Hoops HD

Thanks to Wyoming’s win over Coastal Carolina last night, we are now assured of 3 more under-the-radar games remaining in the 2016-17 college basketball season. The Cowboys went into halftime with a modest 33-27 halftime lead, but they kicked into another gear in the 2nd half and ended up with a blowout 81-57 win at home over the Chanticleers last night. Justin James led Wyoming with 21 points and Alex AkaGorski also added 17 points off the bench. Friday night’s game will be a winner-take-all affair for the CBI Championship on Wyoming’s home floor.

In the CIT last night, Rashawn Thomas became the first 2,000-point scorer in Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s program history. The Islanders got a decisive 79-61 victory last night over UMBC. They will play host to the CIT Championship on Friday night against Saint Peter’s – the Peacocks also had a comfortable 77-51 victory at home last night against Furman.

As we type this article this morning, Dayton has announced that Anthony Grant will return home as their next head coach. He played for the Flyers under legendary head coach Don Donoher in the mid-80s and was part of a team that went to the Elite 8 in 1984. He spent 3 years as a head coach at VCU and 6 seasons at Alabama in the collegiate coaching ranks. Right now, he is an assistant coach on Billy Donovan’s staff for the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic 10, former Chattanooga head coach Matt McCall will officially become the new head coach at UMass. The job was originally going to go to Pat Kelsey, but he did a 180 just prior to being announced as their new head coach at the time. Former Purdue associate head coach Jack Owens will become the new head coach for the (Mother) Miami RedHawks as well.

NIT (Championship)

(6) GEORGIA TECH vs. (4) TCU (8:00 PM, ESPN). Regardless of who wins tonight’s game, we are assured of at least one feel-good story in the coaching ranks in terms of rapidly rebuilding a moribund program. Will it be Josh Pastner’s Georgia Tech team – a team picked by some pundits to not win a single game in ACC play all year? Or will it be Jamie Dixon and TCU – a program that hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since the run-and-gun days of Billy Tubbs in the late 1990s?

For a photo recap of Jon Teitel’s postseason coverage of the Big Ten Tournament in Washington, DC – CLICK HERE

All good things eventually come to an end, and the same thing held true in the NIT last night for the Cal State-Bakersfield Roadrunners. Georgia Tech won 76-61 in the first semifinal game to advance to their first NIT Championship game. The Yellow Jackets were led by Josh Okogie’s 22 points along with Ben Lammers’ 15 points and 11 rebounds.

Awaiting them in the championship game on Thursday night will be the TCU Horned Frogs. TCU won 68-53 in a game where just about everyone in a Horned Frog uniform got in on the act. They had 20 assists on 26 made field goals, and outrebounded Central Florida 44-35. They will play Georgia Tech in the NIT Championship Thursday night at 7 PM.

There were also a couple of notable players that declared for the NBA Draft in the past 24 hours and signed with an agent. Maryland’s Melo Trimble will forgo his final year of eligibility. Xavier’s Edmond Sumner also declared yesterday, although he will be unable to do workouts as he rehabs his knee following ACL surgery and awaits surgery later this spring on a torn labrum in his shoulder.

CBI (Game 2)

COASTAL CAROLINA at WYOMING (9 PM, ESPNU). Coastal Carolina won the first game of the best-of-3 CBI Finals on Monday night and must win at least one game at Wyoming to win their first postseason title in their program’s history. Coastal had 6 players in double-figures in the point column on Monday night, but going from sea level to 7,220 feet in altitude will be demanding from a conditioning point of view for the Chanticleers.

CIT

TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI at UMBC (7:00 PM, CBS Sports Network). The UMBC Retrievers have won all 3 games at home during the CIT – their most recent victory came against Liberty on Sunday. They will take on the Southland’s perennial bridesmaid TAMU-CC (at least during the SFA years) in the first of 2 semifinal games to be broadcast on CBS Sports Network tonight.

FURMAN at SAINT PETER’S (9:00 PM, CBS Sports Network). As alluded to a couple of days ago, both Furman and Saint Peter’s were unlikely 2nd-place finishers in their respective conferences during the regular season. The Paladins did get a road win on Saturday against Campbell to advance to tonight’s semifinal. Saint Peter’s also returned from their brief road trip with a win against Texas State last Saturday night as well.

