Conference Tourney action continues!! It was a wild day in the Summit League where we saw multiple upsets. Northern Iowa, who had looked so good in the last few weeks of the regular season, was knocked out by 11th seeded Valparaiso in Arch Madness. The championship game is set in the OVC for the first automatic bid tomorrow. We discuss all that, and more!!
And, for all you radio lovers, below is an audio only version of the show…
Conference tournaments are about basketball but also so much more: the parents, fans, bands, cheerleaders, etc. The CAA Tournament will be taking place next 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 week ahead. Jon Teitel continues our coverage from DC with an interview of Delaware basketball father Mark Jerome about his son Kobe who is trying to make the NCAA tourney (and his son Ty who already won an NCAA tourney a few years ago).
You are president of a youth basketball organization in Manhattan called Global Professional Sports: what makes your program different from other programs? There is a ton of competition in New York City in youth sports, so we are grateful to anyone who wants to play for us. What separates is us is that we try to enhance a player’s IQ. It is amazing to be super-athletic…but 99% of the world does not have that, so the only way to compete at a high level is to work hard/handle pressure/make decisions in a chaotic environment. I do not understand why some people call basketball an easy game: someone is physically trying to stop you on every possession! It takes a long time to improve, so it takes patience on the part of us/the players/their families.
You spent several years as head coach at Beacon High School: what is the key to being a good coach? I took over a team that was 2-15 and during my 1st year we were bad. Beacon has a great academic environment, so there is a lot of competition to get in there. A lot of people cannot afford private schools but a few years ago there were 10,000 applicants for only 300 spots: the line for people waiting to take a tour went around a big city block! We were not getting the best athletes back then so at 1st we were just a disaster. The following summer I let everyone on the team know that if they wanted to play then they would have to commit to working out all summer long. The kids put the work in…and we went 24-0 the following season. In New York City teachers will act as coaches, but they are being pulled in so many directions that they do not have enough time to work on their craft. We would face other schools with more talent, but since I have studied this for years and am passionate about it, we were able to beat them. We were in an athletic league but by Year 3 the teams that had beaten Beacon in the past by 30 PTS were worried about facing us. Our kids worked hard and bought in and changed the culture. You could see the confidence building over the course of the year as we beat more and more teams: it became tangible, and our practices were intense. By the middle of the year the captains were running practice, so I give a lot of credit to our kids.
Your son Ty went to Virginia, and in the 2018 NCAA tourney he scored 15 PTS in a 1st-round loss to UMBC: how stunned were you to see the Cavaliers get upset by a #16-seed? The kids were resilient a few days later, but I was depressed until I got on the phone to talk about it with Coach Tony Bennett. Anything can happen in the NCAA tourney since there are no bad teams, but it was a lot of “what could go wrong did go wrong”. There were a lot of storylines that have never been told that impacted that game, as well as some calls that went against Virginia.
Take me through the magical 2019 NCAA tourney: UVA had a 4-PT win over Oregon in the Sweet 16, an OT win over Purdue in the Elite 8, and a 1-PT win over Auburn in the Final 4: how was you blood pressure doing by the time they had survived that gauntlet?! I still have not recovered! Occasionally someone will talk to me about it…and I still get heart palpitations as if I am reliving it. I know everyone deserves to win but I think that team remains 1 of the greatest stories in American sports. It was a great group of staff/players who worked very hard: The culture that Tony created is so comforting that as a parent I could relax after dropping Ty off on campus. It was tough emotionally, but the outcomes made it all worth it.
In the title game Ty scored 16 PTS in an 8-PT OT win over Texas Tech: where does that rank among the highlights of the Jerome family? In terms of sports highlights it is at the top…for now. People texted me throughout the Final 4 and I later learned that during OT Jim Nantz mentioned that I used to take Ty to games as a kid. It is like a dream for any athlete to play in a title game and win it at the end. After the buzzer assistant coach Jason Williford told security to let us onto the court, and it was the most amazing feeling that anyone can have.
Ty’s scoring average had been decreasing over the past several years and he only played 15 total minutes last year, but this year he has become 1 of the top scorers off the bench for the team with the best record in the NBA (Cleveland): how was he able to bounce back in a big way this year? He is a solid player and has had success in the past. At 1 point during his 1st year in OKC he was the 5th-leading scorer off the bench in the NBA, but the following year the coaching staff decided to go with someone else. Imagine going to work and having your boss say that he is picking someone else to do your job: it is demoralizing, and I did not know the right things to say to him. He was getting criticized on social media without people understanding the entire situation. He was not in their plans but was eventually able to get a 2-way contract with Golden State. My kids have a tremendous work ethic and know how to win…but it is an acquired taste. I have taught them since age 2 how to communicate/shoot even if they are not soaring through the air. I could see Ty’s confidence level growing that year: it is hard to make an NBA roster and hard to stay on 1. He is a battler and has been that way his whole life.
