Longhorns finish the season strong with 3 straight wins and get a bye into the quarterfinals of the B12 tourney vs Texas Tech.
Gators needed to beat either Missouri or Tennessee in our last two games t get the two day bye in the SEC tournament. We took the early lead in both games but didn't win either. I believe we are now the number 5 seed and get a first day bye.
Michigan State beating Michigan yesterday, does that mean MSU is rounding into shape at the right time of the year? Could they be a dark horse in the Big 10 Tourney? BTW is Illinois for real? By that I mean is this year a fluke or has their coach finally got the program where they will be a contender on an annual basis? I don't want to say Brad Underwood was an unknown, but he was only 1 year at a Power 5 program (Oklahoma State) before taking the Illinois job. Is he a guy who will stay around or is he looking for a big payday somewhere else?
There are six B1G teams who would not surprise me if they won the tournament. And there could be a surprise team win it.
Illinois had outstanding teams during Henson’s era and during Self’s and Weber’s briefer periods although Weber’s tenure ended badly. Plenty of B-ball talent in the Midwest so past history and the available talent poll suggests a good coach can win at Champagne. Re Underwood — he paid his dues coaching at high schools, community colleges, and being a asst coach at D1 colleges before getting his first D1 job at Stephen Austin at age 50. He seems like the real deal to me as far as being a coach who can build a sustainable program and I suspect Illinois, which has endured hard times in recent years, will do all that they have to do to keep him happy. Given his age and the time it took to land a job at a major university, not sure he would be all that inclined to leave a high paying job at a quality university that cost him three decades of hard work to get to do a rebuild at another school or jump into the NBA shark tank.
One thing is certain. There's a wealth of talent in and around Chicago that's been going out of state. Success at Illinois could enable him to keep some of that talent at home.
Seth Davis has an article up on The Athletic, about the basketball coaching carousel...he put up 20 names that might be in play if jobs open up. He predicts that in addition to the already open jobs at BC, Penn State and New Mexico that Minn will part ways with Pitino and that only the buyout will prevent IU from parting ways with Archie Miller. He says that the hottest Mid-Major coach around is the HC at Loyola of Chicago, Porter Moser also that John Beilein if he wants can pretty much have any job he wants. One of the more interesting names is Thad Matta, here's what he had to say about Matta. Thad Matta, former head coach, Ohio State. Matta is only 53, so he should have plenty of good years left if he wants to return to coaching. But does he? Matta has been approached by plenty of schools since he was fired by Ohio State in 2017 — including UCLA, which flew to Matta’s home to interview him after the school cut Steve Alford loose. Boston College recently reached out to gauge Matta’s interest in the job. He said he wanted to talk it over with his wife, and then called back the next day to say they didn’t want to live in Boston. Matta has expressed his disdain for the scandalous activities revealed by the FBI’s investigation. He has spent the last four years hanging on the beach in Florida, where he has a second home, taking cooking lessons and traveling with his wife. It would take an ideal situation to lure Matta back, and he would still have to answer questions about his health. But his phone will keep ringing.
Beilein is my favorite M coach. Hated to see him leave M. If he gets back in coaching, my guess is he would like it to be with his son as an assistant with the son groomed to be his successor similar to the Dick and Tony Bennett hiring at Wazoo. The fly in the ointment though is that Beilein’s son resigned under a cloud from his last coaching job. Beilein represented M with class and integrity and was masterful in his development of young players. Fear in AA is that he might end up in Indiana or Minnesota.
ND wins over Wake Forest on a buzzer beater 3 from way downtown. Irish are 2-0 since Brey was booed off the court. Wish they had done it in the first week of the season.
