News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Wednesday, January 4th

Posted on January 4, 2017 by David Griggs

For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day between Long Beach State and UC-Irvine – CLICK HERE.

For Jon Teitel’s interview with USF interim head coach Murry Bartow – CLICK HERE.

Last night was the Super Tuesday debut on the ESPN family of networks, and it did not fail to disappoint. The biggest surprise last night was Texas Tech pulling off an upset at home over West Virginia with a 77-76 win. Anthony Livingston hit the game-winner for the Red Raiders with under 5 seconds left in overtime. Texas Tech still has a bit of a bloated record, but they now have a win of substance to prop that record up a bit.

We’ve said for most of the year that TCU may be primed to potentially make a postseason run under Jamie Dixon – they were able to beat Oklahoma 60-57 at home last night. They’ll have a bigger test this weekend when they go to West Virginia.

Kansas also survived an upset bid at home against in-state rival Kansas State with a 90-88 victory. They went the length of the floor to hit the game-winner, but it was not without controversy – travelling was not called on the final shot.

And speaking of controversy – North Carolina needed overtime to survive against a game Clemson team on the road. Clemson head coach Brad Brownell was very unhappy in the postgame handshake line and had words with Roy Williams – this was mainly due to Kennedy Meeks taunting the Clemson bench during the game, from what I can understand.

In the Big Ten, Wisconsin gets roadkill with a 75-68 win at Indiana’s Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers have now lost 3 straight games and it may be looking more and more like an abberration that they were able to beat Kansas on Opening Night.

In the SEC, Arkansas was able to rebound on the road with a win at Tennessee – no small feat considering the Vols have been playing some of their best basketball this year with wins at East Tennessee State and Texas A&M. A&M looks to be in deep trouble after getting disemboweled at Rupp Arena – the Wildcats won 100-58.

If you happened to see any of the East Carolina-UCF game last night, our deepest sympathies go out to you. Neither team shot above 30% from the field in this one, but the Knights prevailed 48-45 thanks to clutch free throw shooting.

Given that the Atlantic 10 isn’t going to provide many opportunities for signature wins, it was good for both Dayton and Rhode Island to get some wins of note last night. The Rams had no trouble beating Saint Joe’s at home, and the Flyers pulled away from St. Bonaventure on the road last night. Neither team has much margin for error as far as at-large hopes go, though.

Orlando Antigua was also dismissed from his position as South Florida’s head coach yesterday. Antigua was 23-55 in 2 and a half seasons at South Florida – assistant coach Murry Bartow will take over as head coach for the remainder of the season.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-RUTGERS AT MICHIGAN STATE (Big Ten).  Michigan State has won six of their last seven and is off to a good start in Big Ten play.  They shouldn’t have too much trouble against a Rutgers team who is better, but still has a long way to go.

-VILLANOVA AT BUTLER (Big East).  This should be a fun one.  Butler has had some slip ups, but at home they’ve looked fantastic.  Getting to host top ranked Nova, who is well deserving of the #1 ranking, is a great showcase game for them.

-AUBURN AT VANDERBILT (SEC).  Auburn has work to do, and they need to win games like this one.

-SOUTH CAROLINA AT GEORGIA (SEC).  You get the sense that both teams really need this win.  South Carolina got off to a great start, but has been teetering lately and a road win like this could get them turned back around.  Georgia still has a lot of work to do as well.

-GEORGIA TECH AT DUKE (ACC).  Georgia Tech is coming off a stunning win against North Carolina.  If they pick this one up, then they will have perhaps undergone the most drastic and sudden turnaround that any team has ever undergone.  This is also Coach K’s last game before he has back surgery on Friday.  We wish him a speedy recovery

-MIAMI FL AT SYRACUSE (ACC).  Miami needs to build up their profile and picking up road wins is a good way to do it.  Syracuse just needs to…well…stop losing to bad teams. Or, for that matter, actually beat a team from a major conference for the first time this season.

-VCU AT DUQUESNE (Atlantic Ten).  In our latest bracketology we had VCU right on the bubble.  They need to blow through this conference and avoid losses in games like this in order to feel safe on Selection Sunday.

-OKLAHOMA STATE AT TEXAS (Big Twelve).  Texas’s tailspin continues.  Oklahoma State has a fairly strong profile and if they hold serve in conference, which means winning games like this, they should be fine for a bid.

