Hoops HD

Another day, another wave of upsets took place in the NIT last night. Sadly, one of the upsets means that we bid adieu to the Monmouth Hawks and the Hawk’s Nest for the 2015-16 season. GW got off to a fast start against the Hawks and held on for an 87-71 victory. Monmouth was able to shrink the deficit to 39-38 in the 2nd half, but GW gave itself some breathing room after a 10-0 run to open up their lead. The Colonials were a red-hot 9-for-19 from beyond the arc; Monmouth only shot 4-of-21.

For the second game in a row, South Carolina had 5 players suspended for this game and it cost them against Georgia Tech. Thanks to Marcus Georges-Hunt’s 14 points and 8 assists, the Yellow Jackets walked out of Columbia with a decisive 83-66 win against the Gamecocks. Their reward is a cross-country trip to San Diego to face San Diego State; they defeated Washington 93-78 last night. The Aztecs were led by Winston Shepard’s double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds.

In the CIT, the original Team of the People moves on once more to the quarterfinal round after defeating Boston U 83-72. Damon Lynn led the Highlanders with 31 points; Tim Coleman also had 20 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists. They will get to host a game at the Fleischer Center for the 3rd straight time when Texas-Arlington visits Newark on Thursday night at 7:30 PM.

The CBI also had 4 quarterfinal games played last night. The first one was a thriller between Ohio and UNC-Greensboro; the Bobcats fell behind by as many as 12 points before clawing their way back to tie the game at 67-67 going into the final minute of the game. Jordan Davis hit a 3-pointer to put OU up for good; they also added a couple of late free throws for a 72-67 win. Ohio will end up hosting Morehead State in the semifinals; Morehead defeated Duquesne at home by an 82-72 margin. The momentum of this game shifted when Brent Arrington hit a halfcourt shot just before halftime to give the Eagles a 43-36 lead at that point.

Vermont has made the most of their cross-country roadtrip so far; they defeated Seattle 73-54 to advance to the CIT semifinals on Wednesday night. Kurt Steidl led the Catamounts with 17 points, including 3-for-4 shooting from beyond the arc. Vermont will stay out west and travel to Reno to face Nevada; the Wolf Pack beat Eastern Washington 85-70 largely due to the efforts of Tyron Criswell (a career-high 32 points) and another career-high 28 points by Cameron Oliver.

There is also one coaching vacancy that will need to be filled for a notable UTR program; Brad Underwood will be leaving Stephen F. Austin’s program to take over as head coach at Oklahoma State. Keep an eye out for our next HoopsHD podcast where we recap the tournament action from the past week plus other notable coaching changes that are being filled. That being said, it’s time to preview tonight’s postseason action:

NIT

(2) ST. MARY”S AT (1) VALPARAISO (7:00 PM, ESPN) – With the defeat of Monmouth last night, we are left with only two under-the-radar teams left in the NIT field, and they are both playing tonight at Valparaiso for the right to advance to the semifinals at Madison Square Garden. The Gaels haven’t shown that they can win notable games away from home outside of their Gonzaga win, and Valparaiso has only lost once at home all year (against Wright State). This will still be a showcase of some of the best UTR players with Valpo’s Keith Carter and Alec Peters and St. Mary’s Joe Rahon.

(4) CREIGHTON AT (2) BYU (9:00 PM, ESPN) – Creighton has been the most dominant team in the first 2 rounds of the NIT; they beat Alabama and Wagner by a combined 51 points. However, both wins were within the cozy confines of Omaha, and now must hit the road to play a BYU team that had a little harder road to get to this point. Will the higher altitude of Provo, Utah pose the same problems for Creighton that it did for their conference mates Seton Hall last weekend?

CIT

No games tonight, but here are the 4 quarterfinal matchups that were released last night:

Grand Canyon at Coastal Carolina (Wednesday, 7:00 PM)
Ball State at Columbia (Wednesday, 7:00 PM)
UC-Irvine at UL-Lafayette (Wednesday, 8:00 PM)
UT-Arlington at NJIT (Thursday, 7:30 PM)

As always, all 4 of the games will be streamed on the above CIT link.

Had Florida been able to play like they did on the road for the past two games, they would have had a better chance at making the NCAA Tournament. Their extended road trip in the NIT will extend itself for one more game thanks to their 74-66 wire-to-wire win at Ohio State yesterday. Dorian Finney-Smith led the Gators with 16 points and 12 rebounds; they will play the winner of tonight’s Monmouth-GW game.

We are assured of at least one Under-The-Radar team advancing to Madison Square Garden; St. Mary’s defeated Georgia 77-65 thanks to Emmett Naar’s 15 point/11 assist output and Dane Pineau’s 12 point/11 rebound outing. The Gaels will travel to Valparaiso for a 7 PM game tomorrow night in a postseason revival of the BracketBusters.

