NEWS AND NOTES
-For our latest Under the Radar Video Podcast – CLICK HERE
-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-For Jon Teitel’s interview with Ed Ratleff – CLICK HERE
-Kansas has a big game today against Vanderbilt that you’ll read about below. Cheick Diallo has still not been cleared to play by the NCAA. The only good news is that he hasn’t been denied eligibility yet either, but the NCAA has been reviewing this case for months and has still not made a decision. Whether he is or is not going to be cleared, the amount of time this is taking is completely outrageous. He was given a waiver that permitted him to travel to Maui with the team, which is a good sign because the NCAA likely would not have granted it had they thought the prognosis was negative regarding his eligibility. But, here it is the last day of the tournament, and they STILL haven’t ruled. WHAT THE HELL IS TAKING SO LONG??!!? Initial eligibility, on the surface, is rather simple. A player needs 16 core classes from high school in specific subjects such as English, Natural Science, Math, and Social Science, they need a GPA that’s calculated from only those core classes and not from other “fluff” courses that they may have taken, and they need to meet a minimum score on the ACT or SAT. They also need to show that they have never played as a professional in any way, shape, or form before. Where students get into trouble is if there is a question over what is or isn’t a core class, or over what does or does not constitute playing as a professional and it can take some time to sort out. But, the key word there is “SOME” time. IT HAS BEEN MONTHS!!!! MONTHS!!!!!!!!! This is grossly unfair to Diallo, the Kansas team, and the Kansas fans in that order. Whatever it is that’s causing the uncertainty of his eligibility should not take months to figure out.
-We have two other great games today, that you’ll also read about below. Now, with the excitement and electricity that we saw out of the Maryland v Georgetown game last week, which is a series that had been dormant for over two decades, can we all agree that out of conference games between brand name regional opponents is a good thing?? So, it’s good that we get to see Gonzaga v Washington and Texas v Texas A&M again today. What’s unfortunate is that these are not regular events that are played in front of packed houses of insanely excited fans. Both are actually one time events that are part of an exempt tournament that’s being played in another country. We love these events, but for games like this, they need to be played in front of thousands of screaming fans, not hundreds of rich drunk tourists in a resort’s ball room in another country.
-UT Arlington picked up another huge win last night against Memphis. It was Arlington’s second surprising road win. Ohio State, who they beat earlier in the week, picked up their second surprising home loss when they fell to still unbeaten Louisiana Tech.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
**EDIT** When I initially posted the rundown of today’s games, I did not realize that Gonzaga and Washington HAVE, in fact, agreed to resume the series!! There is now a four year home-and-home in place.
-WASHINGTON VS GONZAGA (Battle 4 Atlantis) (***Spotlight Game***). The rivalry is back!! It’s a damn shame that it’s only sort of back, and that it’s being played in another country at 9am Pacific Coast time instead of on campus. This was a great series that Washington ended about eight years ago. Their reasoning was that they wanted to play a more national schedule, and the implication was that they gained little from playing Gonzaga. Even though Gonzaga won eight out of nine (or something like that), Washington was far more relevant in that stretch then they have been since the series stopped. That’s not to imply that playing Gonzaga was the only reason they were good, but it is to point out that they don’t “gain nothing and lose everything” by playing it. If the Maryland v Georgetown game taught us anything, it should be that OOC games between regional opponents are good things. So, that’s the off paper story. On paper, both teams come into this unbeaten, and Washington already has a notable win away from home against Texas. Gonzaga hasn’t really been tested yet other than the first half of the Pitt Game, which was ultimately cancelled.
-TEXAS VS TEXAS A&M (Battle 4 Atlantis). (***Spotlight Game***) These two rivals have not played since TAMU left the Big Twelve for the SEC. Both are good programs. Both play in front of half empty houses quite frequently prior to conference play starting. Hmmmm….Let’s think about this. Who could these two teams play that would generate interest amongst the fans?? It has been mentioned earlier, but I mention it again because it can’t be mentioned enough. These are the kinds of games we need in November and December. And, it’s great that they’re playing, but we need them ON CAMPUS!! Not as a one time event that’s part of an exempt tournament in another country. If this were a regular game, the arena would NOT be half empty. Anyway, TAMU appears to be good, but hasn’t had a strong test yet. Texas is still adjusting to Shocka Smart’s system and has not yet picked up a big win, so it’s an important early season game both on and off paper.
