Champions Week: HoopsHD interviews 1986 NCAA women’s champ Jody Conradt

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Jon Teitel

In any other year early-April would be a time for reflecting on the Elite 8 and looking forward to the Final 4, but this year is not like any other year. Instead, we will spend the week reflecting on champions of the past, from a famous coach who won the 1947 NCAA title as a player to a Hall of Famer who led her team to a perfect 34-0 season in 1986. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel concludes our 8-part series with Jody Conradt, who talked about winning the NCAA women’s tourney in 1986 and going undefeated in conference play for more than a decade.

You averaged 20 PPG as a player at Baylor: how good a player were you back in the day? The older I get the better I was! The game has changed quite a bit since I played: I grew up playing 3-on-3 because that is what the rules were in Texas. It was wonderful to stay involved with the game as it has grown.

Your mother Ann played softball and your father Charles played semi-pro baseball: who is the best athlete in the family? I would have to say that my mom might have been the best. She took up golf well after my dad did and she was good at that too. She was always very competitive while fending for herself in a family of several boys. It helps to have parents who are into sports when you grow up in a town of 1500 people.

When you were hired to be head coach at Texas in 1976 you introduced tactics such as full-court pressure, double low-posts, and a transition game: why did you take the job, and how did you develop your own coaching style? I never thought that I would coach: I wanted to be a teacher and when I had a chance to teach sports that was just a plus. It was a unique opportunity because the men’s and women’s sports at Texas had different departments. I felt that it was a sleeping giant because the women were capable of doing what the men did. Most of my role models were men because all of the games I watched on TV at the time featured male coaches. I learned a lot of things from my own coach in school growing up. We had a lot of quickness on our team so pressing was important, and we wanted to play a style that people could appreciate like pushing the ball up the court and turning defense into offense.

In the 1982 AIAW tourney title game Patty Coyle scored a career-high 30 PTS in a 6-PT win by Rutgers to snap your 32-game winning streak: how close did you come to winning the last-ever AIAW tourney game? We came pretty close but Rutgers had a veteran team that was very good. It was a totally new experience for us to travel and play on the big stage, and we relied heavily on the 30 PTS of freshman Annette Smith. I consider Annette to be the cornerstone of what we built: she was our 1st superstar and we just grew from that point.

In the 1985 NCAA tourney Lillie Mason made a bank shot at the buzzer in a 2-PT win by Western Kentucky: where does that rank among the most devastating losses of your career? It was absolutely devastating for a lot of reasons. We were ranked #1 and the Final 4 was going to be in Austin so we had sold thousands of tickets to people who thought we were going to be playing at home. It was tough to see someone else playing on our court and cutting down the nets but it gave us motivation for the following season because we only lost 1 senior so most of the team was coming back.

In the 1986 NCAA tourney title game, tourney MOP Clarissa Davis scored 25 PTS off the bench and your team set a title-game record with 97 PTS in a win over USC to become the 1st undefeated team in women’s history: how on earth did you destroy a team featuring Cheryl Miller/Cynthia Cooper, and what did it mean to you to win a title? We just steamrolled people all year long. I had a rotation of 11 players who could have started for anyone in the country: I still say that our best competition that year was during practice. It was the easiest coaching job I ever had because they were all grumpy from losing the previous year. Everyone wants to win a national championship and at the time you think it is the best thing that has ever happened. I always think about how great it was, but I also know how hard it was.

From January 1978 to January 1990 you won 183 straight conference games: how were you able to dominate the league for more than a decade? Really good players who were competitive/motivated. It is a lot harder to win every game you are supposed to win than the 2-3 games you are not supposed to win. I remember so many close games that we won: after those games there was more relief than jubilation.

You were a 6-time national COY and your 900 wins remains in the top-10 all-time: what made you such a great coach? It is redundant but really good players! Texas is a world-class institution with a great history of success in sports and that played into me being in the right place at the right time. You cannot build everything that we have built without a grand plan.

You graduated 99% of your players during your career: how much importance did you place on academics? Texas is a really competitive institution: we have more than 36,000 applicants for 6,000 spots so it is a challenge to recruit talented athletes who can also be competitive in the classroom. Back in the day the focus of every female athlete was to get a degree because there were not many opportunities to become a professional athlete, which made them focus on their studies.

In 1998 you were inducted into the Hall of Fame: where does that rank among the highlights of your career? I am the answer to the trivia question of who went into the Hall of Fame with Larry Bird! It is still unreal to me to be included with the greats of the sport and it was a tremendous individual honor.

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The Tournament That Wasn’t – East Regional Semifinals and Final

Posted on April 5, 2020 by Chad

HoopsHD continues its simulation of what would have happened in TTTW (The Tournament That Wasn’t).  Up next it is time to award the fourth and final spot in the Final Four with the East Regional Semifinals and Finals.  The 1-seed Dayton Flyers were trying to become the third top-seed to advance to the Final Four.  However, they first had to get past the Cinderella Yale Bulldogs.  Another Cinderella team was trying to make a run in the bottom half of the bracket, as Mick Cronin’s UCLA Bruins were looking to knock Seton Hall out of the Tournament.  It is time to find out what happened and who joins Kansas, Baylor and Oregon in the Final Four!

