Hoops HD

Hoops HD Daily Rundown – Tuesday, Jan 7th

Posted on January 7, 2025 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES:

For the latest HOOPS HD REPORT Video Podcast – CLICK HERE

-Ohio State needed two overtimes, and a really boneheaded foul by Minnesota at the end of the first overtime, to hold on and escape with an 89-88 road win. Minnesota was up 2 and without the ball, and fouled Ohio State on purpose in the backcourt with less than 5 seconds to go. Ohio State then hit both freetrows to tie it and force a second overtime. I guess they thought they were up 3?

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-SAINT JOHN’S AT XAVIER (Big East). The Johnnies are hovering around the bubble right now. This should be a winnable road game for them, but Xavier is a little bit better than their resume currently indicates. They’re only 1-3 in Big East play, but were fairly competitive against UConn and Marquette in that stretch, so the Johnnies better not just overlook them.

-TENNESSEE AT FLORIDA (SEC). This is big road game for Tennessee as they face a Florida team that’s ranked in the top ten, but is also coming off their first loss of the season and looking to bounce back. Both teams are likely protected seeds, and as good as Tennessee’s resume right now this would probably still be their most impressive win to date.

-PITTSBURGH AT DUKE (ACC). Duke absolutely blasted SMU in their last game, and while Pitt is good and a likely tournament team, facing Duke on the road is probably too tall of an order.

-KENTUCKY AT GEORGIA (SEC). Kentucky is coming off a big win against Florida and they have a ton of momentum built up, but something they haven’t done yet is win a true road game. This is just their second road game of the year. Their only other one was a loss at Clemson. Having said that, Kentucky is battle tested and is certainly capable of picking up this win. Georgia is having a pretty good year themselves. They’re 12-2 overall and this would be a big win for their resume, so both teams have something to gain from this.’

-ARIZONA AT WEST VIRGINIA (Big 12). Arizona is a modest 8-5 and while they’re 2-0 in the conference and just picked up a nice win against Cincinnati, they still have a lot of work to do. West Virginia has a couple of really big wins and has cracked the top 25. They can keep that momentum going with a win today.

-CLEMSON AT LOUISVILLE (ACC). Louisville has had to battle a ton of injuries, but they somehow keep winning games. They’ve now won five of their last six and are coming off a blowout road win at Virginia. Clemson will have their work cut out for them in this one, and it would be one of their better wins of the season if they can pull it off.

-UTAH AT IOWA STATE (Big 12). Iowa State continues to win impressively and they should be able to hold serve at home in this one.

-GEORGETOWN AT MARQUETTE (Big East). Georgetown is much improved and is off to a 3-0 start in Big East play. They’re probably way overmatched in this one considering that Marquette is ranked in the top ten, but if they could somehow get a win in a game like this you’d have to start thinking of them as a possible tournament team.

-CINCINNATI AT BAYLOR (Big 12). Both teams should have a big sense of urgency coming into this one. Cincinnati has lost their last two and the rest of their schedule is getting harder instead of easier. Baylor is a modest 8-4, but needs to string together some more wins in conference in order to secure themselves with a solid bid.

-NEBRASKA AT IOWA (Big Ten). Nebraska is having a great year at 12-2 overall and is coming off a really nice win against UCLA. A road win against Iowa would be another good addition to their resume. Iowa could really use this win themselves. They were just blown out by Wisconsin and don’t really have any notable wins yet.

-AUBURN AT TEXAS (SEC). Auburn is one of the best teams in the country, and while it’s not easy to win at Texas, it’s still a game that I would expect Auburn to win. Texas is coming off a blowout loss to rivals Texas A&M and their resume seems a little flimsy right now. A win today would certainly stabilize it, but that’s far easier said than done.