For the second game in a row, 40 minutes was not enough to determine Ball State’s fate. Despite trailing by 11 points in the final 2 minutes of regulation, the Cardinals were able to close out regulation with an 11-0 run to force overtime. 5 players ended up in double figures for Ball State; they will hit the road to play Columbia at 7 PM on Wednesday night in the CIT quarterfinals.

NIT

(4) GEORGE WASHINGTON AT (1) MONMOUTH (7:00 PM, ESPN) – While the Colonials had a tougher road to advance to the 2nd round of the NIT after surviving at home against Hofstra, Monmouth had an easier win at home against Bucknell. GW’s last trip to the Garden State involved a game against Rutgers, but this is a big step up in terms of competition, relatively speaking.

(4) GEORGIA TECH AT (1) SOUTH CAROLINA (9:00 PM, ESPN) – Both Georgia Tech and South Carolina had easy victories last week, but the game was much more tenuous for the Gamecocks with 5 players suspended for that game due to team rules violations. The good news here is that Michael Carrera should again be good to go for Angry Frank’s bunch.

(3) SAN DIEGO STATE at (2) WASHINGTON (11:30 PM, ESPN2) – It’s safe to say that Washington is not going to match the 107 points they scored in their win against Long Beach State in the first round, but the Huskies have shown the ability to knock off a couple of the league’s bigwigs at home this season. The Aztecs had an easy win at home against Fort Wayne last week.

CIT (click on the link for a live stream)

BOSTON UNIVERSITY AT NJIT (7:30 PM) – The original Team of the People rebounded from a devastating home loss to Stetson with a win over Army-West Point; Boston U defeated Fordham on the road to set up this matchup at NJIT’s Fleischer Center. This will be the last of the 2nd-round games in the CIT before the quarterfinal matchups will be announced.

CBI (click on the link for all live streams)

DUQUESNE AT MOREHEAD STATE (7:00 PM) – Duquesne broke all sorts of scoring records last week in their 120-112 win at home against Nebraska-Omaha; tonight they hit the road to visit Morehead State. The Eagles pulled off a tough win at Siena, winning 84-80.

UNC-GREENSBORO AT OHIO (7:00 PM) – Despite overtime, Ohio was able to advance to the quarterfinals of the CBI with a 94-90 win against Albany last week. Greensboro beat Houston Baptist for just their 12th win of the season (they are 12-18 overall), but are unlikely to get lucky #13 at Harvard-On-The-Hocking tonight.

EASTERN WASHINGTON AT NEVADA (10:00 PM) – With Fresno State bowing out of the NCAA Tournament early, it’s up to both San Diego State (mentioned above) and Nevada to carry the torch for the Mountain West conference in the postseason. The Wolf Pack beat Montana 79-75; they will face an EWU team that defeated Pepperdine 79-72.

VERMONT AT SEATTLE (10:00 PM) – Vermont’s reward for defeating Western Carolina in the 1st round will be a cross-country flight to Seattle; the Redhawks advanced to the CIT quarters by defeating Idaho 68-63.

Only 3 games were played yesterday not involving the NCAA Tournament; Creighton saw to it immediately that lightning would not strike twice for the Wagner Seahawks.  Geoffrey Groselle had 18 points for the Bluejays in an 87-54 rout; the 33-point win was a school record for biggest win in the postseason. They will travel to BYU on Tuesday to play for a spot in the NIT Final Four at Madison Square Garden.

Kasey Shepherd had 18 points for Louisiana-Lafayette in their 80-72 win at Furman yesterday; Shepherd also became the Rajun Cajuns’ 43rd member of their 1,000-point club. In the other 2nd-round CIT game yesterday, Badou Diagne had 19 points and 10 rebounds in Coastal Carolina’s 71-62 win against New Hampshire. The Chanticleers will host a quarterfinal game on Wednesday; their opponent will be determined after the final 2 second-round games have wrapped up tomorrow night.

NIT

(2) FLORIDA AT (3) OHIO STATE (12:00 PM, ESPN) – Despite hitting the road for all of their postseason games due to O-Dome renovations, Florida coasted to an easy win against in-state neighbor North Florida last week. Ohio State had a little tougher road to get to Round 2; they needed overtime and a missed Akron shot at the end of regulation to survive and advance. Florida’s best win away from home came against Saint Joe’s back in November, but that was at a neutral court at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Arena. Ohio State scheduled this game for a Sunday to avoid conflicts with the girls’ high school championships taking place before today.

