Want to get yourself into the mood for the NCAA tournament?
Well, we have you covered.
Because here are seven minutes of the best buzzer-beaters from the NCAA tournament. If this doesn’t get you fired up for the Madness, then nothing will:
Rob Dauster is joined by Travis Hines to breakdown every team, angle and story line in the American this season. Is Memphis really good enough to win a national title? How is Houston going to replace everything that they lost? Is Jarron Cumberland healthy? Will Wichita State, Temple, UConn or South Florida make the leap to tournament team this year?
OPEN: More Kansas vs. the NCAA talk.
12:20: Cincinnati
18:22: UConn
23:00 East Carolina
25:00 Houston
31:15: Memphis
44:00: SMU
47:10: USF
50:10: Temple
53:10: Tulane
56:15: Tulsa
58:10: UCF
1:02:05: Wichita State
NEW YORK — Villanova freshman Bryan Antoine is expected to miss at least the first few weeks of the season after undergoing offseason shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder.
The surgery took place in early June, and according to head coach Jay Wright, Antoine has been out of action ever since.
“He hasn’t touched a basketball since his last high school game,” Wright said. “He still hasn’t practiced. It’s going to be tough for him to make an impact early.”
Antoine is a top 20 prospect in the Class of 2019 and the crown jewel of Villanova’s recruiting class. The 6-foot-4 combo-guard was expected to compete for a starting spot this season.
Wright added that redshirting Antoine is “a possibility” due to the injury, but that it is still too early to know how long the recovery process is going to be.
“It all going to depend on his rehab. We have to get through his rehab first,” Wright said. “People don’t know, this kid, he knew he had a shoulder problem coming out of high school, but he didn’t get diagnosed with a torn labrum until he got to Villanova. He played with it last year, and then didn’t play all spring.
“It’s reconstructive shoulder surgery. We have to see how the rehab goes, then get him back on the court and see how much this layoff has affected him.”
Antoine is not expected back onto the practice floor until “mid or late November,” Wright said. “Then we’re going to have to see how he does, get him in shape, see how he picks things up. Our other freshmen have been there all summer. He’s been there too, but he hasn’t been able to do anything.”
Beginning in October and running up until November 6th, the first day of the season, College Basketball Talk will be unveiling the 2019-20 NBCSports.com college hoops preview package.
Today, we are previewing the American.
The American is in an interesting spot this season.
On the one hand, there may not have been a more hyped or visible program this offseason than Memphis. On the other hand, it feels like every good team in the league is in something of a rebuilding year while this will be the last season that UConn is a member of the conference.
The basketball gods don’t give with both hands, I guess.
Here is your American Athletic Conference season preview.
For my money, Memphis is the most interesting story in college basketball this season.
Penny Hardaway, who would have gone down as one of the sport’s all-time greats had he stayed healthy, returns home to the city he grew up in and the school he played for to bring in the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class and turn the Tigers into a recruiting destination on par with Duke, Kentucky and Kansas. Now, with a potential No. 1 pick in James Wiseman starting at center, he will be coaching a team that is the southern version of the Fab Five. He’s reinvigorated a maniacal fanbase that was left dormant thanks to the stewardship of Josh Pastner and Tubby Smith and, in the process, proclaimed that Memphis will win a national title while picking fights with in-state rival Rick Barnes.
The Tigers are a circus is the best kind of way, and I cannot wait to see the fireworks that come this season.
In terms of the actual product on the court, I’m a little bit more worried than most.
Starting five freshmen is never easy, and while the Tigers do have the No. 1 recruiting class in the country, it’s different than the typical No. 1 recruiting class. Memphis landed Wiseman and fellow five-star Precious Achiuwa, but the other five guys in the class project more as two or three year players in college. This isn’t like they are bringing in four top 15 prospects, like Duke has done each of the last two years. And while Memphis does have three players returning from last season, one of those three plays essentially the same position as Wiseman and the other two are 5-foot-9 point guards that are going to be fighting for the minutes that Damian Baugh and Boogie Ellis don’t play.
Put another way, the talent and potential is there for Memphis to be a top five team that makes a deep run in March.
But as we have seen with teams that are as young as this Memphis team, trusting 18 and 19-year olds in their first season of college hoops is never a sure thing.
There are six teams in college basketball that have been to the last nine NCAA tournaments – Duke, North Carolina, Gonzaga, Kansas, Michigan State …
And Cincinnati.
