THE UNDEFEATEDS: When will each of the six remaining lose?

By Rob DausterDec 28, 2016, 11:25 AM EST

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No. 22 USC Trojans (3-0): For a team that entered the season with just four players that had played a second of basketball for USC prior to the season, it’s impressive that head coach Andy Enfield has managed to steer them to a 13-0 with wins at Texas A&M, at home against SMU and over BYU on a neutral court. It’s worth noting they’ve done all this more-or-less without Bennie Boatwright, their starting four-man who has dealt with knee and back injuries.

First loss: 12/30 at Oregon, 14-0. The Trojans will playing their second road game in three days when they play in Eugene, and by then, it’s probably fair to assume that this Oregon team, who was in the top five in the preseason will get things figured out. The key? When does Boatwright get back.
Next game: 12/28 at Oregon State

No. 1 Villanova (12-0): Villanova is the reigning national champion, and they look to be even better this season than last. That’s, in large part, due to Player of the Year favorite, Josh Hart; like Buddy Hield and Denzel Valentine last season, Hart has really improved as a senior. Villanova is also playing without Phil Booth, who has a knee injury. This group has more than earned the right to be in the same conversation – To lead the conversation? – as the likes of Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina and UCLA, the biggest brands with the most talent in the sport. Jay Wright may not have NBA scouts beating down the doors of practice to get a look at the guys on his roster, but this veteran group is greater as a whole than the sum of their parts.

First loss: 12/31 at Creighton, 13-0: Creighton has always been a tough matchup for Villanova because Creighton plays the same kind of small-ball, four-around-one style. What’s traditionally made Villanova so difficult for opponents to deal with is that they create mismatches offensively. Wright’s players are versatile defenders. Creighton, however, can do the same thing. Cole Huff, the Bluejays four-man, can play as a small forward and is most comfortable on the perimeter. He will have no issues defending the lines of Eric Paschall or Kris Jenkins. Throw in the fact that Creighton packs 17,000 fans into their home games, and I think they can hand the Wildcats their first loss.
Next game: 12/28 vs. DePaul

RESETS: ACC | Big Ten | Big East | Pac-12 | SEC | Big 12

No. 4 Baylor (12-0): Baylor has been the most surprising team in college basketball this season. The Bears have piled up wins over Oregon, VCU, Michigan State, Louisville and Xavier, which would put them squarely in the conversation for a No. 1 seed in the season ended today. They’ll need to beat Kansas at least once and win either a share of the Big 12 regular season title or the tournament title to have a shot at a No. 1 seed, but it’s not out of the question. I’m not yet ready to say that Baylor is in the same class as the likes of KU, Kentucky, Duke, Villanova, North Carolina or UCLA, but I am ready to say that every single one of us missed wildly on how good Baylor would be this season.

First loss: 1/10 at West Virginia, 15-0. The Mountaineers are another team we missed on in the preseason, and I think they provide a nightmare matchup for Baylor. The Bears strength is their front court, but that can get taken away by the pressure WVU provides. I think pressure can beat the Bears, and no one has a tougher press than Press Virginia.
Next game: 12/30 vs. Oklahoma

LAS VEGAS, NV - NOVEMBER 25: Head coach Greg McDermott of the Creighton Bluejays talks with Maurice Watson Jr. #10 during the team's game against the Massachusetts Minutemen during the championship game of the Men Who Speak Up Main Event basketball tournament at MGM Grand Garden Arena on November 25, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Creighton won 97-76. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) — (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

No. 10 Creighton (12-0): The Bluejays are such a fun team to watch. They push the ball as fast as anyone and they are the best three-point shooting team in college basketball at 45.5 percent. Their six best shooters all check-in at better than 41.0 percent, while five of those six shoot better than the team average. The Bluejays are UCLA with a fifth-year senior at the point, the nation’s leader in assists in Maurice Watson Jr., instead of a superstar freshman. This team is more talented than the team Creighton had during Doug McDermott’s senior season.

This week is huge for the Bluejays. They host both Seton Hall and Villanova, two teams that play with the kind of toughness than can expose Creighton’s interior. If they’re going to be a Big East title contender, they have to get these two wins.