 

REGIONAL SEMIFINALS – EAST REGION – NEW YORK CITY

(1) Dayton vs (12) Yale

Madison Square Garden in New York City was the site for the East Regional in this year’s NCAA Tournament, and it gave us a pair of matchups between teams that had been strong Final Four contenders all season and teams that were clearly Cinderellas.  In the first game of the evening, the top-seeded Dayton Flyers were in action.  Dayton had gotten past a tough Siena team in the first round and then had taken care of USC fairly easily to punch their ticket to the Sweet 16.  The Flyers now had their eyes set on the Final Four in Atlanta, but first had to get past a Cinderella Yale team.  Yale had been a huge surprise in the first two rounds, upending both Butler and Maryland by double-digits.  The Bulldogs had only one NCAA Tournament win all-time prior to this season, so they were already in unchartered territory heading into this game.

The first half was back-and-forth early, with the gritty Bulldogs refusing to allow Dayton to pull away from them.  The Flyers did maintain a small edge the entire way, and a Rodney Chatman 3-pointer with only 1 second left to play suddenly pulled Dayton in front by its biggest margin so far, 42-33.  With the lead up at 9 at the half, it looked like Dayton was ready to take control of the game and run away in the second.  However, with Dayton up by 10 early in the second, Yale put together a very fast 8-0 run, highlighted by 3-pointers from Paul Atkinson and Jalen Gabbidon, to cut the lead down to two points just 6 minutes in.  Yale responded to every Dayton push the rest of the way, as the Flyers kept trying to build a lead and the Bulldogs kept answering back and staying tight.  August Mahoney’s 3-pointer with 1:39 left to play cut the lead to one and, after Chatman was called for an offensive foul, the Bulldogs got the ball back.  Atkinson promptly took the ball and slammed it home on a great pass from Eric Monroe with 56 seconds left to give Yale its first lead since early in the game.  The Flyers would get several chances in the final minute to tie or take the lead, but a short miss by Obi Toppin had them still down a point with 3 seconds left, and Yale heading to the line for a one-and-one.  Azar Swain missed the front end and the Flyers quickly moved the ball to half-court and called timeout, setting up one final play with 2 seconds on the clock to try to win.  The ball was inbounded to Crutcher who got a good look – but the ball bounced off the rim, fell to the floor, and another major upset was in the books.  The Yale Bulldogs, behind 19 points from Paul Atkinson, had slain another giant and were moving on to the Elite Eight!

Final Score: (12) Yale 70, (1) Dayton 69

 

(3) Seton Hall vs (10) UCLA

Another Cinderella, albeit one from a power conference, was playing in the second regional semifinal of the night.  The UCLA Bruins, a team that had been pretty much given up for dead in December and January, had put together an amazing second half to their season, finding a way to finish in second place in the Pac-12 and win the Pac-12 Tournament.  Head coach Mick Cronin, who had often been criticized for his inability to get his Cincinnati teams past the first weekend of March Madness, suddenly had his new team playing in the Sweet 16 after upending Florida and squeezing past a tough Winthrop team that had knocked out Florida State in the first round.  UCLA would certainly have their hands full in New York City, however, as their opponent was the Seton Hall Pirates.  Seton Hall, although landing on the 3-seed line while conference-mates Villanova and Creighton had both been 2-seeds, had certainly looked like the best team in the Big East for a good portion of the season.  The Pirates could prove that in the East Regional if they could become the Big East’s representative in the Final Four in Atlanta by defeating a pair of Cinderellas – first UCLA and then Yale.

The UCLA Bruins had missed the NCAA Tournament each of the last two seasons before this one, but they seemed determined to make up for that, especially when they jumped out to an early 12-4 lead that they held and extended throughout the first half.  Seton Hall seemed unable to stop the Bruins, and by the break the lead was up to 15 at 41-26.  UCLA may have won the first half easily, but Myles Powell and company were far from done.  The Hall came out looking like a completely different team in the second, and by the under-12 media timeout the game was tied at 49.  The Pirates did not stop there either.  They continued to dominate the balance of the game, leaving Mick Cronin’s team looking like they had no idea what hit them.  Seton Hall cruised home for an 84-74 win led by 27 point from Powell.  With one double-digit seed defeated in the East Regional, Seton Hall now had to get ready for another – a battle against the Yale Bulldogs for a spot in the Final Four.

Final Score: (3) Seton Hall 84, (10) UCLA 74

 

REGIONAL FINAL – EAST REGION – NEW YORK CITY

(3) Seton Hall vs (12) Yale

Seton Hall had been a popular pick to win the East Region and advance to the Final Four, so seeing them in the Regional Final was certainly no surprise to most.  The same could certainly not be said of their opponent.  The Yale Bulldogs, a team that had a solid season in the Ivy League, had already pulled off three major upsets, eliminating Butler, Maryland and top-seed Dayton.  Head coach James Jones’ squad was clearly playing over their heads, evoking memories of recent mid-major runs to the Final Four like the one we had seen just two years ago from Loyola-Chicago.  Five double-digit seeds had advanced to the Final Four in NCAA Tournament history, though four of them (including Loyola) had been 11-seeds and the fifth had been a 10.  The 12-seed Bulldogs were therefore on the verge of truly making history.  However, one of the top teams in the nation, the Seton Hall Pirates, clearly stood in their way.

