationally
- 100 fly – 45.95
- 200 back – 1:43.79
- 100 back – 47.71
Miceli also placed 10th in the 100 fly at SECs with a personal-best 45.95. He couldn’t quite replicate his best times at NCAAs the following month, placing outside the top 30 in the prelims of both events.
As a team, the Alabama men placed 19th at NCAAs in their second season under head coach Margo Geer, snapping a streak of eight straight top-15 finishes.
Since arriving in Tuscaloosa, Miceli has dropped nearly three seconds in the 200 fly and a bit over a second in the 100 fly. This past season, he was Alabama’s top swimmer in both events.
Alabama 2023 Rankings:
100 Butterfly
- Mateo Miceli – 45.95
- Bernardo Almeida – 46.71
- Linus Kahl – 47.08
- William Watson – 47.19
- Tim Korstanje – 47.33
200 Butterfly
- Mateo Miceli – 1:42.02
- William Watson – 1:44.66
- Charlie Hawke – 1:45.18
- Riley Vanmeter – 1:48.72
- Blake Peeples – 1:51.00
Miceli joins Alabama sophomore Linus Kahl (breaststroke/IM), sophomore Jackson Dement (freestyle), and senior Jocelyn Fisher (breaststroke/butterfly/IM) in the portal. Entering the portal doesn’t guarantee a transfer, but rather opens up communication with possible suitor programs. Athletes in the portal can still return to their original schools. The last day to enter the transfer portal for women’s swimmers is Sunday (April 30) while the last day for men’s swimmers is May 7.
With both Miceli and Kahl in the portal, the Crimson Tide are at risk of losing their top two performers in the 100 fly from last season.
My daughter had a recruiting visit to Alabama and I was not impressed with Margo. She talked with every parent at the football game but me. When I approached her to talk, she said she had to leave but would set up a zoom call with me and my husband – never happened. I told my daughter she could mark that school off her list. Good luck young man wherever you land.
Very smart move!! Margo needs to figure out how to talk to and answer parents/swimmers in a timely manner. It’s a shame, the school is awesome, and the football atmosphere is a ton of fun. However, with Jame’s gone they are left with 2 coaches who have maybe four years of combined experience. Rumor has it Margo is trying to hire a 5th year that just graduated, which now adds another inexperienced person on staff. I predict a rough few seasons coming up.
Unless Reed left too (which I haven’t heard), Alabama has 3 swim coaches still on staff. Reed is the most experienced of the three at the NCAA level.
Reed is still there . He is a good guy, and coach, but stuck in a bad situation. Hopefully he is smart enough to ride this out and grab the Hc job when the ship sinks.
Let me clarify what I meant. Between Margo and Roman they have a combined experience that you can count on one hand.
If she actually hires a fresh grad I’ll cry laughing, that would be priceless
Yes! She either hires a fifth year with no coaching experience or anyone else she hires will have way more experience. That is just so sad. Reed won’t be head coach of this sunk ship. He will go to better waters with a better AD.
Mateo will thrive wherever he goes.
I would warn every swimmer that is planning on coming here in the Fall to look elsewhere. Our team is close, but the environment is now not a place I really wish to stay at. One of my friends lifeguards here at the pool. She overheard Margo talking to someone on the phone stating that she realized she is lost on the job, and unsure if she was capable of coaching her group. This was scary to hear, and have kept to myself. She is not able to recruit with her personality. There are many of us that can’t transfer (b/c we are near the end), and feel trapped.
This is extremely believable. Coaches are well known for making personal calls on the pool deck and discuss personal things within earshot of other people
He has greatly improved in college and he has a ton of schools contacting him after we sent his info to the college coaches. Great young man.
Can someone with personal or second hand experience elaborate on why Geer is bad?
Is it how she talks to athletes? Is she cut throat? Are her sets bad? Is she a bad motivator?
Just curious if anyone wouldn’t mind sharing.
See article on James Barber being fired and you will find everything you need to know. Look at results from this season if you don’t see what you are looking for. Margo essentially took over a team with great momentum and the first year they still survived, but most all points scored were by the same fifth years that scored this year, but too many swimmers quit mid season to save the season. If you take fifth year points out of the equation, bama would have been way down at SECs and would have sent only a few swimmers to nats.
Can’t speak to Margo, but I can explain why she isn’t qualified. A sport like swimming is very individualistic, and just because some kid did something and they dropped 2 seconds in a 100 doesn’t mean everyone that does that will also drop 2 seconds, they may actually add time. As a novice coach you almost always fall back on things that you did and then have to figure out why it’s not working for the kids you’re now coaching. Swimming is very much a trial and error sport, and too often someone fresh out of swimming only knows the way they did something, obviously having numerous coaches gives you a broader range, but being an athlete when you’re only… Read more »
This is correct!
To be a Pow5 program leader is a very complex position.
Very smart person – observing!!
Spot on!
Margo has a difficult time speaking truthfully. Young adults don’t need much time to realize when someone doesn’t tell the truth, it’s very difficult to trust. Most of the best swimmers on the women’s team are holdovers or recruits of Coley. Like him or not, he attracted top sprinters to Alabama. The current team will now be mostly Margo’s recruits. It will be difficult if not impossible to attract top coaching talent. Experienced coaches probably don’t see the value proposition in coaching “under” Margo Geer. Tough days ahead for those swimmers who will still be on the team.
It is always strange to read the commentariat hatred and then think about some monster coaches that have been fired lately, to my subjective memory not that much hatred for them before that….
Just because it wasn’t posted in comments doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. Swimmers are expressly told they cannot comment on swim swam by coaches. When they are truly done when a situation, that’s when they start commenting.
If there is silver lining in the Margo Geer mess, it’s that it can be a cautionary tale for ADs hiring a coach with no experience coaching whatsoever and would hopefully make them think twice when considering this route
Yeah, hardly think Bryne will hire a young, inexperienced coach when Saban retires. Oh wait- we’re talking about football, something he cares about because of the revenue it generates. People have the option to defer and say “I’m not quite ready” when you are asked to be a head coach. It’s about whether you are competent to do the job and ALL that it entails. If you not ready, you’re not ready. It’s not all about you- there are many people you take down with you when the ship starts going down.
If you need this as a cautionary tale as an AD, you’re in the wrong line of work. No, when a move like this is made, one is either completely incompetent or one wants to see it completely fail on purpose. I fear the latter is the goal.
NWCoach
This has Texas written all over it
I agree. If both Seniors, Cole Crane (45.61, 1:42.25) and Sam Artmann (45.97, 1:41.86) come back for a 5th Year he’ll have two great training partners while attending a respected university. If not he’d have the fastest fly time for the Medley Relay, 100 FL and 200Fl. I think Texas will welcome him with open arms.
Texas also has Freshman Ryan Branon who dropped his fly times to 46.84 & 1:43.17 this season. He’ll be faster next year and is important for the future of the Texas fly group. I think it’s a great fit for Mateo. There are also Freshmen Alex Filipovic at 46.63 and Holden Smith at 46.91.