First loss: 1/16 at Xavier, 18-0: There are two things you can count on with a program run by Chris Mack: toughness and defense will never, ever be an issue. They’re hard to beat in the Cintas Center and there’s a chance that Myles Davis will be back by then. I don’t want to bet against Xavier in a situation like that were they really need a win.
Next game: 12/28 vs. Seton Hall

No. 7 Gonzaga (12-0): Of the six teams left without a loss, I think Gonzaga probably has the best chance to get to the NCAA tournament unblemished. Part of that is because they play in the West Coast Conference, a league where every road game is their opponent’s Super Bowl, although those opponents are decidedly mid-major competition. Gonzaga? They’re as high-major as high-major gets and have a roster that is stocked with talent. Nigel Williams-Goss and Josh Perkins have played really well together in the back court, while Jordan Mathews works as a floor-spacer and Silas Melson has seemed to embrace his role within the team. But the front court is where this team is so exciting. Przemek Karnowski and Johnathan Williams III are veterans that fit well together, but there’s an argument to be made that their freshmen backups – Killian Tillie and Zach Collins – are the second-best front court pairing in the league. I think this is the best team that Mark Few has had in Spokane, and that includes the Adam Morrison and Kelly Olynyk years.

The biggest concern with the Zags: Who is their go-to guy? Who gets their name called when Mark Few needs to stop a run or when Gonzaga needs a bucket in the final minute to win a game? There isn’t really a star on this roster.

First loss: 2/11 at Saint Mary’s, 25-0: This year is the first time that the Zags have reached 12-0 since joining Division I. They’ll have two more real tests before their road trip to Moraga – they host the Gaels in mid-January and visit BYU in early February – but if they can get to this game unscathed, they’ll have a shot to be undefeated when the postseason comes around.
Next game: 12/29 vs. Pepperdine

No. 2 UCLA (13-0): We mentioned earlier how Creighton’s offense is a powerhouse. Well, UCLA is the only team in the country that has a higher effective field goal percentage, and not only do they play at a faster pace than Creighton, they are one of just eight teams that has a higher offensive efficiency score, according to KenPom. In fact, in the 15 years that KenPom has been in existence, UCLA is on pace to become the first team since Kansas in 2001-02 to finish the season top five in offensive efficiency and in tempo, meaning there’s an argument to be made that we may be watching the best offensive in college hoops since Nick Collison, Kirk Hinrich and Roy Williams were lighting fools up in Lawrence.

First loss will be 2/25 at Arizona, 28-0: I think UCLA can get past this road trip to Oregon because I think that the Bruins will have a bit of an advantage over USC; they play the Ducks on the first day of the road trip. The trip to play the Mountain teams (Colorado and Utah) is always tricky given the altitude, and that starts a stretch where they play five of seven on the road, including at USC and capped with a visit to Markelle Fultz and Washington. But I think this group gets through all that mostly because I think the Pac-12 is down this year. (That visit to Utah looks a bit tougher now with Sedrick Barefield and David Collette becoming eligible.) Where I think UCLA gets tripped up is at Arizona, who should have Parker Jackson-Cartwright (and maybe/hopefully Allonzo Trier) back and who should be getting the best out of Kobi Simmons and Rawle Alkins. That’s a fierce rivalry that only has fuel added to the fire by T.J. Leaf, a UCLA player that was originally an Arizona commit.
Next game: 12/28 at Oregon

SPOKANE, WA - DECEMBER 07: Nigel Williams-Goss #5 of the Gonzaga Bulldogs drives against the Washington Huskies in the first half at McCarthey Athletic Center on December 7, 2016 in Spokane, Washington. Gonzaga defeated Washington 98-71. (Photo by William Mancebo/Getty Images) — Nigel Williams-Goss (Photo by William Mancebo/Getty Images)

St. Francis, Brooklyn, to drop NCAA D-I athletics program

Associated PressMar 20, 2023, 9:39 PM EDT

Robert Deutsch / USA TODAY NETWORK

NEW YORK – St. Francis College, one of the smallest NCAA Division I schools, announced Monday that its board of trustees has approved a plan to eliminate its athletic program at the end of the spring semester.

