Under The Radar Game of the Day: Saturday, December 26th

Posted on December 26, 2020 by John Stalica

For Jon Teitel’s interview with former Stony Brook coach Joe Castiglie – CLICK HERE

Robert Morris (1-2, 0-0) at Purdue-Fort Wayne (1-2, 0-2) – 7:00 PM EST (ESPN+)

We at Hoops HD would like to welcome you back from our holiday break with today’s UTR Game of the Day – the Robert Morris Colonials hit the road to take on the Mastodons of Purdue-Fort Wayne. RMU got off to a fairly late start and thus have only played two games against D-1 competition; both were losses at home against Bowling Green and on the road at Marshall. This will also be the Horizon League debut for Robert Morris. Through three games, AJ Bramah leads the Colonials with 18.7 points a game and 7.0 rebounds a game.

Purdue-Fort Wayne is the other newcomer to the Horizon League and has already gotten a pair of games under their belts. Unfortunately for the Mastodons, they were rusty after a COVID-19 induced layoff and lost a pair of games at home against Cleveland State. PFW opened their season with a 67-63 overtime win against Southeastern Louisiana and subsequently were forced to go 24 days between games as mentioned earlier. Jarred Godfrey (14.7 PPG) is one of five Mastodons to average in double figures for points.

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Christmas Memories: HoopsHD interviews former Stony Brook coach Joe Castiglie

Posted on December 25, 2020 by Jon Teitel

Most holiday basketball stories involve sugar-coated tales of a player overcoming an injury or a team winning a game via a miraculous comeback: this is the story of a coach who tried to help 1 of his players and ended up paying a heavy price. Stony Brook has been playing basketball for 60 years but did not begin to first taste success until Coach Joe Castiglie showed up in 1984. He won an average of 20 games/year during his 7 seasons in New York, including an ECAC title in 1990. 1 year he had a player who could not afford to go home for Christmas break so Castiglie loaned his player $118 in the form of a plane ticket to visit his family. After the NCAA found out it suspended the coach…FOR 3 YEARS!!! HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to talk to Coach Castiglie about his success on the sideline and the state of the sport.

You played for Coach Gus Alfieri at St. Anthony’s High School: how intense was Alfieri, and what was the most important thing you ever learned from him? He was and is a positive basketball force. He was coached by Joe Lapchick/Lou Carnesecca at St. John’s, and I was lucky that he passed along a good deal of his pedigree to me. He totally influenced me with his love of defense as the most important part of basketball. He wanted to shorten the game because we were so ferocious on defense: I preferred to play a transition game.

As a 5’8” PG you helped lead St. Anthony’s to a New York state title in 1974: did you consider your size to be an advantage or a disadvantage, and what did it mean to you to win the title? It is by far a disadvantage on the court, but it caused me to work exceptionally hard so I generated a work ethic that served me well in life. It was exciting to win the title because we had to beat some good teams along the way. I certainly learned the value of hard work and was a spark for every team I played on. I was a good shooter but there was no 3-PT line at that time.

In 1984 you were named part-time head coach of Stony Brook at age 26: why was it just a part-time job, and did you feel ready to lead your alma mater at such a young age? That was the nature of the position. Oddly enough I felt ready because I was very ambitious and had learned all of the fundamentals from Coach Alfieri. I got to work at summer camps with legends like Dean Smith/Rollie Massimino, which also taught me a lot. I set myself up to be a college basketball coach predicated on defense/hard work.

In 1990 your team went 24-5 and won the ECAC title: where does that team rank among the best you ever had, and how big a deal was it to win the title? It was a marvelous experience. I had an interesting combination of young/old players and we came together during a long journey. We made key plays at key times to win the title in OT, and cutting down the nets was great.

In 1991 you resigned after receiving a 3-year suspension for loaning guard Stan Martin $118 in the form of a plane ticket to visit his family in Buffalo over Christmas break and then allegedly lying about it to an NCAA investigator: what is your biggest regret about the situation, and do you think the penalty was unfair? The bottom line is that I made a $100 mistake but I do not think it was the violation that got me in trouble. I hate saying that I lied but that is the unethical conduct that the NCAA accused me of. They effectively ended my coaching career over what I think deserved a smaller penalty. I did not hire a lawyer: I just went in there and tried to tell the truth, but it backfired on me because I ended up proving the NCAA’s case for them. It taught me a great lesson as it cost me my dream, but quite frankly I influenced a great number of people during my second career as a teacher.

