Hoops HD

All-Access at the CAA Tournament: Quarterfinal Sunday

Posted on March 5, 2023 by Jon Teitel

The pregame meal was great: make-your-own cheeseburger/chips/granola bar/lemonade. Let’s tip off a LONG day of games:

GAME #1: William & Mary vs. Hofstra

It appears that if the CAA wants a competitive tourney game then I am not the best person to give a credential. William & Mary could not buy a bucket early and fell into a 36-6(!) hole after the 1st 14 minutes. Hofstra G/conference POY Aaron Estrada showed everyone why he deserved such an award with a little of everything in the 1st half: 14 PTS/8 REB (career-high is 10)/2 AST/1 BLK/1 STL/0 TO. The Pride led 51-14 at halftime…and to be honest it did not even seem THAT close. The 2nd half did not go much better as Estrada got some help from his SR backcourt mate Tyler Thomas, who scored 10 PTS on 2-2 FG from 2-PT range and 2-2 FG from 3-PT range. The cherry on top was FR Aiden Best converting a not-so-old-fashioned 4-PT play with 30 seconds left to close out a 94-46 victory for the largest margin of victory in the history of this tourney. In the postgame press conference I asked Hofstra PG Jaquan Carlos how he was able to get back on track after only making 1-9 3PM during his past 4 games. He said that he has just been getting a lot of shots up in practice. His coaches told him that if he misses a shot to not look to the bench but just to keep shooting, which increases his confidence.

GAME #2: Drexel vs. UNC-Wilmington

I had very high hopes for this 1 being a close game, as these 2 teams played a 1-PT double-OT contest last month, and it did not disappoint in the 1st half. The good news was that this 4 vs. 5 game lived up to the hype as Drexel led 38-34 at halftime. The bad news is that Drexel JR Yame Butler hurt his ankle early in the game and a few minutes later was limping to the locker room on crutches with his right foot in a boot:

The 2nd half involved a series of runs by each team. Drexel SR Coletrane Washington made a pair of threes to help gave his team a 57-45 lead with under 13 minutes to play. Instead of folding, UNCW responded with an incredible 16-0 run capped off by a 3 from JR Donovan Newby to give his team a 61-57 lead. The Seahawks’ surprise star was the hot hand of JR Nick Farrar, who had only scored 15 PTS combined in his past 3 games. He made almost everything in the 2nd stanza from both behind the arc and at the rim, finishing the game with 19 PTS/8-10 FG in just 16 minutes of action. Drexel cut the lead to 71-68 with 40 seconds left but could not get any closer as FR Justin Moore missed the potential game-tying 3 from the top of the key with 5 seconds left as UNCW hung on for the 73-68 win. In the postgame press conference I asked Nick if this was the 1st time all year that he received his team’s “Toughness Chain”. He confirmed that this was indeed the 1st time he got it and that he was proud to have competed hard in the most important game of the year.

GAME #3: Stony Brook vs. Charleston

Another delicious pregame meal: spaghetti/meatballs/chicken parmesan/broccoli/tiramisu/lemonade! 1 of the most interested spectators: Charleston coach Pat Kelsey’s son Johnny, who observed the pregame shootaround from the front row:

We had yet another CAA tourney early blowout, as Charleston led 22-2 after 7 minutes thanks to the Cougars making 6-7 FG to begin the festivities while the Seawolves made just 1-6. Stony Brook big man had a big 1st half with 11 PTS on 5-10 FG (including an honest-to-God skyhook!) but Charleston grabbed 25 REB and did not miss a single FT as they coasted into halftime with a 42-26 lead. The Cougars got a big 2nd half performance from big man Ante Brzovic (13 PTS/5-8 FG) as they won handily 74-52. Charleston tied its school record for most wins in 1 season with 29, which had stood for 26 years since their old days in the Trans America Athletic Conference. In the postgame press conference I tried to convince Coach Pat Kelsey to start considering whether his squad is 1 of the best in school/conference history. He declined the bait and said that is for another time in the months ahead, maybe when he is “on a beach with my wife drinking a cold Corona”. The name that did come to his mind was John Kresse, who is an institution at Charleston, so just to be mentioned in the same sentence as 1 of his teams is a huge honor.

GAME #4: Delaware vs. Towson

I am sure that it was an enjoyable game…for people who had not spent the past 10 hours at the arena! That is a wrap for today, check back tomorrow for the semifinal doubleheader.

