Hoops HD

The Centenary Award.  An annual award handed out by the staff here at HoopsHD.com to the worst team in college basketball.  It began three seasons ago when Centenary College in Louisiana finished the season 1-29 and then promptly drop down out of Division I hoops after years upon years of struggling to be competitive at this level.  In 2012, the award went to the Towson Tigers (who have had a remarkable turnaround since then which will certainly be highlighted in an upcoming SCGD) and last season it was given to the NCAA record 0-28 Grambling State Tigers.

This season Grambling is among the favorites to repeat, though South Carolina State, UMBC, UMKC, and Alabama State may also be in the mix as well.  However, today’s SCGD column is not about this year’s Centenary Award.  Rather, it is about the team that started it all, the Centenary Gentleman.

The Gents biggest claim to fame came back between 1972-1976 when NBA Hall of Famer Robert Parish played for the school….if in fact he ever did play there. The NCAA does not acknowledge any of his statistics because he and five other players were ruled ineligible academically, a ruling Centenary never agreed with.  As a result, Parish played for four seasons, averaging 21.6 points and 16.9 rebounds, and leading the school to an 87-21 record during his career.  But according to the NCAA’s official statistics, which only count the statistics of eligible players, Parish never played a game.

Recent years have been much more difficult for the Gents, though since their drop down in division they did post a .500 11-11 record in 2011-12 before dropping back last season to 9-15.  Tonight, they kick off their 2012-13 season with a road trip to take on the Bulldogs of Louisiana Tech.  Tech began their season Friday night with a loss at St. Mary’s, though they still look to be one of the top teams (on paper at least) in the new 16-team Conference USA.  The Gents should not be much of a problem for them tonight.  However, the SCGD could not pass up the chance to highlight Centenary during one of two games against D1 opponents they will play this season (they are also at Louisiana-Lafayette on December 17).

For today’s SCGD, we turn to the 12 Noon Eastern game in Kennesaw, Georgia between Warren Wilson and Florida International.  This game is part of the Kennesaw State Tournament, a 5 team round-robin exempt event that has been going on for the past few days.  FIU enters the game with a record of 1-2, having previously defeated Kennesaw State while losing to both Eastern Kentucky and Youngstown State.

Florida International is one of six teams that are ineligible for the NCAA tournament this season due to low APR scores.  The other five are New Orleans, out of the Southland Conference, and four teams from the SWAC: Alabama State, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Grambling State, and Mississippi Valley State.  Despite being ineligible this year, FIU has transitioned from the Sun Belt to Conference USA.  The Golden Panthers have been led so far by senior Rakeem Buckles, who has notched a double-double in each of his first three games, earning Conference USA Players of the Week honors.

Warren Wilson is a small four year school located near Asheville, North Carolina.  They are not an NCAA school, instead belonging to the USCAA, competing in Division II there.  Last season they entered the USCAA national championship tournament as the #9 seed out of 10 teams…and proceeded to win the entire thing, amazingly enough defeating the #10 seed host school Penn State Fayette in the finals.  The Owls are 2-3 so far on the season, having been blown out by Kennesaw State yesterday afternoon, 92-48.  After their game today, they have contests against both Eastern Kentucky and Youngstown State to conclude the tournament.

Welcome to the inaugural Small Conference Game of the Day for the 2013-14 college basketball season.  This is where we highlight teams from conferences outside of the majors, and very often outside even the top mid-majors.  These teams are often unlikely to be playing in the NCAA tournament, but we use this space to highlight their games and discuss them more in depth.

Tonight’s game is a throwback to one of the SCGOD’s favorite conferences, the now defunct Great West.  The GWC played four full seasons as a Division I conference, sending their tournament champion each year to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT).  Utah Valley University hosted the Great West tournament in Orem, Utah during its first two seasons, with Chicago State hosting the final two.  While Utah Valley twice won the regular season championship, they failed to win the conference tournament on any of their four tries.  However, in perhaps the highlight moment for the Great West, UVU earned an at-large bid into the CIT after the 2011-12 season, their lone postseason bid since becoming a member of Division I.

At 9:00PM Eastern tonight, Utah Valley hosts North Carolina A&T out of the MEAC (UVU-TV, free streaming at http://www.uvu.edu/uvutv).  This is UVU’s second game of the season, having beaten IUPUI 74-66 on Friday night, and coming just one day before a trip to Stillwater to take on Oklahoma State.  UVU was led in their first game by Holton Hunsaker, who scored 18 points, and redshirt freshman Zach Nelson, who scored a double-double in his first career game.  North Carolina A&T also won its first game of the season, defeating non-D1 Greensboro College.  Their star player in that game was Richaud Pack, a freshman who dropped 30 points.

While the Great West no longer exists, and the court in Orem, Utah will be proclaiming how UVU is now a member of the WAC, the SCGOD still fondly recalls the four years of its existence.  But, as with all things, time has brought change.  And for the Wolverines of Utah Valley University, they will for the first time ever this season be competing for an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament — and a chance to cut down the nets in the WAC finals this year will be well worth not having done so during their four journeys through the Great West.