AUDIO COMING LATER
This is our final UTR Podcast of the season. We go a little long, but there was a lot to get to as we look at all the teams who have either clinched first place, or are on the verge of clinching first place, and what all of the upcoming games mean to the upcoming conference tournaments. We also look at Grambling in the SWAC, who has the longest current winning streak in all of college basketball, and we close with our UTR Top Ten
In an effort to promote the game of basketball and recognize the best players in the nation, the Basketball Hall of Fame created awards for the men’s All-America Team in 2015. These awards covered 5 different positions and were named after 5 of the best players to ever step onto the court: the Bob Cousy Point Guard Of The Year, the Jerry West Shooting Guard Of The Year, the Julius Erving Small Forward Of The Year, the Karl Malone Power Forward Of The Year, and the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center Of The Year. In 2017 the Hall of Fame announced a partnership with the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) to present awards celebrating 5 of the best women to ever play the game: the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard Of The Year, the Ann Meyers Drysdale Shooting Guard Of The Year, the Cheryl Miller Small Forward Of The Year, the Katrina McClain Power Forward Of The Year, and the Lisa Leslie Center Of The Year. As we approach the April announcement of this season’s women’s award winners, HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will present interviews with all 5 Hall of Fame legends:
Miller: https://hoopshd.com/201
Lieberman: https://hoopshd.com/
Meyers Drysdale: https://hoopshd.com/2
McClain Johnson: see below
Leslie: March
In 1984 at Georgia you were named to the Freshman All-American team and became the 1st-ever SEC Freshman of the Year: how were you able to make such a smooth transition from high school to college? I owe that to my high school coach Lorraine Kennedy. She would work us hard and make us run a lot so after that I figured that Georgia would be no problem…but they ran me just as much. Once you start working hard and then keep working hard in practice, eventually it becomes a part of you and I never wanted to give anything less.
Take me through the 1985 NCAA Final 4:
In the semifinals you scored a career-high 25 PTS and set a Final 4 record by making 10-12 FG in a win over Western Kentucky: how excited were you for the rematch after missing the 5-PT loss to WKU in December due to an ankle injury? For me it was more about having a good game because I always appreciated great competition. I knew we were in for a nice match-up and my mindset was always about being a competitor. When we played against less-competitive teams it was not that much fun for me, but tougher teams made it more exciting as that got the butterflies going.
In the title game you had a 5-PT loss to Old Dominion (who tied a Final 4 record with 57 REB): where does that rank among the most devastating losses of your career (despite making the all-tourney team)? It is definitely up there. Teresa Edwards fouled out with several minutes to go and I recall a lot of horrible calls so I felt that we were cheated out of that game. It was such a hard-fought game that the calls at the end were critical.
You lost to your SEC rival Tennessee in the NCAA tourney in both 1984/1986: what was it like to face Pat Summitt in March? Usually 1 of us would end up knocking the other 1 out. We hated being in the same bracket as them and I am sure that the feeling was mutual! They presented a challenge so it brought the best out of both of us. The bad thing is that 1 of us had to lose.
You were a 2-time All-American as well as 1987 national POY: what did it mean to you to receive such outstanding honors? It was nice to be recognized for all of my hard work and it helped to be around great players like Teresa. I was just blessed to be there and my teammates made me better because I would practice against them every day. I hated practicing against Janet Harris because she kept kicking my butt, but my roommate Teresa told me every day to just be tough. People would yell at Janet to “eat my lunch” and 1 day I just got tired of it and knocked Janet to the floor: after that it just became a great competition that helped us develop as individuals.
You graduated with a school-record career 62 FG% and still rank among the best in school history with 2195 PTS/1193 REB/290 BLK: what is the key to making shots, and do you think that anyone will ever break your record? Practice/practice/prac
In the title game of the inaugural Goodwill Games in Moscow in 1986 you faced a Soviet Union team that had a 152–2 record in major international competition over the prior 3 decades: what was it like to face 7’2” Uljana Semjonova (who was considered the most dominant player in the world at the time), and how were you able to win by 23 PTS? They had 1-2 good players but we had 12 great players! We had the passion to play/win: we were not just out there to compete but were playing for blood. We did not really know who Semjonova was: we just accepted the challenge to do whatever we had to do to win.
You played pro basketball for several years in a few different countries: what is the biggest difference between basketball in the US vs. basketball overseas? The biggest difference is that when you are overseas you cannot just hop on a bus and go home to see your loved ones. Some of my teammates who called home a lot would rack up $30,000 phone bills! I was blessed to be on great teams: I was told that it would be culture shock but my team in Japan took really good care of me. We were getting paid to practice and play, which I thought was great. There was not as much TV coverage as there is today but we all wanted to be pro athletes. Women’s basketball is embraced more overseas: we were like kings/queens over there and got a lot of respect.
