Under the Radar Game of the Day: Kent State at Ohio, 9:00 PM Eastern, ESPNU
For our latest Bracket Rundown podcast, CLICK HERE. In addition, if you have not yet signed our petition to get the ‘Lopes into the WAC and NCAA Tournaments, CLICK HERE to do it now!!!!
The UTR Game of the Day returns to the state of Ohio tonight and the always entertaining Mid-American Conference. With ten teams in this league sitting at or above .500 overall, and all but one team within three games of first place in their division, we seem to be setting up for a wild month of February. That is, unless one team can start to emerge from the pack and pull away from everyone else. The team most poised to do just that, for the moment at least, is Head Coach Rob Senderoff’s Kent State Golden Flashes.
Kent State enters play tonight with a record of 15-5, 6-1 in the MAC and one game up on Akron for first place in the East Division. The Flashes’ RPI is 85, though KenPom has then rated lower at 132. Kent State did not pick up any truly notable non-conference wins this season, although they also did not lose any head scratchers (a loss to Penn State in Las Vegas may be their worst of the season). Jimmy Hall has been leading the way for the Golden Flashes so far this season, including a 26 point, 16 rebound game against Bowling Green last week. His 16 rebounds were made even more impressive due to the fact that 9 of them were offensive boards. If he can be anywhere close to that dominant tonight, Kent State has a great chance to pick up what would already be their fourth road win in conference play.
Standing between Kent State and the win tonight is Head Coach Saul Phillips’ Ohio University Bobcats. Ohio is only 3-4 so far in MAC play, but does have a solid overall record at 12-7 and an RPI just outside of the top 100 (110). As with Kent State, the Bobcats failed to win any truly notable non-conference games this year but also did not lose any games they clearly should have won (a loss at St. Bonaventure may be their worst loss, and the Bonnies are always tough to beat on the road). Things have not gone as well since MAC play started, including suffering an 89-82 loss at Kent State on January 16. Antonio Campbell is the player to keep an eye on for the Bobcats. Just like Jimmy Hall, Campbell also has a 16 rebound game this season, having come against Western Michigan. 15 of his 16 in that game were defensive — setting up what should be a fun rebounding battle under Ohio’s basket tonight between these two players. If Ohio can get the victory, they will remain in the thick of things and draw Kent State back to the pack in the East Division. If not, the Bobcats may have an uphill battle the rest of the season if they want to finish at or near the top of the conference.
DAVID’S OTHER NOTABLE GAMES
-VCU AT DAVIDSON (Atlantic Ten). VCU is playing as well as anyone in the A10 today. Davidson has been somewhat disappointing this year, but they’ve still been tough at home, so it shouldn’t be easy for the Rams.
-MANHATTAN AT IONA (Metro Atlantic). This game has no tournament implications whatsoever, but it is one of the better UTR rivalries out there, so we’ll give it a mention.
-WRIGHT STATE AT OAKLAND (Horizon League). I highlight this game not because it’s particularly important, but because a year ago this game would be far more important than what it is this year. Valpo and Wright State are tied at the top of the standings, and last year that would have meant something because home court advantage in the conference tournament was on the line, which made the regular season very intriguing and very meaningful. This year, no matter what, it’s in Detroit, so Wright State isn’t nearly as amped up for it because the reward for finishing first isn’t nearly as big.
Throwback Thursday: A March To Madness (Part 2)
Click here for David Griggs’ News and Notes for January 28, 2016
Click here for Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day and #LopesWaiver Petition
When we originally focused on John Feinstein’s book A March To Madness two weeks ago (click here for Part 1), we took a look at all 9 teams in the ACC going back to the 1996-97 season. We looked at the teams, but didn’t really go too much in depth to the coaches themselves.
North Carolina has Dean Smith, who could best be described as the first patriarch of the ACC. He began coaching in the 1960s after replacing Frank McGuire. Smith was originally a member of Kansas’s basketball teams under the legendary Phog Allen and honed his coaching skills both at Kansas (as the last man off the bench) and as a coach for an Air Force travelling team during his tour of duty; this is not to be confused with Air Force University in the Mountain West. Smith would go on to win numerous ACC Championships, two national titles and reached what was then the all-time win record in 1997.
The second patriarch is Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. He attended West Point and was the captain not only for Bob Knight’s team at Army, but also a captain in the U.S. Army during his post-academy tour of duty. After completing his service, Krzyzewski would spend a year as an assistant for Bob Knight in Indiana before taking the Army job in the 1975-76 season and ultimately the Duke job beginning with the 1980-81 season. Even back surgery in 1995 could not derail what has been a hall-of-fame career for Coach K, who has 1,000+ wins, 5 NCAA titles and counting.
