Last Tuesday Portland beat #1-seed Gonzaga 64-60 in the WCC tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to next week’s NCAA tournament. The Pilots were swept by the Zags during the regular season but the 3rd time was the charm as they prepare to play the school’s 1st NCAA tourney game since 1997. Yesterday HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Portland F Alex Fowler about being a 2-time conference tourney MVP.
You were born/raised in Australia: how did you 1st get into basketball? I am a triplet and 1 of my sisters had a balance problem when she was younger. We all started playing basketball and I just fell in love with it.
Are you friends with any of the Australian men’s players in the US (Sean Bairstow at Utah State/Alex Ducas at St. Mary’s/Reyne Smith at Charleston/other)? I know all of those guys and we always hear about each other’s successes.
You are 6’2”: how much of an advantage is your size on the court? I would say it is less of an advantage. I have been told that I eventually need to move out to the wing and become a 3…but so far my size as a post player has helped.
In 2020 as a player at Portland you led the league in scoring with 18 PPG and were named conference ROY: how were you able to come in and contribute right from the start? I was a new player who had not been seen before so it was a lot easier for me. People did not know how to scout me and did not know my strengths/weaknesses and my coaches were very supportive.
In the 2020 WCC title game you had 21 PTS/10 REB in a 1-PT win over San Diego en route to being named conference tourney MVP: how were you able to play your best when it mattered the most? My teammates/coaches/parents trusted that I had the ability to do whatever I could do to help our team win.
What was your reaction when you learned a few days later that the NCAA tourney was being canceled due to COVID? That was very heartbreaking for us. We had been a “dream team” so we were very excited and after hearing the news there were a LOT of emotions going on.
You have led the conference in FG% during each of the past 2 years: what is the secret to being a great shooter? Coach Michael Meek likes to harp on “finishing above the tape” and being “slow and in control” with your finishes.
You also led your team in AST 7 times this season: how do you balance your scoring with your passing? I have great teammates who get open on the perimeter. They can step up and produce on any night, which is why we are a great team.
Last Tuesday in the WCC title game you had 15 PTS/11 REB in a 4-PT win over #1-seed Gonzaga and became the 1st player in school history to be named the conference tourney MVP twice: how were you able to overcome an 11-PT halftime deficit, and what was the feeling like in your locker room afterward? We came together at halftime and said that it was a new beginning after we had gotten rattled in the 1st half. We gave it all we had and found a way to get through it. It was such an amazing feeling because we put in 100% effort.
What kind of seed do you think you deserve, and what kind of seed do you think you will get? I think we might get a 12 seed but it depends on so many other teams playing this weekend. It will be the 1st time for all of us and you never know what will happen in March. We could upset a bunch of teams or be 1-and-done but whatever seed we get I know that we will be ready to play.
The Hoops HD Selection Committee – Friday Night Update
Tonight was the second night that the Hoops HD Selection Committee met via Zoom conference call to begin seeding the top of the NCAA Tournament at-large field. As of Friday evening, we had 51 teams in the field at that stage; there were 14 auto-bid winners (including Gonzaga) plus 37 at-large teams. The reason there were 37 was because we had 29 teams make the field on our first ballot plus 8 teams that were voted in on Thursday.
Keep in mind that at-large bids are guaranteed to open up in the Big 12 and the Big East; more bids will open up in the ACC with Duke and Virginia slated to meet in the ACC Championship as well as in the Pac-12 with UCLA and Arizona meeting in the Pac-12 championship.. As of the time this was written, the SEC has not opened up (although that would change if our Committee were to vote in Vanderbilt to the at-large pool). The American could open up tomorrow should Memphis and Houston meet in the conference championship game. We elected not to vote any at-large bids in tonight, nor for any contingencies that could arise. The Big Ten has Ohio State threatening to become a bid thief now that they’ve advanced to the semifinal round against Purdue. The Mountain West would open up should San Diego State win their conference tournament OR if either Utah State gets voted in as an at-large AND wins the conference tournament.
As for what we actually did, we began the process of seeding by submitting a list of our top 12 teams on the board to Chad Sherwood (NOT including teams Under Consideration). Once the process was complete, we individually ranked the Top 12 teams 1 through 12. The top eight vote-getters were added to the first 2 lines of the field; the remaining 4 teams carried over to the next round of voting. (The real NCAA Committee would submit a list of Top 8 teams and then rank the teams 1 through 8 as they add 1 line at a time to the field). After the first two lines were complete, we then again repeated the process of nominating 12 teams individually for tabulation. The top 8 teams would then be paired with the four carryover teams and would be ranked 1 through 12. The top 8 teams were added to the next set of seedlines (3 and 4). We repeated the process for the 5 and 6-lines and added only the 7-line afterwards since we did not have enough teams to add the 8-line at this time.
This is how our board looked at this stage:
On the at-large board, note the four teams in red (Arkansas, Florida Atlantic, Illinois and Iowa) are carryover teams and will be included in the next round of voting tomorrow night as we continue to build the seed list. This is NOT to be confused with the four teams highlighted in red on the Under Consideration board (Mississippi State, NC State, Providence and Rutgers); these were carryover teams for the purpose of nominating teams to the at-large board. Also note the teams in orange on the Under Consideration board; these teams have been eliminated from their respective conference tournaments and can no longer add to their profiles. Penn State and Vanderbilt are examples of teams that are still alive and can add more signature wins to their respective profiles (or an automatic bid).
Tomorrow night will be our longest night of the weekend; we will then vote in the last remaining at-large teams plus any contigency teams. We will also finish seeding the rest of the field and do an initial scrub of the seedlist to account for results through Saturday night.