St. Francis sponsors 21 NCAA teams, including men’s and women’s basketball, and has been a member of the Northeast Conference for more than four decades.

The move comes as part of larger restructuring of the private Catholic school located in Brooklyn. Enrollment at the school is about 2,300 undergraduate students.

“There are challenges facing higher education institutions, particularly smaller liberal arts colleges in the Northeast, from which SFC is not immune,” the school said in a new release. “Among these challenges are increased operating expenses, flattening revenue streams, and plateauing enrollment due in part to a shrinking pool of high school graduates in the aftermath of the pandemic.”

The Northeast Conference is also home Fairleigh Dickinson, the small school located in Teaneck, New Jersey, that pulled off one of the biggest upsets in NCAA men’s basketball tournament history this past weekend.

FDU became just the second team seeded 16th in the field to defeat a No. 1 seed when the Knights beat Purdue last Friday.

FDU lost to FAU Sunday in the second round of the tournament.

“Coming off a week that has served as a rallying cry for the entire Northeast Conference, today is a bittersweet day,” NEC Commissioner Noreen Morris said in a statement. “As a charter member of the NEC, St. Francis College is tightly woven into the very fabric of this conference. It saddens us to lose them as an integral member of the NEC community.”

St. Francis also announced that board granted school president Miguel Martinez-Saenz a request for a personal leave and appointed Chief Operating Officer Tim Cecere as acting president, effective immediately.

Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino accepts job at St. John’s

Associated PressMar 20, 2023, 8:58 PM EDT

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NEW YORK – Rick Pitino is back in the Big East Conference.

St. John’s hired the Hall of Fame coach Monday to boost a storied program that’s been mired in mediocrity for much of this century.

The school announced the move on Twitter, and Pitino is expected to be formally introduced during a news conference Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.

Following a successful run at nearby mid-major Iona, the 70-year-old Pitino was plucked away to replace Mike Anderson, fired March 10 after four seasons in charge of the Red Storm without making the NCAA Tournament.

Reports quickly surfaced that indicated St. John’s planned to target Pitino, who grew up on Long Island not far from the school’s Queens campus in New York City.

Pitino has been to seven Final Fours and won a pair of NCAA championships, one each at Kentucky (1996) and Louisville (2013).

He was dismissed at Louisville in 2017 after an FBI investigation into college basketball corruption led to allegations of NCAA violations. It was the third scandal, professional and personal, in an eight-year period with the Cardinals – but Pitino was eventually exonerated in the FBI-related case.

Pitino has been coaching college basketball so long that he was on the opposing bench with Big East rival Providence when St. John’s was a national power in the mid-1980s under Lou Carnesecca.

Now, he’s tasked with invigorating a Red Storm squad that hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game – or even reached the Big East semifinals – since 2000. The school has made only three NCAA appearances over the past two decades, the most recent coming in 2019 under Chris Mullin.

During that time, through several conference reconfigurations, St. John’s has fallen behind Big East foes with similar profiles such as Villanova, Providence and Seton Hall.

The Red Storm went 18-15 during a turbulent 2022-23 season, including 7-13 in Big East play to finish eighth in the conference standings. They blew a 14-point lead against sixth-ranked and top-seeded Marquette in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals, ending the season with a 72-70 loss in overtime that left Anderson with a 68-56 record at St. John’s.

Pitino has a .740 winning percentage in 34 full seasons as a college basketball coach. He has guided five schools to the NCAA Tournament, including Boston University (1983) and Iona (2021, 2023).

He took a surprising Providence team on a memorable run to the 1987 Final Four, but the 2013 national title Pitino won at Louisville (then in the Big East) was later vacated by the NCAA after an investigation found that an assistant coach paid escorts and exotic dancers to entertain players and recruits in campus dorms.

After two years coaching in Greece, he got the job at Iona – a small, private Catholic school located in New Rochelle, just north of New York City.

Pitino went 64-22 in three years with the Gaels, guiding them to two regular-season titles in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances. Seeded 13th this year, they led No. 4 seed UConn at halftime before getting knocked out in the first round with an 87-63 loss that snapped a 14-game winning streak.