The easy pick in this game would be to predict a Seton Hall blowout victory.  Yale had made an amazing run, but this was surely where it would end.   However, the Bulldogs hung tight throughout the first half.  When an Azar Swain 3-pointer tied it up with just under 3 to go until the break, Pirates’ fans began to sweat.  When three more points, these from Paul Atkinson, put Yale up 46-43 at the break, alarm bells were going off throughout the State of New Jersey.  However Seton Hall had been down big at halftime against UCLA and dominated the second half to win.  A performance anything like that one would certainly end the Cinderella run and send Seton hall to Atlanta.

The second half, in a manner similar to the second half of UCLA vs Seton Hall, was not nearly as close as the first had been.  Although the teams played tight for the first five minutes, a 14-1 run midway through the period turned a 1-point Seton Hall edge into . . . a 71-59 Yale lead!  The Bulldogs were simply unstoppable in the second half, led by 24 points from Swain and 15 from Atkinson.  Never before had a 12-seed made the Final Four.  Never before . . . until now.  History was made in the 2019-20 season, and the Ivy League champion Yale Bulldogs could now add an NCAA East Regional title to their list of accomplishments.  It was time for the 2018 Loyola-Chicago Ramblers to step aside.  Something even more remarkable had just happened.  Yale was headed to the Final Four!

Final Score: (12) Yale 85, (3) Seton Hall 75

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Champions Week: HoopsHD interviews 1982 NCAA champ Buzz Peterson

Posted on April 5, 2020 by Jon Teitel

In any other year early-April would be a time for reflecting on the Elite 8 and looking forward to the Final 4, but this year is not like any other year. Instead, we will spend the week reflecting on champions of the past, from a famous coach who won the 1947 NCAA title as a player to a Hall of Famer who led her team to a perfect 34-0 season in 1986. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our 8-part series with Buzz Peterson, who talked about winning the NCAA tourney as a player in 1982 and the NIT as a coach in 2001.

In the 1981 McDonald’s All-American game Michael Jordan had 6 STL and set a game-record 30 PTS (including 2 FT with 11 seconds left) in the East’s 1-PT win over the West: how on earth were you named 1981 North Carolina high school POY over Jordan (who averaged a triple-double for Laney High School in Wilmington: 29.2 PPG/11.6 RPG/10.1 APG)!? Michael always says that the only reason I won the award is because there were 7 major newspapers in North Carolina and my dad owned 6 of them…but there is no truth to that at all! I always ride him and let him know that he was not Player of the Year. I do not know how I won it: neither of our teams won the championship that year. That is really my only claim to fame over him.

Jordan became your roommate at UNC and was later the best man at your wedding: what was he like as a roommate, and what do you remember about your bachelor party? When we went to school he was just another freshman coming in and nobody knew how good he was going to be. He was driven, a hard worker, and a very determined person so he became better and better every year. Once Coach Dean Smith worked on his defense he became a much better ballplayer. He had the size, the length, and all the skills to become a very good player. MJ was in my wedding along with Davis Love III and Brad Daugherty: we had a good time and played a lot of golf with Davis that week.

You won 4 ACC regular season titles while playing for Coach Smith at UNC: what made him such a great coach, and what the most important thing you ever learned from him? Coach kept everything pretty simple: there was not a lot of complicated stuff but he really taught discipline both on and off the floor. Whether you were the 1st man or 16th man no one was treated differently. He always corrected the little stuff and paid attention to detail.

In the magical 1982 NCAA tourney title game Jordan scored 16 PTS including a jumper with 17 seconds left in a 1-PT win over Georgetown: why did Smith trust a freshman to take the final shot, and was everyone just stunned after Fred Brown accidentally passed the ball right to tourney MOP James Worthy at the end of the game? What is interesting is that Georgetown coach John Thompson had been 1 of Coach Smith’s assistants at the 1976 Olympics. They were very close friends and he knew what we were going to run in our zone offense. He knew that Sam Perkins or James Worthy was going to the elbow block so he was not going to let either of them take the shot. We made a skip pass to Michael and I was actually surprised that he took the shot, but that is just how he is. He was determined to hit the winning basket and he knocked it down. I think everyone was stunned with Fred Brown’s pass. After James missed his FTs there was kind of a scramble: James was way behind the play and Fred just threw it back to him before he realized that it was a guy in a different-colored jersey.

In Jordan’s final home game in 1984, Matt Doherty took an inbounds pass the length of the court and hit a 15-footer with 1 second left in regulation en route to clinch a 2-OT win over Duke (as the Tar Heels became the 1st ACC team in a decade to go undefeated in conference play): how do you explain the intensity of the Duke-UNC rivalry as someone who has seen it up close and personal? It is a fun game. It was not as intense during my 1st year because Virginia was our rival and they had Ralph Sampson, but toward the end of my career it became Duke. I have always felt like the fans were involved in it more than anything else and they made it a bigger thing than it was. We played a lot of pickup ball with each other and knew each other well. It is quite a game now: Coach K made Duke better and better and it has become pretty intense.