-IOWA STATE AT BAYLOR (Big Twelve).  Baylor has an incredible profile right now, but they will definitely be challenged in conference play.  Iowa State has work to do.  They haven’t won a true road game yet.  Winning tonight would be a tall order but if they do somehow pull it off their resume will drastically improve.

-DRAKE AT WICHITA STATE (Missouri Valley).  Wichita should win this fairly easily and remain safely inside the NCAA Tournament bubble.

-PENN STATE AT MICHIGAN (Big Ten).  Michigan is coming off a loss and simply cannot afford to lose at home to a sub-NCAA Tournament team like Penn State.

-CREIGHTON AT SAINT JOHN’S (Big East).  The Johnnies just got a hugely surprising win against Butler, so Creighton better not overlook them.

-VIRGINIA TECH AT NC STATE (ACC).  NC State has a good record, but they haven’t really built it up by beating good teams.  They need some meat on their profile and beating a Virginia Tech team that’s been playing very well would be the kind of statement win that they need.

-LOUISVILLE AT NOTRE DAME (ACC).  It always seems like a great game when these two get together.  Louisville is highly ranked and has the better profile, but the Irish are unbeaten at home and should be way up for this one.

-VIRGINIA AT PITTSBURGH (ACC).  UVA is coming off a very surprising home loss to Florida State.  They’ve proven they can play well on the road with their win against Louisville, though, and if they are a top fifteen caliber team they should be able to win this one.

-OREGON AT WASHINGTON (Pac Twelve).  Oregon is red hot all of a sudden, and Washington continues to sputter.  This is a bit of a rivalry game, and it’s never easy to win those on the road, but given how they’ve looked lately it wouldn’t surprise me to see Oregon roll in this one.

-TULSA AT HOUSTON (American).  Houston has a good record, but a weak OOC schedule has really thinned out their margin for error.  They need to be able to beat bad teams at home, and Tulsa falls into that category.

-TEMPLE AT SMU (American).  I still think SMU is a tournament team, and they should be expected to beat a Temple team that’s just been playing like crap lately.

 

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Under the Radar Game of the Day: Long Beach State at UC-Irvine

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Chad

Long Beach State at UC-Irvine, 10:00 PM Eastern, espn3

For Jon Teitel’s interview with Murry Bartow, who just took over as interim head coach at South Florida, CLICK HERE.

The Under the Radar Game of the Day shifts attention to the Big West conference tonight as UC-Irvine hosts Long Beach State in the conference opener for both teams.  The Big West has certainly struggled in non-conference play, with only UC-Davis (8-7) entering league play with a winning record overall (and if non-D1 wins are ignored, even the Aggies are sub-.500).  Only two teams in the conference currently sit within the top 200 in KenPom ratings — and those two teams will be battling tonight.  UC-Irvine is ranked 183 and Long Beach sits at 187.

UC-Irvine is currently 7-9 overall with their best win having come at Santa Clara.  Senior Ioannis Dimakopoulos is one player to keep an eye on, as he has scored in double digits in each of his team’s last five games, recording two double-doubles in that time.  Long Beach State, on the other hand, is only 5-11 overall, though assembled that record against one of the nation’s toughest schedules.  Head coach Dan Monson’s team has won four of their last six, including defeating Colorado State and Oregon State in that span.  Gabe Levin led the way in the Colorado State win with 16 points and 9 rebounds, and should be a key to the 49ers attack again tonight.  This may only be the first game of the conference regular season for these two teams, but it may prove to be one of they key contests in the battle for the Big West regular season title this year.

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Back in the Saddle Again: HoopsHD interviews interim South Florida coach Murry Bartow

Posted on January 3, 2017 by Jon Teitel

Some people ease into the new year…while others really take that “new” part to heart.  When we last saw Murry Bartow he was finishing a 200+ win career at East Tennessee State in 2015, a job he got after winning 100+ games as head coach at his alma mater of UAB.  South Florida hired him as an assistant to Orlando Antigua last August, but after Antigua was fired earlier today Bartow was named interim head coach.  He certainly has the genes to succeed: his father Gene was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.  He also has a proven track record: SoCon Coach of the Year in 2004 and Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year 2007.  HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel previously got to chat with Coach Bartow about winning an NCAA title in 1987 as a grad assistant to Coach Bobby Knight and his 3 trips to the NCAA tourney as a head coach: we wish him the best of luck at his new job!

