2023-24 Around the WCC and the NCAA

up7587 wrote:Remember back to Nov. 6th?  Pilots beat Long Beach State to open the season.  LBSU went 8-4 in non-conference, and 10-10 in the Big West Conference.  They had the 4th seed in their tournament (would have been #5, but UCSD was not eligible).  At the end of the regular season, they fired former Gonzaga coach Dan Monson but let him coach the tournament.  The Beach ran the table and won an automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament..

Unfortunately for LBSU and Monson, who has coached the Beach for 17 seasons, the team lost their last five games in a row after a promising 10-5 beginning in Big West play, and the disappointment of the apparent collapse led the AD/regents to fire Coach Monson.

So, with LBSU dancing, are they the only California school besides St. Mary's in the Tournament?  San Diego St. looks like they could get an at-large bid, but I cannot think of another Cali school worthy of an invitation.

I think all can agree that Monson was the architect of GU's rise to greatness before heading off to Minnesota for close to eight full seasons, and he'll probably end up landing on his feet elsewhere before the 24-25 season.

up7587 wrote:Another non-conference opponent, Nevada, won the Mountain West tournament.  They were the #2 seed.

Grand Canyon, a 91-63 victor over UP in December and a school some have thought worthy of joining the WCC, was the #1 seed in the WAC Tournament in the Orleans Arena and came away with the automatic bid by blowing out UT Arlington in the final.

UC Irvine had a good year, but probably not good enough to get a bid ahead of .500 record SEC and Big 10 teams. After SMC and SDS, they are the next highest NET ranked California team at #77.

up7587 wrote:UC Irvine had a good year, but probably not good enough to get a bid ahead of .500 record SEC and Big 10 teams.  After SMC and SDS, they are the next highest NET ranked California team at #77.

Just SMC, SDSU, and LBSU from California.

#5 SMC plays #13 Grand Canyon in what could be preview of a future WCC matchup; #5 SDSU gets the invite against #12 UAB; and fired Coach Monson and #15 the Beach gets to take on #2 Arizona.

#5 Gonzaga?  They've got #12 McNeese St.

#16 Montana State and Chika?  They play a "First Four" game against #16 Grambling.

Zags have to be happy with a #5 seed.  They play #12 McNeese St., a 30-3 team who lost one game since Thanksgiving and are on an 11-game win streak.  The #4 seed in their bracket is Kansas, who have lost 4 of their last 5 games.

Grand Canyon is 29-4.  If SMC gets past them, they likely play #4 Alabama, who lost 4 of their last 6 games.

USF expected to be playing in the postseason, and they are!

Unfortunately, they don't have much time to prepare before traveling to Cincinnati to play the #2 Bearcats in the first round of the NIT on Wednesday evening.

KenPom has the Dons on the losing end, 75-68.

Remember BYU, the team that never won a WCC Championship?

Well, they were blown out by Texas Tech in their opening round of the Big-12 Tournament, but they are a #6 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will face the winners of the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament, #11 Duquesne, on Thursday in Omaha.

DoubleDipper wrote:Remember BYU, the team that never won a WCC Championship?

Well, they were blown out by Texas Tech in their opening round of the Big-12 Tournament, but they are a #6 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will face the winners of the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament, #11 Duquesne, on Thursday in Omaha.

I have been watching BYU's numbers a little. They were tied for 5th place in the Big 12, one game above .500 at 10-8 (23-10 overall). But they are ranked #12 in the NET and #16 in KenPom. By those measures they are underseeded. They have a losing record in Quad 1 games (6-, and are 5-2 in Quad 2 games and have no bad losses. The metrics guys love the Big 12 teams, I guess.

DoubleDipper wrote:I think all can agree that Monson was the architect of GU's rise to greatness before heading off to Minnesota for close to eight full seasons, and he'll probably end up landing on his feet elsewhere before the 24-25 season.

Nice interview with (ex)Coach Monson on the eve of his team playing against Arizona, coached by his one-time grad assistant, Tommy Lloyd.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1769503573493383541

Jacob Groves went to Virginia for his final year of bball after 2 years at EWU with Coach Legans and 2 years at Oklahoma.  His team was 22-9, third in the ACC.  In the ACC Tournament they had two overtime games, beating Boston College and losing to NC State.  Then with a NET ranking of 54 they got selected for the NCAA tournament over Indiana St. at #28.  They were assigned to a First Four play-in game against Colo. St.  Those OT games must have really worn them out, because UVA gave a stinker of a performance last night.  25% shooting from the field, including 3-17 (17.6%) from 3P.  Missed 6 of 17 FTs. Scored 4 points in the first 8 minutes of the game.  Put up 10 more in under three minutes, then went scoreless the last 9:20 of the first half.  Halftime didn't help as it took 3-1/2 minutes more minutes to score in the second half.  By then they trailed 35-16.  They allowed CSU to score 40 second half points, and lost 67-42.  

