NEWS AND NOTES
For Chad Sherwood’s Under the Radar Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
For Jon Teitel’s latest seed list, where he is guessing what the real selection committee would do if the season ended today – CLICK HERE (Bracket Coming Soon)
-One of the craziest and most important game from yesterday is one that almost no one saw. Little Rock went into Arlington and jumped all over them. They actually built a 42-14 lead in the first half. UT Arlington mounted a furious comeback late in the second half, and a 13-0 run helped cut an 18 point lead all the way down to 3. Little Rock did hold on to win, which gives them a much needed quality road win, which will help them on Selection Sunday if they end up needing the automatic bid.
-Oklahoma looked like the #1 team when they opened up a huge second half lead against a very good Baylor team on the road. Baylor perhaps isn’t a top ten team, but they’re certainly good enough to beat top ten teams at home, so that was a very good win for the Sooners.
-Arizona suffered another close road loss when they fell at Cal 74-73. It’s not a bad list by any means for the Wildcats, but they do need to get a few wins like that if they want to end up as a protected seed.
-Butler fell at Creighton, and is now a rather disturbing 2-5 in Big East play. Again, it’s rare to see teams go sub 500 in conference and make the field, and if a team is more than two games below 500 it almost never happens. Three of their next four games are winnable, and they really do need to win them all.
-Pittsburgh got one of their better wins of the year yesterday when they won on the road at Florida State. They needed quality wins, and road wins, and they managed to help both of those needs yesterday.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-TULANE AT CINCINNATI (American). Cincinnati is currently outside our bubble, and losing at home to a weak Tulane team would knock them even further back.
-SMU AT TEMPLE (American). SMU is still unbeaten, and Temple has been both hot and cold this year, so it could potentially be a good game.
-WILLIAM & MARY AT HOFSTRA (Colonial). These are two of the better teams in the league, and although both are long shots for at-large bids, this is a chance for one or both of them to pick up what should be one of their more notable wins of the year.
-PURDUE AT IOWA (Big Ten). Both these teams have great profiles, especially Iowa, and are looking like protected seeds. Iowa could end up as high as the #1 line. They haven’t lost a Big Ten game yet.
-VALPARAISO AT NORTHERN KENTUCKY (Horizon League). Valpo fell at Wright State earlier in the week and can’t afford another slip up. NKU has struggled this year, but they’ve been playing much better lately.
-VILLANOVA AT PROVIDENCE (Big East). Both could end up being protected seeds, and Nova’s profile is so good they could end up as high as a #1 seed. Providence has been a little up and down lately, but they’ve still been very good overall. The game is at the Wells Fargo Center, which will still heavily favor Nova, but it isn’t quite as tough as beating them at the Pavilion.
-NORTH CAROLINA AT VIRGINIA TECH (ACC). UNC keeps getting better and better, and I’m actually kind of expecting them to end up as a #1 seed. But, they’ll need to win pretty much every game like this one in order to do it. VA Tech isn’t the best team out there, but they’re also not the easiest team to beat at home.
-USC AT OREGON STATE (Pac Twelve). USC is having a fantastic year, and they could end up as a protected seed, which seemed unheard of at the beginning of the year. This would be a nice road win for them if they’re able to pull it off.
-SAINT BONAVENTURE AT VCU (Atlantic Ten). I love how VCU has been playing as of late, and I expect they’ll pick up another win and remain unbeaten in A10 play. Their profile still needs some work, but based on how they’ve been playing I think they’ll be feeling pretty safe on Selection Sunday.
-MARQUETTE AT SAINT JOHN’S (Big East). Marquette is on the outside looking in, and can’t afford losses in games like this if they want that to change. Due to the Blizzard of 2016, this game has been moved from Madison Square Garden to St. John’s on-campus digs at Carnesecca Arena.
-DAYTON AT FORDHAM (Atlantic Ten). Dayton’s profile is very good, and they should be very safely in if they keep it up. Fordham isn’t a tournament team, but they are very much improved and only have one home loss so far, so this would be a nicer win for Dayton than what most may realize.
-EVANSVILLE AT INDIANA STATE (Missouri Valley). It’s the same story for Evansville. They have a bloated record, but haven’t faced too many real challenges, so their margin for error is razor thin.
-SAINT JOSEPH’S AT LA SALLE (Atlantic Ten, Big Five). Saint Joe’s is an amazing 5-0 in true road games, and they’re on the right side of our bubble. La Salle isn’t that strong this year, but this is a Big Five rivalry game. Joe’s doesn’t want to lose to a rival, nor do they want a bad loss like this on their profile.
