For the SEC Media Day Recap and Response – CLICK HERE
The SEC is perhaps the strongest conference in the nation, and it’s home to Florida, which is perhaps the strongest team in the nation. Chad and the panel look at what is a talent stacked conference with as many as 8 teams that we could see in the Top 25 and as many as 12 teams that could make the NCAA Tournament. Texas has a stacked roster. Tennessee has a very talented roster, but will it fit Rick Barnes’s style? Can Texas A&M surprise some people? Can Arkansas keep pace with the rest of the league with their youth? We run through and assess every team.
And for all you radio lovers out there, below is an audio only version of the show…
HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will spend the upcoming months covering several Georgetown basketball games, with (hopefully) a very special reward coming in March. The regular season does not start until next month, but he was in attendance Friday night for the Hoyas’ exhibition game against GW at the Charles E. Smith Center and prepared this photo essay.
The diverse selection of pregame meals at Georgetown can be anything from Italian to Mexican to chicken, but GW remains very consistent: pizza and water. I have been coming here to watch games for the past 20 years but tonight featured the most people that I have ever seen in the Smith Center for a variety of reasons: Alumni & Families Weekend, rain in the forecast for those who had planned an outside adventure, and a Friday night game in a gym that is located closer to the Georgetown campus then Capital 1 Arena is:
If you are willing to remain upright for 40 minutes in the student section then you get to wear 1 of these neat tricorns!
Georgetown coach Ed Cooley and GW coach Chris Caputo have both been in this business a long time…and considering they work within walking distance of each other, I wish they would play each other in the regular season every year (more on that during the postgame press conference):
I did not think the NCAA trotted out its A-list referees until November, but I noticed that Roger Ayers has graced us with his prolific presence in mid-October:
Kentucky transfer Jaland Lowe only played 9 games last year due to injury but started out strong for the Hoyas with 7 PTS in the 1st 7 minutes:
Pitt transfer Omari Witherspoon only shot 28.7 3P% last year but has apparently been practicing a lot as he had 13 PTS in the 1st half (including 3-3 3PM) to keep GW in the game:
I expected the home team to get most of the calls, but despite Georgetown’s huge FTA advantage (14-2), GW took full advantage of its filled-to-capacity gym to tie it up at 38-all heading to halftime. The Hoyas made a nice run to start the 2nd stanza and built a 12-PT lead before the under 12-timeout. GW big man Lovro Urbiha has spent his entire career in Slovenia, but appears to have made an above-average adjustment to America. He scored 15 PTS, made 4 shots from behind the arc, and grabbed a team-high 8 REB to help the Revs almost pull off the comeback, but they came up just short as the Hoyas hung on to win it by the score of 76-68:
In the postgame press conference I learned (sadly) that I too am still in preseason form. I was planning to ask Coach Cooley about the improvement of backup PG Gabriel Landeira and/or whether he would be willing to face GW during the regular season, but the 2 media members called on ahead of me asked those exact 2 questions, so when I finally had the chance to ask a question the best I could come up with was getting his take on Vyctorius Miller’s foul trouble. Cooley said that he and his staff have talked to Miller about why/where he is fouling: he is an astute student-athlete so it will just take time and they just want him to “chill out a bit”:
I asked Witherspoon about his 3-PT improvement, expecting 1 of those “I got a bunch of shots up over the summer and it is nice to see all my hard work paying off”. However, he shared the nuance that he used to pump-fake a lot when he was at Pitt, but the GW coaches helped train him to not do that…so he put in a lot of hours behind the scenes and it showed today:
After Coach Caputo discussed the unbelievable atmosphere at the game, I followed up to see if he would like this to become an annual regular season game and whether he would have to move heaven and earth to make it happen or if the ball in Georgetown’s court because he is willing to play them anytime/anywhere. He confirmed that Cooley wants to do it, then stated he is happy to do it as a home-and-home in the regular season. He already has a home-and-home scheduled with other power conference teams like BC. “Tonight was a homerun for GW: if we were making a commercial about why someone should come here, we would just show clips of the environment today”:
That is a wrap for now but check back next month when the regular season tips off!
