Under The Radar Game of the Day: Iona at Rider (and other News and Notes)

Posted on March 1, 2019 by John Stalica

For last night’s Bracket Rundown podcast – CLICK HERE

SURVIVAL BOARD UPDATES (click here to view)

-STETSON AT KENNESAW STATE (Atlantic Sun).  This is a virtual 8vs9 game.  The loser is eliminated.

-Columbia will be out if they lose to Brown and Cornell wins (Ivy League)

-Dartmouth will be out if they lose at home to Princeton, and Brown wins at Columbia, and Cornell wins at Yale

For Jon Teitel’s interview with Ron Rainey about Hall of Fame head coach Bo Ryan – CLICK HERE

Iona (13-15, 11-6 MAAC) at Rider (15-13, 10-6 MAAC) – 7:00 PM EST (ESPN+)

Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to Lawrenceville, New Jersey – home of the hot-and-cold Rider Broncs. They will play host to the Iona Gaels in a matchup of MAAC teams tied in the loss column in the league standings. Rider started 7-1 in conference play before an inexplicable five-game losing streak that opened up the conference race. Since then, the Broncs have won three straight games. Stevie Jordan leads Rider with 12.4 points per game and 4.3 assists per game.

Iona is one of a handful of teams that took advantage of Rider’s midseason troubles; the Gaels are a half-game ahead of Rider, Quinnipiac and Siena going into tonight’s games. Tonight is the regular-season finale for Iona. They are on a six game winning streak that includes wins against Quinnipiac and Canisius. They also beat Rider 77-71 at home earlier in the season. Rickey McGill averages 15.6 points per game and 5.2 assists per game; EJ Crawford leads the Gaels with 17.7 points a game.

NEWS AND NOTES

-So going into last night, Washington’s NET was 32 and Cal’s was 253.  Stephen F Austin’s win over Baylor is still the biggest upset of the season in terms of how far apart the two teams are in the rankings, but this is now second, and I believe it is just the second game where a team was 200+ spots ahead of their opponents and lost.  If I’m wrong on that then the Hoops HD fact checkers will correct me.  I know that an upset like this isn’t as important or noticeable as UMBC’s win over Virginia last year, but in terms of how far apart the two teams were, it’s actually a bigger upset.  MUCH bigger!  This CRUSHES Washington’s resume.  The best thing they had going for them was that they had a smattering of decent wins and no bad losses.  Well, that’s out the window!  I still think they get in, but WOW that was bad!!

-Xavier has now won five straight with their win at Saint John’s last night.  They have followed up a six game losing streak with a five game wining steak, and can actually play their way onto the committee’s board if they keep it up.  They may be there already.

-Minnesota picked up a road win at Northwestern, which may not sound like that big of a deal, but since it was only their second true road win, it was a big deal in the sense that a loss would have been really crushing for the Gophers.

-I am now off the Oregon State bandwagon.  They lost at the buzzer to Arizona last night, and I now believe they need to win the Pac Twelve Tournament to make the field.

-Arizona State was blown out at Oregon by 28 points.  This is not at all surprising.  Had Arizona State won by 28 points, it would not have been a surprise either.  They are right on the bubble, and it will make for a fascinating discussion given how schizophrenic their team is.

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Hoops HD Bracket Rundown: February 28th

Posted on March 1, 2019 by David Griggs

This was recorded on Thursday, February 28th at 10PM EST.  None of the games that went final after that time are reflected in the show, the seedlist, or the bracket – most notably, losses by Arizona State and Washington were not considered.

This is a CHECKPOINT of what we think the NCAA Tournament SHOULD look like if the season ended TODAY.  This is not an attempt to guess what the actual committee will do on Selection Sunday

Chad arbitrates as the Hoops HD Staff builds a seed list line by line and discusses, debates, assesses, and sometimes argues about each team as they go down the list.

Below is the bracket of the seed list, but do not look at it until you’ve watched the show!!