After getting out of basketball you became a chemistry teacher: how did you like teaching, and will you ever return to the college sideline? I absolutely loved being in the classroom because I loved interacting with the students. I was an assistant coach at CW Post but was exhausted by the end of the year due to the long commute. I would love nothing better than to get back into college basketball. I love the game so I am not coaching for fame/fortune. Hopefully someone someday will give me another chance to return to the coaching profession and in some small way again contribute to the discussion.

What do you think about the current state of college athletics, and do you think it has gotten better or worse over the past 2 decades? You might be surprised but I am disillusioned with college athletics. I loved being in the collegiate environment but I prefer watching NBA basketball due to the purity in that. I think that college athletics have become completely and utterly dominated by money, which is getting away from the core of the past. It creates a motivation for coaches to do things they might not ordinarily do. Back in the day people wanted to become famous but not a lot became rich. John Wooden did not become a millionaire by coaching at UCLA: he was a teacher first. Today’s coaches are salesmen, which is why they get hired. Today’s college athletes make sacrifices above and beyond their classmates, and even with a scholarship your time is consumed. When I was coaching at Stony Brook I was invited to attend many kinds of social functions with my wife. If I was not especially in the mood to interact and people asked what I did for a living, I would simply reply that I taught chemistry…and the universal response was to regard me with some sort of disdain/pity. However, if I wanted to hold court I would say that I was a college basketball head coach: this would make me the most popular person in the room! I always thought this spoke volumes as to the problems within our educational system, since I knew that my job as a teacher was much more important than my job as a coach. Coaches used to be regarded as teachers but this is no longer the case: until our society recognizes this as a priority the problems will continue to persist.

You remain the 2nd-winningest coach in school history (trailing only Steve Pikiell): what made you such a great coach? I was blessed with having hard-working young men who listened/executed. I am very good at motivating players but I wanted them to serve a higher cause. I taught them that excuses were weak: “There are 2 kinds of people in the world: those who get things done and those who do not.”

Your daughter Ali played lacrosse at Binghamton, where she was 1 of the best scorers on the team: how proud are you of her success, and does she credit at least some of her success to genetics? She was a 3-sport athlete in high school and worked very hard so I think that she would say yes. My younger son grew into quite a good athlete himself. My kids were surrounded by sports all of their lives so they certainly have an understanding of what it takes to succeed.

When people look back on your career, how do you want to be remembered the most? I hope that my career is not over yet! I was always concerned for my players: I wanted them to graduate and become good family men. My greatest success is how their lives turned out, which I am very grateful for.

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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Friday, Dec 25th and Saturday, Dec 26th

Posted on December 24, 2020 by David Griggs

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!  Here is your Holiday dose of hoops for tomorrow and the day after!!

NEWS AND NOTES

-Rutgers looked fantastic in the first half at Ohio State, but then totally fell apart in the second half.  It was their first win of the season, but they’re still in good shape.  It was also a nice win for Ohio State who picked up their first win against a ranked team this year.

-Xavier and Creighton gave us another Big East thriller between two ranked teams.  The lead seesawed back and forth and Xavier had a chance to tie the game on their final possession, but missed a 3pt shot and suffered their first loss of the season.  Creighton got another nice win for their resume as they picked up their first win against a currently ranked team.

-Providence had been looking good, and Butler had been struggling, but the Bulldogs flipped the script and picked up a bit of a surprising win against the Friars.

-Northwestern followed up their big win against Michigan State with another big win against Indiana.  The Wildcats, who weren’t expected to do anything this year, are suddenly looking like a top 25 team.

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES (Friday)

-WISCONSIN AT MICHIGAN STATE.  Both teams are high in the rankings, both are probable protected seeds, and both are in the hunt to win the Big Ten.  This game will impact all of that.  Michigan State is looking to bounce back from a somewhat surprising loss to Northwestern and avoid dropping to 0-2 in B1G play.

-MARYLAND AT PURDUE (Big Ten).  It is too early to definitively say this, but I get the sense that both of these teams are on the outside looking in and still have a lot of work to do.  A win today would be a nice start.

-MICHIGAN AT NEBRASKA (Big Ten).  Michigan is unbeaten and this is a winnable conference road game, so they should be able to stay that way.