You were named SoCon COY twice in a 3-year span at Appalachian State: what did it mean to you to win such outstanding honors? We just had good players and good assistant coaches who recruited great players for us. They did a great job and we were very fortunate to win the league. We were so close in the final year: it was tough to get by Davidson/Charleston.

What are your memories of the 2001 WAC tourney title game in your 1st/only year as coach at Tulsa (freshman Carl English scored 25 PTS including a leaner with 1.8 seconds left in regulation in a 6-PT OT win by Hawaii)? That was a gut-wrenching loss. You have some tough losses in your career and that was one of them. I thought that we were going to the NCAA tourney and we were right there but they hit a shot at the buzzer. It was so close: Hawaii was playing really good basketball at that time.

Take me through the magical 2001 NIT:
Kevin Johnson had 22 PTS/10 REB in a 3-PT OT win over Minnesota: how were you able to keep your team focused after blowing an 18-PT lead in the 2nd half? We were up and playing pretty well but we knew they would make a run. Kevin was a heck of a ballplayer. That group was tough-minded and were not going to go down easy. It was an interesting run that year. We changed the offense a little bit: Coach Smith helped us do some different things and then we tweaked it. After we beat UC-Irvine at home I remember Coach Smith telling me that in order to beat teams from better conferences we would have to play a different type of basketball so we changed our offense altogether. Our kids were determined/hard-nosed and we shot the ball pretty well.

Greg Harrington scored 14 PTS and made a basket with 2.6 seconds left in a 2-PT win over Mississippi State: did you think that Derrick Zimmerman’s 3-PT shot at the buzzer counted, and what was the reaction like in your locker room after a video review showed that the basket did not count? I knew that he was out-of-bounds because I saw it happen right in front of our bench. I remember referee Larry Rose called it. The call on him stepping on the line was big: there was a delayed response but we were very excited. A lot of those young men had never been to New York. It all happened so fast: I had to go up a couple days later and then the team came up after that.

NIT MVP Marcus Hill scored 24 PTS to beat Alabama and win the title: what did it mean to you to win the title, and how were you able to hold the Tide’s leading scorer Rod Grizzard scoreless for most of the game? Our kids played hard-nosed defense and would grind it out most of the time. Marcus had a great game. We had different players stepping up on different nights: they were just a determined team.

In 2007 you became Director of Player Personnel for the Charlotte Bobcats: why did you take the job, and how did you like working for Jordan? Michael and I had talked about it before: he said he was going to buy the team and wanted me to think about taking the job. I had coached all of my life and was intrigued by it. I enjoyed it, but after coaching college kids for so long and having the academic side and influencing the lives of young men I just missed being around a team. It was a great experience being in an NBA front office. I enjoyed being around Michael and it was like we were back in college as roommates. It was pretty neat working hand-in-hand/side-by-side with other people in the organization.

In 2010 you were hired as coach at UNC Wilmington after having winning records at each of the 4 previous schools where you were a head coach: how did you like the job? I enjoyed my time in Wilmington: I just wish there were more wins. We had some APR issues and lost some scholarships when I 1st took over so it was a little bit of a struggle but I feel like the program is headed in the right direction. I was very encouraged by our younger kids and was glad to be there: they just need to keep grinding it out.

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The Tournament That Wasn’t – West Regional Semifinals and Final

Posted on April 5, 2020 by Chad

HoopsHD continues its simulation of what would have happened in TTTW (The Tournament That Wasn’t).  Up next it is time to award the third spot in the Final Four with the West Regional Semifinals and Finals.  Top-seed Gonzaga enters play in Los Angeles looking to make #1 seeds 3-for-3 in the Regions, but first they must get past Oregon in the semifinal before having a shot in the final.  The other semifinal features 11-seed East Tennessee State, the team that eliminated both Virginia and Duke, going up against a San Diego State team that could have been a 1-seed had a few balls bounced in other directions this season.  Its is time to find out who is headed to Atlanta!

 

REGIONAL SEMIFINALS – WEST REGION – LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

(1) Gonzaga vs (4) Oregon

Despite more than a handful of early round upsets, the South and Midwest Regions had both seen their 1-seeds advance to the Final Four already.  The West Region is up next, and the Gonzaga Bulldogs were looking to make top-seeds three-for-three.  Before the Zags could get a shot at the Final Four in the Regional Final, they had to first get past the top team this season in the Pac-12, the Oregon Ducks.  Oregon had taken care of Bradley easily in the first round before surviving a tough test from BYU in the second.  The Zags, on the other hand, had not struggled too much in eliminating both Boston University and LSU.  This matchup, between two of the best programs in the Pacific Northwest, had a chance to be one of the best games of the Tournament so far.  This was, after all, a rematch of a great regular season game played in the Battle for Atlantis back in November, won by Gonzaga 73-72 in overtime.