His 44 3P% is #4 in the league and last January he scored a career-high 33 PTS while becoming the 1st player in Cavaliers history to make at least 8 threes without missing a single attempt: what is his secret to making shots from behind the arc? Practice. There were times when Ty and his brother would just shoot and shoot and shoot. 1 day around 7th/8th grade Ty was unsure if he would go to practice: I told him that I loved him…but that practice was not optional! He got torched in our next game, which I think made him understand that if he wanted to be successful then he had to work hard. He got into the gym after that and never left the gym. If you look at athletes in any sport who had nice long careers (Jerry Rice/Walter Payton/LeBron James), it is because they knew how to eat right/stretch right/work on their body.
Your son Kobe began his college career at UC-Riverside in 2021: why did he decide to transfer after his sophomore year, and what made him choose Delaware? Riverside was not a good fit for him: the culture at some of these programs is amazing to me. We got to experience the paradigm of Virginia that everyone should aspire to, then you look at other schools and see the complete opposite. As a parent you need to step in and ask your kid if they feel that they are in the right place. Delaware coach Martin Ingelsby called Kobe, got a good report from the Riverside coach, and was kind enough to offer him a scholarship.
The Blue Hens won 19 games last year but have lost 19 games so far this season: do you think they can get things turned around this month? I do not know the answer, but when you lose a lot of games it is hard to bounce back. You need to have some strong/healthy conversations, which is a difficult challenge. I do not know if everyone can look in the mirror and figure out what adjustments need to be made. I have been there as a coach: at 1st I did not think it was my fault, but I evolved and realized that you need strong chemistry, which is hard to build in this era of the transfer portal. It is hard to build camaraderie: 1 topic I discuss on my podcast are the pros/cons of NIL. If someone is making more money than you are, how can you foster a brotherhood? You need to speak with every player, hear them out, and understand who you are recruiting. I read an article about Iowa State coach TJ Otzelberger and how he has done a great job of getting all his players to buy in. Rick Pitino has done that as well at St. John’s: some coaches are very good at it, and some are not.
You played basketball at Lafayette and your ex-wife played basketball at Brandeis: who is the best athlete in the family? Unfortunately, my boys got their mother’s athleticism, but they compensate in other ways. My 4-year-old is probably the best athlete of all of us. Sometimes I look at my sons and wonder how they reached the levels they are at. I am most impressed by the way they were able to make it as far as they have, which is due to their hard work/IQ/shooting ability.
Conference tournaments are about basketball but also so much more: the parents, fans, bands, cheerleaders, etc. The A-10 Tournament will be taking place next 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 week ahead. Jon Teitel commences our coverage from DC with an interview of Dayton basketball mother Anna Jack about her son Isaac.
Photo credit: Dayton Daily News
You were born/raised in Canada: how big was basketball up north when you were growing up, and how big is it now? It was always around but was not the #1 sport: I did not start playing until the 7th grade in a little city league. I live on Vancouver Island in a town of 20,000 people: if I had lived in Vancouver (with a population of more than 700,000) then it might have been different. The sport has grown a lot but is still not big where I am: the bigger cities have more basketball.
In addition to playing basketball, you were quite the track star as a teenager (Canadian Summer Games champ/Canadian Junior National champ/5th place in the Pan American Championships): what made you choose BYU? I grew up Mormon but was not a practicing Mormon by the time I went there. BYU is a sport-oriented school, and I went there to play basketball, but it was not my favorite sport.
You won NCAA championships in the discus in 1991/1992, becoming the first Canadian thrower to ever win an NCAA competition: what did it mean to you to win a pair of titles? It was great to win but I did not even know how big a deal it was at the time. It is not the same as if we had won a basketball/football title.
In 1994 you graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physical education: what have you been up to for the past 3 decades? I am a teacher/coach at my old high school where I grew up. I did not think I would come back here…but here I am!
I incorrectly assumed that all very tall people have been playing basketball their entire lives, but your son Isaac started out doing hockey/snowboarding/soccer: how did he eventually make the switch to hoops in 2020? There was not a lot of soccer, but he played everything. I made him do track, which as a core sport I figured could only help. After his 10th grade hockey season his feet were so big that we would have had to buy him custom skates (which probably would have cost $1000!). He started playing basketball around 8th grade as he began getting taller and liked it. I remember when he was at a basketball camp in Bellingham, WA: he called me to say that he broke his leg, so we raced over there, took him home for emergency surgery, and he was only able to get back onto the court toward the end of his 11th grade season. In 12th grade he was healthier…but did not play much since that was when COVID happened. He played with Shaedon Sharpe on the EYBL team UPLAY, and went to prep school/played at Fort Erie with Leonard Miller. He would fly all over the US to play basketball.