 

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

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Happy Tourney-versary!: HoopsHD interviews Ron Rainey about Bo Ryan

Posted on February 28, 2019 by Jon Teitel

With the 2019 NCAA tourney tipping off next month, we will spend this month taking a walk down memory lane with a choice collection of players/coaches who are celebrating an awesome anniversary this year. From a comeback win to clinch the 1954 tourney title (65th anniversary) through a last-second loss in the 2014 Final 4 (5th anniversary), these legends have all carved out a little piece of history in past Marches. We conclude our series with Ron Rainey, who coached Bo Ryan in both high school/college and later worked for him at Wisconsin-Platteville. Ryan won everywhere he coached throughout the state of Wisconsin: 4 D-3 championships in a 9-year stretch at Platteville, then back-to-back winning seasons at Milwaukee, followed by 14 straight NCAA tourneys at Wisconsin. In 2017 he was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Coach Rainey about the 5th anniversary of his 2014 NCAA tourney run to the Final 4 as well as what it was like to coach him.

Bo’s father Butch coached youth sports to under-privileged children in Chester, PA: how much of an influence was his father on him either on or off the court? I am sure that he had a great influence. I think that Butch wanted Bo to be a coach as well. I had Bo for 3 years in high school and 4 years in college: when he played for me he was like my coach out on the floor.

As head coach at Wisconsin–Platteville he went 352–76 and won 4 D-3 national titles in a 9-year span from 1991-1999 (the last 1 being a 1-PT 2-OT win over Hampden-Sydney in 1999): how was he able to dominate the sport for an entire decade? He was an excellent recruiter and got such a great reputation early on that people wanted to play for him. He built up the program at 1st and then was phenomenal with not too many losses (including undefeated seasons in 1995 & 1998).

In 1997 his team set a D-3 defensive record by only allowing 47.5 PPG: what made him such a great defensive coach? He paid attention to all of the details. From Day 1 to the end of the season we worked on how to play defense. Even if you scored 25 PPG you still had to play defense if you wanted to play.

Wisconsin had only been to 7 NCAA tourneys before hiring Ryan in 2001, then made 14 in a row during each of Ryan’s 14 full seasons (including all four 30-win seasons in school history): how was he able to make such a smooth transition from D-3 to D-1? I think that his main goal was to eventually get to Wisconsin but they did not want to take him straight from a D-3 school. He was successful at Milwaukee (his 1st D-1 school) so he proved everyone wrong before getting the job with the Badgers.

He was a 4-time Big-10 COY and was named national COY in 2008: what did it mean to him to receive such outstanding honors? He was always of the mindset that the players did the hard work and he was just guiding them.

In the 2014 Final 4 Aaron Harrison scored 8 PTS including a 3-PT shot with 5.7 seconds left in a 1-PT win by Kentucky: where does that rank among the most devastating losses of his career? He took wins and defeats the same: he was the same guy after a big win or a big loss and just wanted to do his teaching. Then again, he did not lose too many games! He never screamed/hollered because it was all about the team.

Take me through the 2015 Final 4:
In the semifinal rematch against the Wildcats, Frank Kaminsky had 20 PTS/11 REB in a 7-PT win: how were they able to beat a 38-0 Kentucky team, and do you think that we will ever see another undefeated champion? With the way scheduling goes now where all the good teams play each other I do not think that we will see another undefeated team: just look at Gonzaga playing at North Carolina in December. In the preparation for the Kentucky game he never mentioned the 38-0 part: it was just another game and they focused on team defense because anyone can win on any night. They knew what they had to do and the players just had to perform.

In the title game Tyus Jones scored 23 PTS in a 5-PT win by Duke: how close did he come to winning a title? Very close. There were a couple of calls at the end of the game that were instrumental to the outcome but those things happen. The players were more upset about the loss than he was. What people do not realize is that after they beat Kentucky late on Saturday in a difficult game, they did not get back to their hotel rooms until 2 or 3AM. It is not an excuse: just how the schedule worked out.

His 371 wins remain the most in school history: did you realize at the time how prolific a coach he was, and do you think that anyone will ever break his record? I knew how prolific he was even back at Platteville: he won 4 national titles! I wonder how many D-3 coaches have won 4 titles. Then again, his replacement at Wisconsin (Greg Gard) has gotten off to a great start and might do that himself.  They do some different things now on offense but defensively they are very similar coaches: it is almost like there was not much of a change.

In 2017 he was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame: where does that rank among the highlights of his career? It has to be right at the top and he definitely deserved it.

When people look back on his career, how do you think that he should be remembered the most? As 1 of the top college coaches in the country. I am not into rankings but he accomplished so much.

