Tourney anniversary: HoopsHD celebrates the 50th anniversary of John Oldham

There are coaches who win games, there are coaches who get a nice plaque when they retire, and then there are coaches who get to paint their own name onto the basketball court in the gym where they previously worked their magic.  John Oldham is a member of the latter group thanks to his remarkable resume.  As a player at Western Kentucky he was named All-American in 1949 before joining the NBA.  After spending a decade as coach at Tennessee Tech, he took over for his former coach Edgar Diddle in 1964 and went 146-41.  He led the Hilltoppers to 4 NCAA tourneys in a 6-year span from 1966-1971, including 50 years ago in the 1967 NCAA tourney when he took eventual runner-up Dayton to the brink before losing by 2 PTS in OT.  HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Coach Oldham about being an All-American and reaching the Final 4 in 1971.

What are your memories of the 1948 NIT (future Hall of Famer NIT MVP Ed Macauley scored 19 PTS in a 7-PT win by eventual champion St. Louis)? I just remember that we got beat. Macauley was a troublemaker but was also a great player.

In 1949 you were an All-American at Western Kentucky: what did it mean to you to win such an outstanding honor? It was a compliment. I started shooting a tennis ball into a Quaker Oatmeal box when I was 3 years old so it was my lifelong ambition to become an All-American. I got to play at Madison Square Garden when I was 18 years old…and then I got a letter from Uncle Sam and spent 3 years in the Navy.

In 1949 you were drafted 15th overall by the Fort Wayne Pistons (1 spot behind Ralph Beard): did you see that as a validation of your college career, or the realization of a lifelong dream of reaching the NBA, or other? I played for the coach that drafted me during WWII (Curly Armstrong). We had 12 great players in the Navy. I came out of a very small high school in a town of 1000 people but 5-6 of my teammates ended up playing basketball in college.

In 1950 you scored a team-high 5 PTS in a 19-18 win at Minnesota, which remains the lowest-scoring game in NBA history: how excited were you when they finally instituted a 24-second shot clock? I think that we caused it! We held the ball for most of the game and there was a lot of booing and a lot of coins tossed onto the floor. My only claim to fame was being the leading scorer in that game. We had to physically fight our way off the floor as a couple of guys had me pinned down.

What are your memories of the 1963 NCAA tourney as coach at Tennessee Tech (a 69-PT loss to Loyola, which remains the biggest margin of victory in tourney history)? From that point on I never let anyone sit on the bench who did not wear a coach and tie so that nobody would know who the coach was! They walloped us pretty good but I got even with them a few years later when we beat them.

What are your memories of the 1966 NCAA tourney as coach of your alma mater (Cazzie Russell made 2 FT with 11 seconds left after a foul call on Greg Smith during a jump ball in a 1-PT win by Michigan)? We were leading at the end of the game and then they called a foul on Greg for jumping into Cazzie even though he never even jumped. We had a team that should have won it all.

What are your memories of the 1967 NCAA tourney (Don May had 26 PTS/20 REB in 45 minutes in a 2-PT OT win by eventual runner-up Dayton)? That was the year that Clem Haskins missed a few games with an injury. I started him in that game but he just was not ready for an OT affair. May made a long 2-handed shot to beat us: that was my 2nd team that was capable of winning it all.

In 1970 you received death threats after starting 5 African-American players: how bad was the racial climate at the time, and did you ever regret your decision? I never regretted my decision. It was not an easy time back then to find places to stay/eat. I must have received over 100 letters from racist people but thank god for the writers who hung in there with us. It just so happened that the 5 best players I had were Black and after a while you just look at them as ballplayers. I got called to the president’s office and the chairman of the board said that he was not in favor of my plan. I had some great players such as Dwight Smith/Haskins/Greg.

