Nothing like a lot of wins over teams from major conference teams in one day. Even better when they are ranked teams. Today the Atlantic-10 had the kind of day that helps the entire conference. It raises the profile of the teams and the competition. At least for a while.
Temple crunched the 8th ranked Tennessee Volunteers to start things off today. That was followed by UMass beating number 25 and defending national champ Kansas 61-60 in Kansas City. Both of those games were nationally televised on ESPN.
For the nightcap, Xavier took down Cinci 76-66 in the Crosstown shootout. An ugly, trash-talking, technical foul-filled game. Three A-10 programs taking down teams from three different power conferences. All being aired nationally. Of course, good luck at finding a conference game being aired on TV once conference play gets underway.
The rest of the conference went 6-2 today. Duquesne nearly pulled off an upset over West Virginia in Morgantown, but that fell short. There are some good teams and plenty of talented young coaches that have been overshadowed by Xavier's Sean Miller. Not to mention good coaches at other schools that have been almost forgotten nationally (Rick Majerus, St. Louis) or just are never looking to jump somewhere else (Phil Martelli, St. Joe's and Fran Dunphy, Temple).
The A-10 was here as recently as last year. They had a fantastic December as teams like Dayton, St. Joe's, UMass, Rhode Island, Charlotte and of course, Xavier all had big wins out of conference. All made noise and spurred dreams of going to the NCAA. Then came conference play and things fell apart. Except for Xavier, there seemed to be little separation among the fourteen programs. Teams rose and fell every week. By the end of the season, three teams made it to the NCAA Tournament only because Temple stunned everyone to win the A-10 Tournament and the automatic bid.
Really? It is not even December, yet Doug Wiggins could not make it to the second semester before getting into trouble at UMass.
According to MassLive.com and other sources, the Amherst town police log recorded that Wiggins had been arrested on a misdemeanor charge of breaking and entering early Saturday morning.
The report said he was found inside the bathroom of another person's home.
UMass has suspended Wiggins indefinitely. He had transferred from UConn over the summer, so he was sitting out this season, per the rules on transferring.
The Atlantic 10 is one of those interesting conferences: they sit on the fringe of major status, have some of the smallest schools in the top tier of college hoops and has quite the geographic stretch.
This is a conference that once housed West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Villanova and Rutgers ... and now is made up of 14 schools (10 of which are private schools) and not all of them are on the same page. Once a primarily eastern seaboard league, it now has two members in the Cincinnati area (Dayton, Xavier) and St. Louis. Yet, even those markets barely know the conference exists.
Last March, living in an Atlantic 10 city (Cincinnati) and subscribing to just about every satellite and cable package that could expand the college basketball available to my household (ESPN FullCourt, FOX College Sports, CSTV, DirecTV Sports Pack), I could not watch any A-10 tournament games except those involving Xavier and the title game shown on ESPN.
I, also, live in the Cincinnati area and it is tough to see anything A-10 related ... outside of the logo on the floor at the Dayton Arena or Xavier's Cintas Center. There is nothing to hype up the league or to inform anyone who's actually in the conference.
Travis Ford's brief run as the head coach at the University of Massachusetts helped the Minutemen back to respectability. His teams won more than 20 games each of the last two seasons and the program returned to the top of the Atlantic 10. He left for Oklahoma State, though, and the team faced a difficult decision about who would do the best job of keeping them at a level unreached since John Calipari left the school.
They could hire a second-tier coach with a winning pedigree, promote an assistant from within or reach into the past for a guy who represents that proud era mentioned above. The Minutemen appear to have chosen door number three and will announce former UMass guard Derek Kellogg as their next coach tomorrow.
Kellogg will be a popular hire. He's a local celebrity and has been an assistant at Memphis for the last eight seasons. UMass obviously hopes the recruiting skills he used to help the Tigers to the finals will keep the talent flowing to Amherst. You have to wonder if the Minutemen couldn't have accomplished all that and brought in a guy with head coaching experience to boot.
Travis Ford is leaving UMass to take the head-coaching job at Oklahoma State, ESPN's Doug Gottlieb is reporting:
That's an awfully quick change of mind for Ford, who less than a week ago said he was sticking with UMass. But Oklahoma State has the backing of billionaire T. Boone Pickens, which means the Cowboys can give coaches financial offers that make the six-figure deals of UMass look like chump change.
Ford, who previously turned down LSU, reportedly will meet with his players today to tell them he's leaving. Ford has a 62-35 record in three seasons at UMass and led them to a loss in the NIT title game this year. He replaces Sean Sutton, who resigned after failing to reach the NCAA tournament in 2007 and 2008.
UMass weathered the Western Kentucky and then LSU interest in Travis Ford. Then as things settled Providence came calling with a sizable offer -- at least double his base salary at UMass of $400,000.
Ford actually toured the Providence campus and their athletic facilities on Wednesday. He returned back to Amherst with an offer, by all accounts. UMass could not match the money, but did offer a raise and more years. Ultimately -- and perhaps a little surprisingly -- Ford opted to remain at UMass. The announcement was made that he was staying just before the UMass Team Banquet.
"As all of you know, we've gone through the last couple of days with a great deal of anticipation," said [Athletic Director John] McCutcheon. "We would like everyone to know that Travis Ford, our head men's basketball coach, will be with us for many years to come. Obviously this has been a tremendous year for the basketball program advancing to the NIT Championship. We have made great strides here over the last couple of years and we look forward to making many more. We could not be more excited about the future in front of us."
