The day after Selection Sunday 2019 often is one still with its share of fire and brimstone. This year’s Monday after felt almost like baseball’s all-star break, so light a day of news it was. That may be another good sign of the work done by this year’s NCAA tourney selection committee.
If it’s not about tournaments this time of year, though, the news frequently is about coaches changes or perhaps non-changes. Indeed, Monday did bring coaching news in the Atlantic coast region, with one coach relieved of his duties and another returning despite some folks’ very vocal preference otherwise.
Among more coaching changes: Elon let go of coach Matt Matheny yesterday. Matheny was with the school for 10 years, posting a 151-168 record.
He was previously a longtime Davidson assistant and brought that style of play to the Phoenix, but couldn’t get the program consistently into the top half of the Colonial Athletic Association after the school moved there in 2014. In particular the past two years saw some disappointment, in particular after the team finished in a tie for fourth in 2016-17 and returned all five starters the next year but was unable to build on it.
One coach who is staying around is Richmond’s Chris Mooney. Athletic director Chris Hardt made it clear Monday that Mooney will be back for a 15th year.
Undoubtedly this will cause consternation for some, especially for a group of Spiders fans who spent money on a billboard on Interstate 95 calling for his firing. Indeed, the former Princeton player has not led Richmodn to the NCAA Tournament since consecutive trips in 2010 and 2011, with the best showings since a pair of NIT quarterfinal appearances.
In a sport where too often coaches are discarded like tissue paper, it’s nice to see a school sticking with a coach and honoring a contract (and Mooney has a long one-a 10-year deal signed in 2011 running through 2020-21). That goes especially one who has handled his position with class and at a school where the admissions standards are regarded as tough. For all the hooting and hollering from those supposedly concerned about student-athlete well-being, they should be ecstatic when the coaches that players signed on to play for aren’t fired.
Mooney has had some tough luck with injuries and transfers the past couple years and had a very young team this year. Considerable progress will be a reasonable expectation next year.
Monday also saw some movement among assistant coaches. In a move you don’t see often, Massachusetts coach Matt McCall has fired all three of his assistants, with Rasheen Davis, Peter Gash and Cliff Warren all let go. Also at TCU, assistant coach Corey Barker has been fired, as reported by Mac Engel of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Barker is the assistant at the school who has been linked the the FBI investigation into college basketball recruiting.
Side Dishes:
- From early Monday morning, we posted our NCAA Tournament bracket selection analysis here on Hoopville, giving credit where we believe it is due to a selection committee that did an improved job, even as there is more work to do.
- The CollegeInsider.com Tournament became the first D-I tourney to tip off Monday night with one game. NJIT made a big run early in the second half and turned back Quinnipiac 92-81. Highlanders 5-foot-9 sophomore guard Zach Cooks scored a career-high 34 points and the Atlantic Sun school improved to 22-12 this year. NJIT was a two-time semifinalist in this tourney in 2015 and 2016. (The CIT also released its first round games late Sunday night; you can check them all out here).
- Arkansas sophomore Daniel Gafford has declared for the NBA Draft and also will not play for the Razorbacks in the NIT, coach Mike Anderson announced on Monday. Gafford joined the trend of collegiate players skipping out of postseason play that has been popularized by some in college football. While the NCAA’s meddling with NIT rules every year has essentially made that event little more than an exhibition, it’s still frustrating to see a player ditch his teammates before the season is done. And whether people like hearing it said that way or not, that’s exactly what these players are doing in cases like this.
Tonight’s Menu:
- The NCAA Tournament begins with its soft open with the first two games of the play-in round, er, First Four, also known as the beginning of the one week a year where people watch truTV. The lead-off game is the matchup of 16 seeds with NEC champion Fairleigh Dickinson against Prairie View A&M of the SWAC (6:40 p.m. Central, truTV). We like the Panthers, who are making just their second ever NCAA tourney appearance and first in 21 years. Prairie View pressures and denies all over the court and forces a ton of turnovers. The second game is Temple against Belmont (9:10 p.m., truTV), with a pair of highly regarded coaches in Fran Dunphy against Rick Byrd. Dunphy has the Owls back in the NCAAs in his final year. Temple will be challenged to keep up with the Bruins offensively, though it’s doable especially if Belmont is off from outside.
- The NIT opens with a busy set of ten games. There’s some big-time individual scoring power with Chris Clemons and Campbell against top seed UNC Greensboro, Mike Daum and South Dakota State at Texas (9 p.m., ESPN) and Justin Wright-Foreman and Hofstra at North Carolina State (7 p.m., ESPN2). Other matchups include Wright State at Clemson, with Brad Brownell going up against his former school, and Loyola Chicago coach Porter Moser returns to his alma mater when the Ramblers take on Creighton, the team they replaced in the Missouri Valley (9 p.m., ESPNU). Also, surprise NIT selection San Diego opens at Memphis.
- The College Basketball Invitational opens with one game, with Cal State Northridge-just 13-20 on the season but boasting hotshot freshman Lamine Diane, the Big West player of the year-on the road at a solid Utah Valley team.
- The College Insider tourney has two more first round games with Cornell and senior star Matt Morgan on the road at Robert Morris and IUPUI at Marshall.
Enjoy your NCAA tourney Tuesday.
Twitter: @HoopvilleAdam