Take me through the magical 1971 NCAA tourney:
Clarence Glover had 16 PTS/17 REB and made a layup with 4 seconds left in a 2-PT win over Jacksonville (Artis Gilmore had 12 PTS/22 REB): where does that shot rank among the most clutch that you have ever seen? Clarence went over and hid in the far-left corner. I told our team to get the ball to Jim McDaniels but Gilmore switched over to guard Jim. Everyone on our bench jumped up and yelled to get the ball to “C”. He faked it, shot it, and made it. I showed up at the press conference and people said that it was the best designed play they ever saw…but he was the last person I would have ever chosen to take that shot!

McDaniels had 35 PTS (11-11 FT)/11 REB in a 25-PT win over Kentucky: how big a deal was it to get such a huge win in the school’s 1st-ever meeting against its in-state rival? We beat Indiana when they were undefeated as well as teams like Cal/Ohio State. Even though years have passed that was probably the biggest game in our school’s history.

Jerry Dunn scored 25 PTS but missed a FT with 4 seconds left in regulation in a 3-PT 2-OT loss to eventual runner-up Villanova: how devastating was that loss, and does it feel weird that the legacy of such an amazing game is that both teams later had to vacate that tourney appearance due to NCAA violations? That was really a disaster. Glover missed a shot at the end of that game after making the game-winner against Jacksonville. I can still see it today: it rolled around the rim twice and then fell out. We should have won that ballgame but you have to make your own breaks.

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News, Notes and Highlighted Games – Friday, February 24

For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day between Oakland and Green Bay – CLICK HERE.

For the weekly Bracket Rundown Podcast where the Hoops HD staff builds a seed list live on tape delay – CLICK HERE.

We are only 3 days away from the annual fortnight of conference championship games that decide who advances to the NCAA Tournament and who will have to wait until Selection Sunday to hear their fate on national TV. Last night, the regular season was finished in the Atlantic Sun, and you can click HERE to see the bracket for their conference tournament. 12 other conferences will wrap up regular season play this weekend, and on Sunday night we will have our season premiere of Championship Week video podcasts starring Chad, the Puppet, and myself (and other occasional guests).

– It has been a very turbulent couple of weeks for Maurice Watson Jr. While we’ve covered his ACL tear on numerous occasions, that is the least of his problems right now since he has been suspended from Creighton University. He has since been charged by authorities in Omaha with sexual assault and is expected to return from Philadelphia (his hometown where he had his ACL surgery) to turn himself in to authorities.

– Gonzaga set a record for most lopsided road win by a #1 team last night; they waxed San Diego 96-38 last night. Should they beat BYU tomorrow night, they would be the 5th team to clinch a perfect regular season since Indiana won the 1976 national championship with a perfect record. Other teams to run the table in the regular season were UNLV in 1991, Saint Joe’s in 2004 (before the A-10 Tournament), Wichita State in 2014 and Kentucky in 2015.

– Both Arizona and UCLA won to set up a very pivotal matchup at Arizona over the weekend. An Arizona win would put the Wildcats in the driver’s seat for the regular season title, but a UCLA win puts the Bruins squarely back into the race for the top spot in the Pac-12.

– While Cincinnati and Saint Mary’s won with relative ease last night, the only Top 25 team to fall victim to an upset was Wisconsin taking a bath at Ohio State. The score will show the Buckeyes won by 10, but they had an easier time winning that game than the score would indicate. It was not a good in-state homecoming for Badgers Vitto Brown and Nigel Hayes.

– The Big South now has a 3-way tie between UNC-Asheville, Liberty and Winthrop. I suspect that the Liberty-Asheville game tomorrow will be a leading candidate for Chad’s UTR Game of the Day.

– Mount St. Mary’s failed to clinch the NEC outright last night after falling at home to Long Island-Brooklyn. It was the first time all year the Mountaineers lost at home in NEC play. The Mount clinches the top NEC seed either with a win against St. Francis-Brooklyn or a loss by LIU-Brooklyn against Wagner. However, the Blackbirds could clinch the top seed if The Mount loses against SFBK and if they beat Wagner.

– If New Mexico State wasn’t finished after losing games at Bakersfield and Grand Canyon, a home loss against archrival Utah Valley was another nail in the coffin (at least as far as the regular season is concerned).