That’s what John Brannen is walking into. That’s what Mick Cronin built at Cincinnati, and remember, when he took over, it wasn’t a smooth transition from Bobby Huggins. He got the job after Huggins had his falling out, and when Cronin took the job, there was one player there. He had to recruit football players just to field a team.
I have respect for what Brannen has been able to do as a coach. He went to two NCAA tournaments in four years with a program that has been Division I for seven seasons. That’s amazing. But replacing Cronin at Cincinnati is not going to be easy, especially when Cronin had built a culture within the program that Brannen may or may not be able to replicate. Cincinnati ran itself, in a sense, under Cronin, and with just five players coming back after a series of transfers in the offseason, it’s not going to be easy.
The good news is that a (hopefully healthy) Jarron Cumberland returns to lead the way, and he is the best player in the conference. Throw in his cousin, Jaevin, and guys like Keith Williams and Tre Scott, and there are pieces for Brannen to work with.
It’s a new era, but it should once again be a successful era for Bearcat basketball.
At this point, I’ll bet on Wichita State and Houston because Gregg Marshall and Kelvin Sampson have never given me a reason to do anything else.
We thought the Shockers were going to be dreadful last season. After a slow start with a young team, they won nine of their last 11 and 14 of their last 18 games, including road trips to Furman, Clemson and Indiana in the NIT. Houston lost Rob Gray and then went out and fielded a top 12 team in college basketball. Both lose some incredibly important pieces this offseason, but what matters more than anything is that they kept the guys in charge. Marshall still hasn’t gotten a job offer he’s willing to leave for, and Sampson was given a massive deal by the Cougars to keep him from heading to Arkansas.
Yes, there are players I think are in line for big seasons at both schools. Dexter Dennis, Erik Stevenson and Jaime Echenique are going to make a lot of noise, while DeJon Jarreau is going to be this year’s breakout star in the league.
But none of that would be relevant if the guys calling the plays had left.
I am in on the Bulls this season.
After winning 24 games last season, they return eight of their top nine players. There’s an argument to be made that USF has the best backcourt in the conference with LaQuincy Rideau and David Collins. There’s an argument to be made that Alexis Yetna will have a breakout sophomore season. Hell, I can make a pretty strong argument that USF can will the AAC this season.
I don’t think they are going to be quite that good, but I do think they have a very real chance to finish top four, especially if Cincinnati can’t get healthy.
The Huskies are headed back to the Big East.
Starting with the 2020-21 season, UConn will be back in the conference that it helped launch. That is a good thing for the UConn program – playing Villanova, Georgetown and Providence every year is certainly going to be more appealing to the Husky fan base than playing Tulsa, Tulane and East Carolina – but it is not necessarily a good thing for the AAC.
Say what you will about what UConn has become since Jim Calhoun retired, but this is still a basketball program that has national appeal, a coach that has proven he can have success coaching in the Northeast and two national titles to their name in the last eight seasons. That’s a big loss for a league that seems to constantly be fighting for relevance in the national landscape of the sport.
This pick had something of a wrench thrown in it when Cincinnati head coach John Brannen came out last week and told reporters that Cumberland has yet to practice this season as he is dealing with a foot injury. He gave no timetable for a return and did not provide any specifics as to what the injury is.
If Cumberland is healthy, he will be the best player in the conference. His ability to score and create on a roster that is going to have a number of new faces this season is going to be incredibly valuable. He will be the rock that Brannen uses to anchor everything that he wants to run offensively.
If he’s healthy.
Here’s to hoping that he’ll be back on the court sooner rather than later.
Jarreau is going to be a name that a lot of people know by come February. One time a top 75 prospect, Jarreau originally enrolled at UMass before transferring to Houston. Last season was his first year as a member of the Cougars, and while he only managed 18 minutes a game while playing in Houston’s loaded backcourt, he was really productive in those limited minutes. Jarreau finished second on the team at 19.3 points-per-40 minutes and led the Cougars with 7.4 assists-per-40 minutes.
This year, he’s going to be stepping into a much bigger role. Corey Davis, Armoni Brooks and Galen Robinson all graduate. Those are the three guards that were above him in the program’s pecking order. He has the talent, he’s shown he can produce and now he will get the opportunity to have things run through him. Even with Quentin Grimes eligible, I think Jarreau will be the guy that we are all talking about with this team.
When Jankovich got the SMU job, they were coming off of three straight seasons where the program had won more than 25 games under Larry Brown. In his first season as the head coach, the Mustangs went 30-5 with three NBA players on the roster and won the AAC regular season and tournament titles.