In 2022 he scored 8 PTS in the All-Canadian BioSteel Basketball Game: how big a deal was it for him to make Canada’s version of the McDonalds All-American Game? It was huge. He went to prep school where they won the biggest basketball league in Canada and then got selected to the BioSteel Game. It was a big honor: those players/coaches still look after him because he is hooked into some very amazing people.
He began his college career at Buffalo: why did he decide to transfer in 2023, and what made him choose Dayton? He had a great year at Buffalo…but then they fired all the coaches. They told him that if the portal did not work out then they still wanted him back, so he figured he had nothing to lose by looking around. He had recruiting trips scheduled for several schools including Vanderbilt/Clemson/Dayton. After he went to Dayton, he called me right away and said he wanted to go there because it felt like a family.
Some of his 1st nicknames were “Puff” and “Bambi”, and now his teammates call him “Maniac”: who came up with any of these, and does he like any of them? His older brother gave him the name “Puff” from a cartoon, and his hockey teammates called him “Bambi” because of the way that he looked on skates while standing so tall. “Maniac” came from DaRon Holmes II after Isaac ordered a “Caniac Combo” at Raising Cane’s. He does not mind any of the nicknames because he does not get rattled by anything.
In the 2024 NCAA tourney the Flyers beat Nevada before losing to Arizona: what are your memories of that wild week? My husband went to the games while I was with a group of students at Portugal. It was unbelievable: all their games are nail-biters and they are hard on my heart. I was mad that I could not be there because the games were in my old stomping grounds of Utah.
Your son has only played 18 games this season but when he has been in the lineup the team has done well (beating St. Joe’s/UConn and losing by single-digits to Cincinnati/Iowa State/North Carolina): do you think he will play in the A-10 tourney, and how far do you think Dayton will go? I have no idea whether he will play: you never know. Same with Dayton: you never know. They play at VCU tonight and could win: they definitely have the potential. We went to Maui last November and it was unbelievable: I cannot wait to go back to Hawaii. They lost to UNC by 2 PTS but seeing the amount of Flyer fans who travel was incredible. They lost to Iowa State by 5 but we got to see Isaac’s former Buffalo teammate Curtis Jones, who is such a nice guy. Then we beat UConn, which was fantastic. We went to see the Flyers play in a tournament in Charleston the previous November and there were more fans from Dayton than anywhere else!
Posted inNews and Notes|TaggedAnna Jack, Dayton, Isaac Jack|Comments Off on All-Access at the A-10 Tournament in DC: HoopsHD interviews Dayton basketball mother Anna Jack about her son Isaac
– Two of four teams will be eliminated from the Survival Board by not qualifying for the MAC Tournament today. As we understand the tiebreakers, these are the paths into the MAC Tournament for two of Western Michigan, Bowling Green, Central Michigan and/or Ball State:
The winner of tonight’s Western Michigan at Bowling Green game is in.
If Central Michigan defeats Northern Illinois at home, they are in.
If CMU loses, then Ball State can get in if they win (at Miami-Ohio) and Western Michigan defeats Bowling Green.
Under any other scenario, the loser of Western Michigan at Bowling Green is in.
-Michigan State got a battle from Iowa but held on to win. UC San Diego sputtered in the second but held on to win against Long Beach. If they win their last regular season game I feel they should be locked into the field regardless. I hope the committee agrees!
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-DAYTON AT VCU (Atlantic 10). I have now come around to thinking that VCU will land inside the bubble, or at least on it, if they win this last game and then avoid an early loss in the A10 Tournament. Dayton has shown signs of life this year, but they’ve been disappointing throughout conference play. Still, they are potentially dangerous if they can start to click.
-BUFFALO AT AKRON (MAC). Akron can finish off conference play at an amazing 17-1, but even with that they will still need to win three more in the conference tournament to make it to the NCAAs.
-PURDUE AT ILLINOIS (Big Ten). Both are solid NCAA Tournament teams who are looking to improve both their profiles and their seeds. Purdue could still lock up a #1 seed and as rough as it has been for Illinois they can still put together a really good profile with a win tonight and a strong showing in the Big Ten Tournament.
-SOUTH FLORIDA AT MEMPHIS (American). Memphis is all but locked in to the top half of the bracket. We will see what kind of seed the committee gives them if they are able to win out through the AAC Tournament.
-UNLV AT NEW MEXICO (Mountain West). New Mexico needs to hold serve to stay inside the bubble, which they should be able to do. In fact if the win this game tonight, which they should, I think they are pretty much a lock.
-COLORADO STATE AT BOISE STATE (Mountain West). These are two of the better teams in the MWC right now, but neither one is safely in the field. In fact both still have work to do just to get there. Boise State is right on the bubble (again) and needs a win tonight. Colorado State probably can’t get in without the auto-bid, but right now they may be playing the best basketball out of anyone in the league and this would certainly be a big win for them tonight.