– New Orleans and UNC-Wilmington were other UTR teams to hold serve last night.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

– SIENA AT MONMOUTH (MAAC, 7 PM – ESPN2). Tonight is Senior night for Monmouth – notable Hawks to be honored include Justin Robinson, Josh James, Je’Lon Hornbeak, Zac Tillman and Chris Brady. We would be remiss if we didn’t include other members of the Hawks’ Nest like Collin Stewart and Greg Noack, though.

– PRINCETON AT COLUMBIA (Ivy, 7 PM – Ivy League Digital Network). While Princeton has been cruising towards the Ivy League regular season crown, they will have to complete the job in the Ivy League Tournament in two weeks. Columbia has really struggled of late and are now battling with Penn for the 4th and final spot into the tournament.

– PENN AT CORNELL (Ivy, 7 PM). And speaking of the Quakers, they will be going to upstate New York tonight to take on the Big Red. They have won 4 straight games after an 0-6 start to Ivy League play.

– YALE AT HARVARD (Ivy, 7 PM – ESPN3/WatchESPN). While there are still 4 games left in the Ivy regular season title, it’s hard to imagine that Harvard would finish anywhere other than 2nd and Yale would finish anywhere other than 3rd. As it stands right now, this would be one of the semifinals for the inaugural Ivy League tournament.

– VALPARAISO AT WRIGHT STATE (Horizon, 7:30 PM – ESPN3/WatchESPN). Chad has already highlighted Oakland/Green Bay as his UTR Game of the Day, but there are still high stakes to this game if Valpo wants to hold onto their spot as leaders in the Horizon. A Valpo win AND an Oakland loss clinches the top seed in the Horizon League Tournament.

– DAYTON AT DAVIDSON (A-10, 9 PM – ESPN2). This is one of 2 games tonight involving power league teams – the Flyers are looking to avoid stubbing their toes in a trap game that precedes their rematch with VCU next week. Davidson did beat VCU earlier this season, but they are in a slump in which they’ve lost 4 of 6 games (including losses at home to URI and an improved George Mason team).

– OREGON STATE AT CALIFORNIA (Pac-12, 11 PM – FS1). Cal has already endured a tough loss to Oregon earlier this week. They absolutely must win this game tonight and likely need to sweep the Utah/Colorado roadie next week to feel comfortable about their bubble chances on Selection Sunday.

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Under the Radar Game of the Day: Oakland at Green Bay

Oakland at Green Bay, 7:00 PM Eastern, ESPNU

For our most recent Bracket Rundown video podcast, CLICK HERE.

Tonight’s key game is a huge AFC-NFC matchup between the Oakland Raiders and Green Bay Packers from the frozen tundra of Lambeau . . .  Tonight’s Under the Radar Game of the Day is a key battle in the Horizon League between the Oakland (Mich.) Golden Grizzlies and the Green Bay Phoenix.  Entering play tonight, Oakland sits one game behind Valparaiso in the battle for the regular season championship and top seed in the conference tournament, and would hold the tiebreaker over the Crusaders by virtue of sweeping them in the regular season.  Green Bay is one game further back, but still in striking distance of at least picking up the 2 seed, especially with a win in hand against Oakland already.  With Valpo having a pair of tough road tests left this weekend (at Wright State tonight and at Northern Kentucky on Sunday), it is even still possible for the Phoenix to capture the top seed.

Oakland is currently 22-7 overall and has won seven straight games.  Martez Walker has been a key to the run, including a 23 point effort in a home win over Valpo last week.  Green Bay sits at 17-11 overall.  The Phoenix started conference play 5-0, but have only gone 6-5 since then.  Charles Cooper had a huge game earlier this week in a win over Illinois-Chicago, when he scored 18 points and pulled down 13 rebounds.  These two teams are both looking to enter the conference tournament with momentum, and with only one regular season game left after tonight, the winner of this game has a great chance to be playing for an NCAA Tournament bid in the conference title game on March 7.