Two questions:

1. How was Jacob's performance?
2. Is this likely Tony Bennett's final season at UVA?

What?  Only BYU's Mark Pope picked Taylor Swift?  

Randy Bennett and SDSU's Brian Dutcher go with "The Boss!"

Interesting...Michael Jackson shows up as the pick of 5 coaches (including Tom Izzo picking the Jackson Five).

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/march-madness-mixtape-favorite-bands-artists-of-every-coach-competing-in-the-2024-ncaa-tournament/

DoubleDipper wrote:Two questions:

1. How was Jacob's performance?
2. Is this likely Tony Bennett's final season at UVA?

Jacob did not start, played 19 minutes, hit 1-8 shots for 3 points. For the season he started 15 of 34 games, averaged 20 minutes, shot 45%, and averaged 7.4 points.

How much slack do you give a coach who's won a national championship for you? Or one who lost to a #16 seed?

up7587 wrote:

Sound Voltex wrote:Chika is going dancing.

#5 seed Montana St. (14-17 on the season, 9-9 in Big Sky) beat #4 Weber St., then #10 Sac. St. (who upset EWU), before beating instate rival #3 Montana for the tournament championship.  Chika suffered a foot injury on 02/29 and has not played since.

Montana St. played Grambling in a First Four game. They led by 9 at the half, but Grambling closed strong to force OT, and Grambling won 88-81. As predicted, Chika was not able to play.

USF accepted an invite to the NIT, and played at Cincinnati. The game went to overtime, and USF had a two point lead, but failed to score in the last 2-1/2 minutes. Cincinnati hit a 3P shot with 4 seconds left to win by one.

Before Terry Porter was hired, the coach at Columbia Univ. was touted as a possible candidate. Kyle Smith ended up going to USF, not UP. Just as well, as we would not have kept him very long if he succeeded. He left USF for WSU, got them to the tournament, and is now taking the Stanford job. Going from a Pac-2 team to an Atlantic Coast Conf. team situated on the Pacific coast.

Twitter comments saying that UW is hiring Danny Sprinkle. Sprinkle got Utah State to the tournament in his first season there, and is leaving for a Big-10 team on the Pacific coast.

up7587 wrote:Twitter comments saying that UW is hiring Danny Sprinkle.  Sprinkle got Utah State to the tournament in his first season there, and is leaving for a Big-10 team on the Pacific coast.

It's now official!!

up7587 wrote:Before Terry Porter was hired, the coach at Columbia Univ. was touted as a possible candidate.  

He was "touted," but Kyle Smith's agent was quoted as saying, "I wouldn't even consider the Portland job," even though Smith himself may have at one time considered the UP head coaching position.

Needing a basketball fix during the lull in NCAA Tournament action, I watched Seattle U. beat High Point to win the CBI Championship tonight.

The Panthers were ahead by 1 when the Redhawks converted a 7-point play and finished the game on an 11-0 run.

Twelve days ago, Seattle lost the WAC semi-final game to Grand Canyon in the Orleans Arena, but then went on a four-game winning streak in Daytona Beach over Delaware St., Evansville, Fairfield, and High Point to finish the season 23-14.

Cameron Tyson was the tournament MVP, and tonight scored 30.

Also on TV tonight, #1 Seton Hall blew out UNLV, and in another blow out, #2 Utah beat VCU in NIT quarterfinal games.

Both games were hard to watch because they were so lopsided...so I just fast forwarded through them.

DoubleDipper wrote:Unfortunately for LBSU and Monson, who has coached the Beach for 17 seasons, the team lost their last five games in a row after a promising 10-5 beginning in Big West play, and the disappointment of the apparent collapse led the AD/regents to fire Coach Monson.

I think all can agree that Monson was the architect of GU's rise to greatness before heading off to Minnesota for close to eight full seasons, and he'll probably end up landing on his feet elsewhere before the 24-25 season.

Dan Monson landed on his feet in Cheney. He is the new coach at Eastern Washington after David Riley went to WSU. After 25 years he returns to Spokane. First order of business, deal with the 6 or 7 EWU players who entered the portal. I don't think any of them have committed elsewhere yet.