In the early 1980s you played basketball at UAB where you were part of 4 NCAA tourney teams: how good was your program back then, and how on earth did you also have time to be a member of the golf team?! We had some really good teams at UAB. It was a lot of fun even though I was not a main part of the rotation. I was also a golfer, which was fine because the 2 seasons did not overlap that much. I played a lot of golf growing up so I liked it a lot.

After graduation you began your coaching career as a graduate assistant at Indiana where you worked with the Hoosiers’ 1987 NCAA championship team: what was it like to work with Coach Bobby Knight , and what did it mean to you to win a title? It was incredible to win it all after we had lost in the previous year’s tourney to Cleveland State. I loved my 2 years working for Coach Knight and tried to soak up everything he did/said.

From 1989-1996 you served as an assistant coach for your dad Gene, who created the Blazers basketball program: what was it like to work for your dad, and what made him such a great coach? I played for my dad when I went to UAB and also liked working for him. He was a great players’ coach and a very good recruiter. He knew what button to push with each player in order to get the most out of them.

From 1996-2002 you served as head coach at UAB: was it weird to take over for your dad, and what did it mean to you to become head coach at your alma mater? It was an honor to take over for him but it is difficult for any son to try and replace their father: just look at guys like Pat Knight, Sean Sutton, etc. There were big shoes to fill but we had some success.

In 2004 you finished your 1st season at East Tennessee State with a regular season title, a conference tourney title, and COY honors: how were you able to come in and be so successful right from the start? Ed DeChellis had done a great job building the program and we had some great players. It just all came together and we had a really good year.

What are your memories of the 2004 NCAA tourney (Tim Smith had 26 PTS/4 STL in a 3-PT loss to Cincinnati)? We played well and had a great shot to win. It was back and forth the entire game and could have gone either way.

In 2005 your team switched from the Southern Conference to the Atlantic Sun Conference: why did the school make the switch, and what was the biggest difference between the 2 conferences? The switch was made after we decided to drop football and the Southern Conference decided they did not want us in their league, so our AD and president decided to move to the Atlantic Sun. From a men’s basketball perspective they are very similar in terms of being perimeter-oriented leagues with good coaches/players.

What are your memories of the 2009 NCAA tourney (DeJuan Blair had 27 PTS/16 REB in a 10-PT win by #1-seed Pitt)? It was very similar to the Cincinnati game. We were playing really well at that time and entered the tourney with a lot of confidence: we would not be intimidated by anyone. We were overmatched yet were only down by 2 PTS with 4 minutes left. Blair took over late in the game and we did not have any answer for him.

What are your memories of the 2010 NCAA tourney (Eric Bledsoe had 29 PTS after making his 1st 8 3-PT shots in a win by #1-seed Kentucky)? My memories are obviously not real good! The Wildcats had a lot of great players and we were not as strong a team as the previous year. Our game plan was to hope that they did not hit a bunch of 3-PT shots, but once they started making threes it just snowballed from there.

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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Tuesday, Jan 3rd

Posted on January 3, 2017 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES

-For our latest Hoops HD Report Podcast – CLICK HERE

-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE

-Monmouth and Chattanooga were teams we actually thought had a chance of making the NCAA Tournament without winning their conference tournament.  We now no longer feel that way.  Monmouth dropped their second conference game with a loss to Saint Peter’s last night, and Chattanooga fell to UNC Greensboro.  It’s not the lack of good wins that has hurt Monmouth the last two years.  It’s the bad losses.  I know it’s not easy to go on the road and win against anyone, but an NCAA Tournament caliber team is expected to beat sub NIT teams, much less sub CIT teams.  When a team like Monmouth goes out there and loses multiple games like that then the committee looks at that the same way they’d look at a power conference team losing a buy game.

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-ARKANSAS AT TENNESSEE (SEC).  Arkansas has a bloated record but very few of their wins have been of note.  Tennessee is hardly a great team, but they have been better than expected, they’ve been playing well lately, and they’ve lost just one home game.  It will be a test for Arkansas.

-OLE MISS AT FLORIDA (SEC).  The Gators have been playing well lately and shouldn’t have too much trouble beating a decent but not great Ole Miss team at home today.

-WISCONSIN AT INDIANA (Big Ten).  This is a big early season conference game for both teams.  Indiana has lost two straight and needs their momentum back, and while Wisky has had a good season they don’t have a win anywhere close to being as good as this one would be on their profile yet.