Posted inNews and Notes|Taggedgeorgetown, GW|Comments Off on Hanging with the Hoyas AND Revolutionaries: Exhibition Edition
Duke is not only the favorites to win the league, but perhaps the favorites to win the national championship. Virginia and Louisville also have excellent teams and we take a close look at those two as well. North Carolina has a new coach and an overhauled roster, so we debate on what kind of a season they might have. Miami FL is a potential dark horse and should be a fun team to watch. We break down the entire conference and run through each team!
And for all you radio lovers, below is an audio only version of the show…
We are less than 17 days away from the tip-off of the new college basketball season, which means that we have plenty of time to start preparing for the action ahead. We will do so via a series of season previews featuring the best players/coaches in the country. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our coverage with North Carolina A&T associate head coach Ricky Moore, who talked about winning an NCAA tourney as a player and coach and his expectations for this season.
In 1995 you were named a Parade All-American: which of your fellow honorees from that legendary class impressed you the most (Vince Carter/Kevin Garnett/Ron Mercer/other)? I would say Garnett: I had the chance to play with him in AAU ball and we also played together at Nike Camp. His tenacity stood out: whether it was practice or a game he had the same mentality of wanting to dominate his opponent. Ron/Vince both had great size and were able to score againt anyone. It would take me all day to review the great players in that class. Back then there were only be a few travel teams in each state so the competition was very tough. Now there are so many teams that the competition level has been watered down.
You were born/raised in Georgia: what made you choose UConn for college? In the early 1990s UConn was trending upward and starting to become 1 of the teams in the Big East who stood out. They played at a fast tempo on offense and used a 2-2-1 press on defense, and I wanted to go to that kind of system because it would showcase my talents. They had several future pros including Ray Allen/Doron Sheffer. I was told that I would start, but I ended up playing most of the minutes and was on the court at the end of each game: I was all about winning. UConn is far from Georgia, but everybody got along and I wanted to be a part of that.
You were a 3-time co-captain: what is the secret to being a good leader? You must bring the same energy day in and day out because everyone is looking to see how you will perform. You must be a great communicator who can motivate your team. Some of my coaches told me to shoot when I was wide open, but sometimes I would try to make a play for a teammate because I was unselfish.
In 1999 you were named national DPOY: what is the key to being a great defender? I was a defensive guy who liked to keep his opponent under his scoring average. It is all about effort and energy: you must always be ready in your stance, but also have very good teammates who you can trust on a pick and roll. Part of that is taking care of your body with treatment/ice because you must be available to play.
In the 1999 NCAA title game you scored 13 PTS in a 3-PT win over Duke: what did it mean to you to win a championship? Nobody except our fans expected us to win that year, but it was the highlight of my career! Duke had 4 lottery picks, so most people did not give us a chance, but Coach K knew how good our perimeter play was. We had great chemistry with guys like Rip Hamilton/Khalid El-Amin. There is no feeling like winning a championship: not many guys can say they won 1 as a player and another 1 as a coach.
In 2001 you were named to the Huskies’ all-century team: what did it mean to you to receive such an outstanding honor? That is more of an individual award, but there is nothing like cutting down the nets after beating 1 of the best teams in college basketball. I love being on the all-century team, but at the end of the day, there is no better feeling than being part of the 1st team in school history to win a title.
You later returned to your alma mater as an assistant coach and had a 6-PT win over Kentucky in the 2014 NCAA title: how does winning 1 as a player compare to winning 1 as a coach? I joke about it all the time. As player you can do certain things to change the game…but as a coach you are just screaming from the sideline! We had a great pair of guards in Shabazz Napier/Ryan Boatright, which made my job a lot easier. From the time that we rolled the ball out at practice, they knew they had to go out and perform. We got back to work after losing to Louisville in the AAC tourney title game, and once we got into a rhythm, we knew that we had a good chance to win an NCAA title.
You have spent the past 3 years as an assistant to Monte Ross at North Carolina A&T and increased your win total from 7 in 2025 to 11 in 2026: how have you been able to get things going in the right direction? There were several coaching changes in the years before we got here, but my job is to make Monte’s job easier. During the 1st 2 years our team was very young, so this is the 1st time that we have older guys heading into the season, which makes a huge difference. When we were 1st building the culture here, we were just piecing things together, but now we have been able to recruit some guys who can shoot the ball and make plays on the perimeter. This will be the 1st team we have with an offensive identity. We were picked last in the preseason poll that was announced earlier today, but it is great motivation and I think that we can shock some people this year.
