Jacksonville State played a quarterfinal game against North Texas in the College Basketball Invitational Wednesday night, but it could be easily forgiven if the Gamecocks’ minds were on other things this week.
JSU’s campus in Alabama was hit hard by an EF-3 tornado Monday night, leaving widespread damage throughout. Among the buildings damaged was the school’s basketball arena, as Pete Mathews Coliseum received roof damage. A picture from Athletic Director Greg Seitz shows it from the inside, while other pictures of what the campus sustained are here. Jacksonville State Head Coach Ray Harper also tweeted that the school is taking donations of any kind, and clearly it’s going to take some time to clean up and repair throughout campus.
Fortunately, the school is on spring break this week. Basketball-wise, the tornado actually happened while the Gamecocks were away playing Central Arkansas in a CBI quarterfinal game Monday night, and they were on the road against Wednesday, getting just two days between games before playing again.
Whether it was being road-weary, distracted, or just running into a red-hot team, JSU was knocked out of the CBI with North Texas dominating in a 90-68 win. The Mean Green shot an incredible 70% in the first half with an almost unconscious stat line. North Texas made 10 of 14 shots from three-point range, also outscored the Gamecocks 22-2 in the paint and even held a 20-8 rebounding advantage in the first half, on the way to a 57-29 lead.
Grant McCasland’s North Texas squad is yet another from Conference USA that is succeeding in the postseason (and actually is fulfilling the promise we saw when we opined that the winner of the CBI’s first round game between the Mean Green and South Dakota might be the tourney favorite). UNT entered the CBI with a 15-17 record but has played re-energized after losing seven of eight to finish the regular season (six of those by six points or less or in overtime). The Mean Green has defeated three solid teams (also hammering Mercer by 29 points) and has shown again that C-USA was no slouch this year.
Seniors Malcolm Drumwright and Norbertas Giga combined for 38 points for Jacksonville State, but it was a hard end to a two-year run that has included the school’s first NCAA Division I tourney appearance last year followed by a school D-I best 23 wins this year. In the end, though, it was nothing compared to what the campus now will face as it moves forward and faces a significant recovery.
Side Dishes:
- More Hoopville content from Wednesday: Ray Floriani has notes and numbers from March tournament hoops so far. On a similar (and much more long-winded) note, we posted Tuesday our own musings from the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
- The NIT semifinals are set, and in a season as crazy and sometimes strange as this one has been in college basketball, maybe it should be no surprise that all four quarterfinals were won by road teams. Western Kentucky became the third semifinalist and is in the NIT semis for the first time since 1954 after an impressive 92-84 win at Oklahoma State. Taveion Hollingsworth scored 30 and Dwight Coleby dominated inside with 16 points, 13 rebounds and three blocked shots. The Hilltoppers continue to prove that many bracket projectors had it right in January when they surmised that Conference USA was an NCAA tourney two-bid league. WKU also won in front of more than 11,000 fans at Gallagher-Iba Arena-a salute to Cowboy fans for showing up in impressive numbers.
- The final quarterfinal saw Utah hang around all night and then bite Saint Mary’s in overtime for a 67-58 win. The Gaels dominated the glass (40-26) but shot just 40.4% and were again leaky on defense, allowing the Utes to shoot 48.1% and hit 12 of 27 from three-point range. Leading scorer Justin Bibbins was held to 10 points and David Collette missed the second half and overtime with a back injury, but Sedrick Barefield made three three-pointers in overtime and Utah heads to Madison Square Garden for the first time since 1992 under Rick Majerus.
- A pair of quarterfinals took place in the CIT. Illinois-Chicago won at Austin Peay 83-81, coming back from 14 points down and getting a jumper by Godwin Boahen with just over a second left for the winner. UIC has now won eight straight games on the road, a school record. Also, Northern Colorado won at San Diego 86-75 to move to the semifinals, also rallying from a halftime deficit. The Bears from the Big Sky Conference had three players score at least 20 points (Andre Spight with 26, Jordan Davis with 21 plus 12 rebounds and Anthony Johnson with 20 off the bench) and will make their first-ever CIT semifinal appearance.