Posted in CBB | Comments Off

Happy Anniversary! HoopsHD interviews former UMass-Lowell coach Ken Barer

Posted on March 5, 2023 by Jon Teitel

The Riverhawks are having a great season with 25 wins so far and a spot in the America East semifinals on Tuesday night. 1 of the coaches who paved the way for Pat Duquette was Ken Barer, who was hired in 2001 and won 28 games in his 2nd year on the sideline. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Ken about turning down Coach K and playing pro basketball. Today marks the 35th anniversary of the final game of Ken’s playing career in college on March 5, 1988, so we take this time to remember his remarkable accomplishments.

You played basketball at GW: what made you choose the Colonials? The final 3 schools in the mix were GW/Stanford/Duke. Duke came on late and said that they were interested but their top choice was a player from North Carolina and they were going to wait for him even if he did not sign a national letter of intent. I told Coach Mike Krzyzewski, “Thanks but no thanks.” I did not want to wait and wait and then have that player choose Duke after I no longer had the offers from GW/Stanford. That is what actually happened: he finally ended up signing with Duke. When it came down to GW/Stanford (I did take a visit to Palo Alto!) my high school coach said something important to me. He said that God forbid, if I got hurt, would I want to go to that school for 4 years? I was/am very close with my older brother and felt that going across the country was too far. However, I will admit that if I had to do it all over again I may have chosen Princeton. Coach Pete Carril really wanted me to go there and is 1 of the greatest coaches of all time. I loved going to school in DC as well as being around my teammates…but I was not in love with my head coaches.

1 of your teammates was Mike Brown, who later spent a decade in the NBA: could you tell at the time that he was going to make it to the next level? I absolutely knew that Mike would play at the next level. He was a hard worker, knew how to use his size, and was very smart. He was also one of the nicest guys I have ever known. He ended up playing with Michael Jordan as well as John Stockton/Karl Malone, which made for some great stories!

Your coach was John Kuester, who was 1977 ACC tourney MVP at UNC under Dean Smith and later an assistant to Rick Pitino at BU: how much of an advantage is it to play/work for a pair of Hall of Famers? To be honest I do not feel it was an advantage at all: it may have even been a disadvantage. I had a lot of respect for how tough Coach Kuester was as a player: my issue was that I am not sure if he was ready to be a head coach at that level. What I mean is that he tried to make us play as if we were North Carolina even though we clearly were not: we did not have guys up front who were 6’10”/6’11”/7’ tall. I think that he would have been better off taking his knowledge and creating his own style.

After graduating you played pro basketball in France for several years: what was the biggest difference between basketball in the US vs. basketball overseas? There were several significant differences in the basketball played in France vs. what I was used to in the US. One of the biggest differences I noticed was that the practices were not nearly as intense and the French players were not as schooled in the fundamentals. Remember I am talking about France: I am sure that it was different in some other countries. For the most part the French players were not as physically tough as the Americans so they would not be used to a more physical game (for the most part). I was a point guard in the pros (after playing off-guard in college) because I saw right away that there were some intricacies of the game that I had been taught that the other players were lacking and I was able to use that to control the game. Being bilingual was a bonus, especially for a point guard!

As a member of team USA at the 1993 Maccabiah Games in Israel you won a silver medal and were named MVP: how close did you come to winning the gold, and what did it mean to you to be named MVP? The first time I played in the Maccabiah Games was in 1985, which was the summer after my freshman year of college. We had a phenomenal team and won the gold medal. Representing the US in Israel was very special. I played in the Maccabiah Games again in 1989 but this time with the French team. Since I have dual citizenship and was playing there at the time I thought that it would be fun to do. Unfortunately, they were not as serious about it as I wanted, so I said to myself that if I was still playing in 4 years then I would try out for the US team again. In 1993 I had just “retired” at age 27 but was still in the best shape of my life. We all had poor games in the finals but still had a chance to win at the end: it was disappointing. I can honestly say that though it was an honor to be named MVP of the Games I would have gladly traded it for a gold medal.

You later served as an assistant coach at LIU/Wright State: what made you want to become a coach? I did not grow up wanting to become a coach: as a matter of fact it was quite the opposite. Aside from my freshman/varsity high school coaches I had not been coached by guys who I particularly liked. What I did learn along the way were some very important things that would become a major part of my coaching philosophy: things I knew that I would not want to do if I coached! While in college and during my time as a professional, I would come home over the summer and work at the Five Star Basketball Camp run by the late Howard Garfinkel. It was there that I was exposed to some of the greatest coaches I have ever been around. Near the end of my time in France I began to realize that I really enjoyed the idea of coaching and basketball was my passion. I wanted to give back and make a positive impact on the lives of young players. My best friend Ed Schilling (who I met at Five Star the summer before our senior years in high school) was a high school coach in Indiana (he is currently an assistant at GCU). I became his JV coach/varsity assistant coach and he was a great mentor to me. It was from there that I went on to coach high school basketball in Connecticut for 3 years before rejoining him at Wright State as his assistant.