(3) GEORGIA AT (2) ST. MARY”S (7:30 PM, ESPNU) – St. Mary’s survived against New Mexico State in Round 1 thanks to a pair of free throws by Joe Rahon in the closing seconds; Georgia had a little easier road after defeating Belmont at home. Other than games against South Carolina, Georgia has not been stellar at all away from home.

CIT (all games streamed on the CIT’s website)

TENNESSEE-MARTIN AT BALL STATE (6:30 PM) – Our colleague Chad Sherwood is more impressed with Furman’s buzzer beater last week, but I stand by Ball State’s comeback against Tennessee State on the road as being a better story in terms of the opening round of the CIT. Tonight, they get to host their first-ever game against a Skyhawks team that beat Central Michigan 76-73 in their opener.

We say this every year, but there is a good chance that if you had filled out an NCAA Tournament bracket, it is going to be filled with a lot of Xs by now.

Middle Tennessee State was the chief cause of office pools being thrown wide open yesterday; they jumped out to a 15-2 lead against 2nd-seeded Michigan State and never relinquished that lead despite several comeback attempts by the Spartans throughout the game. Michigan State actually shot 55.6% from the field and was 11-24 behind the 3-point arc, but the Blue Raiders also shot about 56% from the field and were even more efficient from outside – they shot 11-19 behind the arc. This is the 4th time in the last 5 seasons that a #2 seed has lost in the 1st round/Round of 64.

The first stunner came in the afternoon in Spokane – Hawai’i led California for much of this game and ended up winning 77-66. It was a disastrous beginning for the Pac-12; they were already reeling from losses by Arizona, Colorado and USC; now California and Oregon State joined the list after losing their respective openers yesterday. Oregon did put an end to the Cinderella run of Holy Cross, however.

The entire afternoon session in St. Louis was upside-down; Syracuse led Dayton by 2 at the half and completely blew the game open in the 2nd half. The Orange beat the Flyers 70-51 and will now get to face Middle Tennessee State in the 2nd round on Sunday. Oklahoma and Maryland struggled a bit in their openers, although the final score didn’t indicate that for the Sooners. Villanova had a relatively easy time with UNC-Asheville, but their moment of truth comes Sunday.

Segue to Villanova’s next opponent – the winner of the Iowa-Temple matchup. Temple looked like they would have momentum going into overtime after Quentin DeCosey was fouled attempting a 3-pointer and hitting all 3 free throws. However, the game was still tied at 70 going into the closing seconds of overtime. Despite a controversial no-call after an Iowa offensive rebound, Adam Woodbury hit the buzzer-beater for Iowa after getting the biggest rebound of the game for the Hawkeyes. Can Iowa extend the recent miseries of Villanova’s recent postseason runs, or will the Wildcats finally get over the hump and into the Sweet 16?

In the evening sessions, only St. Louis had chalk and a lack of buzzer-beaters. Wisconsin ended up beating Pitt 47-43, but it was a game that Pitt lead for much of the way. Only in the final 2 minutes did the Badgers finally take control. Xavier got off to a fast start against Weber State, but the Wildcats did hang around just long enough to keep Musketeer fans nervous for the first 36 minutes of the game. Xavier-Wisconsin is also a rematch from the 2009 NCAA Tournament; that year the Musketeers won in Boise.

In Brooklyn, Stephen F. Austin scored their 2nd upset in 3 years with a surprisingly decisive 70-56 win over West Virginia. Thomas Walkup had a monster game for the Lumberjacks; he had 33 points and 9 rebounds. They’ll face Notre Dame in the 2nd round; the Irish were 70-63 survivors against Michigan.

In Oklahoma City, things were shaping up for a Texas-Texas A&M rematch in Round 2. Texas hit a game-tying shot with 2 seconds remaining in regulation in Northern Iowa, but the Panthers’ Paul Jesperson launched a half-court prayer to ensure that overtime would not be needed. It was the 2nd game in a row that UNI hit a buzzer-beater, and this was almost from the same location of Gordon Hayward’s near-miss in the 2010 championship game. Texas A&M had some early struggles against Green Bay, but they had a relatively easy win and now get to play UNI on Sunday.

In Spokane, Cincinnati seemed to have one more curse remaining in their season. Isaiah Miles hit a go-ahead 3-point shot to give the Hawks a 2-point lead with 9 seconds remaining in regulation. Octavius Ellis appeared to have the game-tying dunk to send the game to overtime, but a 2-minute replay review showed that the ball was just barely in Ellis’s hands as the clock expired and the backboard light had illuminated. The Bearcats had a track record of losing close games all season long, but their final 2 games, quite sadly, were the polar opposite of what Northern Iowa experienced in their last 2 games.