Pitino posted tweets thanking Iona administrators and “all those people who touched our lives.”

“To my players, the last three years. All I can say is you know how much I love you,” he tweeted. “Follow up, I’m not sad it ended. I’m so grateful it happened.”

Leading up to Iona’s NCAA Tournament game, Pitino said he hoped he can coach for 12 more years.

“But I’ll take six or seven,” he said.

He said it would take “a special place” for him to consider leaving Iona, but he also spoke about how much he admired St. John’s president, the Rev. Brian Shanley, who previously worked at Providence.

Pitino had two stints in the NBA, one with the New York Knicks that featured a division title and a failed stretch with the Boston Celtics that didn’t produce a playoff appearance.

But in college, he endured only one losing season (13-14 at BU in 1980-81).

And now, at a time when Hall of Fame coaching contemporaries like Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim have reached the end of their road, Pitino is going strong and getting new jobs.

St. John’s has the ninth-most wins among Division I teams, with 90 winning seasons in its 116-year basketball history.

The school has reached two Final Fours (1952, 1985) and won the NIT a record six times – including back-to-back crowns in the 1940s when that event was still often considered the country’s premier postseason tournament.

Georgetown hires Providence’s Ed Cooley as basketball coach

Associated PressMar 20, 2023, 4:50 PM EDT

Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

WASHINGTON – Ed Cooley is the new men’s basketball coach at Georgetown, hired away from Big East rival Providence in the hopes of rebuilding a once-proud program that dropped to new lows under former star player Patrick Ewing.

Georgetown announced the move on Monday, after Providence issued a news release saying that Cooley had resigned.

“I plan on hitting the ground running, getting to work on the court and cultivating relationships in and around the District,” Cooley said in a statement released by his new employer. “Accepting this opportunity with Georgetown is not a decision I took lightly.”

He leaves the Friars with a 242-153 record after 12 years and seven March Madness appearances with a total of three wins in the tournament; the highlight was a trip to the Sweet 16 in 2022. His team went 21-12 this season, closing with four consecutive losses, including in the first round of the Big East Tournament against Connecticut and the first round of the NCAA Tournament against Kentucky.

“Coach Cooley is a mentor to young men, and a consistent winner with an impressive body of work,” Georgetown athletic director Lee Reed said. “His previous experience gives him an understanding of our Jesuit values and I am confident that he is the coach to return our program to prominence within the Big East and nationally.”

Cooley’s name was linked to the Georgetown job even as Providence’s season was still in progress, and so he was asked after the 61-53 defeat against Kentucky on Friday whether he would be returning. The initial reply: “Next question.”

When a follow-up query came about whether there was a chance that was his last game with the Friars, Cooley avoided a direct answer.

“There’s all kinds of rumors and speculation, and I know you guys are trying to do your job. I get it,” said Cooley, whose daughter is a student at Georgetown. “But after a game like this, I just think it’s fair to talk about our players. I think it’s fair to talk about the game.”

The Hoyas will be the 53-year-old Cooley’s third team as a college head coach; before Providence, he was at Fairfield for five seasons. He is the first Georgetown head coach in about a half-century without a direct tie to the late John Thompson Jr., who took the job in 1972, was in charge of the team when Ewing was a player, then was succeeded by assistant Craig Esherick, who was followed by Thompson’s son, John III, who gave way to Ewing.

Ewing was fired on March 9 after going 75-109 in six seasons, 13-50 over the past two. Georgetown made only one March Madness appearance in that time, bowing out in the first round in 2021.

It was quite a difficult stretch for Ewing and the school he led to a national championship in 1984 and helped make two other runs to the title game.

His last two contests in charge at his alma mater were a pair of losses by a combined 72 points, one to close the regular season against Creighton and one in the Big East Tournament against Villanova.

Florida Atlantic ends Fairleigh Dickinson’s run for Sweet 16

Associated PressMar 20, 2023, 12:56 AM EDT

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Fairleigh Dickinson came up just a little short this time.

Johnell Davis scored 29 points, Alijah Martin added 14 and Florida Atlantic ended underdog FDU’s magical March by outlasting the No. 16 seed 78-70 on Sunday night in the NCAA Tournament.