The Zags knew that Oregon was going to be one of the toughest foes they had faced all season, and that proved to be true when a late first half 13-4 run by the Ducks allowed them to pull out to a 48-39 halftime advantage.  The Zags were far from done, however, and stormed back early in the second half to eventually tie the game at 60 with just under 11 minutes left to play.  Neither team was able to make any serious push from there on out, and the game was still tied, now at 82 apiece, following a Chandler Lawson free throw from the Ducks with just 56 seconds left to play.  After Oregon held defensively, Payton Pritchard came through for Dana Altman’s team on a short jumper to put the Ducks up by 2 with only 20 seconds left.  Filip Petrusev had a chance for the Bulldogs but his fadeaway jumper missed with 12 seconds on the cock and the Zags had to foul.  Oregon was able to go 4-for-4 on free throws in the final seconds and with that, the first 1-seed had fallen, and the Oregon Ducks, thanks to 22 points from Pritchard and a double-double from Shakur Juiston, were moving on to the Elite Eight.

Final Score: (4) Oregon 88, (1) Gonzaga 82

 

(2) San Diego State vs (11) East Tennessee State

The San Diego State Aztecs entered the West Regional semifinal with an overall record of 32-2 and eyeing a chance to go to the Elite Eight (and beyond that the Final Four) for the first time in school history.  After surviving a tough battle from Providence in the second round, the Aztecs now had to match up against an 11-seed – but an 11-seed that had already knocked off two perennial powerhouses.  East Tennessee State had started its shocking tournament run by ending defending-national champion Virginia’s season, and then promptly followed that up by knocking out the mighty Duke Blue Devils.  Despite this being a 2 vs 11 matchup, it was by no means a given that SDSU would be able to easily advance.

The Buccaneers of ETSU had already proven they had the talent to win in the Big Dance, so it was no surprise at all that they hung tough with the Aztecs throughout the first half.  In fact, neither team was able to open a lead of more than 4 points and the Aztecs went to the beak with a narrow 25-23 edge.  The second half was just as tight, and with 5 minutes left to play it was still just a 2-point game, with San Diego State up 52-50.  Tray Boyd came off the bench to nail a 3-pointer for the Bucs, who then watched Malachi Flynn go down the court and hit one of his own to keep SDSU up 55-53.  Boyd promptly struck again from long range just 7 seconds later, only to see Flynn respond with a shot from just inside the arc to give the Aztecs a 57-56 edge.  A pair of defensive stops helped San Diego State extend to lead to 5, but Boyd promptly came down and hit his third late clutch 3 to cut the lead back to 64-62 with 21 seconds left to play.  After Kesha Johnson made only one of two free throws for the Aztecs, the Bucs had a chance to tie, and of course fed the ball to the red-hot Boyd.  This time he missed, San Diego State secured the rebound, made one more free throw, and escaped with a thrilling 66-62 win.  Malachi Flynn led his team in scoring with 20 points, and the Aztecs were on to the Elite Eight and a date with the Oregon Ducks.

Final Score: (2) San Diego State 66, (11) East Tennessee State 62

 

REGIONAL FINAL – WEST REGION – LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

(2) San Diego State vs (4) Oregon

The stage was set in Los Angeles for the West Regional Final between the 2-seed San Diego State Aztecs and the 4-seed Oregon Ducks.  Both teams had fought hard to reach this point, pulling out tough nail-biters in their second round and regional semifinal games.  For one of these two teams, a trip to the Final Four and a national semifinal game against the Baylor Bears was waiting.  For the other, nothing would be left except for a trip back home and an offseason to ponder what could have been.

San Diego State was playing in its first-ever Elite Eight game with a shot at a first-ever trip to the Final Four.  The Aztecs came out showing that they wanted to make that trip to Atlanta, fighting off the Ducks throughout the first half and eventually building a 56-48 halftime lead.  Despite extending the lead to as many as 10 early in the second, Oregon had a ton of fight left in them.  The Ducks were able to tie the game at 73 with just over 9 minutes left to play and took an 84-82 advantage into the final minute.  That was when Oregon really clamped down defensively, and after each strong stop made their free throws.  When the dust settled, Oregon had won 91-84 and punched their ticket to the Final Four in Atlanta.  Payton Pritchard had another dominant game for his team, scoring 28 points in the victory.

Final Score: (4) Oregon 91, (2) San Diego State 84

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The Tournament That Wasn’t – Midwest Regional Semifinals and Finals

Posted on April 4, 2020 by Chad

HoopsHD continues its simulation of what would have happened in TTTW (The Tournament That Wasn’t).  Up next it is time to award the second spot in the Final Four with the Midwest Regional Semifinals and Finals.  The Midwest was the only region to see each of the top four teams advance to the Sweet 16, giving us a pair of very intriguing regional semifinal matchups.  First up, top-seed Baylor battles the only remaining ACC team, Louisville.  After that, Creighton takes on Michigan State.  The winners will meet for a chance to join Kansas in the Final Four in Atlanta.  Which of these four teams will survive?  It is time to find out!

 

REGIONAL SEMIFINALS – MIDWEST REGION – INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

(1) Baylor vs (4) Louisville

Despite quite a few upsets in the other regions, the Midwest Region had seen form hold after the first two rounds and the top four teams had advanced to the Sweet 16.  The Regional semifinals in Indianapolis would begin with a matchup between top-seed Baylor and the lone ACC team to make it past the first weekend, the Louisville Cardinals.  Despite being a 4-seed, Louisville had been one of the hot preseason picks to win the national championship, so the Bears certainly knew they would have their work cut out for them in this round.

