Conference tournaments are about basketball but also so much more: the fans, bands, cheerleaders, etc. The A-10 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 it going with a recap of the semifinal doubleheader on Saturday.
Yet another delicious pregame meal: chicken fajitas/rice/potatoes/salad/brownie!
Let’s tip it off:
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GAME #1: Davidson vs. St. Louis
There was plenty of red in the crowd: was it Davidson fans showing up on time, or Dayton/Richmond fans showing up early, or both?
The Wildcats made 8-13 shots from behind the arc in the 1st half while also outrebounding St. Louis 20-10 en route to building a 44-24 halftime lead. They had a very balanced scoring effort and they had it early, with 5 guys in double-figures with 15 minutes remaining in the game. Billiken big man Francis Okoro had a double-double in each of his 2 prior tourney games but did very little today for St. Louis with 3 PTS/0-5 FG/5 REB. In contrast, conference POY Luka Brajkovic did very little for the Wildcats on Friday afternoon but finished with a double-double on Saturday with 14 PTS/10 REB/5 AST. The X-factor was Grant Huffman, who scored a season-high 12 PTS with 2 STL/0 TO in 22 minutes off the bench (and did not miss a single shot!) as Davidson won 84-69. JR F Hyunjung Lee is from South Korea and some fans in the front row held up his native flag in his honor:
In the postgame press conference I asked Davidson G Foster Loyer about Huffman’s performance off the bench: he said that his teammate did a phenomenal job last month when Loyer was out due to injury and that he gives them energy/defensive intensity.
GAME #2: Dayton vs. Richmond
I do not know if mascots are supposed to frighten you…but when they have 6 arms it is a little creepy!
The Spiders made 11 threes on Friday night to beat VCU but came out as cold as the snowy weather outside today with 0-12 3PM through the 1st 26 minutes, which allowed the Flyers to take a 33-25 halftime lead. SO F Toumani Camara had a double-double in his Dayton debut last November and did it again tonight with 17 PTS/14 REB. His team led 57-53 with 5 minutes left, and entering this game they were 22-1 this season when leading with 5 minutes to go. Somehow, some way, Richmond used their veteran leadership to claw all the way back, take the lead, and pull off the 68-64 upset behind 18 PTS/9 REB from Grant Golden.
In the postgame press conference I asked Richmond coach Chris Mooney if Sunday could end up being the greatest afternoon of his life: his alma mater (Princeton) plays for an Ivy title at 12PM and his current team plays for an A-10 title at 1PM! He directed my attention to his 2 boys standing in the back of the room, who of course were born on 2 of the best days of his life. He confirmed that the Tigers have a great team and he will send them his best wishes from DC.
That is a wrap for Saturday, check back tomorrow for a recap of the Davidson-Richmond title game to see whether or not this is a 1-bid league.
The Hoops HD Selection Committee – Saturday, March 12th
Tonight was our third meeting with the Hoops HD Selection Committee – it was our longest night as we filled out the remaining at-large spots and contingency spots in our field.
We began by discussing in length each of the teams remaining Under Consideration – once we finished debate, we voted on six teams apiece (matching the spots open at the time of voting) to add to the three carryover teams (Rutgers, Texas A&M and Wyoming). The top three teams that were added were Xavier, Notre Dame and Michigan. After we ranked those teams 1 through 6, we added three teams to the field – Texas A&M, Rutgers and Michigan. This subsequently meant that a bid thief would no longer be possible in the SEC and opened up another at-large spot. Wyoming was also moved back to Under Consideration since they missed the cut on consecutive ballots.
We then repeated the process and chose 6 teams individually for the next round of balloting – the four teams selected to join Xavier and Notre Dame would be Virginia Tech (who had not won the ACC yet), Oklahoma, Wyoming and BYU. When we ranked these teams 1 through 6, Wyoming and Notre Dame finished in a tie for first. Our committee voted in Wyoming in the tiebreaking vote. This was important in that Notre Dame and Oklahoma (who finished 3rd) won the two contingency spots into the field. At the time, the First Four Out ended up being Xavier, BYU, Virginia Tech and SMU.
However, because of Virginia Tech’s ACC Championship run, we are now assured of at least one bid thief since Virginia Tech was not one of the teams we had voted in as an at-large and thus relegated Oklahoma to First Four out. This meant that our First Four Out ended up being Oklahoma, Xavier, BYU and SMU.
Our next order of business was to finish seeding the remainder of the field – we ended up seeding 71 teams in total to account for Richmond and both teams from the Big West and Ivy League who were still alive at the time the seed list was built.
Our final business for the evening was to begin scrubbing the Master Seed List – we made it through the top ten lines before finishing for the evening. When we meet tomorrow afternoon, we will finish the initial scrub and likely do one more scrub once results come in from the Ivy League, the SEC and especially the A-10 with a potential bid thief in Richmond still lurking. We will not need a contingency bracket once the A-10 game goes final. Be on rhe lookout tomorrow for our projected bracket – this will be separate from Jon Teitel’s final bracket projection where he attempts to guess the Selection Committee.