The ninth-seeded Owls (33-3) needed everything they had to put away the Knights (21-16), the nation’s smallest team and a surprise winner Friday night over 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey and top-seeded Purdue in just the second 16-over-1 upset in tournament history.

It will be FAU, not FDU, which will play Tennessee in the East Region semifinals on Thursday at Madison Square Garden in New York.

“It’s a nice place,” Davis said of the world’s most famous arena. “But we’ve still got to go in and put the work in as every other gym.”

Davis certainly put in the work against FDU, finishing with 12 rebounds, five assists and five steals in 34 minutes.

The Knights couldn’t come up with an encore after eliminating Purdue, but not before fighting to the finish.

When their tourney ended, first-year coach Tobin Anderson and FDU’s players walked across the floor of Nationwide Arena to thank their fans, most of whom never expected to spend five days in Ohio watching their team make history.

Demetre Roberts scored 20 points and Sean Moore had 14 for FDU, which didn’t even win the Northeast Conference tournament before becoming an NCAA team that won’t soon be forgotten. The Knights followed up a win in the play-in game at Dayton by ousting the Big Ten champion Boilermakers and taking FAU to the wire.

“We always talk about 6-0 runs, we were one 6-0 run away from the Sweet 16,” Anderson said. “We went toe to toe with a top-five team in the country, and this team is a top 25 team in the country. We went toe to toe the last few days with two great teams and didn’t back down, didn’t go away.

“We’re not just happy to be here.”

FAU, which edged Memphis on Friday for the school’s first NCAA tourney win, finally took control late in the second half of a game that was played at high speeds and at times looked more like a playground pickup game.

FDU was still within 67-64 when Davis fought for a rebound and made a put-back. After Roberts missed a long 3, FAU’s Bryan Greenlee knocked down a 3-pointer and the Owls pushed their lead to 10.

The Knights got within 76-70, and still had a chance when Greenlee missed two free throws. But Roberts, FDU’s lightning-quick 5-foot-8 guard, misfired on a layup, and the graduate student who followed Anderson to FDU from Division II St. Thomas Aquinas began to untuck his jersey, knowing his tournament was over.

Anderson, who turned around a program that went 4-22 a year ago, told his players not to foul and let the final seconds run off.

But FAU’s Martin tried and missed a 360-degree dunk, leading to an awkward exchange and tense postgame handshake between Anderson and Owls coach Dusty May.

“I apologized to him for that but also reminded him we’re the adults,” May said. “We’ve got to fix that behavior. It’s part of the game. I apologized to him.”

FDU came up short in its bid to become the first No. 16 to win twice in the tournament. The same thing happened to UMBC five years ago. After shocking No. 1 overall seed Virginia, the Retrievers lost to Kansas State in the second round.

Strikingly similar in their playing styles on the floor, there was also a commonality between the fan bases as “F-D-U” chants from one side of the court were met with cries of “F-A-U” from the other as the teams traded baskets.

May was proud of his team’s composure and ability to perform when it felt like the world was in FDU’s corner.

“We never felt like we were a Cinderella team,” said May, who got his hoops start as a student manager at Indiana under coach Bob Knight. “We went into an SEC school and won and have been in some very tough environments.

“But obviously when you’re playing FDU and they’re on the run they’re on, they’re easy to root for.”

For Anderson and the Knights, the tournament is over. The memories will carry them.

“Last year, we were 4-22,” he said, “and we’re right there to go to the Sweet 16. If that’s not one of the most amazing things I’ve seen in my life or anybody else has seen, that’s crazy. So every part of this I’ll remember forever and they will too.”

BIG PICTURE

FAU: The Owls will carry a nine-game winning streak into their matchup against the fourth-seeded Volunteers, who took out Duke on Saturday. FAU does have some experience against SEC schools this season, losing at Ole Miss and winning at Florida.

FDU: The Knights seemingly came out of nowhere to become the tourney’s biggest story. Anderson said he and his assistant coaches have already heard from players interested in joining them in Teaneck, New Jersey.

