Conference tournaments are about basketball but also so much more: the fans, parents, bands, cheerleaders, etc. The A-10 Tournament is taking place this week in Washington, DC, and we could not be more excited to be there in person! HoopsHD is covering all the angles so you can look forward to an abundance of access in the days ahead. Jon Teitel continues our coverage from DC with a recap of the semifinal doubleheader on Saturday.
I was able to squeeze in brunch with a friend who was visiting from out of town before heading to the arena. I was also able to catch up with some of the spirit squad members for each school that I interviewed last week, all of whom were nice in person. While the fan attendance skews heavily in VCU’s favor, both team’s bands were sounding loud/proud:
However, the best music of the day was the pregame anthem…on saxophone!
Let’s tip it off:
GAME #1: LOYOLA CHICAGO-VCU
I was expecting a great coaching matchup, as Loyola’s Drew Valentine/VCU’s Ryan Odom have each won 20+ games in 2024 and 2025 and made an NCAA tourney during the past 4 years:
CBS color commentator Dan Bonner was sitting courtside to do some scouting because he will be on the mike tomorrow for the title game:
Loyola hung around for the 1st 20 minutes, which was encouraging. SR G Sheldon Edwards Jr. only made 2 shots early on, but they were both from behind the arc:
His backcourt mate Des Watson scored 20 PTS in their previous game vs. VCU (a 19-PT loss in Chicago last January) but got off to a cold start today with 2-10 FG:
VCU has the conference POY in SR G Max Shulga, and he looked every bit the part with 7 PTS (including a layup and a 3 from the top of the key)/5 REB/0 TO early on:
His backcourt mate Phillip Russell Jr. (who scored 25 PTS in that January game) was 1 of the only hot shooters with 3-4 3PM en route to a team-high 10 1st half PTS as the Rams built a 36-27 halftime lead:
In the 2nd half Loyola C Miles Rubin was a 1-man comeback. He only took 2 shots during the prior game in January, but started heating up in the paint with an alley-oop, a jumper in the lane, a sweet spin/hook, and multiple put-backs at the rim to tie the game at 49-all with under 7 minutes left:
The partisan VCU crowd was feeling a little tense toward the end of the game, as their team is just 1-4 this year when trailing with 5 minutes left. However, Shulga made a couple more layups and grabbed a couple more rebounds to finish with a double-double (14 PTS/10 REB) as VCU rammed its way into the title game with a 62-55 win.
In the postgame press conference, since nobody else was asking about the bubble, I had to be the guy to see if Coach Odom had any doubt that he had 1 of the 68 best teams in the country if they lost the title game tomorrow. Usually that question will lead to a 4-minute-long answer where the coach presents his team’s entire resume in case the selection committee is listening, but Odom went the opposite way with a 4-word-short yet honest answer: “I have no idea”
GAME #2: ST. JOSEPH’S-GEORGE MASON
I missed most of the 1st half while downing some chicken fingers/fries for the 3rd day in a row…but after watching the Patriots go on a 25-7 run to start the game thanks in large part to GMU SR G Darius Maddox (15 PTS/6-7 FG), I confess that I did not feel any regret:
Of course, as I have learned the hard way all week long, #thehawkwillnever die, and Coach Billy Lange’s team made a late run to finish strong and cut the deficit to 37-28 at halftime:
GMU SR F Jalen Haynes scored 12 PTS in the 1st half but started the 2nd half in pain on the court after hurting his right hand:
St. Joe’s SO G Xzayvier Brown helped lead a furious comeback (finishing with 26 PTS/5-12 3PM) and the Hawks cut the lead to a single point early in the 2nd half:
However, the Patriots used some sensational 3-PT shooting (9-17 3PM) to win it 74-64 and live to fight another day.
In the postgame press conference…the rest of the media asked some pretty good questions, so I left early to go watch the Big 12 tourney title game (son of a bee-sting!).
That is a wrap for today, check back tomorrow for the alphabet soup title game featuring VCU vs. GMU.
The Hoops HD Selection Committee – Friday, March 14th
Tonight was the second night of our Hoops HD Selection Committee – we had two main tasks that we carried out during tonight’s meetings. The first thing we did was more of a housecleaning maneuver; SMU was voted off of the Under Consideration board after their loss in the ACC Tournament on Thursday. After this, we added more teams to consider for addition to the at-large board (along with carryovers Arkansas, Indiana and Vanderbilt). Each member of the Committee nominated eight teams; the top five vote getters would be added for consideration. In this round, Boise State, UC-San Diego, West Virginia and Xavier were nominated; Oklahoma beat out San Diego State in a tiebreaker for the fifth spot.
The next step was to rank those teams one through eight; the four teams added to the board were Arkansas, West Virginia, UC-San Diego and Oklahoma. Xavier and Boise State move on to the next round of at-large voting; Indiana and Vanderbilt returned to Under Consideration since they could not carry over in consecutive rounds of voting. This also means that a potential contingency spot could open up if UC-San Diego wins the Big West championship tomorrow night.
After this, the bulk of tonight’s work was adding the top eight lines to the Master Seed List. Each member of the Committee nominated twelve teams for consideration; the top 12 vote-getters would be ranked 1 through 12. (The real committee would nominate 8 teams and then rank them 1 through 8 as they go one seed line at a time, but we go 2 lines at a time to save time in the process.) Our 1-line included Auburn, Duke, Houston and Florida; our 2-line included Alabama, Tennessee, Michigan State and St. John’s.
We repeated this process three more times as we built the top 32 places for the Master Seed List. Below is where we finished the night:
Also note the 5 spots in orange at the at-large board: these are spots that are guaranteed to open up as the Big 12, B1G, Big East, SEC and ACC will not have bid thieves this year. The Mountain West (with Boise State in the championship game), American and A-10 could still have bids stolen depending on what happens this weekend (although you will note that we have not added VCU to our field).
Tomorrow night, we will fill up the remaining at-large spots and contingency spots and then we will finish building the master seed list. It will include more than 68 teams since not all the conference championships will have gone final until Sunday. After the Master Seed list is complete, we will do an initial scrub of the Master Seed list. Tune in tomorrow/early Sunday morning for the next update!