For Jon Teitel’s interview with Bengal Brass member Jacie Shreve – CLICK HERE
Yesterday, we saw more high-profile changes as well as an extension in the 2019 Coaching Carousel. The first move saw Steve Prohm sign an extension with Iowa State; he had been mentioned as a potential candidate for the Alabama head coaching job that opened up earlier this week. Tim Miles was dismissed at Nebraska as was expected for a little while, but another move that came out of left field yesterday was Mike Anderson being let go at Arkansas. Finally, indications are that San Francisco’s head coach Kyle Smith is expected to be named the next head coach at Washington State (replacing Ernie Kent).
As far as the NIT last night, the first two tickets punched last night for Madison Square Garden went to Wichita State and TCU. Indiana played their third straight game without Romeo Langford in the lineup, and it finally caught up to them in a 73-63 loss to the Shockers last night. Markus McDuffie led Wichita with 21 points. TCU trailed by 3 points at home against Creighton at halftime, but they began the 2nd half with a 16-0 run and ended up winning 71-58. Kouat Noi led the Horned Frogs with 25 points and 7 rebounds.
Sandy Cohen III had a double-double (20 points, 10 rebounds) to lead Green Bay to an easy 30-point win in the second round of the CIT; they will host Cal State-Bakersfield in the quarterfinal round of the CIT on Friday. Hampton had all 5 starters score in double figures to lead them to a 73-67 victory against Charleston Southern; they will play at NJIT tomorrow night in Newark in the CIT quarterfinal round.
One CIT quarterfinal game was played last night; Marshall ended Presbyterian’s 2-game road win streak with an 83-66 victory. CJ Burks led Marshall with 20 points; Jon Elmore also had 16 points for the Thundering Herd as well.
(4) COLORADO AT (2) TEXAS (9:00 PM, ESPN2) – While Texas had to fight tooth and nail against South Dakota State and Xavier to advance to the quarterfinal round, Colorado had an easier time beating Dayton and Norfolk State at home. While this will be their first road game of the NIT, Texas has hardly been an intimidating venue this postseason; they’ve had a COMBINED attendance of about 5,000 for their two home games so far in the NIT.
(5) LIPSCOMB AT (2) NC STATE (9:00 PM, ESPNU) – Much like Wichita State thus far, Lipscomb has been a road warrior in the NIT with a win at Davidson and a blowout win at UNC-Greensboro. NC State had to survive a pair of upset bids by Hofstra and Lipscomb, but ended up winning both environments in a raucous atmosphere in their old stomping grounds – Reynolds Coliseum. They will play one more game at Reynolds (also named Valvano Arena now) for the right to advance to the NIT Final Four.
COASTAL CAROLINA AT DEPAUL (8:00 PM, Fox Sports Go) – Amazingly enough, DePaul is the last team standing in the Big East in terms of postseason play. While the Blue Demons are coming off of a fairly easy win against Longwood, they will now host a Coastal Carolina team that went on the road and put West Virginia out of their misery. The winner of tonight’s game advances to the CBI Best-of-3 Championship Series that starts next Monday.