Conference tournaments are about basketball but also so much more: the fans, bands, cheerleaders, etc. The A-10 Tournament is taking place in Washington, DC, this weekend and we could not be more excited to be there in person! HoopsHD will be covering all of the angles so you can look forward to a cascade of coverage in the days ahead. Jon Teitel keeps it going with a recap of the 2nd round quadruple-header on Thursday.
I began the afternoon with a tasty/filling pregame lunch of pizza/brownies. I am often surprised by who I see in the media room at such events but today’s sighting almost knocked me off my feet: my primary-care doctor, who is helping out the on-site medical staff today. On a related note: please do not tell him that I am eating pizza/brownies! Let’s tip-off a LONG day of basketball:
GAME #1: George Mason vs. Fordham
There was a decent amount of green and gold in the crowd, plus 1 of the best bands you will ever see:
The 1st half featured plenty of cold-shooting from both teams, as they combined to make 16-60 FG. On the plus side, GMU G Xavier Johnson made a 3 right before the halftime buzzer to give his team a 22-19 lead. #15 for Fordham is JR C Rostyslav Novitskyi, who gave his team some nice minutes off the bench with 4 REB in 9 minutes. What makes it all the more amazing is the fact that he is from Ukraine, where his former gym was hit by a Russian rocket last week:
Each of these team have a big-time big man, as Josh Oduro/Chuba Ohams both finished with double-doubles, but the Rams were able to make 8 more FTs and grab more 14 more REB to edge out the Patriots by a final score of 54-49.
In the postgame press conference I asked Fordham coach Kyle Neptune about Novitskyi. He said that he would be lying if he said that his guy was okay because he has been struggling, but he takes his hat off to him for today’s performance and is very proud of him.
GAME #2: St. Louis vs. La Salle
We are presented with the age-old question: what the heck is a Billiken?
SLU big man Francis Okoro had a double-double in the 1st half(!) with 11 PTS/5-7 FG/10 REB/2 BLK as his team opened up a huge 34-16 halftime lead. Things did not go much better for the Explorers in the 2nd half as they lost by a final score of 71-51.
In the postgame press conference I asked Okoro about what it takes to succeed in March (since he is now 7-1 all-time in his postseason career). He said that the key is to be locked-in and extremely focused on defense, and that his entire team did that tonight.
GAME #3: GW vs. UMass
My co-worker George is a UMass alum so I got to catch up with him in the arena for the 1st time in almost 2 years. Minuteman JR PG Noah Fernandes put up 1 of the best all-around stat lines I have seen this month (29 PTS/7 AST/7 STL) as his team cruised to a 99-88 win despite his teammate TJ Weeks fouling out in only 17 minutes of action. I tried to ask Coach Matt McCall a question in the postgame press conference, but since he is getting fired at the end of this season there were plenty of other people who wanted to talk to him about that.
GAME #4: Richmond vs. Rhode Island
It is getting late, the Spiders attempted 33 FTs and won 64-59, which means they will play their archrival VCU in the late game on Friday in front of what should be a raucous crowd.
That is a wrap for the 2nd round, check back tomorrow for a quarterfinal quadruple-header featuring 7 of the top-8 seeds!