This year, SMU is projected to finish 10th in the league. They lost their two best players from a team that went 14-16 overall and lost nine of their last ten in AAC play. It’s doesn’t seem that long ago that SMU was the trendy team in Texas. Now, they aren’t even the trendy team in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
We should have listened to Rob when he said Memphis was going to be a No. 6 seed in the tournament.
Seeing how Kelvin Sampson can work his magic and make Houston the best team in the American.
Again.
1. HOUSTON: The Cougars lose their three best perimeter players this offseason, but I’m still in on Kelvin Sampson’s group as the favorite to win the conference. Remember, we had these same questions about the Cougars after they lost Rob Gray, and all that happened was that Sampson put together a top 15 team this past season. The key, other than getting Quentin Grimes eligible, will be how much DeJon Jarreau improves. I’m expecting a big season out of him, so I have Houston winning the conference.
2. MEMPHIS: As I wrote earlier, Memphis has the upside to be a top five team this year. They also have the floor of a team that finishes the year as a No. 6 or 7 seed in the NCAA tournament. Freshmen are freshmen.
3. WICHITA STATE: The Shockers lost their top two scorers to graduation, and the guy that we thought was going to be their top scorer this season – Teddy Allen – was given the boot. I still think that the Shockers are going to be a tournament team this year. I am expecting an impressive year out of backcourt Dexter Dennis and Erik Stevenson, and I think Jaime Echenique is in line for a big senior year after an efficient junior campaign playing somewhat limited minutes.
4. USF: The Bulls are going to be this year’s version of UCF. They bring back everyone from a team that won 24 games and took down the CBI title, and while I know it’s silly to celebrate something like the CBI, I do think that it matters that this group got that many more practices in together. I love their backcourt – LaQuincy Rideau and David Collins are going to be trouble – and Alexis Yetna is the kind of player that will have a big sophomore season. I’m in on the Bulls as a tournament team this year, which is not something that I ever thought I’d say.
5. CINCINNATI: I had the Bearcats sitting at third in these rankings up until the moment that John Brannen told us that roughly everyone in the Bearcat program is dealing with some kind of injury. Cumberland is the big blow, but Trevor Moore – one of just five players coming back from last season – missing time will hurt as well. Assuming all of these health issues get cleared up by the time the season kicks off, Cincinnati is a top three team in the league. But when the best player in the conference and 40 percent of the returning players on a team with a new head coach are injured four weeks before the first game, it’s a concern.
6. TEMPLE: Outside of USF, Temple brings back more than anyone else in the league. Losing Shizz Alston will hurt, but Quinton Rose and Nate Pierre-Louis can pick up the slack. It will be very interesting to see how the Owls respond to a change in leadership, as Aaron McKie takes over for Fran Dunphy.
7. UCONN: The Huskies are, at the very least, interesting this season. They lose Jalen Adams, but Christian Vital is back, Akok Akok is eligible and they bring in a pair of talented freshmen in Jalen Gaffney and James Bouknight. With some veterans back in the frontcourt, namely Josh Carlton, there are some things to like about this group. The key, however, is going to be Alterique Gilbert. The former McDonald’s All-American point guard has shown quite a bit of promise during his three seasons at UConn, but a series of shoulder injuries has limited his playing time. If he stays healthy, he’s a difference-maker.
8. UCF: The Knights lose more than anyone else in the conference lost, and when you have to replace the amount of production that Aubrey Dawkins, B.J. Taylor and Tacko Fall provided, it’s never going to be easy. That said, there are some talented transfers getting eligible in Orlando, most notably grad transfers Dazon Ingram (Alabama) and Matt Milon (William & Mary). Throw in Collin Smith and his surefire breakout junior season, and you have a team that is going to be competitive.
9. TULSA: Frank Haith had a tough year in 2019, and that was with Sterling Taplin, Curran Scott and second round NBA draft pick DaQuan Jeffries on the roster. I’m not sure how that production gets replaced this season.
10. SMU: Three years ago, when Tim Jankovich took over for Larry Brown, he went 30-5 and won dual-AAC titles with a roster than had a number of future pros on it – Semi Ojeleye, Sterling Brown, Jarrey Foster, Shake Milton. They’ve won just six conference games in each of the last two seasons, and I have a hard time seeing where they are going to improve this year.
11. TULANE: At the very least, Tulane is going to be more fun this season. That’s because Ron Hunter is as entertaining as any coach in the college basketball ranks. He’s also had quite a bit of success at Georgia State, and while I think he will eventually make Tulane relevant in the AAC, I don’t think it’s happening this year. I will note, however, that the 2017-18 Tulane Green Wave had two NBA players on the roster and a third potential pro transfer to Villanova this offseason. Talent can be had in New Orleans.