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Under The Radar Game of the Day: Old Dominion at Texas-San Antonio

Posted on February 28, 2019 by John Stalica

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

For last night’s season finale of the Under The Radar podcast – CLICK HERE

Old Dominion (22-6, 12-3 C-USA) at Texas-San Antonio (15-12, 9-5 C-USA) – 8:00 PM (CBS Sports Network)

Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day takes us deep in the heart of Texas where the Roadrunners of UT-San Antonio will play host to the Old Dominion Monarchs. The Roadrunners are coming off of a two-game slide at Southern Miss and Louisiana Tech, but nonetheless qualified for the top pod in C-USA’s first season of flex scheduling to end the season. Their first meeting with ODU was a very memorable one earlier this season – the Roadrunners were down 18 points with three minutes remaining in the game but came back to win thanks to Keaton Wallace’s 29 points and go-ahead three-pointer with 15 seconds remaining in the game.

Old Dominion has a commanding lead in the conference standings and can clinch an outright regular season title and #1 seed with a victory tonight. The Monarchs beat Western Kentucky 67-63 on Saturday in their first of four season-ending “pod” games. B.J. Stith leads the Monarchs with 18.1 PPG and 7.5 RPG; Ahmad Caver also averages 17.1 PPG for Old Dominion as well. Should they advance to the NCAA Tournament, head coach Jeff Jones would join an elite fraternity of coaches to advance to the NCAA Tournament with three different schools; he has made multiple NCAA appearances with both Virginia and American in the past.

*Footnote – Since today is National Chili Day, keep an eye on the website to see if you win #FreeChili tonight!

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News, Notes and Highlighted Games: Thursday, February 28th

Posted on February 28, 2019 by John Stalica

For last night’s Under The Radar podcast – CLICK HERE

SURVIVAL BOARD UPDATES (click here to view)

-Mount St Mary’s OUT with a loss to FDU OR wins by both LIU-Brooklyn (over CCSU) AND Bryant (over SFBK)

-Central Connecticut OUT with a loss to LIU-Brooklyn

-Tennessee Tech OUT with a loss to SIUE OR a win by UT-Martin (over Belmont) OR a win by E Kentucky (over Austin Peay)

-SEMO OUT with a loss to Tennessee State AND a win by one of SIUE, UT-Martin and/or E Kentucky

-Denver OUT with a loss to Western Illinois

NEWS AND NOTES (courtesy of David G. Puppet)

-Tennessee won in a thriller at Ole Miss in a game that went back and forth.  Tennessee had lost two of three (both on the road to highly ranked teams), so it does sort of get them back on the right path.  It’s not a loss that will damage Ole Miss that much.  They were on a safe pace to make the field before the game, and still are.  The game came down to a charge call right in the final seconds, and the fans were not too happy.  They showered the court with plastic cups and T-shirts (despite pleas from Kermit Davis to stop) as the players were shaking hands.

-Villanova got a big win against Marquette in a game that also went back and forth.  This was as important for Nova’s mental health as it was their resume.  They’d lost four out of five, two of which were non-tournament teams, and needed a stabilizing win like this.

-Texas Tech, after blowing out Kansas at home, needed overtime to get by Oklahoma State at home last night.  Lot’s to unpack there.  Just how bad is Kansas on the road? And Just how inconsistent is Texas Tech?

-Maryland went in to Penn State (sort of) and was blown out.  They fell down early, and stayed down by double digits for the entire game.  The 78-61 score isn’t indicative of just how badly Penn State beat them.

-Cincinnati REALLY had to sweat, but they picked up yet another road win against SMU and remain on pace to land safely in the top half of the bracket.

-Texas had what appeared to be a safe lead at Baylor, but the Bears came back, forced overtime, and even then when it looked like Texas was safe they turned it over and Baylor escaped.  The loss didn’t hurt Texas in and of itself, but what hurt was that they needed a win like this to stabilize their resume.  At just 15-13 on the year it is looking kind of flimsy despite some of the really good wins that they have. They finish the regular season with home games against Iowa State and TCU with a road game at Iowa State sandwiched in between. They MIGHT end up 15-16 going into the Big 12 Tournament, which would put them in Indiana-esque territory.

-Auburn BARELY won at Georgia.  Had they lost that then they may have been in real trouble.