Michigan State outlasts Marquette; Izzo back to Sweet 16

Associated PressMar 20, 2023, 12:54 AM EDT

Dylan Buell/Getty Images

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Tom Izzo leaned on star guard and native New Yorker Tyson Walker to get Michigan State to Madison Square Garden for the Sweet 16.

Walker, a fourth-year player who grew up in Westbury on Long Island, delivered against Marquette in March Madness on Sunday night, scoring 23 points and punctuating Michigan State’s 69-60 victory with a steal and his first ever collegiate dunk late in the game.

And Walker wants to make sure his 68-year-old, Hall of Fame coach has a quintessential Big Apple experience.

“It means everything,” said Walker, who played two years at Northeastern before transferring to Michigan State. “Just growing up, seeing everything, playing at the Garden. Just to make those shots, look over see my dad, see how excited he was. That means everything. And I just owe Coach some pizza now. And a cab ride.”

Joey Hauser – a Marquette transfer – had 14 points and A.J. Hoggard had 13 as seventh-seeded Michigan State (21-12) took over in the last three minutes. The Spartans advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in four years and will play third-seeded Kansas State in the East Region semifinals on Thursday.

“I’ve been in Elite Eight games; I’ve been in the Final Four – that was as intense and tough a game as I’ve been in my career,” Izzo said. “And a lot of credit goes to Marquette and (coach) Shaka (Smart) and how they played, too.”

Izzo reached his 15th regional semifinal and won his record 16th March Madness game with a lower-seeded team – one more than Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, who retired after this season.

This one was particularly meaningful. Izzo became the face of a grieving school where three students were killed in a campus shooting on Feb. 13.

“It’s been a long year,” an emotional Izzo said in a courtside interview. “I’m just happy for our guys.”

Olivier-Maxence Prosper led second-seeded Marquette (29-7) with 16 points and Kam Jones had 14 points, including three 3-pointers, for the Big East champions.

Michigan State led by as many as 12 in the first half, but Ben Gold and Prosper made back-to-back 3-pointers to help the Golden Eagles close within 33-28 at halftime.

Prosper hit two more 3s in the first minute of the second half to give Marquette its first lead of the day. Michigan State grabbed back the lead with an 8-0 run and didn’t relinquish it.

Back-to-back baskets in the paint by Hoggard and then Walker, both times as the shot clock expired, gave the Spartans a 60-55 lead with 2:20 left. Mady Sissoko then blocked shots on consecutive Marquette possessions, and Walker had a steal followed by a game-sealing dunk with 39 seconds left.

Marquette’s nine-game winning streak ended, concluding a season in which the Golden Eagles exceeded expectations under coach Smart, who has referred to Izzo as a mentor.

Michigan State, meanwhile, finished fourth in the Big Ten but appears to be improving at the right time.

“We’ve still got some dancing to do,” Izzo said. “And we’re going to New York. I couldn’t be more excited for Tyson and even A.J., being a Philly guy.

“After watching the tournament, it doesn’t matter who we play, when we play, where we play, or how, it’s going to be a hell of a game. And I’m looking forward to it.”

BIG PICTURE

Marquette: Coming off their first Big East Tournament title, the Golden Eagles dominated Vermont in the first round of March Madness, but Michigan State was a much tougher opponent. The Golden Eagles committed 11 of their 16 turnovers in the second half, and those giveaways led to 19 Spartans points.

“I thought (Michigan State) played with great aggressiveness, particularly early in the game and at the very end of the game,” Smart said. “And those two the stretches were the difference in the outcome of the game.”

Michigan State: The Spartans came out of their shooting funk after the halfway point of the second half and pulled away. They made 15 of their 17 free throws after halftime.

KOLEK HURTING

Tyler Kolek, the Big East Player of the Year, injured his thumb when he caught it on the jersey of a Vermont player in the opening round Friday night.

He finished that game with eight points. He wasn’t much of a factor against Michigan State, either, scoring seven points, losing six turnovers and committing four fouls.

Kolek insisted the thumb “wasn’t an issue at all.”

“Just trying to be out there for my team and command the game. And I didn’t do that today,” he said.

UP NEXT

Michigan State’s next opponent, Kansas State, is making its first Sweet 16 appearance since 2018 and first under coach Jerome Tang.