-MISSISSIPPI STATE AT VANDERBILT (SEC). Vandy is a very impressive 13-1 and while they haven’t beaten a whole lot of teams that are high in the rankings, they do have a nice share of decent wins. This would be a big one considering Mississippi State is in the rankings and considering that seemingly every win the SEC will be a big win.

-TEXAS TECH AT BYU (Big 12). Texas Tech is starting to play well and this would be a really nice road win on their resume. It won’t be easy, though. BYU is one of the toughest places in the country to play.

-SMU AT NORTH CAROLINA (ACC). Both teams are kind of falling behind the pack and both could really use this win today. I do think North Carolina will start to string together wins now that conference play has started, but they kinda need to start doing that tonight. SMU could use a little meat on their resume as well.

-LSU AT MISSOURI (SEC). Both teams appear to be solid, but you get the sense that this is a really big game because of just how many tough games each of them have remaining after this.

-MICHIGAN AT UCLA (Big Ten). I really like how Michigan has been playing lately, and while this is a very tough road test against a UCLA team that’s in the rankings and who has proven they can win big games, it’s still one the Wolverines can win.

-UTAH STATE AT SAN JOSE STATE (Mountain West). Utah State has cracked the rankings and has another winnable conference road game tonight.

-NEW MEXICO AT WYOMING (Mountain West). New Mexico has some pretty good wins and can improve to 5-0 in MWC play if they can hold serve and win this one.

-UNLV AT BOISE STATE (Mountain West). It just feels like Boise State is going to end up on the bubble, and that means they need to hold serve in games like this. Any home loss to a team that’s nowhere near the NCAA Tournament will be damaging.

-LMU AT SAINT MARY’S (West Coast). Saint Mary’s continues to string together wins and will easily make the NCAA Tournament if they can keep it up.

Posted in Daily Rundown, News and Notes | Comments Off

The Hoops HD Report – Jan 6th

Posted on January 6, 2025 by David Griggs

It’s the first Hoops HD Report of the new year! Chad and the panel run through all of the major conferences and discuss the overall strength of the SEC, particularly how good Auburn and Tennessee are. We also look at a team like Vanderbilt, who is somehow flying under the radar despite having just one loss on the season. Houston has been kind of quiet in the Big 12, but we take a look at them and discuss how we still think they’re good enough to win the league. We also discuss how impressive West Virginia has been, and what Arizona has to do to get things turned around. We look at Washington State and Saint Mary’s out in the WCC and discuss the seasons they’re having, the Atlantic Ten has a lot of good teams with good records, but none with a whole lot of OOC wins, and Dayton suffered a big loss at George Washington over the weekend. We discuss all that, and more!

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

Posted in Hoops HD Report, Podcasts, Videocasts | 1 Comment

Call to the Hall: HoopsHD interviews Jack Nixon about brand-new Hall of Famer Sam Lacey

Posted on January 6, 2025 by Jon Teitel

On New Year’s Eve the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame announced its Class of 2024 including 2-time NCAA champ Dave Meyers, 1957 NCAA champ Lennie Rosenbluth, and NBA all-time top-50 rebounder Sam Lacey. Sam led New Mexico State to 3 straight NCAA tourneys, was named 1st-team All-American in 1970, and was inducted into the New Mexico State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1975. Sam passed away in 2014 but earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with legendary New Mexico State radio play-by-play man Jack Nixon about the best basketball player in school history.

Sam was born/raised in Indianola, MS: what made him choose New Mexico State? In the mid-1960’s, when Sam came out of high school, schools in the South and in Texas would not recruit Black athletes, and other schools had unspoken “quotas” on non-White recruits. Coach Lou Henson and his assistant Ed Murphy were confronted by locals in Indianola when they went to recruit Sam. The locals thought they were there to campaign for voting and civil rights, something that was not welcome in the South at the time. Coach reassured them that they were just there for basketball reasons, and they were not bothered after that. Coach showed Sam the opportunities he would have if he played at NMSU.