-Louisville did not win at Boston College, which hurts.  A segment of the Louisville fanbase had been riding the team pretty hard, which struck me as absurd considering how low the expectations were at the start of the year, and that most of their losses had been in close games to highly ranked teams.  Well, BC is not a highly ranked team.  I can understand the fans being grumpy about this one.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-XAVIER AT SAINT JOHN’S (Big East).  The Johnnies look to be safely in the field barring a total crash in their final few games.  They could use some stability though.  Xavier is playing like an NCAA Tournament team, so this may not be the easiest game in the world for the Johnnies to win.  Xavier’s problem is that they started playing like an NCAA Tournament team about 12 weeks too late. (Another problem for the Musketeers is Elias Harden being suspended by the coaches for an undisclosed violation of team rules. It is uncertain when he will return.)

-NEBRASKA AT MICHIGAN (Big Ten).  Michigan is still on pace to land on one of the top two lines.  They should be able to bounce back from their loss to Michigan State, hold serve, and pick this one up at home.

-WOFFORD AT CHATTANOOGA (SoCon).  Wofford has two games remaining before the conference tournament.  I think they’d have to lose both of them and then lose their first tournament game to end up outside the bubble.

-MINNESOTA AT NORTHWESTERN (Big Ten).  Minnesota has just one true road win on the year, and they DESPERATELY need to get at least one more.  If they can’t win this one tonight then they may be in serious trouble.  I don’t believe any team has ever gotten an at-large with just one true road win.

-ARIZONA AT OREGON STATE (Pac-12).  I keep saying this, but Oregon State is good enough to win out, and if they do I think the committee will take a serious look at them.

-GONZAGA AT PACIFIC (West Coast).  Gonzaga is ranked #1 and should be able to win out and coast to a #1 seed in the NCAAs.

-WASHINGTON AT CALIFORNIA (Pac-12).  This is perhaps the most winnable Pac Twelve road game that Washington has ever played as a member of the Pac 8/10/12.  They need to hold serve and win it.

UNDER THE RADAR

-HOFSTRA AT DREXEL (Colonial).  Hofstra has a one game lead with two games to go.  They can clinch at least a share of it tonight (along with the #1 seed in the CAA Tournament).

-NEW MEXICO STATE AT UMKC (WAC).  New Mexico State has already clinched the #1 seed and can clinch an outright first place finish with a win tonight.

-TEXAS STATE AT TROY (Sun Belt).  Texas State is trying to hold on to a one game lead in the SBC.

-ARKANSAS STATE AT GEORGIA STATE (Sun Belt).  Georgia State is just a game behind Texas State, and can make quite a bit of noise in the SBC Tourney.

-MURRAY STATE AT MOREHEAD STATE (Ohio Valley).  With two games remaining, Murray State is in a tie for first place and has a one game lead over Austin Peay and Jax State.  They can come very close to locking up a bye into the OVC semis with a win tonight.

-WRIGHT STATE AT GREEN BAY (Horizon League).  Wright State can clinch a share of first place with a win tonight.

-NORTHERN KENTUCKY AT MILWAUKEE (Horizon League).  NKU is just a game back of Wright State with two games to go.

-OLD DOMINION AT UT-SAN ANTONIO (Conference USA).  Old Dominion can clinch an outright first place finish with a win tonight, and is potentially a dangerous NCAA Tournament team if they can win the conference tourney.

-BELMONT AT UT MARTIN (Ohio Valley).  I believe Belmont clinches a bye into the semis with a win tonight, and if they can avoid losses in their last two games and win their first conference tournament game, they may be inside the bubble even if they lose in the OVC Championship game.

-UC IRVINE AT UC DAVIS (Big West).  UC Irvine clinches at least a share of first place with a win tonight, and since they’ve swept Cal State Fullerton they lock up the #1 seed in the Big West Tourney as well.

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Under the Radar: February 27th

Posted on February 27, 2019 by David Griggs

With conference tournaments beginning this upcoming Monday, and our Championship Week Video Notebooks beginning Sunday, this is the final Under the Radar of the season.  We begin by looking at the Patriot League and how it went from looking like a runaway for Bucknell to a sudden three way tie heading into the final game.  We discuss all the tiebreakers as those three teams fight for home court advantage in the conference tournament.  We also look at tight races in the America East where Stony Brook won a big game against UMBC, the Atlantic Sun with Liberty and Lipscomb gridlocked, and the Big South where Radford and Campbell are neck and neck heading into the final game.  We run through all 22 UTR Conferences, and as we do every week, we finish with this week’s UTR Top Ten.

 

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

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