-IOWA AT MINNESOTA (Big Ten).  I’m looking forward to this one.  Iowa is high in the rankings and Minnesota has an impressive 7-1 record and is coming off a nice win against Saint Louis.  It will be interesting to see what Minney can do against a top five team at home.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES (Saturday)

-KENTUCKY AT LOUISVILLE.  It’s one of the most bitter rivalries in all of college basketball.  Kentucky has a tendency to start off the season a little slow, and it’s usually in their game against Louisville that they seem to snap out of it and begin playing like a solid top ten team.  This year they’ve started off a lot slower than normal, but a big win in a rivalry game could help give their season the jumpstart it needs.  Louisville hasn’t won this game very often lately and is looking to snap that losing streak.  They’re also trying to improve to 6-1 on the year and add another notable win to their resume (although right now it’s not looking all that notable).

-HOUSTON AT UCF (American).  Houston is unbeaten on the season and has basically been dominating their opponents.  Not much was expected out of UCF, but they’ve won their last two games against Cincinnati and Florida State, so they should be coming into this one with quite a bit of confidence.

-OHIO STATE AT NORTHWESTERN (Big Ten).  This game is much more intriguing than it looked like it was going to be a week ago.  Northwestern has beaten Michigan State and Indiana in their last two games and is suddenly looking like a top 25 team.  This team came out of nowhere!  They just walked right out of Lake Michigan!  Ohio State is coming off a nice win against Rutgers, is in the rankings, and his having a nice season of their own.

-GONZAGA VS VIRGINIA (Fort Worth, TX).  Another heavyweight match-up for top ranked Gonzaga.  On the court it should be fun to watch Gonzaga’s outstanding offense go up against Virginia’s pack-line defense.  Virginia’s only loss was to San Francisco, but this would by far be their biggest win of the season up to this point, and perhaps their biggest win all year, if they’re able to pull it off.

-INDIANA AT ILLINOIS (Big Ten).  Indiana comes in to this with a modest 5-3 record and some good wins, but they still have a lot of room to improve.  Illinois is still high in the rankings, but they’ve also suffered three losses and are looking to hold serve and sustain the strength of their early season resume.

BUY GAMES (or games that might as well be, all on Saturday)

-Nicholls @ LSU
-Norfolk State @ George Mason

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Under the Radar: December 23rd

Posted on December 23, 2020 by David Griggs

A rare matinee today from Hoops HD!  Today we feature, for the first time ever, the mythical Front Range Conference!!  WE AT HOOPS HD LOVE THE FRONT RANGE!!  I don’t know why we did this because half the members are not UTR teams, but we did it anyway!!  (Note from Chad:  BECAUSE WE CAN!!!!!)

From there we run through the other 21 UTR leagues and talk about how Vermont struggled after finally getting on the floor, how good WKU continues to look, Akron’s big win over Ohio U in MAC play, some really good teams out of the MVC and SoCon such as Drake, Southern Illinois, Missouri State, Mercer, and Chattanooga, and how some other teams continue to struggle to find games.  And, as always, we close with this week’s UTR Top Ten.

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

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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Wednesday, Dec 23rd

Posted on December 23, 2020 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES

-Kansas pulled away from West Virginia late in the second half for one of the more impressive wins of the year.  Gonzaga pulled away from Kansas.  Gonzaga beat beat West Virginia, but did not pull away from them.  Kansas pulled away from West Virginia.  Yesterday’s win on the court was up there with the most impressive single game performances we’ve seen from any team this season.

-Missouri, on the other hand, played in a game against Bradley that made peoples’ eyes bleed.  The effort was there, but it was a poor shooting performance by both teams and just rather sloppy play.  the exciting ending made up for it as Missouri converted an and-1 in the final seconds to get the 54-53 win and remain unbeaten on the season.

-Richmond fell at home to Hofstra in a game that was a bit of a shock.  We like this Hofstra team by Colonial standards, but didn’t expect them to go on the road and beat a team like Richmond.  It remains to be seen just how damaging this loss will be for the Spiders.  They had what looked to be a big win at Kentucky to start things off, but that isn’t looking so big right now and their resume is starting to look a little flimsy.

-Texas Tech had to really sweat out Oklahoma, but held on for the win after Oklahoma had multiple chances to tie in in the final possession, and even got an offensive rebound after an intentionally missed basket, but couldn’t get the put back.