Your roster includes players from 10 different states and 2 guys from Greece: what sort of recruiting philosophy do you have? “What fits us”. The guys are always in the gym getting up shots even if we had a long practice. They are hungry and want to compete for a conference title. It will take some time with so many new guys, but hopefully we will be trending upward by the end of the season.
What are your goals for the upcoming season, and what are your expectations for the upcoming season? The goal is to win a CAA championship, and we will have an opportunity to do that. In the past when we were young and our NIL was lower, it was a lot tougher to even think about competing for a title, but that is our aspiration this season. The guys have been working as hard as they can, and the staff is trying to help them get better at each practice, so I think we will have a great season.
The Hoops HD Panel takes a look at a Big 12 Conference that looks to be extremely stacked this year. Arizona was in the Final Four a year ago and looks to be good enough to make a run at making it back this year. Texas Tech is also incredibly talented and is another Final Four contender. As is Houston. That’s three super heavyweights in this league. Other teams to watch are Kansas who has a some of the top freshmen in the country, Cincinnati who is much improved, BYU who once again is really solid, and Iowa State is another team to keep an eye on.
And for all you radio lovers, below is an audio only version of the show…
-High Point is an Under the Radar program that has decided they will spend what they have to on NIL in order to be successful…and it has worked. They won 31 games last year and advanced to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament and will once again have a stacked roster. Second-year coach Flynn Claymon has the tools that he needs to win the league, get back to The Dance, and be positioned to advance beyond the Round of 64. Two key starters are back including Cam’Ron Fletcher, who is a solid frontcourt player and can also hit from beyond the arc. He is clearly a power-conference-level talent. Conrad Martinez returns to run the point and will be part of what looks to be a very solid backcourt. CJ Brown transfers in from South Florida where he averaged double-figures on their NCAA Tournament team last year. And in terms of the depth of talent on their roster, it just goes on. Isaac Garrett was a standout player at Oakland, Filip Brankovic put up big numbers at UTRGV, and Jason Rivera-Torres was a huge player in the post for Monmouth last year. With all due respect to the rest of the league, I do not think that anyone in the Big South will be able to compete with High Point. They may be good enough to land inside the bubble if their schedule can give them the opportunities they need to get the wins they need to impress the committee. They are that good.
-It has been a while since Presbyterian has been picked this high. The program has gotten consistently better under Coach Quinton Ferrell and they may be poised to have as good of a year as they have ever had. Three key starters are back and they have a rather solid rotation consisting of multiple players who were double-digit scorers a year ago.
-Winthrop won a solid 23 games in each of the last two seasons and actually kept pace with High Point in the Big South standings last year. The problem is all five starters from that team are gone and Mark Prosser (who has done a great job with the Eagles) is having to start over. They do bring in some guys who were solid contributors at Under the Radar schools, but they do not appear to have the pieces they had a year ago.
-It is hard to know what to say about Longwood. They have a couple starters back and they appear to have a nice set of guys who have been role players in the past, but no real stars. They were .500 in league play last year and are expected to be in about that range again this year.
-UNC Asheville had a frustrating season last year, but they did actually start to play well down the stretch. They won five of their final eight games before falling in the confernece semis to High Point in a surprisingly close game. Two key starters are back and they have gone into the portal to try and fill out the rest of the roster. Jaylon Johnson comes in from Radford after averaging double-figures and he should be a nice addition. Speaking of Radford…
-Radford had a respectable 9-7 season in Big South play last year, but all five starters are gone and Coach Zach Chu may be in for a long season. They do not have much in the way of proven experience at the D-1 level when it comes to their roster, so it could be a bit of building year.
-Charleston Southern won 15 games last year, which was the best season they have managed in quite some time. Unfortunately, much of that team is gone and they do not seem to have much in the way of proven D-1 talent. They do add a couple of guys that were standout players at the D-2 level, so if they can step up the Buccaneers may be able to do a little better than expected.
-USC Upstate finished 8th last year and is expected to do the same this year. It has just been a tough ride for Marty Richter since taking over as coach two years ago. They do have some guys transferring in who put up impressive numbers at lower-division schools and they will need them to step up in order to be competitive.
-Gardner Webb was awful last year, winning just four games total and one Big South game. Three starters are back, but they do not really seem to be adding anything that makes you believe they will be a whole lot better this year.
