One notable vacancy was filled yesterday in the 2019 Coaching Carousel – it was announced that Nate Oats would become the new head coach at Alabama. Oats had taken Buffalo to the NCAA Tournament in three of his four seasons there, including back-to-back trips to the 2nd round with victories against Arizona in 2018 and Arizona State this season. Other schools that have now filled their vacancies include UNLV’s hiring of TJ Otzelberger from South Dakota State and Washington State hiring Kyle Smith away from San Francisco.
On the court, there were two more NIT quarterfinal games played last night. One was an exciting finish between NC State and Lipscomb – while Garrison Matthews went off for 44 points against the Wolfpack, it was actually Kenny Cooper who narrowly avoided turning the ball over on Lipscomb’s final possession and ended up hitting a game-winning runner with 1.7 seconds left to play. They will play Wichita State in the NIT semifinal round in New York next week.
Texas finally had a breather after a pair of close calls at home. What was a close game in the first ten minutes was blown open with a 23-2 run by the Longhorns; they ended up winning 68-55 to advance to the NIT semifinals to face TCU next Tuesday. Dylan Osetkowski led Texas with 15 points.
Coastal Carolina and DePaul played a close game for the first 30 minutes in their CBI semifinal before the Blue Demons finally stretched their lead to 11 points with 6:38 remaining in the game. The Chanticleers got no closer than 4 points the rest of the way; DePaul was a clutch 22-for-23 behind the free throw line to ice a 92-87 victory and advance to the CBI championship series next Monday.
LOYOLA MARYMOUNT AT SOUTH FLORIDA (7:00 PM) – While the Bulls had to come back from a 22-point deficit in their opening round victory, their win against Utah Valley on Monday was not as stressful this time around. They will be hosting a Loyola Marymount team that is fresh off of a victory against Brown on Monday; the winner advances to play DePaul in the CBI Best-of-3 Championship Series starting on Monday.
HAMPTON AT NJIT (7:00 PM, WatchCIT.com) – The Atlantic Sun conference is 5-1 in postseason play this year when you track Liberty, Lipscomb and NJIT. The Highlanders will play for the first time in ten days after beating Quinnipiac in their opener. Contrast that to Hampton; the Pirates will be playing their third game in eight days after back-to-back victories against Saint Francis-Brooklyn and Charleston Southern.
TEXAS SOUTHERN AT LOUISIANA-MONROE (8:00 PM, WatchCIT.com) – The UL-Monroe Warhawks were the third team that got a bye into the quarterfinals based on their opening round performance; they beat Kent State 87-77 in the Lou Henson Classic in the opening round. Texas Southern will hit the road for the third straight time after beating New Orleans and UTRGV in their first two games.