-VANDERBILT VS KANSAS (Maui Invitational). Both teams have looked good this season, and this is a chance to pick up a very impressive win away from home for whoever pulls this off. Kansas is still without Cheick Diallo and is uncertain when he’ll be available. The reason they are uncertain is because the NCAA sucks when it comes to doing things the effect other people, namely student athletes, in a timely manner.
-SYRACUSE VS CHARLOTTE (Battle 4 Atlantis). Syracuse is unbeaten, but untested. This tournament can serve as an OOC resume builder if they’re able to take care of business and pick up some wins.
-WESTERN KENTUCKY VS DUQUESNE (Gulf Coast Showcase). I’m not entirely sold on Duquesne yet, but they do have just one loss on the year and they can slowly start to build a profile if they can continue to pick up wins in games like this.
-SAMFORD VS IDAHO (Mean Green Showcase). Both teams have been horrible in recent years, but both appear to be much improved early on this year. Both come in 4-1 and Samford just knocked off North Texas, who is hosting this event.
-SOUTH DAKOTA STATE VS CLEVELAND STATE (Cancun Challenge). South Dakota State hasn’t faced a big test yet, but a win today does get them to 6-0.
-HIGH POINT AT GEORGIA. This is a buy game, but it gets highlighted because Georgia, while good, is off to a very slow start and needs to rebound, and High Point is off to a better than expected 3-1 start.
-INDIANA VS UNLV (Maui Invitational). Both teams have been somewhat disappointing in this event, and this game has a rather pivotal feel to it as both try and end things on a high note, especially for UNLV who doesn’t have as many opportunities at notable wins as Indiana will have.
-ILLINOIS STATE VS TCU (Cancun Challenge). Illinois State’s record is an unimpressive 2-3, but they played really well against Maryland the other night and between that and their other games have shown that they have the potential to have a big year. If they beat TCU tonight and even their record at 3-3, they’ll be in fairly good shape.
-YALE AT DUKE. Yale is one of the better teams in the Ivy League, and Duke is one of the better teams in the nation. It’s a mismatch, but it’s still a game of interest due to Yale being a potential tournament team.
-LA SALLE AT PENN (Big Five). I don’t know if either team will play their way into relevance, but La Salle is currently unbeaten and Penn has just one loss. And, it’s a Big Five game, so it gets highlighted.
-WAKE FOREST VS UCLA (Maui Invitational). It’s a resume game between two teams that need to do some resume building.
-MONTANA AT NORTH DAKOTA STATE. I’m a little shocked this wasn’t Chad’s UTR game of the day. I think that both teams have an outside shot at best of landing on or in the bubble, but it’s still a good early season match up.
-MARYLAND VS RHODE ISLAND (Cancun Challenge). It’s at times like this that I hate Rhode Island is injury ridden for the season. It’s still a great test and opportunity for them, but it will be much harder for them to take advantage of it. Maryland, while unbeaten, hasn’t exactly been running over their opponents the way you would expect a top seeded team to, so don’t be surprised if they have to sweat this one out.
-AIR FORCE AT COLORADO (Front Range). Both teams come in with just one loss.
-CONNECTICUT VS MICHIGAN (Battle 4 Atlantis). Michigan struggled big time against Xavier in their last game. If they want to show that they are for real then they need to pick up some wins in this tournament. UConn, who plays in a decent but not great conference, could use this tournament as a huge resume builder as well.
-CREIGHTON VS UMASS (Men Who Speak Up Main Event). I’m not expecting big things out of either team this season, but as of now UMass is unbeaten and Creighton has just one loss.