Apparently Iowa retiring Luka Garza's #55, caused some PR issues. The family of former Hawkeye star Roy Marble who might be the greatest Hawkeye ever has not had his #23 retired and they were upset that Garza got his number retired. Iowa athletic director Gary Barta apologized to the family of Hawkeyes basketball great Roy Marble on Tuesday for any hard feelings they have over the retirement of star player Luka Garza's number. Garza last month broke the 32-year-old career scoring record held by Marble, is the two-time Big Ten player of the year and is among the front-runners for national player of the year. Iowa announced after Sunday's home win against Wisconsin that no one in the basketball program would wear No. 55 after this season. Marble led Iowa to its only 30-win season and an NCAA regional final in 1987 and to the Sweet 16 the next year, and many consider him the program's best player ever. His No. 23 has not been retired. "We have learned since Sunday that Roy Marble's family was hurt and feeling disrespected since that day," Barta said. "I just want to take a moment and share that absolutely that disrespect was unintentional and to publicly apologize for that." No. 5 Iowa victorious, will retire Garza's No. 55 Marble died of cancer in 2015 at age 48. He and Garza are the only Iowa men's players to score more than 2,000 points. His son, Roy Devyn Marble, tweeted Monday he would never watch another Iowa game.
Lots of contingencies to plan for with regard to the upcoming tourney. I heard that the "last 4 out" will be on speed dial if a team has covid problems and can't go in the 1st round. Also all you have to have is 5 players and you can play, that's a lot to ask for 5 guys to try and play a whole game without a blow from a bench player, what about foul problems? They aren't sure what happens if your coach or coaches are out. All a team needs to play in this year's NCAA tournament is five healthy players. How about a coach? The NCAA will get back to you on that. The fluid nature of a March Madness played amid the coronavirus pandemic was spelled out Wednesday, hours before the NCAA selection committee began meeting to hash out a 68-team bracket that could remain in flux up until the games tip off next week. In explaining a number of contingencies that could come into play if teams are exposed to COVID-19, NCAA senior VP of basketball Dan Gavitt said that as long as a team has five healthy players, it's good to go. And if that team's coaching staff gets decimated by the coronavirus? "Honestly, it's probably something we should talk about as a committee," he said. NCAA: Tourney teams need minimum roster of 5
Duke pulled out of the ACC tournament with a Covid problem and said their season was over. Fla State was their opponent in the quarterfinal game and will advance to the ACC semifinals and await the winner of the Va.Tech/North Carolina game.
Big 12 has 7 teams in this weeks top 25. Big 10 has 5 but 4 of those 5 are in the top 10 and 3 are in the top 5.
We finally managed to win a game after four losses, beating Minnesota 79 -75 this afternoon. We will meet Purdue again in the quarter finals of the Big Ten Tournament.
Gators take on Tennessee today in the SEC Tournament. Been a strange year for us and we lost our top player in a scary situation collapsing on the floor during the FSU game. He is now with the team but not as a player. I don't like our chances with Tennessee.
Longhorns got a hard fought win over a very good Texas Tech team, next up will be KU in the B12 semifinals, they have already beaten KU twice this season so we know how to do it but KU has been playing much better as of late and it's hard to continue to beat a good team like KU. But win or not we're in the NCAA tourney and will have a good seed.
Here's a first... The Michigan State Spartans Basketball presented by Rocket Mortgage! A 5 year sponsorship. How long till we see sponsors patches on college jerseys? Rocket Mortgage sponsorship gives MSU men's basketball a new name
UVA out of the ACC tourney due to Covid. When Duke went out their AD said their season was over, but not so at UVA. While Duke athletic director Kevin White announced Thursday that the Blue Devils' season was over, that's not necessarily the case for Virginia. To play in the NCAA tournament, a team needs to show seven consecutive negative daily tests before arriving in Indianapolis, then undergo daily testing while inside the controlled environment there. Dan Gavitt, NCAA senior vice president of men's basketball, has also said that a team just needs five healthy players to play in an NCAA tournament game. If Virginia doesn't have a widespread COVID-19 outbreak and the rest of the team continues to test negative, the Cavaliers should be eligible to play in the NCAA tournament. This means that Ga.Tech moves on to the ACC Final vs the Winner of the FSU/VaTech game. FSU had a forfeit from Duke to get into the Semi's.