NEWS AND NOTES
-For our latest Under the Radar Video Podcast, where Chad and David petition the President of the United States – CLICK HERE.
-For Chad Sherwood’s Under the Radar Game of the Day, which is a big one between Grand Canyon and Cal State Bakersfield – CLICK HERE
-As mentioned above, we are petitioning the President of the United States to give the Grand Canyon Antelopes a waiver!! SIGN THE PETITION!! LET THE LOPES PLAY!! Tweet it to your friends! Email your friends! Stand on the street corner with your phone and get random people walking by to log on and sign it! CLICK HERE #LopesWaiver #LopesPetition
-Louisville needs notable road wins, and they’ve picked up two this past week against Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech. Neither team is exactly NCAA Tournament caliber, but both have been strong at home so those were two of Louisville’s better wins so far.
-Texas A&M fell at Arkansas, which was kind of surprising. Arkansas has been very tough at home this year as well, but TAMU was ranked in the top five and some were thinking they had a shot at a #1 seed, so that’s the kind of game you expect to see a protected seed win more often than not. The loss doesn’t kill the Aggies by any means, but it does hurt what little chance they had at ending up as a #1.
-Clemson picked up yet another big notable win when they knocked off Pittsburgh yesterday, and looked impressive doing it. If they keep this up they will end up making the field.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-IOWA AT MARYLAND (Big Ten) (***Spotlight Game***). Iowa has several huge wins already, and if they get this one I think it solidifies them as a #1 seed caliber team. Maryland, while high in the rankings, doesn’t have any monster wins yet and needs this to kind of verify that they belong in the Top Ten.
-WILLIAM & MARY AT DELAWARE (Colonial). The chances are slim, but if W&M wins out they should be on the bubble, and perhaps even inside of it.
-ELON AT HOFSTRA (Colonial). Hofstra is another Colonial team that can end up on the bubble, but they pretty much have to win out to do it.
-CINCINNATI AT CONNECTICUT (American). Both of these teams desperately need to win this game, especially Cincinnati, who right now appears to be on the outside looking in and has limited chances at notable wins after this.
-NOTRE DAME AT SYRACUSE (ACC). Syracuse has been playing better as of late, but they still have some work to do if they want to feel safe on Selection Sunday. They are currently two games below 500 in conference games, and they probably won’t end up in the field if that’s how they finish. The Irish are into the rankings and have been improving as the season has progressed. This would be yet another notable road win for them if they pull it off.
-UAB AT WESTERN KENTUCKY (Conference USA). UAB needs to win out just to get any sort of a look from the committee at all, and even that may not be enough. They have the nation’s longest winning streak, but they’ve done it against an SOS that’s ranked in the 290s.
-MONMOUTH AT QUINNIPIAC (Metro Atlantic). Monmouth cannot afford to lose this game, and probably can’t afford to lose any other games either.
-UT ARLINGTON AT LOUISIANA MONROE (Sun Belt). UTA has lost two of their last three games, and anything short of winning out will probably result in them needing the automatic bid to make the NCAAs.
-EVANSVILLE AT SOUTHERN ILLINOIS (Missouri Valley). Evansville really shot themselves in the foot over the weekend with their loss to Indiana State. They hadn’t played a tough schedule so their margin for error was very small. This is a chance to pick up a notable road win and resuscitate their profile a little bit, but they pretty much need to win out and even that may not be enough.
-CLEVELAND STATE AT VALPARAISO (Horizon League). I still think Valpo will be okay so long as they win out, which if they’re a tournament team they should be able to do since no one else in the HL even looks like an NIT team.
-GEORGIA SOUTHERN AT LITTLE ROCK (Sun Belt). Little Rock got the big win at UT Arlington over the weekend, and I think they’ve played their way inside the bubble, and will likely stay there so long as they hold serve the rest of the way.
-OREGON STATE AT ARIZONA STATE (Pac Twelve). Oregon State is coming off a much needed win, but they need road wins if they want to land inside the bubble. Like all teams that are on the bubble, this is a very big game for them.
-SANTA CLARA AT GONZAGA (West Coast). Gonzaga is still safe for now, but if they lose any more games to non tournament teams, especially at home, they could be in trouble.
-MICHIGAN STATE AT NORTHWESTERN (Big Ten). Michigan State got a big win over the weekend, which should get them out of the funk they were in. This is a winnable, yet notable road win (like all road games in the Big Ten), which should help keep them on one of the top two lines so long as they finish strong.
-RICHMOND AT GEORGE WASHINGTON (Atlantic Ten). I think GW is right on the bubble despite being 15-4 and having a big win against Virginia. The Virginia win came at home, and as good as the Hoos are, they haven’t exactly proven themselves to be road warriors this year. If they slip up and lose multiple games to non tournament teams, I think GW will end up on the outside looking in, which is why games like tonight’s are so important.
-OREGON AT ARIZONA (Pac Twelve). Oregon has picked up some big road wins, which has drastically improved their profile. Arizona has played well in some losing efforts, but given some of their injuries it’s going to be difficult for them to end up as a protected seed again this year.
-WASHINGTON AT UCLA (Pac Twelve). Washington is way up in the Pac Twelve standings, but they’re still right on the bubble when you look at their overall body of work and could really use a road win. UCLA is kind of bubbly as well, so this game is very important to both teams.
-WASHINGTON STATE AT USC (Pac Twelve). Playing Wazzu at home is probably the most winnable conference game for any team in the Pac Twelve.
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.