Baylor knew this game would be a tough one, and a tough thriller is exactly what the fans in Indy got.  The first half saw several swings back and forth, and each team building a lead of 6 points during it only to see their opponent fight right back in.  The shot of the half came at the buzzer when Louisville’s Jordan Nwora just barely got the ball away from beyond the arc as time expired to make the score 38-35 Baylor at the break.  Baylor came out strong early in the second and built a lead of as much as 13 points, 53-40, only to see the Cardinals fight back again.  A pair of Samuell Williamson free throws with three minutes left to play put the Cardinals back in front by a score of 79-78.  Both teams spent the last three minutes exchanging punches back and forth, with the lead changing multiple times.  Darius Perry sunk a jumped for Louisville with 1:15 left to play to give the Cards an 85-82 edge.   MaCio Teague promptly answered with a shot from long distance to tie the game with 53 seconds left.  Lamarr Kimble was fouled on the next Louisville possession but only made 1 of 2 free throws to put his team up by a single point.  It was now Baylor’s turn, and Teague got himself open from just outside the paint with 22 seconds left to give Baylor an 87-86 advantage.  The Cardinals were able to get Jordan Nwora open from 3 with 8 seconds left, but his shot missed – and the offensive rebound landed in the hands of teammate Dwayne Sutton.  Sutton got the final shot of the game off at the buzzer, but it clanked off the rim as well and the Baylor Bears had survived and advanced to the Elite Eight behind 22 points from MaCio Teague and a double-double from Freddie Gillespie.

Final Score: (1) Baylor 87, (4) Louisville 86

 

(2) Creighton vs (3) Michigan State

The Big Ten had an amazing season in 2019-20, with ten teams having qualified for the Big Dance and as many as 12 teams having been in the hunt for a bid up until the last few weeks of the season.  Therefore, when only two Big Ten teams made the Sweet 16, and Illinois having already fallen in their Regional Semifinal, it was a shock to see only one team from the conference left in action.  That one team, however, was the preseason #1 team in the nation Michigan State Spartans, a team that had been playing as well as almost anyone in the nation in the final weeks leading up to Selection Sunday.  Michigan State was technically the lower-seeded team, however, in their matchup with Big East co-regular season and tournament champion Creighton.  The Bluejays were in their first ever Sweet 16 since the field expanded to at least 64 teams, but head coach Greg McDermott’s squad was not satisfied with just making it this far.

After the first game in Indianapolis having been such a thriller, it would be more likely that the second game of the evening would be a lot less exciting.  That simply, much to the thrill of the fans in attendance, was not the case.  The two teams played tight the entire first half with Creighton owning the largest lead at 7 before the Spartans came back to take the lead at 41-38.  The Bluejays owned the final minute of the half, however, scoring 7 answered points to take a 45-41 halftime lead.  Michigan State came back out strong in the second period and neither team was able to build a lead of more than 5 the rest of the way.  With Creighton up 4 following a pair of Mitch Ballock free throws, Cassius Winston came down the court and nailed a jumper with 22 seconds to play to cut the lead to 97-95 in favor of the Bluejays.  The Spartans quickly fouled Ty-Shon Alexander who made both free throws to extend the lead to 4, but Marcus Bingham found the bottom of the net from beyond the arc with 12 seconds left to make it a one point game, 99-98.  Marcus Zegrowski was then sent to the free throw line where he only made one of two, giving the Spartans one final chance, with 8 seconds left, to tie or win.  Xavier Tillman tried to play hero, putting up the shot to tie from the left wing as the horn sounded.  When the ball bounced off the rim, the game was over, the last Big Ten team had fallen, and the Bluejays deepest Tournament run ever would continue into the Elite Eight where Baylor was waiting.  Marcus Zergowski led the way in the win with 33 points and teammate Ty-Shon Alexander scored 27 for the victors.

Final Score: (2) Creighton 100, (3) Michigan State 98

 

REGIONAL FINAL – MIDWEST REGION – INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

(1) Baylor vs (2) Creighton

The Creighton Bluejays had never made a Final Four, yet alone advanced to the Elite Eight, prior to this season.  The Baylor Bears last played in the Final Four back in 1950, well before the tournament had expanded to its current format, though they had a pair of chances in the Elite Eight in both 2010 (losing to 1-seed Duke) and 2012 (losing to 1-seed Kentucky).  This time around, it was Baylor that was the 1-seed, taking on 2-seed Creighton with a spot in Atlanta on the line.  Baylor had advanced this far by taking care of Texas Southern, squeezing past Houston and then winning a thriller over Louisville.  Creighton had escaped 15-seed Northern Kentucky by only a single point in the first round, then took care of Arizona State before winning their own regional semifinal thriller by 2 points over Michigan State.  All signs pointed to another great game for the fans in Indianapolis and those watching around the country and around the world.