You were hired as head coach at D-2 UMass-Lowell in 2001: why did you take the job, and what is the biggest difference between D-2 and D-1? The reason I took the job at UMass-Lowell was simple: I wanted to be a head coach. When I came back from France I had a couple of offers to be a “restricted earnings” assistant (that is what they used to call the coaches who could not coach on the floor but were still part of the staff) at two different major D-1 programs…but I wanted to learn how to coach, design my own practices, and call my own timeouts. Getting the job at UMass-Lowell was great for me. The biggest difference between D-1 and D-2 was size. The guard play at the D-2 level was excellent: the difference was that there were 6’1”/6’2” guards at the D-2 level while D-1 had 6’5”/6’6” guards who were bigger/stronger/quicker. It was also rare to find an inside player with size who was very good because those types of players would almost always find a home at the D-1 level. However, there were some very good undersized interior players.

In 2003 your team went 28-5 and broke the school record for wins in a season: do you think that anyone will ever break your record? That team was very special. We actually won 28 games the next year as well and returned to the Elite 8 for the second straight season. It will be hard to break that record at this point because the school is now D-1 so it will be a very hard number to reach.

You won back-to-back regular season and conference tourney titles in 2003/2004: what made you such a good coach? Hahahaha! “Good coach”? Having great players helped a great deal! I was fortunate to have had a team full of ultra-competitive players who were unselfish and wanted to win. They bought into the system and sacrificed any individual goals for the greater good of the team. My assistants were fantastic, which allowed me to really focus my efforts on what I felt was most important at any given time. It was really a total team effort.

You currently work as Athletics Director of the Mohawk Day Camp & Country Day School: how do you like the job, and what do you hope to do in the future? Right now I am part owner/Associate Director/Athletic Director at Mohawk Day Camp. It allows me to take advantage of my skill set to do outreach and the “recruiting” of families to come to the camp. Over the summer I wear the hat of Athletic Director and run the athletic programs. It has been a great job and has allowed me the flexibility to coach my kids in AAU basketball, which I might add was just as fun and rewarding as coaching at the college level. As part owner of the camp I see this being my job for the rest of my career…barring a winning lottery ticket!

Posted in CBB | Tagged GW, Ken Barer, UMass-Lowell | Comments Off

Hoops HD Daily Rundown – Sunday, March 5th

Posted on March 5, 2023 by David Griggs

It is the last day of the regular season, it is one week before Selection Sunday, and we are full blown into conference tournaments!!

-For our CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK VIDEO NOTEBOOK – which contains a run through of all of yesterday’s and today’s conference tournament action along with links, brackets, and more – CLICK HERE

NEWS AND NOTES:

-This is just a rundown of the regular season action. If you want the conference tournament info check out the links posted above.

-Alabama had been winning, but they just hadn’t looked the same since all of the off the court issues surfaced. Yesterday at Texas A&M, they didn’t win. They did fight back after being behind on the road against a really good team, but it wasn’t enough to get the win. TAMU has silenced all the critics that were questioning how good they were when they were racking up wins against a backloaded schedule. Well, they now racked up enough wins on the back end to convince me, including their 67-61 win over the Tide yesterday.

-Texas did to Kansas at home what Kansas did to Texas when Kansas was at home. They won handily 75-59, and it shouldn’t really be a surprise. Texas can still get up to the #1 line, but they’ll have to win the Big 12 Tournament to do it. The thing is, I think the Horns are good enough to do just that.

-UCLA did to Arizona at home what Arizona did to the Bruins when the Wildcats were at home, and that’s win the game handily. It wasn’t a blowout, but at no point were the Bruins really sweating. UCLA puts a nice ribbon on the end of their regular season, and many feel they can get a #1 seed if they do the double and win the Pac 12 Tournament.

-Iowa State, who had looked like a top ten team at times this year, but who had recently been in an absolute tailspin, went into Baylor yesterday and for 40 minutes looked like perhaps the best team in the nation. They controlled the entire game and won 73-58, and the score probably doesn’t indicate just how dominant the Cyclones were. Baylor had been on an absolute roll going into yesterday, so this was a surprise.