Gary Williams was another fascinating coach; his career included stops at American, Boston College and Ohio State, but Maryland was his first and last home. After his playing career at Maryland and a teaching gig at Camden High School in New Jersey, he was encouraged by Tom Davis, his former assistant at Maryland, to join him as a full-time assistant at Lafayette College in the early 70s. The only catch was that he also had to be the head women’s soccer coach for Lafayette as well. Even though he had never played or coached soccer, he did learn how the game was played and actually had a decent career as both soccer coach and assistant at Lafayette (and later Boston College) under Tom Davis. He restored Maryland to prominence it once had under Lefty Driesell and even exceeded it with 2 Final Four appearances, including the 2002 NCAA Championship.
Rick Barnes also has a fascinating back-story as it relates to his beginnings in the coaching ranks. He was originally scheduled to interview for an assistant’s position at Davidson under Eddie Biedenbach during the summer in the 1970s. Barnes actually sat in a hot gym for over 12 hours waiting for Biedenbach, but ultimately did get the job. He did double-duty between the assistant gig and early morning shifts at a nearby lumberyard. He would ultimately land head coaching jobs at George Mason for a year and Providence for 6 seasons before taking the job at Clemson. While he did reach the Sweet 16 at Clemson, he would ultimately make a bigger name for himself at Texas while leading the Longhorns to the Final 4 in 2003.
While Williams was an assistant at Lafayette, another up-and-coming coach by the name of Pat Kennedy would begin his paid coaching career as an assistant at Lehigh under Brian Hill. Kennedy had actually been a student-coach at Kings College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; he coached their JV while he was a varsity player for Kings. After stops at Kings and Lehigh, he took the Iona job after Jim Valvano moved on to NC State. Kennedy actually led Iona to multiple NCAA Tournaments, but as the Big East began beating Iona for prized recruits, Kennedy moved on to Florida State. He led the Seminoles to the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 in 1992 and 1993, respectively. He even turned down the UNLV job in between the aforementioned years. He was never able to replicate that success; he also coached at DePaul after leaving Florida State following the 1996-97 season.
Both Dave Odom and Jeff Jones had Virginia connections; they served as assistant coaches at one time under Terry Holland. Odom actually saw the assistant job at UVa as a promotion from his head coaching job at East Carolina; while he was unable to have any consistent success at East Carolina, he did lead Wake Forest to their most consistent stretch of success since the 1960s. Thanks to players like Randolph Childress, Rodney Rogers and Tim Duncan, Odom was able to reach the Elite 8 in 1996 and also had 2 other seasons where they made the Sweet 16. Odom would also eventually move on to South Carolina and became the only coach to lead a team to back-to-back NIT titles.
As for Jeff Jones, he was also a member of Virginia teams in the early 1980s that included Ralph Sampson, Othell Wilson and Jeff Lamp. Jones as a head coach made it as far as the Elite 8 in 1995, upsetting the hometown Kansas Jayhawks in the Sweet 16. After getting dismissed at Virginia, Jones took a sabbatical from coaching before resurrecting himself at American and Old Dominion.
Bobby Cremins had built Georgia Tech up from nothing when he took the job in the early 1980s; he also had success in his first head coaching job at Appalachian State. He was a fabulous recruiter (Mark Price, John Salley, Dennis Scott, Kenny Anderson, Travis Best and Stephon Marbury all had notable careers) and had reached the Final 4 in 1990, the Elite 8 in 1985 and the Sweet 16 on 3 other occasions. He would also coach for a few seasons at Charleston before hanging up the whistle for good.
Herb Sendek was an interesting coach at NC State in quite a few ways. He was the polar opposite of legendary Jim Valvano from the public point of view, but he was also responsible for a lot of Miami of Ohio’s success in the mid-1990s. He also recruited a lot of players that ultimately made the Sweet 16 under Charlie Coles in the 1998-99 season. Sendek was able to give NC State fans a ray of hope in the 1996-97 season with their improbable run to the ACC Championship in 1997 with wins over Georgia Tech, Duke and Maryland. He ultimately led the Wolfpack to 5 straight NCAA Tournaments (including a Sweet 16 in 2004-05), but it was not enough to satisfy a fan base in the Triangle that was tormented by Duke and North Carolina’s success. He would move on to Arizona State, where he was able to get the Sun Devils to the NCAA Tournament twice in 8 seasons.