The fans wanted a great game, and for the third straight time in Indianapolis, that is exactly what they got.  The Bears and Bluejays fought back-and-forth the entire first half with neither team being able to build a lead of greater than 5 points.  A jumper from Creighton’s Mitch Ballock right before the end of the first half sent the teams to the break tied at 49 apiece.  Baylor seemed ready to take control of the game 6 minutes into the second half when a 15-0 run turned a 57-54 deficit into a 69-57 lead.  However, the Bluejays were not done yet, as they fought all the way back and saw a Damien Jefferson shot from just inside the 3-point line tie the game at 78 with just over 3 minutes left to play.  Creighton then took a 3-point lead on a Ty-Shon Alexander shot from beyond the arc a minute later, only to see Matthew Mayer connect from long range on the feed from MaCio Teague to tie the game up again.  Jared Butler got open from long-range on the next Baylor possession to put the Bears up by 3, and Creighton’s shots began to miss.  Davion Mitchell sunk four free throws in the final minute to extend the Baylor lead to 5, and even though Jefferson sunk a 3-ball at the buzzer, Baylor had enough points to win, and advanced to the Final Four by a final score of 92-90.  Six different Bears scored in double-figures in the game led by 18 points from Jared Butler.  The Bears had won the Midwest Regional by a combined total of only 3 points in their two games, but no matter what the scores were, the title in Indianapolis belonged to the Bears as they joined conference-mate Kansas as the first two teams into the Final Four.

Final Score: (1) Baylor 92, (2) Creighton 90

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Champions Week: HoopsHD interviews 1982 NCAA champ Sonja Hogg

Posted on April 4, 2020 by Jon Teitel

In any other year early-April would be a time for reflecting on the Elite 8 and looking forward to the Final 4, but this year is not like any other year. Instead, we will spend the week reflecting on champions of the past, from a famous coach who won the 1947 NCAA title as a player to a Hall of Famer who led her team to a perfect 34-0 season in 1986. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our 8-part series with Sonja Hogg, who talked about winning the last AIAW tourney in 1981 and winning the 1st NCAA women’s tourney in 1982.

You were a PE teacher at Ruston High School when you interviewed for a position in the Louisiana Tech PE department: how did you end up creating a women’s basketball team at the school despite never having played the game yourself in high school or college? I was teaching at the high school when a position in the PE department became available: I put my name in the hat because that was a dream of mine. I was hired to teach at my alma mater of Louisiana Tech and President F. Jay Taylor asked me to drop by his office. I showed up and he said that 3 young ladies had asked him about the prospect of creating a women’s basketball team. I said that was a wonderful idea and he asked me if I would consider starting the program from scratch. I almost stopped in my tracks and told him that I had never coached the sport, but I knew it was needed and I said I would get this thing rolling until he could find someone else to take over after a couple of years. We did not have scholarships so Dr. Taylor gave me $5000 to start the program. I had about 68 women show up for tryouts including some great high school basketball players. I ordered some fabulous custom-made uniforms and some Converse tennis shoes. I was told to have my players act like nice young ladies and that I should schedule our games on different nights than the men’s games. I met Leon Barmore at a Bob Knight coaching clinic where I was the only women among approximately 300 men. I went up on stage to conduct a demonstration and I received a standing ovation! I was so young and stupid that I did not realize I should not have been taking on so much responsibility and trying to do everything. I later asked Dr. Taylor for an assistant and he was our #1 fan: he let me hire Leon and we went 20-8. I give a lot of credit to Leon as well as assistant coach Gary Blair.

You created the nickname “Lady Techsters”: how did you come up with it, and how did people like it? The school mascot is a Bulldog…but in 1974 I did not feel that “Lady Bulldogs” would be appropriate because down in the South lady dogs are commonly referred to as “bitches”. I kept trying to come up with a nickname and noticed that an elderly newspaper columnist would refer to all of our alums as “Techsters” so I decided to try “Lady Techsters”. The name stuck and everyone liked it. When our AD heard me use it on the radio he almost drove right off the road!

In the 1981 AIAW tourney title game you beat Tennessee by 20 PTS to finish the season at 34–0: what was it like to face Pat Summitt with a title on the line, and what did it mean to you to win a title? That was a phenomenal season: we were rolling pretty well. Pat and I became good friends in the 1970s so we decided to schedule a game against each other every year. Pat had not won any titles at that time so it was not as big a deal as if we had played them a couple of decades later. Tennessee kept pressing us and we just kept beating their press down the court: Pat stuck with it the entire game and we ended up leaving everything out on the floor. Every time Tennessee came to play us I would send our own bus to transport Pat’s team from the airport and I gave her an extra car to use. The night before we played our president would invite both teams over to dinner and give her a special bottle of perfume…and then after we played Pat would come over to my house to wash the Tennessee uniforms! By staying independent and not joining a conference we could invite all of the powers in women’s basketball to come play us: USC, Old Dominion, etc. There were some years when people would actually scalp tickets to attend our games, which was unbelievable. I do not care how many titles Coach Geno Auriemma wins: there will never be another Pat Summitt in terms of promoting the sport and speaking to young coaches. There are not many coaches now who give so much of themselves: I could not hold a candle to her.