The Aggies made 3 straight NCAA tourneys from 1968-1970 and lost to UCLA every single year: what was it like for them to face the mighty Bruins at the peak of their powers? Frustrating! Initially, NMSU had to get by UCLA to advance during those first two years. The field was only 16 team back then with “play-in games” for lower seeds to get into the actual bracket. The thinking among the fans was that if the Aggies just could be paired against someone else then they could make their way to the finals. In 1970, NMSU was put in the Midwest Region (rather than the West) and did advance to the finals at last…only to face UCLA yet again. Coach Henson told me once that he knew they would have to face UCLA eventually and felt the team enjoyed the challenge of facing Lew Alcindor, et al.

In 1970 he was named 1st-team All-American and led the team to the #5 spot in the final AP poll: do you think that they might have won it all if Lacey had not suffered a foot injury early in the Final 4 game vs. UCLA? We think so, but that is with our hearts, not our true powers of reasoning. In the end you must play the hand that is dealt. I grew up in Omaha and was home from college when nationally ranked NMSU played Creighton in February of 1970. I went to the sold-out game…and wound up seeing one of only three games the Aggies lost that entire season! Six years later, I moved here to do play-by-play for the Aggies on radio, and I also worked with Coach Henson from 1998-2006.

48 hours after beating St. Bonaventure in the 3rd-place game, he was drafted 5th overall by Cincinnati (each of the 4 players drafted ahead of him became Hall of Famers: Bob Lanier/Rudy Tomjanovich/Pete Maravich/Dave Cowens): did he see that as a validation of his college career, or the realization of a lifelong dream of reaching the NBA, or other? It was a dream come true. A Black child growing up in a town of 6,000 in rural Mississippi could only fantasize about having a chance to achieve the things that Sam did. His college career speaks for itself, and the draft confirmed that.

He averaged a double-double during each of his 1st 6 seasons and in 1975 he made his only NBA All-Star appearance: what did it mean to him to receive such an outstanding honor? Sam was a modest person who played during a “Golden Age” of centers, as your questions above have referenced. To finally get that nod was appreciated.

In 1981 as captain in Kansas City he helped lead the Kings to the Western Conference Finals: what made him such a great leader? He was able to lead by doing. He was not a big talker, but was someone who prepared the right way, worked hard, and played hard. Most teammates who are competitors respond well to that type of behavior from their captain.

He remains 1 of only 5 NBA players to have 100 BLK/100 STL in 7 straight seasons (along with Hall of Famers Hakeem Olajuwon/Julius Erving/David Robinson/Ben Wallace): how did he balance his scoring with his rebounding with his defense? I think he got the foundation to showcase his skills from playing for Coach Henson. There are not many coaches who knew more about that game and about developing players to their fullest ability. Sam was not a “finished product” when he came to Las Cruces but had tremendous physical ability that he learned how to use effectively at both ends of the court from Coach.

His 493 REB in 1970 remains the most in school history and his 9687 career REB as a pro remains top-50 in NBA history: what was his secret for being a great rebounder? “Wanting to”. Sam had long arms and great instinctive reactions on the court…but rebounding is about the determination to get the ball and Sam had that.

In 1975 he was inducted into the New Mexico State Athletics Hall of Fame, in 2008 he was 1 of the 1st inductees into the Aggies Ring of Honor, and in 2015 he became the first New Mexico State basketball player to be inducted into the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame: where does he rank among the best athletes in school history? In hoops: at the top. Charley Johnson (who played for 15 years in the NFL) would be the top football player. We have also had PGA-tournament-winning golfers (including Rich Beem/Bart Bryant/Tom Byrum) and others who went to the NBA (including Pascal Siakam/John Williamson), but Sam and Charley would be the best: do not ask me to choose!

He passed away in 2014 but last week was elected to the College Basketball Hall of Fame: when people look back on his career, how do you think that he should be remembered the most? As one of the guys who put New Mexico State University on the “National Map” for college basketball, one of the singularly most talented athletes to play in Las Cruces, and someone who gave all he had to his sport.

