The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament gets underway Tuesday evening with a pair of games in Dayton: Texas Southern plays Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a matchup of 16-seeds while Wyoming meets Indiana in a showdown of the last two at-large schools to make the field.
The National Invitational Tournament also tips off Tuesday night as VCU plays Princeton while Virginia and Towson have their respective first round NIT games tomorrow. But while the postseason begins for some, a different kind of season is already underway for more than a few schools: hunting season for the next head coach.
This winter, 31 of the 358 schools have already begun the process of changing regimes. The biggest one you’ve not doubt heard about frequently this winter on ESPN: Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski is retiring after 42 seasons with the ACC school. Five other coaches are retiring, while two are leaving to fill vacancies at other schools (they call it a coaching carousel for a reason). One “stepped down” while another “parted ways” with the school (the language of “coachesdatabase.com,” not mine) and seven resigned (the website puts Maryland’s Mark Turgeon in that category despite the words “stepping down” in his December statement).
Fourteen more have been fired, including George Washington’s Jamion Christian on Monday afternoon. The former Mount St. Mary’s and Siena coach posted a record of 29-50 over three seasons in Foggy Bottom. At first glance it’s not the record but the time of tenure that has one curious. Christian took over after the Maurice Joseph’s three years (forced into the position with the late-summer 2016 departure of Mike Lonergan) saw the team slip from 20 to 15 to nine wins. And GW increased its conference winning percentage in each of his three seasons (from .222 to .333 to .375 to .471), despite having a the 2020-21 season paused 35 days due to COVID concerns. The Colonials were picked to finish 13th this season in the Atlantic 10 (there are 14 schools at this moment) and the team finished seventh. But instead of having a coach enter his fourth year (in theory when the fruits of their recruiting are finally contributing), George Washington will hold another search. Good luck drawing an outstanding candidate after pulling the plug after three years on your two previous head coaches.
Christian is the third A-10 coach fired this winter. “I thought the coach who did the best job in the conference tournament is Matt McCall and he’s not going to be at UMass anymore,” Richmond Coach Chris Mooney said Sunday after his team won the conference tournament. “David Cox is a heck of a coach and a really good man and not gonna be there anymore and that’s because of the pressure to win.”
Richmond (23-12) is a school that didn’t panic after 20-loss seasons under Mooney in 2016-17 and 2017-18, and that’s paid off in the long run as the Spiders are heading to their first NCAA Tournament since 2011 when they made the Sweet Sixteen. Sunday, Richmond finished with a 10-2 run to squeak past regular season champ Davidson 64-62, wrapping up a journey that started last offseason when seniors Jacob Gilyard, Grant Golden, Nick Sherod and Nathan Cayo chose to return for one more year after reaching the NIT Quarterfinals. “When we decided to come back we had unfinished business and that was kind of our motto for the whole year,” A-10 Tournament Most Outstanding Player Jacob Gilyard said. “But to be able to do this with Nick, Nate, Grant and myself — guys who came in together and have been playing together for so long — just means the world to me.”
The one request Mooney had during his postgame presser Sunday was to hope for his team to not have to play until Friday (due to fatigue after playing four games over four days). We don’t know if the NCAA was listening or not, but they won’t get that desired extra day off. The Spiders get a No. 12 seed in the Midwest Region and play No. 5 Iowa (26-9) Thursday in Buffalo. The good news is the Big Ten Tournament champs are also coming off of playing four games in four days. The bad news is the Hawkeyes have plenty of firepower to shoot opponents out of the gym, ranking fourth nationally in scoring and boasting All-American candidate Keegan Murray (24 points per game on 56% shooting and 41% from three). I saw them come into College Park and put 110 points on the board (they took their foot off the gas up 101-64 with six minutes left) on a night where Jordan Bohannon made 10-16 from three point range. Richmond’s causes for confidence are their experience (four senior starters), guard play (Jacob Gilyard averaged 20 points and 4 assists in the A-10 Tournament) and resiliency (they rallied to win each game in Washington-including from 15-point deficits against Rhode Island and Dayton).
The Midwest Region begins with top seed Kansas who won both the Big 12 regular season and tournament titles. But after that, this bracket boasts multiple conference tournament flameouts: No. 2 seed Auburn and No. 3 Wisconsin were bounced in the SEC and Big Ten Quarterfinals, while No. 4 Providence was crushed by Creighton 85-58 in the Big East Semifinals. The Midwest is also notable for having both “SDSU” schools: San Diego State is a No. 8 seed while South Dakota State is a No. 13.
Bold: South Dakota State hasn’t lost since December and the Jackrabbits’ 86.7 points per game ranks third in the nation. They face a Providence team that won the Big East regular season title, but one that lived a very charmed life (four one-possession wins, six two-possession victories and an overtime game decided by seven points) this winter. Was the 27-point Big East Semifinal defeat enough to mess with the Friars’ mojo?
Fold: Wisconsin was on its way to winning the Big Ten a few weeks ago before somehow losing at home to Nebraska. Add in the Big Ten Tournament defeat to Michigan State, the fact that they had six one-possession games this winter and nine other games decided six points or fewer, and the sting from the Big Ten’s meltdown last March (just one Sweet Sixteen school in nine that made the field). It doesn’t help that the Badgers face a Colgate team that’s won 15 straight and is making its third NCAA appearance in four years (they wouldn’t have made it in the COVID season but still went 25-9 that season).
Gold: Kansas is peaking at the right time, winning five straight in the nation’s best conference. They’ve got a surefire NBA prospect in senior guard Ochai Agbaji (20 points per game while shooting 41% from three). And he’s got plenty of help inside (David McCormack tallied 18 points and 11 rebounds in the Big 12 Championship Game) and outside (Christian Braun averages 15 points per game while making over 50% of his shots). In a Region with plenty of question marks, it’s easy to go chalk and pick the Jayhawks.