You were a 3-time Olympian (2 gold/1 bronze) and were named USA Basketball’s Female Athlete of the Year in 1988 & 1992: what is your favorite memory from your time representing your country? I liked the opening ceremonies at the Olympics because it showed our camaraderie. Everyone hated the US and wanted to beat us, so when they announced our country’s name it felt so good and was such a proud moment for all of us to represent our country. Nobody wants to lose the gold medal but the opening ceremonies is when the world is watching.
In 2008 you created the Katrina McClain Foundation to raise awareness of childhood obesity: why did you pick that issue, and what have you been able to accomplish so far? I saw that it was a big problem for a lot of kids: they are just eating too much sugar and not exercising enough and getting proper rest. A lot of that has to do with their environment such as gaming/technology, which are distractions that keep them inside more. We did not have that problem growing up and I felt that doing something was better than nothing. I wanted to teach kids to make good choices.
You were inducted into both the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame: where do those moments rank among the highlights of your career? Each Hall of Fame that I have been inducted into was great: to be recognized after you are done playing was just amazing. I felt like a little kid who just kept getting nice presents. The gift that I was given was a platform for now: I get to reach back and give lessons that were instilled in me, and when I realize that kids remember me and have Googled my speech it is so fun. It is really rewarding to give back to someone else: I get to appreciate it every day.
For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day featuring Penn/Princeton – CLICK HERE
For this week’s Hoops HD Report podcast – CLICK HERE
For our colleague Rocco Miller’s latest weekly bracket – CLICK HERE
For Jon Teitel’s interview with Jack Powers (re: Ken Norton) – CLICK HERE
NEWS AND NOTES
-Last night featured the second matchup of West Virginia and Oklahoma. The Mountaineers raced out to a 50-40 lead at halftime and were able to overcome a late Sooner rally to get a much-needed road win. Press Virginia held the Sooners over 20 points below what they averaged at home. Trae Young had a big night in terms of points scored, but he was shut out in the assist column.
-Syracuse also got a desperately needed win on the road at Louisville last night. It’s the kind of game that puts the Orange closer to the bubble and also brings the Cards down to the bubble themselves. Louisville does have a significant win at Florida State on their profile, but they are now stuck in neutral after consecutive home losses to the Noles and Syracuse.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-XAVIER AT BUTLER (Big East). Butler, while not ranked, is a very impressive 12-1 at home, and that includes a win over top ranked Villanova. They’ve also won four games in a row, all by double digits, and are playing their best basketball of the year. Xavier is on the fringe of the #1 line, but they’ve had to sweat out their last two games, and neither team was in the same universe as Butler, so this is going to be a huge test for the Muskies.
-UCF AT CINCINNATI (American). Cincinnati keeps winning. That’s all they can do. They should end up as a protected seed if they win out, which I think they are good enough to do.
-TENNESSEE AT KENTUCKY (SEC). Both teams are in the rankings and both are competing for protected seeds. Tennessee won the first meeting, but winning this one on the road would be even bigger and solidify an already solid profile even more. Kentucky is coming off a loss to Missouri and is looking to rebound. After looking amazing in the final 25 minutes of their game at West Virginia, Kentucky has struggled in their last two games.
-MICHIGAN AT NORTHWESTERN (Big Ten). Michigan is solidly in the top half of the bracket and can add another road win to their resume tonight.
-SOUTH CAROLINA AT ARKANSAS (SEC). Arkansas needs to be sweating a little bit. There is certainly time to play their way into safety, but they’re just 4-6 in league play, and many of the games they lost were to teams that you’d expect a solid NCAA team to be able to beat. Tonight they’re at home in yet another game that you would expect a solid tournament team to be able to win.
-ALABAMA AT MISSISSIPPI STATE (SEC). Mississippi State is in all likelihood an NIT team unless they absolutely thunder down the stretch, but they are 14-1 at home, so if the committee is paying attention (and in recent years there have been times where I wondered whether or not they were) this would be a really nice win for Alabama if they’re able to pick it up.
-BUFFALO AT CENTRAL MICHIGAN (MAC). Buffalo isn’t likely to get into the NCAAs without the auto-bid, but with such a healthy RPI they should at least stay on the board if they win out, and if they are then you never know for sure.