-NORTH CAROLINA AT CLEMSON (ACC).  UNC is coming off a very surprising loss to Georgia Tech and a solid road win would be a great way to rebound from that.  Clemson is off to their best start in several years, and a home win today could really energize their fanbase.

-BOSTON COLLEGE AT WAKE FOREST (ACC).  Wake needs to win just to stay in the race.  BC isn’t a good team, but they’re not nearly as bad of a team as we thought and with the signs of life they’ve shown Wake just can’t overlook them.

-SAINT JOSEPH’S AT RHODE ISLAND (Atlantic Ten).  Rhody needs to absolutely dominate this league in order to land inside the bubble come March, and that certainly means being able to beat sub NCAA Tournament caliber teams at home.

-EAST CAROLINA AT UCF (American).  UCF can make it to the NCAAs, but their margin for error is small.  Losing at home to a non tournament team like East Carolina would certainly fall outside of their margin for error.

-DAYTON AT SAINT BONAVENTURE (Atlantic Ten).  Dayton is another team that’s hovering around the bubble and has a very small margin for error.  The Bonnies are likely an NIT team, so this is the kind of game Dayton needs to be able to win if they themselves want to demonstrate that they’re an NCAA team.

-ALABAMA AT MISSISSIPPI STATE (SEC).  Mississippi State is much improved, but they’ll need to do very well in conference play in order to get the attention of the committee.

-TEXAS A&M AT KENTUCKY (SEC).  Kentucky seems destined for the #1 line and blowing through this conference should land them there.  TAMU’s profile is suddenly hurting and they’ll need to win some big games in conference.  This game would certainly qualify, but they’re probably swinging over their heads.

-OKLAHOMA AT TCU (Big Twelve).  TCU ran up a nice record against a weak schedule, which isn’t a bad thing for a program that’s trying to turn itself around to do.  Now that conference play has started they need to pick up some big wins in order to keep pace.

-KANSAS STATE AT KANSAS (Big Twelve).  Kansas is contending for the #1 line, and K State, while they just have one loss, is still contending for the NCAA Tournament.  Their wins aren’t all that great, but they can completely change the complexion of their profile if they somehow pull off the upset tonight.

-WEST VIRGINIA AT TEXAS TECH (Big Twelve).  West Virginia has had a great year with just one loss in a game where they really just had a bad half.  Any road game is tough, and tonight will be no exception as Texas Tech is unbeaten at home and looking for a notable win of their own, but if WVU is a top fifteen caliber team it’s the kind of game they should be able to win.

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Under the Radar Game of the Day: Central Michigan at Eastern Michigan

Posted on January 3, 2017 by Chad

Central Michigan at Eastern Michigan, 7:00 PM Eastern, espn3

For our latest Hoops HD Report video podcast, CLICK HERE.

Conference regular season play gets underway tonight in the Mid-American Conference with a full slate of six games, highlighted by a potential early battle between the top two contenders in the West Division, Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan.  The Eastern Michigan Eagles entered the season as our pick to win the MAC West, but have only put together an 8-5 record, with four of those wins coming outside of Division I.  They are coming off of a home win last week over Long Beach State, in a game where five players scored in double figures.  If the Eagles can continue to spread the scoring out, they certainly have the ability to finish at the top of their division and secure a high seed in the MAC tournament in March.

Central Michigan has put together the best overall record amongst MAC West teams, entering conference play at 10-3, though admittedly all ten of their wins have come against teams ranked outside the top 150 at KenPom.  Marcus Keene has been close to amazing for the Chippewas so far this year, as he enters the game leading the nation in scoring average at 30.7 points per game.  In fact, his average is more than 5 points per game better than the #2 player in the nation (Alec Peters of Valparaiso at 25.0 ppg).  If Eastern Michigan is unable to at least slow Keene down tonight, do not be surprised if the Chippewas are able to pull of the road upset and take the early lead in the West Division.

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The Hoops HD Report: January 2nd

Posted on January 2, 2017 by David Griggs

Conference play has just gotten underway, and we’ve already seen some surprising results.  Duke and North Carolina both went down in upsets, and Nebraska picked up two huge Big Ten road wins after struggling all throughout OOC play.  Chad and the panel run through all of the major conferences and reassess how many teams they think have a legitimate shot of making the NCAA Tournament, and what they need to do in order to get there.  They also take a look at all of the notable games coming up this week.

 

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

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