HoopsHD at the Barstool Sports Invitational

Posted on November 9, 2023 by David Dorman

Wednesday night the focus of college basketball was on the Barstool Sports Invitational. The sports media company put together a fantastic doubleheader featuring four schools with big hopes this season. 

In the first game, the Owls of Florida Atlantic University opened their season with expectations this program could only dream of. Fresh off their Final 4 appearance last April, FAU took on the home city Loyola Ramblers at Wintrust Arena in downtown Chicago. 

This years Owl team did not disappoint as they beat Loyola 75-62. This years version of FAU is as good as advertised and deserving of the rankings and praise they have received in all the national outlets this past month. It would not surprise me at all if Coach Dusty May brings this squad back to college basketballs biggest stage in Phoenix come early April. 

This years team has four guards that play beautifully on the court together. Johnell Davis, Nick Boyd, Bryan Greenlee and Brandon Weatherspoon led the way against Loyola on both ends of the court. They can all handle the ball or play on the wing making the Owls extremely potent. Davis had 12 points and 4 rebounds while Boyd led the backcourt with 13 points and Greenlee chipped in 6 points and 5 assists. The Owls have a solid inside presence with 7 footer Vladislav Goldin. Goldin might be the most improved player for FAU and played great Wednesday starting his season off with a double double. He led the team in points and rebounds scoring 19 and pulling down 10 boards.

Loyola Coach Drew Valentine has plenty of reason to be optimistic this season. Senior guard Braden Norris is back to run the offense and knock down tough perimeter shoots while forward Philip Alston had his coming out party with 15 points and 6 boards. The Ramblers have the talent and depth to compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference this year.

The night cap featured two teams from power conferences that both made the NCAA Tournament and played in the first four. The Bulldogs of Mississippi State took on the Arizona State Sun Devils and defense was the key to this matchup. Bulldogs Coach Chris Jans is known for his lockdown stifling defense and his Bulldogs did not disappoint. ASU managed only 18 points in the first half and the Sun Devils could never recover. Junior guard Trey Fort led the Bulldogs with 21 points including five 3-pointers. Fort hit 3 straight 3-pointers in the first half that capped off a huge 16-4 run. The Sun Devils will have better days ahead as the try and mesh together seven division one transfers. Coach Bobby Hurley needs some time to find the right rotations and balance but he has plenty of talent. Sophomore Kamari Lands led ASU with 13 points and 4 rebounds. 

The College Basketball season is underway and all 4 teams in the Barstool Sports Invitation were tested. Give credit to all 4 coaches for accepting this challenge and making their teams stronger by playing tough competition right out of the gate. 

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Under The Radar Game of the Day – Thursday, November 9th

Posted on November 9, 2023 by John Stalica

Stephen F. Austin (1-0, 0-0 D1) at Middle Tennessee (1-0) – 8:00 PM ET (ESPN+)

Another day and another UTR conference challenge as we see the beginning of the WAC-Conference USA Challenge as the Lumberjacks of Stephen F. Austin travel to the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders. MTSU raced out to a 24-point halftime lead in a 74-57 victory against Horizon preseason favorite Northern Kentucky. Both Camryn Weston and Elias King (who each scored 14 points against the Norse) were preseason All-CUSA selections for the Blue Raiders.

SFA opened up their season with a 96-68 victory against North American University. Kimahri Wilson led the Lumberjacks with 13 points despite playing only 17 minutes in the game. SFA was picked to finish 2nd in the WAC behind preseason favorite Grand Canyon.

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Hoops HD Report: MTE Special

Posted on November 8, 2023 by David Griggs

Chad and the pane take a look at all of the bracketed tournaments and events that get underway this Friday and continue through the rest of November. From small gyms with bleachers, to games in hotel ballrooms, to games at resorts, and all kinds of other places, the November Tournaments really are a special time of the year. It’s a lot of unique match-ups between teams that don’t normally play that take place in unique settings and atmospheres. We look at all the brackets from the strength of the Maui Invitational that has three teams ranked in the top four to events that have only have low level UTR teams. We discuss them all!

And for all you radio lovers, below is an audio only version of the show…

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Hanging with the Hoyas: Part 1

Posted on November 8, 2023 by Jon Teitel

HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will spend the upcoming months covering several Georgetown basketball home games, with (hopefully) a very special reward coming in March. He was in attendance Tuesday night for the Hoyas’ season opener and prepared this photo essay about their matchup against Le Moyne.


The pregame meal remains as solid as ever: make-your-own fajitas! After back-to-back 25-loss seasons under Coach Patrick Ewing there is finally some reason for optimism in DC. 2022 national COY Ed Cooley took the trip down I-95 from Providence to begin his tenure as the Hoyas head coach and took a moment during the player introductions to appreciate the moment:

Let’s tip it off:

There were plenty of local celebrities in the house including CNN political analyst David Gregory:

…and Georgetown alum/9-year NBA veteran Jerome Williams:

…and 1984 national champ Reggie Williams:

Not pictured: the legendary Rich Chvotkin, who kicked off his 50th year as the radio voice of the Hoyas! Georgetown’s last non-conference win was exactly 11 months ago (a 7-PT victory over Siena on 12/7/22) and they have had exactly 1 home win since then (a 5-PT victory over DePaul on 1/24/23). Cooley brought in a lot of transfers via the portal to try to turn things around but still has a couple of returning players to lean on as well. 1 of those veterans is SR G Jay Heath, who provided instant offense off the bench in the 1st half with a pair of threes as well as an old-fashioned 3-PT play:

The star of the 1st 20 minutes was North Carolina transfer Dontrez Styles. He started the game by scoring 8 PTS in the 1st 9 minutes, then made a corner 3 at the buzzer to give Georgetown a 47-23 halftime lead. Styles set a career-high with 15 PTS and added 10 REB to finish with a double-double. If he can limit his turnovers then he is going to be 1 of the best players on this team:

Le Moyne was making its D-1 debut and SR F Kaiyem Cleary showed out in the 2nd stanza with a pair of threes, a jumper in the lane, and a huge dunk to try to keep his team in it. Unfortunately, they were simply overmatched when facing a more talented team. Another Hoya transfer who looked good in the 2nd half was Rowan Brumbaugh, who led his squad with a trio of trifectas:

However, the top transfer was Supreme Cook, who dominated inside on a variety of layups/dunks/put backs and ended up with a double-double (19 PTS/13 REB/8-9 FG in just 27 minutes) as the Hoyas cruised to a 94-57 win:

In the postgame press conference I asked Dolphins coach Nate Champion how it felt to officially become a D-1 head coach. He credited his school’s leadership for not being afraid to take big steps and always striving for more/optimal: it is a great recruiting tool to play on national TV. He felt it was a special night to get to play on this stage and has always been a dream for him to become a D-1 coach.

I was really impressed with Georgetown because every player seemed to understand his offensive role right from the 1st game of the year so I asked 2 of their stars to confirm/deny that. Styles stated that Cooley went over the film with them and told them what they needed to do, and that they have a great group of guys who go out and compete both on the court and in the weight room.

Cook chimed in that Cooley places a real emphasis on everyone playing their role to the best of their ability. Everyone sacrifices for the good of the team so that they can all play their best basketball.

That is a wrap for now, check back next weekend when Holy Cross comes to DC on Saturday night!

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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Wednesday, Nov 8th

Posted on November 8, 2023 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES:

–For John Stalica’s UNDER THE RADAR GAME OF THE DAY between Troy and Ohio U, CLICK HERE

-The game of the night was Baylor’s 88-82 win against Auburn out at the Pentagon in South Dakota. I believe there are a total 80 games at the Pentagon this year, and why that’s suddenly become a major destination for notable OOC games I’m not sure, but last night was a good one. Baylor was the favorites last night, and they showed that they were good, but so did Auburn. It was an evenly played and well played game, especially when you take into account that it was each team’s first game of the season. I think that by the end of the year you’re going to see both these teams in the top 25.

-La Salle, who I don’t think any of us were expecting much out of this year, won the first ever game of the new Big 5 Classic format against a Drexel team that we thought would make quite a bit of noise in the CAA 67-61.

-Indiana really had to sweat out Florida Gulf Coast, and was behind about midway through the second half, but held on to win 69-63.

-I really thought UNC Asheville would compete with, and even win at, Michigan last night, but Michigan totally dominated 99-74 and by midway through the first half the game really wasn’t in question.

-DePaul is, once again, indescribably bad. Not that that’s a shockingly new development, but they lost 82-74 to a Purdue Fort Wayne team that isn’t expected to do much of anything in the Horizon League this year. That’s bad even by DePaul’s standards!

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-FLORIDA ATLANTIC AT LOYOLA CHICAGO. Both of these programs have made a Final Four since 2018! Florida Atlantic was there just there last year, they have their entire team back, and they’re starting off ranked 10th in the nation this year. That being said, it’s never easy to win on the road, especially when it’s a showcase game for the other team, which all their road games will be.

-LIPSCOMB AT DRAKE. Lipscomb is coming off a rather decisive loss to Wichita State in their opener, which is a little surprising because I think they’re pretty good and will make quite a bit of noise in the ASun. It’s the season opener for Drake, and while they lost a couple of stars from last year’s team, I still think they are one of the top UTR teams this year and can make a run at the bubble. This is the kind of game they need to almost always be able to win if they want to make that happen, though.

-ARIZONA STATE VS MISSISSIPPI STATE (Chicago IL). I’m pretty big on this Mississippi State team and expect them to make the NCAA Tournament. Arizona State is a team with some pieces, but they’ve got a lot of questions marks. It’s the season opener for both, and it’s a game where we should be able to learn something about both of them.

BUY GAMES:

-Western Illinois @ SMU – SMU can get to 2-0 with a win
-Canisius @ Syracuse – Syracuse is 1-0
-Lincoln MO (nonD!) @ Saint Louis
-TAMU Commerce @ Texas Tech
-Dakota Wesleyan (nonD1) @ South Dakota State
-Southern @ UNLV

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Under The Radar Game of the Day – Wednesday, November 8th

Posted on November 8, 2023 by John Stalica

Troy (1-0, 0-0 D1) at Ohio (0-0) – 7:00 PM ET (ESPN+)

Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day goes up to Athens, Ohio for the first matchup of the MAC/Sun Belt Challenge; the Troy Trojans will go up against the Ohio Bobcats. The series will actually take place in both November where each school in the MAC will host a team from the Sun Belt; in February there will be 12 games played at predetermined Sun Belt sites (with matchups to be determined later in the season). Tayton Conerway had 15 points off the bench for Troy in a 92-47 win against non-D1 Fort Lauderdale on Monday night.

OU comes in to the season opener having been picked to finish 3rd in the MAC behind conference heavyweights Kent State and Akron. Jaylin Hunter averaged over 13 points a game for the Bobcats last year; he was a 1st-team preseason all-MAC selection. He is 36 points away from joining the school’s 1000-point club. OU was 14-1 at home last year, so winning this game will be a tall order for Troy.

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