-BOSTON COLLEGE AT NOTRE DAME (ACC). BC kept a glimmer of light alive with an OT win at home against Georgia Tech on Sunday. If they can win this one on the road, it will all but turn out the lights for Notre Dame until the ACC Tournament.
-BAYLOR AT OKLAHOMA STATE (Big 12). Okie State just got the big win at Kansas. Their chances aren’t zero, but they need to string together some wins if they want to end up on the right side of the bubble.
-GEORGETOWN AT PROVIDENCE (Big East). Providence has been solid at home all year long and is well on pace to make the NCAA Tournament if they’re able to continue to hold serve. A win tonight gets them to 7-4 in league play. However, Georgetown made Creighton sweat a little at their place and made Xavier sweat bullets before losing both games.
-MICHIGAN STATE AT IOWA (Big Ten). This should be an easy win for Michigan State, and it will improve them to an impressive 5-1 on the year in true road games, and 9-2 overall away from home.
-TCU AT KANSAS (Big 12). I don’t know where to begin with this. I’m sitting here trying to think about how to evaluate Kansas, who loses at home more than on the road. Do you give teams like TCU less credit if they win at Kansas than you would if they were to beat Kansas at home? Kansas has five losses on the season, and inexplicably four of them have come at home. TCU is sliding closer and closer to the bubble, but as of now they are still well within it. A win today would certainly help because a loss drops them to 3 games below .500 in league play, and they’d be just 3-7 in their last ten games. But, they’re on the road at Kansas, so they have a chance!!
-WICHITA STATE AT MEMPHIS (American). To say Wichita State is in trouble is completely overstating things, but it would be in their best interest to not lose any more games to sub-tournament caliber teams.
-NEBRASKA AT MINNESOTA (Big Ten). Nebraska can play their way onto the bubble if they win out, but minus beating a heavyweight in the Big Ten Tournament I don’t think they can play their way into a position where they are so far inside it that they’re completely safe.
-MISSOURI AT OLE MISS (SEC). Missouri is on the bubble, and winning road games against non-tournament caliber teams would be a good thing. Ole Miss, while not a tourney team, can still be very tough to beat at home.
-COLORADO STATE AT AIR FORCE (Mountain West, Front Range). Highlighted because we love the Front Range!
-BOISE STATE AT NEW MEXICO (Mountain West). Boise State is squarely on the bubble as it is, and any loss would be very damaging.
Penn at Princeton, 6:00 PM Eastern, ESPNU
When it comes to great college basketball rivalries, especially for us Under the Radar fans, Duke and North Carolina is an afterthought. The Rivalry of all Rivalries is the one in the Ivy League between Penn and Princeton. Tonight, at 6:00 PM Eastern on national TV, these two teams will be matching up for the 239th time, with Penn looking to extend its 125-113 series lead. To put this Rivalry in context, from 1963 to 2007, one of these two teams took the Ivy League crown in all but two seasons. Although Penn has the series lead, Princeton currently has a 26 to 25 lead in Ivy League titles. And, in not much of a surprise, these teams once again look like two of the best in the conference.
Penn enters tonight’s game at 5-0 in Ivy League play and 15-6 overall. The Quakers are coming off a home win over Yale on Saturday, as four different players scored in double figures. One of Penn’s most notable wins all season (other than the 4 overtime thriller over Monmouth) came back on December 27 when 15 players scored points, including an NCAA record 10 players that hit at least one three-pointer in a blowout win over Delaware State. AJ Brodeur is the player that Princeton probably has to key in on tonight, as he has pulled down at least 8 rebounds in every Ivy League game so far and is capable of putting up big scoring numbers, such as the 30 he scored earlier this season against Columbia.
Princeton enters tonight’s rivalry game at 3-2 in league games and 11-9 overall, though the Tigers hold perhaps the biggest win for Ivy league teams this season when they won at USC, 103-93 in overtime, back in December. The Tigers are coming off of a tough 102-100 overtime loss to Brown on Saturday, after slipping by Yale Friday night 76-73 in overtime as well. Five Tigers were in double figures in Saturday’s loss, led by 27 from Devin Cannady and 23 from Myles Stephens. Amir Bell was one rebound short of a double-double in the loss, and did have one in Friday night’s win. The Tigers will need another strong effort from their key players tonight if they want to pull within a game of first place and avenge a 76-70 loss at Penn back in early January.
