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If you do not like picking #1 seeds then you will LOVE Holy Cross. They entered the Patriot League tourney as the #9-seed on March 1st, yet 8 days later they had a 3-PT win over Lehigh in the title game to earn an automatic bid to next week’s NCAA tournament. The Crusaders became the 5th team to ever make the NCAA tourney with 19+ losses, but hearing your name called this Sunday is the only thing that matters. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Eric Green about coming back from an ACL tear and how his 1st-year coach was able to lead his team to victory when it mattered the most.
You were among the conference leaders in SPG during your 1st 2 years on the court: what is the secret to being a good defender? You need to have anticipation, both in seeing where the pass is going and watching how the play develops. You have to look ahead to your opponent’s next pass.
In the 2014 CIT you scored 14 PTS in a win over Brown before losing to Yale: what did you learn from that experience that you think will help you in the postseason this year? We learned that you we have to stay loose when playing in March, even though the NCAA tourney is new to us. Since we played in March before, that should help us out a little bit.
You missed the 1st half of this season with a knee injury: how bad was it, and how were you able to get back on the court? It was pretty bad: I actually injured it in the conference tourney last year when I tore my ACL. I spent all summer rehabbing my leg, which was hard. I had some doubts that I would play this season, especially at the start of the school year. I tried to work hard in my final year here and my teammates/trainers helped me out a lot.
Your team had a 33-PT loss at Kansas back on December 9th: I know you did not play but how impressed were you by the Jayhawks? I traveled with the team to the game even though I did not play. It was a great experience to be in their arena and Kansas is 1 of the top teams in the country for a reason.
You were winless on the road in conference play this year: how were you able to win 4 straight on the road in March to clinch the Patriot League title? As the #9-seed we just came together and figured that after a tough season we would just give it everything we got. It actually helped us to be on the road because it was just the guys on the team who had to lean on each other and we just kept making big-time plays at the end of close games.
You did not start a single game during the regular season but started each of the 4 postseason games: what is the biggest difference between being a sub and being a starter? The only difference is that as a starter you have to set the tone so I just tried to play as hard as I could. It is important to stop the other team when you are on defense so that you do not fall behind early.
You ended up making the conference All-Tourney team: could you have ever imagined that happening a couple of months ago or even a couple of weeks ago? No way! When somebody told me that after the game it was unbelievable: it was a major accomplishment for me this season.
You play for Coach Bill Carmody, who was 2004 Big 10 COY at Northwestern and whose 78.6 W-L% as coach at Princeton remains #1 in Ivy League history: what makes him such a good coach, and how was he able to come in and lead you to the NCAA tourney in his very 1st season as head coach in Worcester? We have come a long way after learning how to run the Princeton offense and have gotten better and better at it. Coach is big on patience and spends plenty of time at practice working on the little things. Paying attention to the details was a big part of our success last week, especially in close games.
You are 1 of only 2 seniors among the top-10 scorers on your team: how much pressure has there been on you to be a leader this season? I do not feel that much pressure. I am not very vocal but try to lead by example. The juniors know what we have been through and we all keep each other in check rather than having our younger players only looking up to the older guys.
What kind of seed do you think you deserve, and what kind of seed do you think you will get? I think we will end up with a #16-seed but we shall see.
Hoops HD Mock Committee Report – Thursday, March 10
Click here for Jon Teitel’s latest bracket projection in which he guesses the actual committee’s bracket through games of Thursday, March 10
Tonight was the first night that our Hoops HD Selection Committee convened; prior to our meeting last night, we had named 27 teams on the first ballot to the at-large field. When we began our meeting tonight, our first order of business was to take a look at the Under Consideration board and make motions to remove teams that were not deemed worthy of at-large inclusion. 15 teams were scrubbed off of the Under Consideration board; this also includes 7 teams that won their conferences in the regular season but failed to win their conference tournament. The real stunner today was the UAB; they lost their Conference USA Tournament opener against Western Kentucky in Birmingham. These teams are still eligible for the NIT, CBI, CIT or Vegas 16.
We also named Chicago State as our Centenary Winner for 2016; they were deemed as the worst team in all of Division I this season. However, their prize for winning the award is their inclusion to the Under Consideration board; they will remain there for the duration of our Selection Committee meetings.
Most importantly, we began debating the merits of teams on the Under Consideration board and began voting teams into the At-Large field. For the first vote, each committee member voted for their own Top 8 teams to be included in the at-large discussion. The top 8 vote-getters were then seeded 1 through 8 by our Committee. The top 4 teams in the first wave of balloting were Wisconsin (they were voted in before their loss to Nebraska), Providence, Colorado and Butler. The bottom 4 vote-getters carried over and then each member of our committee added 4 more teams to be considered. Once again, the teams were then ranked 1 through 8. This time, the top 4 vote-getters were USC, Wichita State, Oregon State and Pittsburgh. Barring any votes to remove these teams from the at-large board, the aforementioned 8 teams will be part of the Committee’s NCAA Tournament field. The remaining 4 “carry-overs” will be considered in the next wave of voting that will take place tomorrow night.
There was one at-large spot that was not filled tonight, but we also learned that 4 more at-large spots will open up because the Big 12, ACC, Big East and Pac-12 champs will come off of the At-Large board and move over to the Automatic Bids column. It is also possible that 4 more at-large spots will open up pending the outcomes of the SEC, Big 10, Atlantic 10 and American conference tournaments. If you look at the Under Consideration board, teams highlighted in orange have completed play in the regular season. Teams not highlighted are still playing in their conference tournaments and therefore have the opportunity to further enhance their profiles. You can click below to view the results through Day 1:
Tomorrow, we will fill the remaining at-large spots that are eligible to be filled, although it is possible that a spot may be left open depending on Saturday and Sunday’s results. We will also begin the process of seeding the top 8 seed lines (32 teams total).