As for today’s games:

(11) WICHITA STATE VS (3) MIAMI (12:10 PM, CBS) – The Shockers’ defense was at its best against Arizona on Thursday night, and they will need to be as equally impressive if they wish to defeat Miami in today’s game. The nation knows about Ron Baker and Fred Van Vleet for the Shockers, but don’t sleep on the Canes’ Angel Rodriguez, either.

(12) YALE VS (4) DUKE (2: 40 PM, CBS) – While Yale was able to ensure that Baylor would be the upset victim for the 2nd year in a row, the Blue Devils survived a scare on Thursday against in-state foe UNC-Wilmington. One can only hope that the court will not be a “tripping hazard” like it was on Thursday when it had a lot of slick spots during the course of the day.

(5) INDIANA VS (4) KENTUCKY (5:15 PM, CBS) – This is by far the spotlight game of the day, and for one day we will be treated to a renewal of this intrastate rivalry in the NCAA Tournament. Kentucky has had a history of dealing Indiana painful losses at NCAA Tournament time (see 1975 and 1983 as historic examples), but could this be the year when Indiana finally returns the favor?

(12) ARKANSAS-LITTLE ROCK VS (4) IOWA STATE (6:10 PM, TNT) – The Trojans had a furious finish to force overtime and eventually beat Purdue in double OT to advance to today’s game against Iowa State. The Cyclones took care of business against Iona, but they will have a slightly taller order against a Little Rock team that has been very consistent all season long.

(9) BUTLER VS (1) VIRGINIA (7:10 PM, TBS) – Only Virginia fans were celebrating louder than Middle Tennessee fans were at the notion of Michigan State making an early exit. However, Butler has their own history of crashing the NCAA Tournament party in March, and we’ve seen at least one #1 seed fall in the Round of 32 for the past 3 years. The Bulldogs struggled against Villanova and Xavier earlier this season, although Virginia has their own distinct style of play that’s not as likely to overwhelm Butler.

(9) CONNECTICUT VS (1) KANSAS (7:45 PM, CBS) – For all of their lack of recent success in the NCAA Tournament, this is the kind of matchup that will have Kansas fans biting their fingernails once again. They should be able to beat UConn tonight, but would an upset by the Huskies really be shocking here? Ask Cincinnati about the perils of letting UConn remain in contention at crunch time.

(11) GONZAGA VS (3) UTAH (8:40 PM, TNT) – This is a nice intrasectional matchup between the Bulldogs and the Utes. The pressure is on Utah to win this one to get back to the Sweet 16 and to salvage some lost pride for the Pac-12 this season. Gonzaga certainly looked a lot more at ease under the crucible of one-and-done play than Seton Hall did on Thursday night, and an upset win here would not be a terrible shock, either.

(9) PROVIDENCE VS (1) NORTH CAROLINA (9:40 PM, TBS) – Only once in their storied history has North Carolina lost a game in their own state in the NCAA Tournament (read: a loss in 1979 to eventual Final Four team Penn), but Providence does have the star power to pull a stunner here. Question is, did the Friars use all 9 lives just to get past USC on Thursday night?

Only one other game was played last night that didn’t involve a day of craziness in the NCAA Tournament – it was played in Provo, Utah between BYU and Virginia Tech. The Hokies looked like they might be able to pull off the stunner after a Justin Bibbs 3-pointer put Tech up 73-71 with 5:28 remaining in the game, but BYU scored 9 of the final 13 points the rest of the game and held serve with an 80-77 win. BYU will face the winner of today’s Creighton-Wagner game.

If you’re looking for some other viewing options besides the two NCAA Tournament games being played in Providence this afternoon, here are the 3 “other” games being played today:

NIT

(8) WAGNER AT (4) CREIGHTON (12:00 PM, ESPN) – The biggest stunner in the NIT took place in Olean on Wednesday evening; Wagner upset the top-seeded Bonnies 79-75 to give the Northeast Conference a rare postseason win at any level. Even for the NIT, they will be facing a much bigger opposing crowd when they visit Omaha to take on the Creighton Bluejays. Counting the NIT, the Big East has put together an aggregate 5-1 record in postseason play.

CIT (all games streamed on the CIT website)

LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE AT FURMAN (2:00 PM) – Thanks to a buzzer-beater against Louisiana-Monroe on Tuesday night, the Paladins get to host the other half of UL-UPick ’em today. The Rajun Cajuns had an easier time on Wednesday while defeating Southland runner-up Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

NEW HAMPSHIRE AT COASTAL CAROLINA (2:00 PM) – The Wildcats are coming off of their first ever postseason win against Fairfield on Wednesday night, and their reward is a trip to Myrtle Beach to play Coastal Carolina this afternoon. The Chanticleers advanced to the 2nd round with a 65-57 win over Mercer on Tuesday.