There were a couple more coaching hires that were announced yesterday. The first one comes as a little bit of a surprise – Akron’s Keith Dambrot will become the new head coach at Duquesne (sorry, @CoachMarkTitus). He spent 13 seasons as Akron’s head coach that included 5 regular season championships in the MAC (in the East Division) and 3 MAC Tournament championships in 2009, 2011 and 2013. The only thing missing here was an NCAA Tournament victory.

Elsewhere, Quinnipiac also has a new head coach in place. That would be former Villanova assistant coach Baker Dunleavy. He is the son of Tulane head coach Mike Dunleavy Sr. and the brother to current NBA player and former Duke player Mike Dunleavy Jr.

Last night, the CBI Best-of-3 tipped off with Coastal Carolina beating Wyoming 90-81 in Game 1. Jaylen Shaw, Michel Enanga and Demario Beck each had 15 points for the Chanticleers. Jason McManamen led the Cowboys with 19 points. Games 2 (and 3, if necessary) will be played at Wyoming later on this week. Wednesday’s game is set for a 9 PM tip (Eastern time).

NIT

(8) CAL STATE-BAKERSFIELD vs. (6) GEORGIA TECH (7:00 PM, ESPN). The Cinderella Lite run continues for Bakersfield – they advanced to Madison Square Garden with 3 consecutive road wins against California, Colorado State and Texas-Arlington (which was the only game the Mavs lost at home all year). Georgia Tech actually got a pair of home wins due to Indiana’s unwillingness to play at home and a matchup with lower-seeded Belmont in the 2nd round, but proved themselves worthy of a trip to New York with their win at Ole Miss in the quarterfinals last week. Still, the Yellow Jackets have far exceeded what little was expected of them this season.

(4) CENTRAL FLORIDA vs. (4) TCU (app. 9:30 PM, ESPN). Both the Knights and the Horned Frogs knocked out the #1 seeds in the 2nd round (UCF won at Illinois State and TCU won at Iowa) and both teams won at home in the quarterfinals (UCF against Illinois and TCU against Richmond). While UCF’s Tacko Fall literally towers over everyone left in the field, don’t sleep on TCU’s Kenrich Williams, either. He is half a rebound away from averaging a double-double.

***NOTE***  We will be recording this week’s Hoops HD Report on Thursday night instead of the normal Monday night.

After yesterday’s games in the NCAA Tournament, our Final Four is now set for next weekend. In the first game, South Carolina was able to call on their defense one more time and were able to come up with a 77-70 victory over Florida. A year of firsts continues to roll on for the Gamecocks and are now assured of their first trip to the Final Four. They will play Gonzaga in the first game on Saturday.

The other game was even more of a nailbiter. North Carolina had a 7-point lead in the final minute and managed to give up back-to-back 3s sandwiched around a 5-second call where they failed to inbound the ball against Kentucky’s pressure defense. After a Carolina layup, Kentucky hit a game-tying 3-point shot with 7 seconds to play, but Carolina’s Luke Maye hit a game-winning shot just inside the arc to give the Tar Heels the final ticket to the Final Four. They will play Oregon in the second game on Saturday night.

As for the CIT, the final 2 quarterfinal games were played yesterday. Fort Wayne was unable to take advantage of their 2nd-round bye; they looked a little rusty on the road in their 78-62 loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. UMBC’s magic carpet ride also continued with their 80-68 win at home over Liberty. This now sets up both semifinal matchups for Wednesday night – Corpus Christi will travel to UMBC for the first semifinal game at 7 PM. The other game will feature Furman hitting the road to Saint Peter’s for a  9 PM tipoff. Both games will be televised on CBS Sports Network.

Last and not least, ESPN is reporting that GW officially named Maurice Joseph their permanent head coach with a 5-year deal. He was the interim head coach after Mike Lonergan was dismissed last fall just prior to the beginning of the season.

CBI (Game 1)

WYOMING at COASTAL CAROLINA (7:30 PM, ESPNU). At last, the under-the-radar tournaments are beginning to wrap up. The CBI championship will be determined in a best-of-3 series with each team assured of at least one home game. The first game will be played at Coastal Carolina – the Chanticleers defeated Illinois-Chicago 89-78 to advance to the championship series. Wyoming gets to host the second and final games (if necessary), but must first hit the road for the first and only time during the CBI. They beat Utah Valley 74-68 to advance to the championship series.