BUY GAMES
-Vermont @ Florida
-Arkansas @ Oregon
-American @ VCU
-Cornell @ Pittsburgh
-Lehigh @ Virginia
-Hampton @ William & Mary
-Dubuque (nondiv1) @ Northern Iowa
-Prarie View A&M @ Wisconsin
-Mississippi Valley State @ BYU
-Nicholls State @ New Mexico
Throwback Thursday: Thanksgiving Tournaments
Click here for David Griggs’ rundown of today’s NCAA action; also click here for Chad Sherwood’s rundown of today’s featured under-the-radar contest in Nashville.
While the Thanksgiving holiday was originally a quiet portion of the college basketball calendar with the exception of a few holiday tournaments, the popularity of Thanksgiving week (and some cases prior to the week of Thanksgiving) tournaments has exploded in recent seasons. One of the original capstone moments came not during Thanksgiving but rather prior to Christmas in 1982 when Virginia was upset by the Chaminade Silverswords, a small Marianist college in NAIA located in Hawaii.
Beginning in 1984, the Maui Invitational became a popular “exempt” tournament for NCAA teams. This meant that a team could play up to 3 games but only have it count as one game on a team’s regular season schedule. Nowadays, a team can play a maximum of 4 games as part of a bracketed event, even if 1 or 2 of those games are considered non-bracketed. The Maui Invitational has featured 4 champions of the tournament who would go on to win the national title – Michigan in 1988, North Carolina in 2004, North Carolina in 2008, and Connecticut in 2011. It has also featured a previous champion who would be an eventual national runner-up in Arizona in 2000. There used to be a period when teams could only play in 2 exempt tournaments every 4 seasons, but that restriction was lifted in the mid-2000s. This may have best been summed up by the 2003 champion Dayton Flyers – they beat Central Michigan, San Diego State and Hawaii to win the Maui title that year. The real irony here is that Dayton has arguably had better performances in Maui when they had 3rd-place finishes in the tournament; each year they would get a pair of wins against notable NCAA Tournament teams (i.e. Connecticut and Maryland in 1999) that would help catapult them to what was then a rare at-large bid for the Flyers in the 1999-2000 season.
Another tournament that used to be one of the premier Thanksgiving destinations was the Great Alaska Shootout. This tournament actually goes back to 1978 when it originally began as the Sea Wolf Classic (hosted by the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves). Even though no champion of this tournament has never gone on to win the national title later that season – there were 2 champions who would finish as the national runner-up; Seton Hall in 1988 and Kentucky in 1996. One of the best championship games in the Great Alaska Shootout came between Cincinnati and Duke in 1998; you can click here for some footage of this memorable game between a Duke team that would also finish as a national runner-up that season and a Cincinnati team where Kenyon Martin was an emerging superstar. The Bearcats would be victorious on this night, however.
In recent seasons, however, the elimination of the 2-in-4 rule has freed more marquee programs to play in other tournaments that have sprawled throughout the country, much to the detriment of the Great Alaska Shootout and the Preseason NIT. In its heyday, the Preseason NIT would be a 16-team single-elimination field that would feature the first two rounds to be played on campus sites and the final 2 rounds to be played in Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving weekend. The very first Preseason NIT was held in 1985; Duke would beat Kansas in the championship in New York and would also beat the Jayhawks in the Final Four later that season. When under-the-radar teams began crashing the party, dwindling attendance helped lead the tournament to eventually change its format to one where 4 pre-determined teams would host the first 2 rounds on their campus sites and then play each other in a bracketed event in MSG. The “under-the-radar” teams would also play bracketed games with each other so that they too could play up to 4 games under the umbrella of an exempt event. Today, the Preseason NIT has dwindled to a 4-team, 2-game non-exempt event that will rotate between the Barclays Center and the older Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
But some of the events that have sprung up in recent years have benefitted both major teams and non-major teams alike. The MAAC hosts an annual tournament in Orlando (now the Advocare Classic); C-USA hosts the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas, and the Big West hosts the Wooden Legacy in Fullerton (early rounds) and Anaheim for the final day of competition. These events serve as early tests for major programs and also give under-the-radar teams a chance to play the big boys (and occasionally each other) in a neutral court setting as opposed to on-campus sites as buy game fodder.
So let us be thankful for what these tournaments have provided and will continue to provide for college basketball fans as they gradually become part of what is indeed a festive holiday weekend.