12. EAST CAROLINA: The Pirates won three AAC games last season. Two of them came against Tulane, who won zero AAC games last season. Joe Dooley does return two of his top three scorers, but eight players transferred out of the program since the start of the 2018-19 season. There are 11 newcomers on the roster.
Snoop Dogg pushed back against the idea that Kansas officials were surprised by what happened during his controversial performance at Late Night at the Phog on Friday.
The performance, which lasted more than half an hour, featured pole dancers on stripper poles, money guns that fired fake $100 bills into the crowd and the unfiltered lyrics that you would come to expect from Snoop.
“When you pay for Snoop Dogg, you gonna get Snoop Dogg,” the rapper said on ‘The Howard Stern Show’ on Tuesday.
Snoop also insisted that the school’s response, a formal apology from Athletic Director Jeff Long, only happened because of the backlash that the performance received online, adding that it was a “lie” that he was asked to leave the building after the performance.
“I had the time of my life,” he said. “I hung out with the basketball teams. I just think it was more the publicity of what I did. They had to cover it up. And I respect them. And I wasn’t gonna put no smut on their name and say that they did anything wrong, because they invited me to come do what I do.
“The audience enjoyed that s—,” Snoop said. “I don’t know what the f— they talkin’ about.”
The wrench that has been thrown into this year’s Hot Seat list is that the fallout from the FBI’s investigation into corruption in college basketball has not been fully realized just yet.
There are a number of guys at major programs that are stuck waiting to see what kind of punishment the NCAA is going to hand down and whether or not their employers will stick by them when they do.
There are also a handful of coaches that have entered a year where they need to start winning, which puts them on a much more traditional Hot Seat.
So without further ado, your 2019-20 College Basketball Coaching Hot Seat:
WILL WADE, LSU: Wade is the guy that is in the most trouble here, as he was caught on a wiretap discussing, among other things, “a strong-ass offer” that was made during the recruitment process of current Tiger Javonte Smart. After that wiretap became public, Wade was suspended for a month – including LSU’s NCAA tournament run – before being reinstated a week after the Final Four when he finally met with LSU administrators. At the time, it felt more like a stay of execution rather than a show of faith. Joe Alleva, the LSU AD at the time, said Wade was going to be reinstated “absent actual evidence of wrongdoing.”
BILL SELF, Kansas: Kansas is going to fight tooth and nail against the allegations levied by the NCAA in the Notice of Allegations that was served last month, but that doesn’t change the fact that Self and company were hit with multiple Level I violations. It’s tough for me to envision a scenario where Self is actually fired, but there’s a chance that the two parties could end up parting ways one way or another by the end of the season.
SEAN MILLER, Arizona: Miller was in more trouble last year, when it was unclear what was actually on FBI wiretaps and what would get played in open court. But now that he’s made it through all of the trials, and now that the perceived stability in the program has led five-star prospects back to Tucson, Miller seems relatively safe. If Arizona has stood by him for this long, would they really cut bait when the Notice of Allegations arrives?
BRUCE PEARL, Auburn: This one is tricky. Pearl has a history with the NCAA, we all know this, and that may end up being relevant when the NCAA decides to hand down punishments for what happened in his program. Violations were committed by Chuck Person in Pearl’s program, which means he can be hit with a head coach responsibility charge. The bigger concern, and the weirdest part of this story, is that Auburn may or may not have self-imposed recruiting sanctions that they may or may not have actually adhered to.
ANDY ENFIELD, USC: Enfield has mostly managed to remain out of the headlines during this scandal, and the fact that he is recruiting as well as he ever has at USC should tell you all you need to know about the perceived stability there. That said, there are going to be violations coming because of what former assistant coach Tony Bland plead guilty to, and USC does have a history with the NCAA.
THE OTHER GUYS: Frank Martin of South Carolina and Brad Underwood, currently at Illinois and formerly the head coach at Oklahoma State, both could find themselves dealing with a head coach responsibility charge based on the actions of Lamont Evans. He was on staff at both South Carolina and Oklahoma State during the time that the FBI was investigating. Creighton’s Greg McDermott is also going to have to deal with the NCAA as a result of former assistant Preston Murphy’s association with ex-runner Christian Dawkins.
