Last Sunday Chattanooga beat Wofford 63-53 in the SoCon tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to next week’s NCAA tournament. The Mocs were 10-9 in mid-January but have won 10 of their last 13 games to claim the school’s 1st NCAA tourney bid since 2017. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Chattanooga SR G Yazz Wazeerud-Din about winning the title game.
In 2020 you were named honorable mention NJCAA All-American at South Georgia Technical College: what did it mean to you to receive such an outstanding honor? I did not think I was going to receive that so it shocked me and felt good.
What is the biggest difference between JC and D-1? I do not think there is a big difference. There are more people involved in terms of fans/media and the speed of the game is also different.
As a player at Stetson in 2021 you led your team in scoring with 15.6 PPG and led your conference in steals with 2.4 SPG: how do you balance your offense with your defense? I let my defense get me going by trying to get some deflections and get into the passing lanes.
Why did you decide to transfer, and what made you choose Chattanooga? I wanted something different and when Chattanooga 1st contacted me they kept it real. The campus is nice and it is not too far from home.
You are majoring in Business Administration: what is the post-graduation plan? I am still trying to figure that out! I plan to go overseas for a bit and then go into real estate.
You play for Coach Shawn Poppie: what makes him such a good coach, and what is the most important thing that you have learned from him so far? He is a good person who is fun to be around. I have learned a lot but what stuck out to me this year was his emphasis on believing in yourself because positive outcomes will come out of that.
Last Sunday in the SoCon tourney title game you scored 16 PTS in an 8-PT win over Wofford: what did it mean to you to win a title, and what was the feeling like in your locker room afterward? It felt great! I have won 2 titles before but it was a different feeling on Sunday due to everything that we have went through this year. There were a lot of good vibes in the locker room.
You are 1 of 4 seniors on the roster: how crucial has all of that experience been to your team’s success? Sometimes I forget that I am a senior: I try not to think about it a lot but it is crucial.
You played several great teams in non-conference play including Alabama/Belmont/Tennessee: which of them impressed you the most? I would say Alabama because they had a big win at Mercer right before they played us, and the Bears were supposed to be 1 of the toughest teams in our conference. We could have beaten the Tide but we learned from it.
What kind of seed do you think you deserve, and what kind of seed do you think you will get? I think a 14 seed would be good but we are just ready to go out/have fun/compete.
The Hoops HD Selection Committee – Thursday Night Update
Tonight was the first night of our Hoops HD Selection Committee meetings; this is when we begin selecting in earnest teams that we feel should belong in the NCAA Tournament field. But our first order of business was selecting our annual Centenary and Stallings Award winners (CLICK HERE for the story on the awards); the Centenary Award went to the Long Island University Sharks and the Stallings Award went to the Louisville Cardinals. They will remain on our selection board for the duration of our committee meetings. We also made a motion to remove the 14 regular-season champions off the Under Consideration board (at least the teams that did not receive at-large consideration otherwise).
Once that was done, we began debate on teams that we feel should have been included in the field. Each member submitted a list of their Top 8 teams to our chairman Chad Sherwood; after tabulating the results we ended up with 4 teams plus a 5-way tie for 5th place, so we ended up ranking the following 9 teams on the next vote: Memphis, West Virginia, Arkansas, Florida Atlantic, Auburn, USC, Boise State, Pittsburgh and Maryland. After ranking these 9 teams, we added Florida Atlantic, West Virginia, Arkansas and Maryland to our field. The four teams that were carryovers to the next round of voting were Memphis, Pittsburgh, Auburn, and USC; Boise State was returned to the Under Consideration board since they were ranked 9th in the voting.
We then debated for a second round and again submitted lists of 8 teams apiece to Chad; tiebreakers AGAIN dictated that we had to rank a group of 9 teams instead of the usual 8. This was because there were 5 teams (NC State, Penn State, Rutgers, Providence, Mississippi State) that received unanimous selection along with the previous 4 carryovers. In this round of voting where the teams were ranked 1-9, we added Memphis, Auburn, Pittsburgh and USC to the field. Providence, Mississippi State, Rutgers and NC State will carryover to the next round of selection; Penn State returned to the Under Consideration board since they were not in the top 4 teams of carryovers.
With the results of tonight’s games, we are assured of two more at-large spots opening up since bid thieves are no longer possible in the Big 12 and Big East conferences. Spots could potentially open up tomorrow night for the Big Ten, ACC, SEC and Pac-12 as long as potential bid thieves like Ohio State and Vanderbilt fail to advance any further.
Therefore, this is our selection board after tonight’s games:
When we meet tomorrow night, we will begin ranking the top 8 seed lines in the field; we will also fill up any further vacancies in the at-large field and potentially scrub off more teams from the Under Consideration board. (We also scrubbed off Villanova after their loss against Creighton; they will not appear in tomorrow night’s update)