NEWS AND NOTES
-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-For Jon Teitel’s coverage of the 2k Classic – CLICK HERE
-The shocker from yesterday was Indiana losing at Fort Wayne. Fort Wayne wasn’t one of those really good Under the Radar teams like Chattanooga, or Valpo, or Arkansas State, or someone like that. At least they didn’t appear to be. They were blown to bits out at Illinois State, and weren’t able to beat an Arkansas team that certainly isn’t as good as Indiana appears to be. But, they pulled off a huge upset in an overtime thriller yesterday, which is the first really big upset of the season! As for the Hoosiers, in the grand scheme of things it will barely qualify as even being a setback. They’re playing a tough schedule and already have a neutral floor win against Kansas. Had they not beaten Kansas and won this game, I don’t think their profile would look as good as it does now with the Kansas win and the Fort Wayne loss. They will need some true road wins, but they’ll have other chances. For Fort Wayne, it’s hard to say how much this win will end up meaning in regards to making either the NCAA Tournament or the NIT. It’s a fantastic feelgood moment in time, but in order to make it count as far as making the postseason is concerned, they need a very strong showing the rest of the way. As far as the game itself, it sure was fun to watch!
-Texas continues to struggle. We think Colorado is a good team and there certainly isn’t a high level of shame in losing to them, but Texas was totally outplayed. Then again, we’ve seen this before. Not so much from Texas, but from Shaka Smart. November just isn’t his month. Even the great teams he had at VCU struggled in November, so don’t be surprised if the Horns really pick it up here in another week or two.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-WICHITA STATE VS LSU (Battle 4 Atlantis). Both teams are unbeaten, but both have only played buy games up to this point. This tournament is the first real test for both teams.
-VCU VS BAYLOR (Battle 4 Atlantis). Baylor has a big win over Oregon already and could really pick up some big wins and begin to build their profile if they do well in this tournament.
-OREGON VS UCONN (Maui Invitational – 5th Place). Both teams were high in the rankings when the season started. Both could still end up having big seasons, but UConn had to sweat out Chaminade in their last game, and hasn’t really looked good at any point. Oregon struggled against a Tennessee team that many of us were expecting them to beat handily. Both teams kind of need this just to get their seasons on the right track.
-MICHIGAN AT SOUTH CAROLINA. Both teams come in unbeaten, and Michigan has played some good teams and looked really good against them. This is their first true road game, so picking up a win will further improve their profile. South Carolina also needs to cash in on an opportunity like this game, especially with upcoming games like Syracuse, Seton Hall and Memphis coming away from home in the next few weeks.
UTAH STATE VS TEXAS TECH (Cancun Challenge – 3rd Place). Both are coming off their first losses of the season and looking to pick up some momentum by adding some notable neutral floor wins to their profile.
-MICHIGAN STATE VS SAINT JOHN’S (Battle 4 Atlantis). Michigan State has played a killer schedule, but up until now they haven’t done anything except win home buy games. None of their losses are going to hurt them, but eventually they need to win some games away form home and win some games that aren’t buy games. This tournament is yet another opportunity for them to get their season on the right track.
-UMBC AT NAVY. No big wins yet, but after being one of the worst D-1 teams for the last several years, UMBC has a chance to start off 5-0.
-GEORGETOWN VS OKLAHOMA STATE (Maui Invitational – 3rd Place). Both teams are coming off losses to highly ranked opponents, but Georgetown already has a big win in this tournament and to pick up another notable neutral floor win will definitely have their season back on the right track. Oklahoma State had a lot of questionmarks coming into this season as well, and to pick up a second notable win will be a great start for them.
-HOUSTON VS VERMONT (Gulf Coast Showcase – Championship). It’s early, and perhaps these two won’t be on the radar all season long, but it is one of the better teams in the America East taking on an unbeaten Houston team that’s really starting to get their program turned around.
-MISSOURI STATE AT DEPAUL. Missouri State is off to a 3-0 start and is looking to add a road win to their profile against what is currently (emphasis on “current”) a respectable 2-1 DePaul team.
-PURDUE VS AUBURN (Cancun Challenge – Championship). This is one of the more important games of the day as far as shaping the early part of the season. Auburn is unbeaten, and if they can knock off Purdue tonight they become something they haven’t been for a very long time. Nationally relevant. Purdue is high in the rankings, but already has a home loss to Villanova and doesn’t have any huge wins of note yet. Losing this doesn’t hurt them in the long run, or won’t be a season breaker, but it will be an early setback.
-LOUISVILLE VS OLD DOMINION (Battle 4 Atlantis). Both teams come in unbeaten. Louisville is highly ranked but has only played home buy games. This tournament is a chance for them to put some notable wins on their profile.
-WISCONSIN VS NORTH CAROLINA (Maui Invitational – Championship). This is a great early season game between two highly ranked teams. Wisconsin has already been tested, but this is the Tar Heels’ biggest test up to this point. Both teams look like they can end up as protected seeds, so this is a huge opportunity for both teams to put a neutral floor win against a protected seed on their profile. (Historical footnote – the last two times North Carolina won the Maui Invitational, they would go on to win the national title. – John S.)
-VALPARAISO VS BYU (Men Who Speak Up Main Event at the MGM Grand – Championship). Both teams are good, but both have limited shots at statement wins, which actually makes this a very important game for both teams.