Conference Tournament action continues as Lipscomb and North Alabama have advanced to the ASun Championship game as the top two seeds. The Missouri Valley also got underway with its opening round today and some big quarterfinal games tomorrow. The Ohio Valley, Summit League, Horizon League, and Patriot League were also in action. We discuss all that, and more!
And, for all you radio lovers, below is an audio only version of the show…
In addition to the eliminations in conference tournaments today, there are several teams that could be eliminated from qualifying for their league tournaments, as follows:
– CAL POLY: Eliminated from qualifying for the Big West Tournament with a home loss to Cal State-Fullerton AND a Cal State-Bakersfield home win over Hawai’i.
– NIAGARA: Eliminated from qualifying for the MAAC Tournament with a loss at St. Peter’s or a Rider home win over Canisius.
– ST PETER’S: Eliminated from qualifying for the MAAC Tournament with a home loss to Niagara AND a Rider home win over Canisius AND a Fairfield win at Siena.
BLEACHER BROTHERS APPEARANCE!
Our expert “mixologist” Chad Sherwood made a guest appearance with AJ and Junior on the Bleacher Brothers Show last night, and had to answer why do we have a Puppet on our podcasts?!?
Check it out right here:
DAILY RUNDOWN:
Last night was a relatively busy night with teams in the SEC not only making claims for a #1 seed, but teams around the bubble began lobbying on the court (and not just in the postgame pressers) with much needed wins.
– We need to start with Florida; the Gators beat Alabama 99-94 on the road to complete a road sweep of both Alabama and Auburn. That is a massive double and there may now be a discussion of whether or not Florida can leapfrog Houston (and maybe Duke if they lose at UNC this Saturday) as a result.
– Ole Miss got a desperately-needed quality win with a 78-76 victory at home against Tennessee. That clinches at least a single bye in the SEC Tournament for the Rebels; if they can win at Florida in their regular season finale and get some help, they could also sneak into a double bye with a #4 seed!
– Oklahoma kept their NCAA Tournament hopes alive with a 12-point home win against Mizzou. The Sooners have a massive finale at Texas that they absolutely must win (also keep in mind that Texas could also finish a must-win week at 2-0). Mizzou’s profile has a yellow flag with only 3 wins away from Columbia.
– While Wisconsin won in Minnesota without much trouble, Maryland went on the road to Michigan and got a 71-65 victory that now puts the Terrapins in the discussion for a possible protected seed. The Wolverines’ ship is starting to take on water at the wrong time of the year.
– Clemson and Louisville both won to remain a game behind Duke in the ACC standings, but the Cards now have yet another injury issue as Reyne Smith left in the first half with a lower leg injury. Currently he’s day-to-day, but losing their best 3-point shooter is something Louisville can’t afford as they get set for the ACC Tournament next week.
– UConn completed a season sweep of Marquette with a 72-66 victory in the Basketball Capital. This steers the Huskies back into the top half of the bracket and now Marquette is headed into storm clouds to end their season. Particularly a Red Storm looming for them in the regular season finale.
– Xavier managed to withstand a hot-shooting Butler team from 3-point range and blew open what was a close game at halftime with a 19-4 run sandwiched around halftime en route to a 91-78 victory on the road. The Musketeers are now guaranteed a first-round bye in the Big East Tournament and are likely going to be paired against Marquette in their conference tournament opener.
– It was also a relatively quiet night in the Big 12 with Texas Tech getting a comfortable win at home against Colorado. Cincinnati was anything but comfortable going into last night and has now been swept by Kansas State after losing 54-49 at home. Wes Miller had a few choice words for himself and his team in the postgame presser.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
MICHIGAN STATE AT IOWA (B1G) – On paper, this game means a lot more to Iowa in that the Hawkeyes need to win this to get into a 6-way tie for 11th place in the conference. If they lose this game, they are going to need a lot of help over the weekend just to qualify. I’ll leave it to Chad Sherwood to confirm.
LIBERTY AT MIDDLE TENNESSEE (C-USA) – Tonight’s game will be on CBS Sports Network and the winner of this game joins Jacksonville State in a first-place tie atop the league standings. Liberty is getting a few mentions as a long shot at-large, but if they lose tonight those mentions will be relegated to DMs.
UC-IRVINE AT UC-DAVIS (Big West) – This is the first of two critical road games remaining for the Anteaters; a loss here pretty much finishes their at-large hopes and could all but sew up a #2 seed in the conference tournament.
LONG BEACH STATE AT UC-SAN DIEGO (Big West) – A win here and the Tritons will clinch a share of the Big West crown. They will also clinch the #1 seed by virtue of a split with UC-Irvine and a sweep of 3rd place Cal State-Northridge.