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Hoops HD Bracket Rundown: February 23rd

The Hoops HD Panel look at all the teams that they feel should be in the NCAA Tournament if the season ended today.  It isn’t an attempt to guess what the actual committee would do on Selection Sunday, but rather how they themselves would select and seed the teams if the season ended today.  They reveal all the teams line by line and discuss, debate, and assess them as they go.

The show was recorded on Thursday, February 23rd at 9:30pm, est.  It does not take into consideration any games that were played after that, most notably USC vs Arizona and Wisconsin vs Ohio State

 

 

Below is the seed list in bracketed form…

 

 

And for all you radio lovers, below is an mp3 version of the show…

Posted in Bracketology, Commentary, News and Notes, Videocasts | 2 Comments

Throwback Thursday: The 2016 Hoops HD NCAA Tournament Selection Process

For David Griggs’ News, Notes and Highlighted Games – CLICK HERE.

For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day between New Orleans and Stephen F. Austin – CLICK HERE.

For the regular season finale of the UTR Video Podcast – CLICK HERE.

Every year since its inception, the staff members of HoopsHD (including past incarnations like CrimsonCast) gather together during Championship Week to discuss the pending NCAA Tournament. The process is threefold: 1) Select the field, 2) Seed the field, 3) Bracket the field.

The process begins earlier in the week – the first job of each staff member is to select up to 36 teams that would be in the NCAA Tournament regardless of whether or not they win their upcoming conference tournaments. (Teams that already won their conference tournaments were exempt, so conference tournament champions like Gonzaga and Northern Iowa were not included on committee member ballots). Teams that were named on at least 8 out of 10 ballots were added to the NCAA Tournament field. This is where the term first ballot comes from on our show. For other teams that did not make the initial field but were named on at least 3 ballots, they were added to the Under Consideration column on the Selection board. Below is our selection board as of Wednesday from last year:

If you look at the rest of the board, teams listed in blue already won their conference tournaments and were guaranteed entry into the NCAA Tournament. 27 teams listed in green were first-ballot teams as described above. The middle column included all other teams under consideration – teams listed in white and orange (orange teams lost in their respective conference tournaments) were included. Teams listed in red lost their conference tournaments but were not named on committee ballots. After this phase, the HoopsHD Committee had their annual pasta dinner and post-dinner ice cream.

Thursday was the first official day of deliberations for the HoopsHD Committee. Two additional teams were added to the Under Consideration board – Centenary winner Chicago State (click HERE for the Centenary Award details) and 2015-16 Team of the People Grand Canyon (click HERE for Team of the People details). Motions were made to remove teams from Under Consideration that did not have enough merit to be included in the field. (Note that teams in white still had games to play; teams in orange were eliminated from their respective conference tournaments). We then began to debate the merits of Under Consideration teams and who should be added to the at-large field. After the first wave of debates, each committee member voted for their top 8 teams to be selected. The top 8 vote-getters would then be ranked 1 through 8 by each committee member. The top 4 teams (Wisconsin, Providence, Colorado and Butler) were added to the at-large column and the bottom 4 teams “carried over” to the next wave of balloting. After more debates, each committee member individually voted on 4 more teams to be added. The top 4 vote-getters were added to the 4 carry-over teams to again be seeded 1 through 8. The next 4 teams added to the at-large pool were USC, Wichita State, Oregon State and Pittsburgh. 1 at-large spot was left open at this point, but 4 more at-large spots opened up when it became clear that the winners of the ACC, Big East, Big 12 and Pac-12 were already assured of an NCAA Tournament spot. There were also 4 more potential at-larges that could open up pending the results of conference tournaments in the Big 10, SEC, American and A-10. Below is the selection board through Thursday night:

When the committee began deliberations on Friday night, further scrubbing of the Under Consideration board took place as more results from conference tournaments were coming in. At this point, our committee began to build our master seed list. A wave of debates took place as to who the top teams would be – each individual committee member voted on their top 12 teams. (The actual NCAA Selection Committee would select 8 teams at a time, but we did 12 as a time-saving measure). The top 12 teams were seeded 1 through 12 by each individual member; the top 8 vote-getters were added to the seed list on the right-hand side of the Selection Board. Four teams carried over; our committee then debated on which 8 teams (4 by the real NCAA Committee) should be subsequently voted into the seed list. The top 8 teams (along with the 4 carryovers) were again seeded 1-12 and the top 8 vote-getters were added to the seed list. We repeated this process one more time to arrive at 24 teams on the master seed list. At that point, we went to the task of adding 4 more teams to the at-large pool; UConn, Cincinnati, Michigan and Saint Joseph’s were added to the field. We were left with 2 at-large spots to fill at the end of Friday night. Our last task was to add 8 more teams to the master seed list. Below is the selection board through Friday night:

On Saturday night, we began by scrubbing the Under Consideration column down to 8 teams plus the Centenary Award winner. This is where most of the debates took place for tonight – 3 teams were added to the at-large field – VCU, Temple and South Carolina. VCU’s inclusion opened up an at-large spot out of the A-10 – this meant that there would be 2 final teams to add to the field. They were Monmouth and a contingency pick in St. Bonaventure. The contingency arose because of the American championship – St. Bonaventure would be the last at-large if UConn won that game; Memphis would have stolen a bid had they won that game instead. The remaining teams were added to the seed list – this included contingency teams like Memphis, Little Rock and Louisiana-Monroe since the Sun Belt championship was played on Selection Sunday.

And this is where the fun began for Saturday night – committee member Joby Fortson (author of the HoopsHD Nitty Gritty Rankings – click HERE for those rankings) lobbied heavily to remove South Carolina from the field and proposed Syracuse in their stead. St. Bonaventure’s merits were also called into question at the same time. 8 votes were needed to support this motion – the motion was to rank South Carolina, Syracuse and St. Bonaventure. Syracuse was #1, St. Bona #2 and South Carolina #3. This meant that Syracuse was now in the field and that St. Bonaventure would remain as a contingency team. Our last task of Saturday night was to scrub the seed list and move teams around depending on Saturday’s results. Below is how the Selection Board looked as of Saturday:

Sunday was our final day of deliberations. A second scrubbing of the seed list was done as Sunday results began to come in. With the late starting time of the American championship, 2 contingency brackets were built based on the final seed list. This was the final bracket from our committee that took into account UConn’s win:

This was the end result of our work from last season; we will convene again 2 weeks from now to begin building this year’s NCAA Tournament bracket as well.

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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Thursday, Feb 23rd

NEWS AND NOTES

-For our final Under the Radar Video Podcast of the season – CLICK HERE

-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day, which involves a New Orleans team who’s having a storied season – CLICK HERE

-Butler picked up what I believe is the single most impressive win that any team has this year with their win at Villanova.  Nova had not lost at home all year, and their loss to Providence at home last year was their only one in the last three years.  Last night was Nova’s first loss at the Pavilion in over four years.  The top of Butler’s resume is incredible.  They’ve beaten Arizona and Villanova twice and now have nine wins away from home, including six true road wins.  That’s certainly the resume of a solid protected seed.

-Kansas clinched at least a first place tie in the Big Twelve for the thirteenth time in thirteen years with their win over TCU last night.  TCU remains on the bubble, and Kansas remains atop the Big Twelve.

-Oregon was getting blown out of the place at the beginning of their game against Cal, which was a game the Golden Bears really needed to win.  Oregon came back and hit a game winning three at the buzzer to keep their first place hopes alive, as well as keep them on pace to end up as a #2 seed.  Cal, on the other hand, remains squarely on the bubble and is currently on the wrong side of it.

-Louisville stayed with North Carolina for about 30 minutes before UNC built up a reasonably comfortable lead.  The game doesn’t hurt Louisville at all, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they still ended up on the #2 line.  North Carolina continues to look like a #1 seed.