-OAKLAND VS NEVADA (Great Alaska Shootout). Oakland comes into this unbeaten and has a chance to take on Nevada on a neutral floor. We feel Nevada is one of the better teams in the Mountain West, so it’s a good early season neutral floor game for both teams.
BUY GAMES
-Cleveland State @ Kentucky
-UMES @ Colorado State
-The Citadel @ Arizona State
-Jackson State @ Ohio State
-North Texas @ Rutgers
-William & Mary @ Duke
-Samford @ Cincinnati
-Charleston @ Villanova
-Coastal Carolina @ Wake Forest
Throwback Thursday: Farewell to the Cincinnati Gardens
For Chad Sherwood’s Under-The-Radar Game of the Day between UC-Davis and Weber State – CLICK HERE
For the latest Under-The-Radar Weekly Podcast – CLICK HERE
When it opened up in 1949, the Cincinnati Gardens was modeled after Toronto’s fabled Maple Leaf Gardens. The first major tenant was a minor league hockey team, namely the Cincinnati Mohawks of the American Hockey League and later the International Hockey League. They would win multiple Turner Cups as champs of the IHL, and another future team (the Cincinnati Swords) would also win a Calder Cup as part of the American Hockey League.
As for basketball, the first major tenant for the Gardens would be the Cincinnati Royals of the NBA. They played in the Gardens for 15 years after relocating from Rochester in 1957. Although they never won any NBA titles, they were a frequent contender in the Eastern Conference thanks to players like Jack Twyman, Oscar Robertson and Jerry Lucas. One sign that the NBA was not yet a mainstream pro league was that they had to move a playoff series against the Boston Celtics out of the Gardens in favor of a circus one year; the games were subsequently moved to Xavier’s ancient Schmidt Fieldhouse. After the 1971-72 season, dwindling attendance helped spur another relocation as the Cincinnati Royals would become the Kansas City Kings (now the Sacramento Kings).
When it comes to college basketball, the Cincinnati Bearcats would occasionally play games in the Cincinnati Gardens, although the Armory Fieldhouse (built in 1954) was their primary home during this time. Once Riverfront Coliseum was built in the mid-1970s, it offered a new home for the Bearcats along with the World Hockey League’s Cincinnati Stingers. This in turn would eventually provide a permanent home in the Gardens for the Xavier Musketeers. Xavier was a program that had an NIT title in 1958 to their credit (along with a single NCAA appearance in 1961), but they had a program that was abysmally bad in the 1960s and 1970s on a level that would have merited occasional Centenary consideration had HoopsHD existed at this time. Even that may not have been fair to Centenary at that time – their program was actually respectable at this time thanks to a star player named Robert Parish!
But Bob Staak was slowly building a solid program at Xavier that finally found a home in the newly formed Midwestern City Conference in the early 1980s. As attendance began to rise, Schmidt Fieldhouse became inadequate for a growing Xavier fanbase and they would move to the Cincinnati Gardens beginning with the 1983-84 season. And they were rewarded – the 1984 season featured a trip to the NIT that included wins at home against Nebraska and Ohio State. Following a season in which Staak would move on from Xavier to Wake Forest, Pete Gillen took over in 1985-86 and continued to lay a foundation where Xavier would make the NCAA Tournament 7 times in his 9 seasons. Skip Prosser would also follow in his footsteps beginning with the 1994-95 season. They would go undefeated in the MCC (now the Horizon League) regular season in 1994-95 and would get an at-large NCAA Tournament bid despite an upset loss to Wright State in the MCC conference tournament that year.
Another step forward was taken for Xavier’s program in the 1995-96 season. This was their first season in the Atlantic 10, and also meant that instead of hosting programs like Evansville, Detroit and Loyola-Chicago on an annual basis, they would now be playing host to Massachusetts (a national power under John Calipari), Temple, and another emerging program in George Washington annually. It was an overtime loss to UMass on national TV that served notice that Xavier had a team of future stars on their roster. By the end of Xavier’s tenure at the Gardens following the 1999-2000 season, they had accumulated a very impressive 215-25 record at home (.896 winning percentage).
As electric as the UMass game was, few games could ever compare to the Crosstown Shootout. It was at its peak in the early 1990s when Gillen was in his prime at Xavier and Bob Huggins had just taken over a program at Cincinnati that went through its own down cycle in the 1980s. The teams would exchange Shootout victories from 1990 through 1998 – this included a very contentious game in 1994 where Brian Grant would hit a game-tying shot in regulation to force overtime. After Xavier won in overtime, Gillen and Huggins had a shouting match after the game as opposed to the usual handshake line. Things simmered down a bit after Gillen moved on to Providence, but it was hardly the last great moment in the Gardens. That was reserved for the 1999-2000 season – it was the second time in 4 seasons where Xavier would defeat a Cincinnati team ranked #1 at the time.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. After Xavier moved to the Cintas Center on campus for the 2000-01 season, the AHL’s Cincinnati Mighty Ducks remained as a tenant until the 2004-05 season. Once they left town, the Gardens would play host to fringe pro hockey, high school hockey, occasional pro wrestling events and roller derby. As of July 21, 2016, the Gardens was sold to the Greater Cincinnati Development Authority. Memorabilia from the Gardens has already been sold through local estate sales and there are now plans in the works to sell the seats as well through similar channels.
As for the end of the 1999 Crosstown Shootout, click here to see the ending in all its glory.