It took less than eight minutes for San Francisco to deliver a scorching shooting display that put the Dons in complete control of the first game of this year’s College Basketball Invitational championship series.
USF turned the tables on previously red-hot North Texas, getting off to an almost unconscious start in scoring 27 points in the game’s first 7 minutes, 49 seconds, and the Dons turned it into an easy 72-62 win in the first game of the best-of-three series. San Francisco took the 1-0 lead in the series and now heads on the road to UNT needing one more win in the final two games to wrap up the tourney title.
The Dons hit seven three-pointers on their way to an ultra-quick 27-9 lead to start the game, and the Mean Green never seriously threatened the rest of the way. USF led by 16 at halftime and only had to sweat briefly in the late going when North Texas closed within eight points.
San Francisco hit 12 of 18 three-pointers in the first half on the way to a 46-30 lead at the break and finished the game with 14 triples even after making just 2 of 15 in the second half. Jordan Ratinho drained five threes for 17 points, Chase Foster (17 points, 10 rebounds) and Matt McCarthy (10 points, 11 boards) both added double-doubles and the superbly named Frankie Ferrari added 13 points plus nine assists.
The Dons won the rebounding battle 46-44, a noteworthy feat considering the Mean Green’s Zachary Simmons did his best to sway that total all by himself. Simmons finished with 10 points but an other-worldly 22 rebounds, surpassing his season-best 17 boards in the opening round of the CBI against South Dakota.
With the win, San Francisco is a victory away from joining Indiana in an obscure club, so obscure that even we missed finding the first entrant in it. The Dons have a chance to become just the second school to win three different NCAA Division I postseason tournament titles. USF won the NIT title in 1949 and back-to-back NCAA championships with the legendary Bill Russell in 1955 and 1956, and now can add a CBI title to that list.
We were convinced a couple weeks ago that they could be the first team in this club, but we forgot to look closer at the winners of the short-lived Collegiate Commissioners Association Tournament in the 1970s. That event was held by the NCAA for just two years in 1974 and 1975, as an alternative to the NIT at a time when only conference champions could qualify for the NCAA Tournament, and Indiana won the first event in 1974. Along with its five NCAA titles, the Hoosiers became the first school with three separate postseason titles when they won their lone NIT championship in 1978. Regardless, being the second to accomplish the feat would still be an achievement for USF, a program with a rich history that most by now have forgotten about but shouldn’t.
Side Dishes:
- One of the strangest coach firings imaginable took place Monday as Texas-Arlington let go of Scott Cross as well as his entire coaching staff. Cross is the winningest coach in program history with a career record of 225-161, including 72 wins over the last three years. The Mavericks defeated the likes of BYU, Memphis, Ohio State, Saint Mary’s and Texas over the past three years and last year made it to the NIT quarterfinals. This year, UTA finished 21-13 and a somewhat disappointing fourth in the Sun Belt, though the Mavs made it to the conference tournament final. On top of all this, Cross is an alum of the school and is widely regarded as one who ran the program with class and integrity, something that should be valued especially in these times when college sports is in a crisis with the FBI looking into its shady aspects.
Despite all of that, in the Dallas Morning News UTA athletic director Jim Baker spoke on Monday of wanting to get to the NCAA Tournament “every year” and to be the “next Gonzaga.” It sounds nice on the surface, but is an utterly ridiculous, nonsensical, unrealistic expectation, especially for a school on a relative budget even within its league. Now it is no surprise why Cross interviewed for the New Mexico State position a year ago, and he should be coveted as a head coach or a high assistant coach soon. As for UTA, if it wants to get Gonzaga results, it better be ready to spend Gonzaga money; otherwise, its administration is simply dreaming and needs a severe reality check. This episode also puts into perspective the culpability school presidents and administrators have in many of the ills in college sports. If a school can’t value an alum who conducts himself with class and also wins, solely because he doesn’t win huge, then a lot of their proclamations about what they claim to be about are going to fall on deaf ears, and rightfully so. - Tennessee State has tabbed Brian (Penny) Collins as its new coach. The Tigers are dipping from the same well where they got previous coach Dana Ford, as Collins comes after being an assistant to Dan Muller at Illinois State. The 34-year old also played collegiately at Belmont and is a native of Nashville who returns to his hometown.
- Utah State announced the hiring of Craig Smith as its new head coach. Smith was previously at South Dakota, where he made the Coyotes into one of the premier programs in the Summit League. He also spent five years in the Mountain West as an assistant at Colorado State from 2008-12. His teams’ style of play was a lot of fun to watch, and from seeing the way he played to crowds at USD, we’re quite confident that fans at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum will enjoy watching him and his teams. (Hoopville’s tracker of coaching changes can be checked out here)
- Among the players announcing on Monday that they’re going to enter the NBA Draft were Ohio State’s Keita Bates-Diop, UCLA’s Aaron Holiday and Missouri’s Michael Porter. All three have or are expected to soon hire an agent.
- The West Coast Conference announced significant schedule changes that will give the league a much different look next year. Though interpreted by some as timed for a direct appeal at the very moment to keep Gonzaga in the fold, the changes were originally adopted last fall by the league before being officially passed by league presidents recently. Among the changes are reducing league schedules from 18 games to 16, non-conference scheduling guidelines for teams, as well as reverting back to a long-winded, five-round conference tournament where the top two seeds don’t play until the semifinals (the latter coming just five years after the league had consciously moved away from such a format). The changes are a direct response to the weakness of teams at the bottom of the league in recent years. From here, never a fan of conference schedules that aren’t double round-robin, and experience is that when leagues try to manipulate scheduling or tournament formats to produce desired results, they oft still wind up disappointed. If schools really aren’t solid on being a part of the same group and aren’t willing to give just a little for the good of all, then maybe they really do need to look elsewhere. But the WCC will give this a try…we’ll see.
Tonight’s Menu:
- The semifinals of the 81st National Invitation Tournament in New York City take place at Madison Square Garden. (NIT historian and Hoopville contributor Ray Floriani wrote some notes on the NIT posted yesterday here.) The doubleheader opens with Utah against Western Kentucky (7 p.m. Eastern, ESPN). The Utes were able to lure Saint Mary’s All-American Jock Landale into foul trouble; now they face Dwight Coleby and Justin Johnson. WKU’s backcourt against Utah’s Justin Bibbins and Sedrick Barefield also should be fun. WKU is making its fourth NIT semifinal appearance but first since 1954; Utah also is in the semis for the fourth time and won the 1947 event.
- The second semifinal has Mississippi State meeting Penn State (9:30 p.m., ESPN). There weren’t many more two teams more tailor-made for the NIT this year than the Bulldogs and Nittany Lions, two squads that had very good years but just short of NCAA tourney worthiness. Ben Howland has put together another strong defensive squad at MSU; how the Bulldogs handle Tony Carr, Shep Garner and Lamar Stevens will likely determine this one. This is just Mississippi State’s second NIT semi showing and first since 2007, while Penn State is here for the sixth time, all since 1990, and is searching to back up its 2009 NIT title.
Enjoy your NIT Tuesday.