-Syracuse beat Duke with a banked three point shot at the buzzer.  This is the second year in a row that when February started I was pretty sure Syracuse was dead, and they’re once again gaining steam late in the year.  If they do make the NCAA Tournament, which it’s looking like they will, they’re tough to play against for teams that aren’t familiar with them because of their defense.  Duke is still in really good shape, especially with the rest of the ACC schedule and the conference tournament after that.  I still think they’ll end up on the #2 or #3 line.

-Providence picked up a huge road win at Creighton, which moves them closer to the bubble, and perhaps even inside of it.  I’ll be curious to see where they end up on our bracket show tonight.  They have certainly improved as the season has gone alnog.

-Minnesota picked up a very impressive win against Maryland, and made what was an already good looking resume look even better.

-Tennessee lost at home to Vanderbilt which really hurt what looked like a legitimate chance to play their way inside the bubble.  With that being said, let’s take a quick look at Vanderbilt.  They’re 6-2 in their last eight games with wins at Tennessee, at Arkansas, and at home against Iowa State.  They do have a rather dumbfounding loss to Missouri, but other than that they’ve been playing very well and beating teams that are either on the bubble or inside the bubble.  Their RPI is now in the top 50, their overall schedule strength is 3rd, and their OOC SOS is #1.  We have not discussed Vanderbilt all year long, but those are all earmarks of a tournament team.  They have games remaining at Kentucky and at home against Florida.  If they can win their next one against Mississippi State, and then pick up just one of those last two, I think the Dores are in.

-Michigan picked up a true road win against Rutgers.  That’s noteworthy because it doubles the number of true road wins this team has on the season.

-And, Xavier’s tailspin continues.  They’ve now lost four straight, and quite frankly haven’t looked particularly good in any of those four losses, at least for not more than a half.  They have a big home game coming up against a Butler team who is smoking hot right now.  If they don’t win that one, and there is a good chance that they won’t, they may be falling out of first ballot range and into the bubble range.

-Oklahoma State keeps winning, and keeps looking impressive when they win.  After an 0-6 conference start they’ve now won 8 of their last 9 conference games, and 9 out of 10 overall.  They ran away from Kansas State on the road last night to add yet another good road win to a profile that just keeps getting better and better.

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-GEORGIA AT ALABAMA (SEC).  Alabama is right on the fringe of the bubble, and if they finish strong they can make the field.  Every game has a pivotal feel to it and they really can’t afford to lose at home in a game like this.

-NEBRASKA AT MICHIGAN STATE (Big Ten).  Michigan State is relatively safe if they hold serve, which means winning at home against non-tournament teams.

-MEMPHIS AT CINCINNATI (American).  Cincinnati actually has a chance to win 30 games before the end of the conference tournament.  I still don’t see them ending up as a protected seed, but they can make quite a bit of noise in the tournament.

-TOWSON AT UNC WILMINGTON (Colonial).  I think UNCW has a chance of making the tournament even if they don’t win their conference tournament.  I’d be disappointed if they win out and the committee doesn’t end up taking them.  They may be tested today as Towson is one of the better teams in the league, and has been playing well lately.

-WISCONSIN AT OHIO STATE (Big Ten).  Wisconsin is in a race for first place in the Big Ten and has a decent shot at ending up as a protected seed, but they’ll need a strong finish and a good showing in the conference tournament in order to make that happen.  Picking up this win on the road would certainly help.

-UCLA AT ARIZONA STATE (Pac Twelve).  UCLA appears to be a solid protected seed, and is in a three way race with Oregon and Arizona for first place in the conference.

-USC AT ARIZONA (Pac Twelve).  Arizona has just one conference loss and currently has the strongest profile in the Pac Twelve.  If the season ended today I think they’d be at least a #2 seed.  USC is solidly in the field and has an opportunity to give their tournament resume a huge boost.

-GONZAGA AT SAN DIEGO (West Coast).  Gonzaga can win their 29th game today.  I’ll be surprised if they don’t win out and end up on the #1 line.

-SAINT MARY’S AT PEPPERDINE (West Coast).  Saint Mary’s will end up in the top half of the bracket if they can hold serve the rest of the way.

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