- Missouri State announced Dana Ford as its new coach Wednesday. Just 33 years old-one of the youngest coaches in NCAA Division I-Ford was most recently the head coach at Tennessee State the past four years, compiling a 57-65 record. His teams there were known for playing well against their toughest competition, winning at Middle Tennessee State, taking North Carolina State and Texas to the wire and even pushing Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Ford also played in the Missouri Valley Conference at Illinois State and was an assistant at Illinois State and Wichita State.
- Louisville announced that it will not be retaining David Padgett as coach. Padgett took over on short notice before the season after the suspension and eventual firing of Rick Pitino, leading the Cardinals to a 22-14 record and an NIT quarterfinal appearance. Many expect the school to go after Xavier’s Chris Mack, though with (more) NCAA sanctions possibly in play depending on how the FBI investigation plays out, it wouldn’t seem to make sense to leave such a stable job at a school good enough for a 1 seed in the NCAAs this year.
- News from early this morning is that Connecticut has won the Dan Hurley Sweepstakes and will be hiring the Rhode Island coach. The Huskies are reported to be offering over $3 million per year, more than URI’s strong offer. You can continue to follow all the coaching changes on Hoopville here.
- North Carolina State big man Omer Yurtseven has been granted his release from the school to possibly transfer or pursue playing professionally. The 7-foot Yurtseven had a very nice year for the Wolfpack, receiving third team all-ACC honors after averaging 13.5 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game and shooting 57% from the field and 50% from three-point range. It would certainly seem there are professional options available for the native of Uzbekistan if he would so choose…we’ll see how this one turns out.
- Finally, a note we just had to add from Tuesday night, if you didn’t see the finish for the NAIA Division I title game between Graceland (Iowa) and LSU-Shreveport, you need to. (Watch here)The historic NAIA tourney has been going on since 1937 (longer than the NCAA or NIT events) and is one we’d suggest for the bucket list of any hoops fan (a sample of it: eight games are played back-to-back all day for the each of the tourney’s first three days). It was also great to see old Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City rocking this year with nearby Graceland playing and larger crowds than the event has seen in some time-more than 6,000 were on hand, the largest crowd at this history-rich event since 2002.
Tonight’s Menu:
- The NCAA Tournament fires back up again with regional semifinals in the South and West. First up in the South is No. 11 Loyola Chicago vs. 7 seed Nevada (7:07 p.m. Eastern, CBS). This one will come down to whether the Ramblers’ excellent team defense can slow down the Wolf Pack’s potent offensive attack. This is a sport that favors offense now, so the advantage is with Nevada, though the physicality in the NCAA Tournament could be an equalizer. The second game in Atlanta will be ninth-seeded Kansas State against 5 seed Kentucky in a duel of Wildcats (9:27 p.m., CBS). UK is just the better team, especially if Dean Wade is limited or out. K-State also is likely to struggle on the glass, and one of its greatest strengths-defending the 3-point line-doesn’t come in as handy against Kentucky as it might some other teams.
- The West Region in Los Angeles is led off with 7 seed Texas A&M against No. 3 Michigan (7:37 p.m., TBS). The Aggies are the more talented team; in fact, they’re one of the most talented teams left. They’re also a hard team to trust. Turnovers could decide this one: Michigan is a +3.5 in TO margin this season, A&M is -2.7. The second game is No. 9 Florida State vs. 4 seed Gonzaga (10:07 p.m., TBS). Like A&M, the Seminoles are a hard team to trust. The Bulldogs are simply the more consistent team and thus deserve the edge, though it wouldn’t surprise us much at all if FSU pulled this out.
- The second CBI semifinal takes place as Campbell goes across country to take on San Francisco. The Dons are two wins away from becoming the second NCAA Division I school to win three different D-I college tournament championships, having won the NIT in 1949 and the NCAA title in both 1955 and 1956. (Indiana has won five NCAA titles, one NIT championship, and also won the short-lived Collegiate Commissioners Association tourney in 1974.)
Enjoy your Thursday.
Twitter: @HoopvilleAdam