This is great news for UMass as they have shown steady improvement under Ford. While they haven't made the NCAA Tournament, they have gotten better each year and reached the NIT the last two and tied for the best record in the A-10 this season.
Of course, if UMass keeps getting better, this will remain an annual event and at some point Ford will leave for the money and opportunity. Providence, clearly, wasn't that big opportunity.
Even though there are a few games left to play before a champion is crowned, the college basketball coaching carousel is alive and spinning. In the SEC, South Carolina hired Darrin Horn but they aren't the only league school looking for a new coach. LSU needs one too and may also end up with a Kentucky native on their bench.
If you are going to blow a journalistic raspberry on a team on the verge of one of the biggest games in school history, please either offer an iron-clad guarantee of accuracy, or provide sources for the information.
I understand the desire for an unfettered run-up to a championship game but this is the nature of the beast. LSU's President used to be the President at UMass, Ford has done good things at UMass and is well-known around the SEC because of his days at Kentucky. This isn't wild speculation, then, but well-reasoned reportage using sources, anonymous though they be, to back it up.
UMass fans must dread losing Ford just as he's put the program back on good footing but I'd guess it's going to happen. They can take solace in the fact that the rumors didn't hurt them against Florida on Tuesday, at least, and hope Ford leaves on a winning note.
This is Syracuse forward/center Arinze Onuaku at the free throw line in last night's NIT game against UMass:
Did Onuaku think he was standing at the top of the key or something? Onuaku shot 44% from the line this season, but he actually managed to go 2-for-4 last night, boosting his average in the final game of the season. Fan IQ is wondering how Memphis coach John Calipari failed to land Onuaku.
Syracuse led by 22 in the second half last night before blowing the game to UMass. Free throw shooting was far from the only reason, but doesn't it seem like Syracuse has been terrible at shooting free throws for 30 years?
What? You didn't know the NIT announced their bids tonight as well? They were. If you were a fan of a bubble team that didn't make it, now is the chance to at least make a good showing that you were the most deserving team left out of the NCAA Tournament.
#1 seeds: Arizona State, Virginia Tech, Ohio State, Syracuse #2 seeds: Florida, Illinois State, Ole Miss, UMass #3 seeds: Creighton, Florida State, Dayton, Nebraska #4 seeds: Minnesota, Cal, SIU, VCU #5 seeds: Oklahoma State, Maryland, New Mexico, UAB #6 seeds: Rhode Island, Akron, Cleveland State, Charlotte #7 seeds: San Diego State, Stephen F. Austin, Utah State, UC-Santa Barbara #8 seeds: Alabama State, Robert Morris, Morgan State, UNC-Asheville
Not much else to say. This is as big an indictment of how weak the bubble really was when you look at this list. Only a couple of these teams have any sort of argument that they were screwed by the NCAA Tournament.
This is a little ridiculous. The NCAA Tournament selection is only a few days away and few teams are doing much to make a case. It's getting so that the argument by fans of bubble teams will come down to, "My team sucks less."
The major and semi-major conference tournaments finished first or second round action, and one thing was very clear. All of these teams are bubble teams for a reason. They just aren't that good and they can't close the deal.
Villanova follows up a big win over Syracuse with an equally big loss to Georgetown.
Baylor had to stage a second half comeback to lose in double-OT to Colorado.
Florida had to make a furious comeback to lose to Alabama by 11.
Dayton couldn't make a case against Xavier.
UAB probably needed to at least make the C-USA final, goes out in its first game.
UMass collapsed in the second half against Charlotte.
Oregon couldn't beat Washington State in a win-and-in type game.
Maryland fell apart (again) in the second half to hand it to Boston College.
Ole Miss cames back several times only to give up an easy basket just before the buzzer in OT for a Georgia win.
New Mexico couldn't close it in OT, losing to Utah.
South Alabama and VCU are feeling a lot better tonight. Heck, Virginia Tech suddenly has a legitimate case. Ohio State and Arkansas, it's your turn on Friday.
NCAA Basketball 
Nothing like a lot of wins over teams from major conference teams in one day. Even better when they are ranked teams. Today the Atlantic-10 had the kind of day that helps the entire conference. It raises the profile of the teams and the competition. At least for a while.
Really? It is not even December, yet Doug Wiggins could not make it to the second semester before 
The Atlantic 10 is one of those interesting conferences: they sit on the fringe of major status, have some of the smallest schools in the top tier of college hoops and has quite the geographic stretch.
Travis Ford's brief run as the head coach at the University of Massachusetts helped the Minutemen back to respectability. His teams won more than 20 games each of the last two seasons and the program returned to the top of the Atlantic 10. He left for Oklahoma State, though, and the team faced a difficult decision about who would do the best job of keeping them at a level unreached since 
UMass weathered the Western Kentucky and then LSU interest in Travis Ford. Then as things settled 
Even though there are a few games left to play before a champion is crowned, the college basketball coaching carousel is alive and spinning. In the SEC, 
What? You didn't know the 
This is a little ridiculous. The NCAA Tournament selection is only a few days away and few teams are doing much to make a case. It's getting so that the argument by fans of bubble teams will come down to, "My team sucks less."