-West Virginia needed a huge win yesterday, and got it. They knocked off Kansas State 89-81, and while it was at home, it’s still a big win against a protected seed and may be enough to put the Mountaineers into the field.

-Auburn also got a big win at home against Tennessee 79-70. After several close calls they finally got a win that they needed. Their season and resume have not exactly been overwhelming, and yesterday’s win was at home against a Tennessee team that just lost one of their best players to an injury, but even with all that I still think it’s enough to put Auburn on the right side of the bubble. At least that’s what I think the committee will think.

-UConn got an impressive 71-59 win at Villanova that’s probably a much better when than what most people will initially think given how well Nova had been playing recently, and given that it was on the road, and given that they won rather handily.

-Providence completely slept through their alarm yesterday and were blown out 82-58 at home by a Seton Hall team that’s looked underwhelming more often than not this season.

-Kentucky got yet another nice win at Arkansas 88-79. I now this season wasn’t as good as what many Kentucky fans were hoping for, but they are unquestionably a better team now than they were just six or seven weeks ago, and they’ve put together a fairly decent profile. I don’t think the teams facing them in the early rounds of the tournament will be all that excited to see them.

-Nevada, who was squarely on the bubble, lost 69-67 at home to UNLV, who is so far outside the bubble that they need binoculars to see it. This is NOT a good loss for the Wolfpack.

-Oklahoma State got a win that they very much needed as they knocked off Texas Tech on the road 71-68. If they can win their opening round Big 12 Tournament game against Oklahoma that may be enough to just sneak them into the field. If they can win two games then I think they’re a lock.

-Duke, who I had been picking on all year for not being a good road team, got a good road win yesterday as they knocked off rivals North Carolina 62-57. North Carolina is a team I’ve picked on even more than Duke, but the Tarheels have been very good at home this year, so Duke deserves legit credit for this win.

-Florida Atlantic ended the regular season with a 76-72 nail-biter at Louisiana Tech. I think they’ve done enough to go in on the first ballot, although some will say they at least need to win their quarterfinals game in the CUSA Tournament.

-Vanderbilt, despite losing their best player to an injury, still got the win over Mississippi State yesterday 77-72. Mississippi State is straddling the bubble and probably needs a win in the SEC Tournament to get them into the field, whereas Vandy has finished the season very strong and might be able to play their way into the discussion. Had Vandy played all season like they have the last 3-4 weeks, they’d be in the top half of the bracket right now.

-Utah State knocked off Boise State at home yesterday 86-73. Had Boise State won I think it would have all but locked them into the field, but seeing as they didn’t, they are now floating around the area that is very close to the bubble. Utah State is also floating around the bubble, but I think they’re still on the outside part of it.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-HOUSTON AT MEMPHIS (American). I think Houston is a lock for a #1 seed, and while Memphis may not be locked into the NCAA Tournament yet, I think they’re a virtual lock even if they lose this game. If Memphis can WIN this game, then they’ll be a complete lock and will move themselves up the seedlist.

-MARYLAND AT PENN STATE (Big Ten). Maryland has been a terrible road team and while I do think they’ll make the field, I don’t think they deserve that good of a seed. I will change my mind a little bit if they’re able to win today. But I simply cannot ignore the fact that they have no decent road wins. The only two they have are against Minnesota and Louisville and both of those teams are so bad that I wonder if those should even count as road wins. They’ve lost on the road to multiple teams that won’t even make the NIT. They NEED this win to convince me that they even belong. I think they’ll get in regardless of what I think, but a win today would certainly help their resume because it would give them at least one decent road win, and one is infinitely more than zero (mathematical fact!).

-ILLINOIS AT PURDUE (Big Ten). Both teams are locks to make the dance and are just playing for seeding. Purdue is trying to finish with a #1 seed, and Illinois is trying to improve their resume and move up the seedlist, and a win in a game like this would help them out big time.

-NEBRASKA AT IOWA (Big Ten). Iowa should be able to hold serve without too much trouble.

-MICHIGAN AT INDIANA (Big Ten). Michigan has been making all kinds of noise lately. A win today gets them to 18-13 on the year, 12-8 in the Big Ten, and puts another high quality win on their resume. They will be seriously considered, and perhaps even selected, if they can manage a win today and avoid an early exit from the Big Ten Tournament.

-NORTHWESTERN AT RUTGERS (Big Ten). I think both teams are in, but both can certainly do a lot to improve their seed with a win today and a strong showing in the Big Ten Tournament.