DANNY MANNING, Wake Forest: It was less than two years ago, after Manning made his first NCAA tournament as the head coach at Wake Forest, that he was given a contract extension through the 2024-25 season. Since then, he’s posted back-to-back seasons with 11 wins and a 4-14 record in the ACC. Overall, he is 65-93 in five seasons in Winston-Salem with a 24-66 record in the league. It’s bad. The problem? Manning’s contract is reportedly fully-guaranteed through 2025, which means that Wake Forest will be on the hook for the roughly $15 million buyout at end of season.
Yeah.
It’s bad.
JOSH PASTNER, Georgia Tech: Pastner is heading into his fourth season at Georgia Tech, and he has yet to make an NCAA tournament, posting a 48-53 record. He’s won between six and eight league games each year at the school. He won’t be making the tournament this year either, as his program was banned from postseason play due to violations that were committed on his watch.
Back in 2017, Pastner signed a contract extension through 2022-23. The deal is fully guaranteed if he is fired before the end of the 2020-21 season, meaning that Georgia Tech would be on the hook for almost $7 million if they were to part ways with Pastner.
JIM CHRISTIAN, Boston College: Jim Christian missed his window. After a dreadful start to his BC tenure, Christian entered the 2017-18 season with some promise. But despite the fact that he had Jerome Robinson and Ky Bowman on the roster, BC went just 19-16 on the season and 7-11 in the league. After another sub-.500 season this past year, Christian is now 62-100 in five seasons. He signed an extension in 2018 that runs through 2022, and he was retained this offseason when AD Martin Jarmond told reporters that he will look to invest in the basketball program and support his head coach.
SHAKA SMART, Texas: Shaka is the most interesting name on this list because he is the biggest name and Texas is easily the best job. His tenure in Austin has not exactly been great. The Longhorns have been to two NCAA tournaments in four seasons – they also won the 2019 NIT – but his record through those four years is 71-66 over and 31-41 in the Big 12. Some of that Shaka needs to take the blame for. Some of it is bad luck. He lost Isaiah Taylor a year earlier than expected. Jaxson Hayes and Jarrett Allen both ended up being one-and-done. Andrew Jones’ battle with leukemia is something no one could have predicted.
Shaka’s contract runs through 2023, and it is fully guaranteed. If he’s fired by the University, he’ll be owed somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 million. That’s a lot of money, especially if they are going to have to pony up another $6 million to buyout that guy down in Lubbock. That does, however, set up a scenario where Shaka could end up leaving for a soft landing, getting out while there’s a chance for him to land a power conference gig before they run him out of the Erwin Center.
Put another way, I think Shaka ends up being the flash point for this year’s carousel. If he leaves – or if he is asked to leave – then things can get really interesting.
PAT CHAMBERS, Penn State: Chambers is heading into his ninth season as the head coach at Penn State, and he has yet to reach an NCAA tournament. He came close in 2017-18, when his team was one of the last cuts on the bubble and finished the year ranked 19th on KenPom after winning the NIT. His contract runs through 2021-22, but the school has not released the details of his contract. Last season, after losing their first ten Big Ten games, the Nittany Lions finished the season winning seven of their last ten.
TIM JANKOVICH, SMU: When Jankovich signed a five-year deal in 2016 to replace Larry Brown, the Mustangs were the trendy team in Texas. In his first season as the head coach, Jankovich went 30-5 and won the American regular season and tournament titles. But that team had four NBA players on it, guys that were brought in by Brown. The talent level has dropped significantly, SMU has gone 6-12 in the AAC each of the last two years and at this point, the Mustangs aren’t even the trendiest team in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
FRANK HAITH, Tulsa: Haith has been unable to build on the NCAA tournament that he reached in 2015-16 with Tulsa. Last season, the Golden Hurricane finished 18-14 overall and 8-10 in the AAC. He did sign a two-year extension in March through 2022, but it is at a lower salary. Haith needs a big year.
JEROD HAASE, Stanford: This may be a year early on Haase, but this is his fourth season in Palo Alto, and the Caridnal have not really improved despite the fact that he has had improved talent coming through the ranks. He has finished under-.500 in two of his first three season, has a 25-29 record in a weak era for Pac-12 basketball and has yet to finish a season with fewer than 16 losses.
DAVE LEITAO, DePaul: Leitao is coming off of by far his most successful season during this four-year run as the head coach at DePaul. They went 19-17 overall and 7-11 in the Big East, good for a three-way tie for last in the league standings. Things probably won’t get better this season, not with the amount of talent they lost, and the program was put on probation in July. So obviously, DePaul had to … sign him to an extension?