Posted in News and Notes | Tagged Jack Nixon, New Mexico State | Comments Off

Hoops HD Daily Rundown – Monday, Jan 6th

Posted on January 6, 2025 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES:

For the first HOOPS HD BRACKET RUNDOWN of the regular season where we reveal this week’s Bracket Projection line by line and discuss it as we go – CLICK HERE

For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE

-In yesterday’s write up I stated something about how UCF was having a good year and should be able to give Kansas a game at home. Well, they lost. And it was by more than just a little bit. Kansas beat them 99-48.

-Oregon had to sweat out Maryland, but was able to bounce back from the blowout home loss to Illinois and pick up the 83-79 conference win.

-UConn had a lot more trouble with Providence than I thought they would, and actually had to come back in the second half, but they managed to escape with an 87-84 win.

-Indiana, who I have been super critical of this year, did pick up a nice road win at Penn State, and when you look at the Hoosier’s resume, it doesn’t look like a team that belongs in the top 15 like they were ranked at the start of the season, but it doesn’t look that bad either. They are looking like a solid NCAA Tournament team.

-Drake has dropped their second straight game as they fell at home to Murray State 66-59. After coming within a whisker of being ranked in the Top 25, they’ve dropped two straight conference games, are probably no longer the frontrunners in the Missouri Valley, and may run the risk of dropping out of this week’s UTR Top Ten.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-WISCONSIN AT RUTGERS (Big Ten). Rutgers really needs this win. They’re only 8-6, but given the talent they have they can still turn things around and build a strong resume if they can start to string together wins. Wisconsin comes in at 11-3 overall and a conference road win like this would make their resume look a little better too.

-TCU AT HOUSTON (Big 12). Houston didn’t rack up a lot of high caliber quad 1 wins during the OOC portion of the season, but they’re still extremely talented and I think they are good enough to win the Big 12. They should be able to hold serve at home in this one.

-OHIO STATE AT MINNESOTA (Big Ten). Ohio State has some really good wins, but their resume has some holes in it as well. This is the kind of true road game that they should be able to win.

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Under the Radar Game of the Day – Monday, January 6th

Posted on January 6, 2025 by John Stalica

Norfolk State (10-7, 1-0) at Delaware State (7-8, 0-1) – 7:30 PM ET (ESPN+)

Weather permitting, tonight’s UTR Game of the Day heads to Dover, Delaware for a MEAC matchup between the Norfolk State Spartans and the Delaware State Hornets. After a stretch where NSU went 7-7 against D1 competition in the nonconference portion of their schedule, the Spartans eased into their conference schedule with an 81-59 win at home against Maryland-Eastern Shore. Brian Moore Jr. led the Spartans with 22 points in the victory.

Delaware State has gradually climbed up from a Centenary Award winner as the worst D1 team to a team that could be a contender in the MEAC this season. They had a 4-game winning streak in December with victories against Loyola-Maryland, NJIT, Grambling and Alabama State. However, they lost their conference opener in The Burr against Howard by a 100-94 shootout. Robert Smith had 27 points to lead the Hornets in that contest.

Posted in CBB on TV, Daily Rundown, News and Notes, Under the Radar | Tagged Delaware State, MEAC, Norfolk State, under the radar | Comments Off

Hoops HD Bracket Rundown – Jan 5th

Posted on January 5, 2025 by David Griggs

NOTE: This broadcast was recorded at 9pm, est on Sunday, January 5th and the seedlist was built before any of the games that day were played, so none of Sunday’s results were considered.

Jon Teitel has built his first seedlist of the year! Chad and the panel reveal it line by line and debate, discuss, and assess, and sometimes strongly argue about each team as they go. Find out who they have on the #1 lines so far, who is safely in, who still has work to do, and who on the bubble just made it in and just missed it.