Posted in Daily Rundown, News and Notes | 1 Comment

Teitel Title Update

Posted on March 5, 2023 by Jon Teitel

Your final daily update on who has clinched a regular season title:

AAC: Houston has clinched
A-10: VCU has clinched
America East: Vermont has clinched
ACC: Miami/Virginia both finished season 15-5 in league play
Atlantic Sun: Liberty/Kennesaw State both finished season 15-3 in league play
Big East: Marquette has clinched
Big Sky: Eastern Washington has clinched
Big South: UNC-Asheville has clinched
Big 10: Purdue has clinched
Big 12: Kansas has clinched
Big West: UC-Irvine/UCSB both finished season 15-5 in league play
CAA: Charleston/Hofstra both finished season 16-2 in league play
C-USA: Florida Atlantic has clinched
Horizon: Youngstown State has clinched
Ivy: Princeton/Yale both finished season 10-4 in league play
MAAC: Iona has clinched
MAC: Toledo has clinched
MEAC: Howard has clinched
MVC: Bradley has clinched
MWC: San Diego State has clinched
NEC: Merrimack has clinched
OVC: Morehead State has clinched
Pac-12: UCLA has clinched
Patriot: Colgate has clinched
SEC: Alabama has clinched
SoCon: Furman/Samford both finished season 15-3 in league play
Southland: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi has clinched
Summit: Oral Roberts has clinched
Sun Belt: Southern Miss has clinched
SWAC: Alcorn State/Grambling both finished season 15-3 in league play
WCC: St. Mary’s/Gonzaga both finished season 14-2 in league play
WAC: Utah Valley has clinched

Posted in News and Notes | Comments Off

Championship Week Video Notebook – Day 6

Posted on March 5, 2023 by David Griggs

WELCOME SELECTION COMMITTEE MEMBERS!!! We are here to guide you in the right direction!!

CLICK HERE for the HOOPS HD SURVIVAL BOARD, which shows who is a lock, who is on the bubble, and who needs the auto-bid

CLICK HERE for our CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT INFO PAGE, which has brackets, times, and viewing information for all 32 conference tourney

CLICK HERE for our most recent BRACKET PROJECTIONS

It was a crazy day of conference tournament action with two huge upsets in the Sun Belt which knocked out Southern Miss and Marshall. Texas State, who finished 11th, is now in the semifinals. We also saw a couple of upsets in the Southern with UNC Greensboro and Samford both going down. We also had our first conference champion!! Congrats to Southeast Missouri who won an overtime thriller against Tennessee Tech to win the Ohio Valley Championship. Fairleigh Dickinson also locked up an automatic bid with their semifinal win over Saint Francis U. They’ll face Merrimack in the Northeast Conference Championship game, who is not eligible for the NCAA Tournament. We discuss all that, and more!!

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

MISSOURI VALLEY CHAMPIONSHIP:

ATLANTIC SUN CHAMPIONSHIP:

BIG SOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP:

SUN BELT SEMIFINALS:

SOCON SEMIFINALS:

PATRIOT LEAGUE SEMIFINALS:

COLONIAL QUARTERFINALS:

SUMMIT LEAGUE QUARTERFINALS:

BIG SKY QUARTERFINALS:

SOUTHLAND OPENING ROUND:

Posted in Championship Week Video Notebook, Podcasts, Survival Board, Videocasts | 2 Comments

All-Access at the CAA Tournament: 2nd Round Saturday

Posted on March 4, 2023 by Jon Teitel

Conference tournaments are about basketball but also so much more: the fans, bands, cheerleaders, etc. The CAA 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 things going with a recap of the 2nd round quadruple-header on Saturday.

The pregame meal was perfectly mediocre: chicken wrap/chips/chocolate chip cookie/lemonade.
Let’s tip off a LONG day of games:

GAME #1: William & Mary vs. Elon
Elon big man Sam Sherry kept his team in it during the 1st half by getting to the rim for a ton of put-backs/dunk/layups and finished the game with the 1st double-double of his career (15 PTS and a career-high 12 REB). William & Mary 3-PT specialist Gabe Dorsey missed his 7th straight game due to injury but the Tribe appear to have found a reputable replacement in SR Miguel Ayesa. After making the very 1st start of his career last Saturday, the Spanish Sharpshooter made 4 threes in the 1st half to give his team a 34-27 halftime lead. In the 2nd half Ayesa remained “en fuego”, racking up his 3rd straight game with 5+ 3PM (after going 0-9 combined from behind the arc vs. Stony Brook/Northeastern last month). It was hard to keep up with all of his accomplishments: he tied his career-high with 23 PTS and tied his school’s all-time tourney record for 3PM in 1 game that dates back to 1988. The Tribe pulled away in the final 20 minutes to win 73-51, and also won the award for best performance by a band/cheerleaders as they had 1 of the latter surf over a rolling mass of many of the former:

In the postgame press conference I asked Miguel how he was able to regain his confidence over the past 3 games. He smiled, patted his coach on the shoulder, and said “This guy!” He gave credit to Coach Fischer for telling him to keep shooting, and it also helped that he saw some shots go in during practice.

