Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis. In this part one of two, we look at some of the action on the hardwood during Championship Week, as well as coaching news.
We start with the Big East Tournament, where Ted covered an evening doubleheader that saw Xavier pick up a crucial win and Creighton also move on. Earlier in the day, Ted saw North Carolina and Duke win in the ACC Tournament across town, which sets up a big rivalry game in the semifinals on Friday night.
The biggest surprises on the day came in the Big 12 Tournament, where Kansas and Baylor both went down. We talk about that, as well as some brief words about other games on the day, then move on to coaching news.
Later in the day, we learned that UMass has fired Derek Kellogg and UC Santa Barbara fired Bob Williams, the winningest coach in program history. There is some irony in these two happening not far apart, as UC Santa Barbara athletic director John McCutcheon hired Kellogg when he was the AD at UMass. The unfortunate thing is that Kellogg was fired not long after UMass’ season ended with a 73-60 loss to St. Bonaventure in the Atlantic 10 Tournament. We are keeping track of the coaching changes at this link.
We close by looking ahead to Friday, where a lot of semifinal action is on tap, and Ted will cover a game at each of the two tournaments in New York. Also, we look at Saturday, a day full of championship games, and one where Ted will get to see two of them.
Part 2 is coming separately, but enjoy this one first to get you started.
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