Hoops HD

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.

It finally happened for Indiana. They announced yesterday that Archie Miller will become their next head coach to replace the departed Tom Crean. Miller had a run to the Elite 8 in 2014 with Dayton and other multiple NCAA Tournament appearances to his credit (along with the outright A-10 regular season title this year). This now leaves Dayton in a more precarious position since they now have a head coaching vacancy and a roster that’s losing a boatload of experienced seniors.

As for yesterday’s results in the CIT, both Furman and Saint Peter’s advanced to the CIT semifinals with road wins against Campbell and Texas State, respectively. Both Furman and Saint Peter’s were runners-up in their respective conferences during the regular season and had early exits in their conference tournaments. We will learn the semifinal matchups tonight after the final two quarterfinal games are played today.

CIT

LIBERTY at UMBC (2:00 PM, Facebook Live). This is the only quarterfinal matchup where neither team got a bye into this round. Liberty made it this far with wins over Norfolk State and Samford and UMBC’s continued turnaround season includes wins over Fairfield and St. Francis Univerity in the CIT.

FORT WAYNE at TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI (3:00 PM, Facebook Live). The last quarterfinal matchup first involves the Fort Wayne Mastodons – they were the final team to get a bye into the quarterfinal round after their opening win against Ball State. They will hit the road to play the Islanders of Corpus Christi – they beat Georgia State and Weber State at home to advance to this checkpoint in the CIT. Both this game and the aforementioned game will be streamed on Facebook Live.

With UCLA’s loss to Kentucky in the Sweet Sixteen last night, it cleared a roadblock for Indiana fans who are waiting on bended knee for Steve Alford to return home to Indiana to become their next head coach. As of this morning, however, all indications are that he will remain at UCLA for the foreseeable future.

There were 2 other notable vacancies filled yesterday – both were in-house hires. Oklahoma State announced that former assistant coach Mike Boynton Jr. will take over as head coach for the Cowboys following Brad Underwood’s surprise departure for Illinois. Boynton played for South Carolina and also spent 4 years as an assistant for the Gamecocks, but recently he was an assistant for Underwood both at Stephen F. Austin and Oklahoma State.

Wyking Jones will also be promoted at California and takes over as head coach for the Golden Bears after Cuonzo Martin resigned to become the new head coach at Missouri. Not only was he an assistant for Martin, but had also spent time as an assistant to Rick Pitino at Louisville.

As for other postseason tournaments, the CIT resumes this weekend with 2 quarterfinal games today and 2 quarterfinal games tomorrow. All 4 games can be streamed on Facebook Live. (And if you really want to go below the radar, Fairmont State (WV) and Northwest Missouri State will play for the Division II title today at 3 PM at the Samford Pentagon on CBS.)

CIT

FURMAN at CAMPBELL (2:00 PM, Facebook Live). The Camels’ improbable success in March continues after a pair of home wins against Houston Baptist and UT-Martin. Furman was one of 3 teams to get a bye into the quarterfinals, but that also means they must hit the road for today. They did look impressive in beating nearby USC-Upstate in their only game in the CIT so far.

SAINT PETER’S at TEXAS STATE (5:00 PM, Facebook Live). Like the aforementioned Paladins, one of the trade-offs of getting a 2nd-round bye for Saint Peter’s will be a road game this round. The Peacocks won their opener against Albany last week. Texas State is coming off of a pair of home wins against Lamar and Idaho.