-SYRACUSE AT VIRGINIA (ACC). Syracuse has been way up at times, and way down at others. That being said, they’re hovering around our bubble and could really use a big road win like this to help them end up inside of it. Virginia has struggled in true road games, but they’re perfect at home this year, and I still think they’ll end up as a protected seed if they can hold serve at home and pick up a few road wins.
-UTAH AT WASHINGTON (Pac Twelve). Washington is right on our bubble, and Utah is in but needs to win some more road wins if they want to contend for a protected seed. Both teams are good, but there is certainly room for both to move up, and this game would certainly help.
Throwback Thursday (Friday edition) – 1963 NCAA Tournament
Click here for Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day between Albany and Stony Brook (weather permitting).
Click here for a double feature of the weekly Bracket Rundown and Under The Radar podcasts
On the same week that we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we also look back to the 1963 NCAA Tournament. Almost every diehard fan knows about 1966 and Texas Western and their significance, but not much is said about the tournament 3 years earlier that began to spur more widespread integration into the game.
We start with the Mideast Region – the 6 teams selected for this region were Loyola of Chicago, Mississippi State, Illinois, Notre Dame, Bowling Green and Tennessee Tech. Mississippi State had won the SEC regular season title 4 out of the past 5 seasons, but state laws forbidding the Maroons (as Mississippi State was known back in 1963) to play integrated teams would not allow them to appear in the NCAA Tournament. While sneaking out of Mississippi in the middle of the night to the regional site of East Lansing, Mississippi State would be making their first ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament. They would lose to Loyola in the semifinals of the region and would also beat Bowling Green in the Mideast 3rd place game. However, the team that emerged in the Mideast was Loyola; they would beat Tennessee Tech, MSU and downstate rival Illinois to earn a bid to the Final Four in Louisville. Loyola was believed to be the first team to start 5 black players in a regular-season game at Wyoming, but would not start such a lineup in the tournament like Texas Western would do 3 years later.
The East Region had 7 teams in the field; Duke, NYU, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, UConn, Princeton and Saint Joseph’s. While the field was unseeded, Duke did get the bye in the 1st round and would only have to beat NYU and Saint Joseph’s to earn their first ever trip to the Final 4 in program history under coach Vic Bubas. West Virginia would defeat NYU in the 3rd place game; this would represent the last time that NYU would make the NCAA Tournament at the Division I level.
In the Midwest Region, it was 2-time defending champion Cincinnati and everyone else (namely Colorado, Oklahoma City, Colorado, Texas and Texas Western). Cincinnati did survive a pair of tests against Texas and Colorado to earn their 3rd straight trip to the Final Four. Texas would earn 3rd place in the Midwest with a win over Oklahoma City.
In the West Region, UCLA, San Francisco, Oregon State, Arizona State, Utah State and Seattle all qualified for the NCAA Tournament. Many people would wonder how it was possible for UCLA, Oregon State and Arizona State to be in the same region, but people forget that what was the Pacific Coast Conference had to disband because of pay-for-play scandals. This caused Oregon State to be independent for 5 seasons before rejoining what was then the Pac-8 Conference that included UCLA. (Arizona State was in the WAC at that time). Led by legendary coach Slats Gill (the namesake of Gill Coliseum), the Beavers would defeat Seattle, San Francisco and Arizona State to earn the program’s 2nd Final Four bid. San Francisco would defeat UCLA for 3rd place in the West; UCLA was a year away from the beginning of their dynasty in men’s basketball.
When the Final Four convened in Louisville, Loyola defeated Duke 94-75 and Cincinnati would defeat Oregon State 80-46 in the other semifinal. Duke would defeat Oregon State for 3rd place and even propelled Art Heyman to Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four without being a part of the championship game. Cincinnati had defeated Ohio State in overtime in the previous 2 NCAA title games, but the 3rd time would not be a charm as Loyola would defeat the Bearcats 60-58 in overtime at Louisville’s Freedom Hall. Both Cincinnati and Loyola would feature integrated lineups in the championship; this was in stark contrast to the Brown v. Board of Education championship that would be staged in 1966 between Texas Western (now UTEP) and Kentucky.
Last Saturday, Mississippi State also wore uniforms to commemorate their 1963 team when they hosted Tennessee; click here for highlights of that game.