This week, we begin by discussing the three-on-three tournament taking place at the Final Four this year where each of the 32 conferences will be represented by a team of four. We also discuss whether Villanova or Virginia is the nation’s top team, and then look at the ACC and talk about how Louisville is slumping and Syracuse is suddenly looking up. In the Big East, we look at Xavier’s big upcoming game at Butler and what their chances are of earning a #1 seed. The SEC continues to be a logjam with Texas A&M improving and Tennessee and Auburn continuing to win. Washington has come on strong out of the Pac Twelve, and Kansas continues to befuddle us with just one road loss, but four losses at home. And, we also look at how the city of Philadelphia went wild after Temple’s big win at Tulane!! All that, and much more….
And for all you radio lovers, below is an mp3 version of the show…
With the 2018 NCAA tourney tipping off next month, we will spend this month taking a walk down memory lane with a choice collection of coaches who are celebrating an awesome anniversary this year. From an upset of the top-ranked team in the country in the 1958 tourney (60th anniversary) through a 12 vs. 5 upset in the 2013 tourney (5th anniversary), these legends have all carved out a little piece of history in past Marches. We begin our series with former Manhattan coach Ken Norton. He played for Hall of Fame coach Clair Bee at Long Island, then played professionally for the New York Jewels of the American Basketball League, and later became coach of the Jaspers for more than 2 decades where he won 300 games. Coach Norton passed away in 1996, but HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Norton’s former player Jack Powers, former Executive Director of the NIT, about outscoring Jerry West 29-10 in Manhattan’s memorable 1958 NCAA tourney upset of West Virginia.
Coach Norton played basketball for Hall of Fame coach Clair Bee at Long Island University: how much of an influence was Bee on Norton’s decision to become a coach? Ken always talked about Clair Bee. Ken was an outstanding pitcher on the LIU baseball team but after WWII he decided to become a basketball coach.
In 1936 the LIU team was favored to win a gold medal at the Olympics but they voted to boycott the Berlin Games due to the political situation in Germany: how difficult was it for him to come to that decision? I know it was a team decision but I did not really discuss it with him.
He became head coach at Manhattan in 1946: why did he take the job? The previous coach was future Hall of Famer John “Honey” Russell (who left Manhattan to become the 1st coach of the Boston Celtics). Norton was at De La Salle Academy in Long Island at the time: they brought him in for an interview and ended up hiring him.
1 of his players (Junius Kellogg) helped initiate the investigation that led to the uncovering of a point-shaving scandal by reporting a bribe attempt to Norton during the 1951 season: how widespread was the scandal, and how proud was he of Kellogg’s commitment to fair play? Kellogg was offered $1000 to keep a game below the point spread: he went right to Norton, who ended up going directly to the local District Attorney’s office. The story blew up after that: it was the 1st big scandal to hit college basketball. Junius later played for the Harlem Globetrotters before getting into a horrible car accident and becoming a paraplegic (Kellogg was was inducted into the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Hall of Fame in 1981).
In 1957 he was 1 of the leading spokesmen in favor of adopting the 24-second shot clock used by the NBA: why did he support it, and was he in the majority or minority? Ed Steitz was an AD who was on the rules committee and he supported the change along with Kenny.
In the 1958 NCAA tourney you had 29 PTS/15 REB in a 5-PT upset of top-ranked West Virginia: how on earth were you able to hold Jerry West to only 10 PTS? Jerry was a sophomore and the Mountaineers came into New York as the #1 team in the country. I heard that their fans actually skipped coming to the Garden in order to head to the 2nd round game in Charlotte. It was probably the worst day of Jerry’s career…as I am sure that every Manhattan fan who ever sees him reminds him of that game! We all pulled together and it was a great victory for our school.
He also coached baseball/golf and served as athletic director: which sport did he enjoy the most, and how did he like being an administrator? He ran the show up there as far as the athletic department and had to hire/fire the coaches of all the other sports teams. Basketball was his favorite sport dating back to his playing days at LIU. When he was coaching he only had 1 assistant so he pretty much ran the basketball program by himself.
He remains the winningest coach in school history: what made him such a great coach, and do you think anyone will ever break his record? His tenure there was longer than most if not all of the other basketball coaches. A lot of mid-major coaches only stick around a couple of years before moving on to something else. He treated his players very fairly: he was not a screamer but made sure they got things done his way. He learned an awful lot from Clair Bee and always made sure his players got good jobs after they graduated from college.
He died in 1996: when people look back on his career, how do you think that he should be remembered? Kenny used the “clock” offense with 4 men rotating around a center: many tried to copy it but nobody else could get it right. He was an outstanding coach for his time among a bunch of other great coaches in the metropolitan New York area. He devoted his life to the school.