-NC State knocked off rival North Carolina to improve to 5-1, put a quality win on their resume, and earn some of bragging rights as well.  NC State actually had a much bigger lead in the game.  The Tarheels came back, but couldn’t quite get all the way back and fell 79-76.

-Ohio U was a team that we were really big on after the first few weeks, but they got absolutely smoked by Akron yesterday.  Akron is now 3-1 on the year and while they haven’t been on the court all that much, they definitely have our attention now.

-Colorado State handed Santa Clara their first loss of the year with an impressive (mostly) road win.  The Rams, along with Boise State and San Diego State, are a team to watch in the Mountain West.

-UCF followed up their big win against Florida State with a conference home win against Cincinnati last night.  They are now 3-1 on the year and while they haven’t played much, their resume is off to a good start.

-San Diego State blasted Saint Mary’s.  Whatever problems they had in their previous game against BYU had been worked out before last night’s game.

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-XAVIER AT CREIGHTON.  Xavier has looked really good this year and has played their way into the top 25.  They’ve been tested, but this will be their biggest test of the year up to this point.  Creighton is high in the rankings and has some pretty good wins on their resume, but given that Xavier is unbeaten and in the rankings this would arguably be their best win of the season so far as well.

-UCLA AT OREGON (Pac 12).  This is a big game for both teams who could really use a win like this on their resumes.  Oregon is 6-1 with their best win being against Seton Hall, and UCLA is 5-2 with their best win being against Marquette.  Both teams are decent, but both are also fighting for more respect.

-RUTGERS AT OHIO STATE (Big Ten).  Another top 25 match-up between two teams that could end up as protected seeds.  Rutgers struggled on the road last year, and while it isn’t quite the same this year with no fans, this would still be a big statement win for Rutgers that they can beat good teams on the road.

-GEORGETOWN AT SETON HALL (Big East).  Georgetown wasn’t expected to be all that strong this year, but they have shown signs of life.  Seton Hall has been a little slow out of the game and won’t want to drop what appears to be a winnable home conference game.

-PROVIDENCE AT BUTLER (Big East).  Providence has really been on a roll in the last couple weeks, whereas Butler continues to struggle.  They have just one win on the season and are in danger of having the hill they need to climb get steeper and steeper.

-VILLANOVA AT MARQUETTE.  Marquette is just 5-4 on the season, but two of their wins have come against highly ranked teams, so Nova can’t just come in as the road team and think this will be an easy win.

-NORTHWESTERN AT INDIANA (Big Ten).  We had written Northwestern off before the season even started, but with a 4-1 record and a win over Michigan State they certainly have our attention now.  If they can pull off a win against Indiana tonight (who has been up and down this year, but mostly good), then they will REALLY have our attention!

-NEW MEXICO AT BOISE STATE (Mountain West).  This is a very good Boise State team.  They won handily the other night and it wouldn’t shock me if they did the same tonight.

BUY GAMES (or games that might as well be)

-SC Upstate @ Tennessee
-Northwestern State @ Washington State
-Weber State @ BYU
-Kansas City @ Saint Louis
-Bethesda (nondiv1) @ Santa Clara
-Western Illinois @ DePaul

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Under The Radar Game of the Day – Tuesday, December 22nd

Posted on December 22, 2020 by John Stalica

For today’s News, Notes and Highlighted Games – CLICK HERE

For last night’s Hoops HD Report podcast – CLICK HERE

Mercer (6-1, 3-1 D1) at Kennesaw State (3-4, 0-4 D1) – 2:00 PM EST (ESPN+)

Today’s UTR matinee takes us to Kennesaw, Georgia for an interstate matchup between the Owls and the surprising Mercer Bears out of the SoCon. While Mercer’s record is a little padded with 3 non-D1 wins, they are a respectable 2-1 away from home with wins at Georgia Tech and Georgia Southern. Their last game was an 88-81 loss at Georgia State that resulted in a season split with the Panthers. The Bears have balanced scoring with five players in double figures; they are led by Ross Cummings (15.5 PPG).

Kennesaw is still searching for their first win against a Division I opponent; all four losses have come against D1 competition. While losses at UAB, Creighton and Belmont were forgivable, they did lose at home against a hot-and-cold Samford team in their last outing. Spencer Rodgers (16.0 PPG) and Chris Youngblood (14.9 PPG) alone account for almost half the point production for the Owls this season.

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