I tried to see if Coach Fischer would give me an injury update on the only player who scored in double-digits during their loss to Hofstra in January (Dorsey). He admitted that he had been optimistic in the past…but has gotten less and less so over time, as all of his injured players have been “day-to-day” for the past 3 weeks.

GAME #2: Drexel vs. Monmouth
The good news for Monmouth is that they scored 100 PTS in Friday’s win over Hampton. The bad news is that they did not score a single point today until Jack Collins made a jumper with 9:15 left in the 1st half…at which point they were trailing 18-2. The Hawks missed 19 of their 1st 20 shots and trailed 29-6 before making a nice run before halftime to close the gap to 35-19. It was an ugly war of whistles that saw the 2 teams commit a combined 30(!) fouls in the 1st 20 minutes. The Hawks finally got some offense going in the 2nd half in the form of Myles Foster, who kept getting into the lane for layup after layup. Unfortunately, Coach King Rice did not stick around to see the end of the game, as he was ejected during the under-8 timeout. Fortunately for the Dragons, they had 2-time conference DPOY Amari Williams, who also showcased his all-around game en route to a double-double with 16 PTS/6-7 FG/11 REB/2 STL/1 BLK. They also have the 2nd-best basketball player in Philly named Justin Moore (Villanova’s version has a slight edge) as Drexel showed some Philly Pride with an easy 64-45 win.

In the postgame press conference I wondered if Amari was excited for the revenge game after his team’s 1-PT 2-OT loss to UNCW 16 days ago that included a blown 22-7 1st half lead. He agreed that it was painful because it was their 1st loss at home all season, but they have put it behind them and know what they have to do to come out with a win this time around.

Coach Rice brought his son to the interview room so I was curious what lesson he wanted his son to learn today. He said that “you gotta keep your cool” and have to be there for your playees, which he did not do today. He watches plenty of games on TV and sees that every coach cusses the refs out…but he does not.

GAME #3: North Carolina A&T vs. Stony Brook
The pregame dinner was delicious: make-your-own-fajitas (although they ran out of tortillas)/rice/tres leches cake/lemonade. The Aggies came out of the gate red-hot, building a 10-0 lead before Stony Brook coach Geno Ford was forced to call a timeout to slow them down less than 4 minutes into the game. It was 14-0 after 6 minutes until Frankie Policelli finally made a corner 3 to stop the bleeding, followed by his team making a nice run of its own to make it 14-10. North Carolina A&T SR Kam Woods did a little of everything in the 1st half, heading into halftime with 11 PTS/5 REB/3 AST/3 STL…and a 31-28 lead. However, it did not last long because the 2nd half belonged to Policelli. After making a pair of trifectas in the 1st 20 minutes he made 4 more in the final 20 minutes to tie his career-high with 6 3PM. In the battle of stars Woods performed very well with 25 PTS/8 REB/3 STL…yet it somehow paled in comparison to Policelli’s 30 PTS/16 REB/3 STL. Stony Brook dominated the 2nd half and won 76-61.

In the postgame press conference I begged Coach Ford to share what he told his team during the timeout he called when they were down 10-0. He joked that his players do not listen too often to him anyway! He claimed that he just talked about having a “next play” mentality and that when his leadership does its thing is on the floor it really helps everyone. The Aggies sped his team up a little bit but they hung in there. Their last tourney game took place during COVID so he can talk about intensity all he wants but his guys will still need to play much better tomorrow.

Also, a special shout-out to CAA Assistant Commissioner for Communications Miles McQuiggan, who confirmed how historic Policelli’s performance was. The last player to have a 30/15 game in the CAA tourney was some guy at Navy back in 1986…named David Robinson!

GAME #4: Delaware vs. Northeastern
I am sure that it was an enjoyable game…for people who had not spent the past 10 hours at the arena! That is a wrap for today, but check back tomorrow for the quarterfinal quadruple-header featuring each of the top-4 seeds.