In the 1982 NCAA tourney title game you beat Cheyney State to win the 1st-ever NCAA women’s title: how big a deal was it at the time? There were actually 2 national champs that year as Rutgers beat Texas for the AIAW title in Philly. We had lots of fans who came to our title game. Cheyney State coach Vivian Stringer is still 1 of my good friends. Our fans did not expect us to win by single-digits: our team was so loaded that they thought we should have won every game by 30 PTS! People are surprised these days when players go to UConn knowing they will not get as much playing time as if they went elsewhere but they just want to accomplish their goal of winning a title. The stability of Pat’s and Geno’s coaching staffs also helped them a lot.

In the early 1980s you had a 54-game winning streak: did it reach a point where the fans just expected you to win every time you team stepped onto the court? They just about did. We started our tear after going undefeated in 1981. We did not lose any players from the previous year and we added a great freshman shooter in Pam Gant. As we got close to breaking Coach Margaret Wade’s record at Delta State (51 wins in a row), I called her up because I had always wanted our program to emulate hers. I invited her to come to our gym and be my guest when we were scheduled to break her record and she said that she would. We flew her down here and gave her a plush green chair to sit in right at half-court. We broke the record and Miss Wade said some words after the game: it was a wonderful affair with lots and lots of press. She spent the night here due to some bad weather and I got to have breakfast with her the next morning: I look up to her so much. After we lost to ODU by 2 PTS on the road to break the streak it helped us refocus on trying to win a title. My hotel phone was blowing up because the media thought that it was the end of the world but the players needed a little kick in the butt. It was like an instant replay of ODU’s own situation a few years earlier: they won the AIAW title in 1979, we beat them by 2 PTS during the regular season the following year, and then they ended up winning their 2nd straight title in 1980.

From 1982-1985 you were co-head coach with your former top assistant Leon Barmore: what was it like to be a co-coach, and what made you 2 so effective (you went 90-9 during your 3 years as co-coaches)? Leon and I go back a long, long time to when we were college classmates. He was coach of the boys’ team at Ruston High School and there was not a girls’ team at the time so I got to know him pretty well. No women’s basketball team in the state of Louisiana had a full-time assistant back then so I give all the credit to Dr. Taylor for giving us his full support: he was our #1 fan. We originally hired Leon as a “coach of women’s sports” and he was later assigned to me. He was a bit of a “fish out of water” because he had never coached women before but we worked very well together. I elevated him from assistant coach to associate coach and we just kept on winning. Wins and losses meant a lot to him: on the men’s side you will get fired if you do not have a higher number on the left side as compared to the right side. LSU offered Leon a job to become their head coach but he did not want to go to a big football school with big expectations: it was just not in his nature and he told me that he wanted to stay right here. I tried to surround myself with smart people and we named him co-coach so the wins could also go on his record: he was already doing the Xs and Os. When I 1st got there I was teaching full-time along with everything else: to think that I could do everything at once was just stupidity!

In the 1983 NCAA tourney title game Kim Mulkey missed a shot at the buzzer in a 2-PT loss to USC: did you think the shot was going in, and where does that rank among the most devastating losses of your career? We probably should have tried to get the ball inside at the end of the game but I am so proud of everything that Kim has accomplished as both a player and coach. Cheryl Miller was a freshman who set all kinds of records and USC also had the McGee twins so the Trojans dominated the sport for the next 2 years. You never like to lose but you have to respect your competition.

In 1994 you were hired as coach at Baylor: why did you come out of retirement? I just decided to get back into the college game after 9 years away from it. It was tough to get this program up to respectability: it was arguably harder than starting the Louisiana Tech program from scratch. We did not have a single video machine on which to watch tape but at least we had basketballs/water bottles! After retiring from coaching I stayed at Baylor to do some fundraising and it has been a wonderful ride to see Kim develop her program here. I eventually convinced Leon to come here as Kim’s assistant: I told him that he could just focus on coaching and work with Kim without having to worry about recruiting.

In 2009 you were inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame: where does that rank among the highlights of your career? It is probably the pinnacle. It shocked me because I had been off the floor for such a long time. I raise funds for every area of the university and have had the chance to meet so many great people. These have been the best years to be a Baylor Bear in a long time and things are kicking on all cylinders. I recall the exact day that it happened: I called Pat Summitt to wish her a happy birthday on the morning of June 14, 2008. She called me back later that afternoon: I thought she was just going to say that she got my message. When she and Coach Billie Moore congratulated me on getting elected I was just in tears. You start to think about how you got there and I began reflecting on all of my great players/assistants. 2 weeks after the induction I got inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and on the drive to Louisiana I called my ex-husband to thank him for his support. It has been a great run with great family/friends. I like working with young people but it is also rewarding to work with the older folks to help them realize their dreams. The people who support us here at Baylor are diehard fans.

When people look back on your career, how do you want to be remembered the most? I would like to think that I had an impact on Title IX and helped paved the way for a lot of other people. I think back to the pioneers like Miss Wade as well as the coaches from my era like Summitt/Kay Yow. Back in the day we would go recruit against each other in the morning and then go out to dinner together at night: I doubt that still happens today. You can be enemies during a game but we were all friends off the court once the game was over. We are mostly dinosaurs now but there are still a few young ones left! I feel like a trailblazer to remember where we were then and see where we are now. I hated to lose a recruit but I never took it personally. I tried to be kind and had a love of people. I enjoyed every aspect of whatever career I had at the time: my glass was always half-full.

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