2025 NIT O5

 AAC  gets smacked: WICH lost OKST and  STLU was pounded by ARST, led by Nelson 

(26 PTS , 10 REB , 2 AST) .Jax St handled GTech easily. Kent St . Santa Clara, and CHAT advance.

AAC: 0-2. SBC, CUSA, MAC, WCC, & Southern are  1-0)

Cal Baptist officially accepts invitation to join Big West in 2026 . WAC WAINING. Back to playing Cal-Bakersfield

March 20, 2025

AAC recovers: UAB over JOEs and NTX over Furman.

Malik Thomas scored 21 for San Fran(WCC) in a win over UVU(WAC).

NIT rescinded its invitation to South Bama. UC Riverside had committed to play in the(CBI) since it had not heard from NIT which decided to invite them. UC-R  then accepted the surprise NIT bid and the Jags were screwed.

March 23, 2025

Huff (26 PTS , 1 REB , 4 AST) led CHAT to a win over Dayton. Bradley beat George Mason.

Kind of wild to see Coach Ryan Odom, who just left VCU,  end up at UVA.  He coached the UMBC team that upset 1 seed UVA a few years ago at the Dance.

His dad coached at Wake Forest (ACC) from 1989-2001.

I graduated from UMBC in 1981.

March 24, 2025

Sullinger scored 34 for Kent St who  knocked out Stanford(ACC). UAB & NTX advanced. Also UCI and LOYCH. Is Mack leaving CoC for Xavier?

March 25, 2025

McCollum leaves Drake for Iowa, and Medved leave Col St for MINN.

March 26, 2025

OK St, the remaining Power conference member is out of the NIT. NTX took care of them last night. Teams that felt spurned by the Dance are alive. CHAT battled and eventually prevailed over Bradley. 

Huff CHAT G(21 PTS , 1 REB , 3 AST)

Today :UAB/UC Irvine, Kent St /LOYCH. 

So Pitino Jr took the XAV job, not the Nova gig, and VCU hired Bryant's Phil Martelli Jr.,

March 27, 2025

UCI outlasts UAB in OT and faces NTX next. Rubin (18pts, 9reb) leads LOYCH over Kent St  and faces CHAT next.

UNLV hires Pastner, whose last two gigs were Memphis and GTech

WV hires Hodge, the NTX Coach, who leaves after the NIT is over.

Intriguing: Landon Bussie leaves Alcorn St for Chicago St, who must have limited funds.

Magpayo leaves UC Riverside for Fordham(A10). He was Asst at Columbia(2010–2014)

 Quannas White, Houston U Asst, will be  the ULL HC after the Cougars are done at the Dance.

April 1, 2025

I'll roll the dice on  a southern flavored NIT final. NTX over UCI, and CHAT over LOYCH tonight. 

April 2, 2025

I was wrong on UNT who lost to UCI. Correct on CHAT who got 23 points from Bonham in a win over LOYCH.

April 4, 2025

Bonham (19pts, 10rebs) led CHAT to the NIT title with an OT win over UCI. Good win for the Southern Conference.

TAMU hires Samford’s Bucky McMillan to be hoops HC. One dance appearance and a 99-52 record in five seasons in the Southern Conference. Once Beard said no--

April 8, 2025

Jon Borovich, a Sparty ASST,  appears to be the top candidate for the CMU HC job. He played at CMU(1997-2001)

April 12, 2025

Samford hires Acuff away from Lipscomb. High Point's Alan Huss exits to be the coach-in-waiting under McDermott at Creighton. Flynn Clayman promoted to replace Huss.

NTX hires Daniyal Robinson from CLEV ST as its new HC.  Rob Summers , an asst from MOH, is the new HC at CLEV.

April 18, 2025

Charlie Ward taking the FAMU(SWAC) Hoops HC job is interesting and may work. He was a sharp athlete on the field or court. He's had some stints as an Asst with the Houston Rockets of the NBA.

I forgot that FAMU left the MEAC for the SWAC in 2021.

Aug 6, 2025

Alma mater news: Damon Lillard will be the GM at Weber St(BigSky). Steph is a mentor at Davidson(A10) . Both are active NBA players.

Sept 13, 2025

Pre SWAC hoops games for HC Charlie Ward include Georgia, Georgia Tech, and Tarleton St. Charlie Ward  coaching against  Billy Gillispie's Texans intrigues me on 12/19/25 intrigues me.

Oct 3, 2025

Rumors about Gillispie  leaving Tarleton on social media, but I can't find any real  news. His contract runs through the upcoming 2025/26 season

WAC hoops 2019/20 hunches

A little twist on this season's prognostications. Who's the next #PascalSiakham,  former #NMST player and budding NBA star with the Toronto Raptors. It's #MilanAcquaah  of California Baptist.
NM State:  Jabari Rice may be  the scorer the Aggies need to repeat as WAC champ.
Grand Canyon: Majerle's kids went the trey way  in a bruising loss to Illinois (B10). Isiah Brown  Jovan Blacksher Jr are players to watch.
California Baptist: #MilanAcquaah , a guard who's been averaging nearly 20 PPg and doing a solid dishing assists and grabbing rebounds, will lead the Lancers closer to the top of the WAC.
Utah Valley- Is Havsa, the guard from Turkey, a potential solid guard who can assist and rebound?
Seattle U:  Terrell Brown is the Redhawk to watch this season
CSU Bakersfield: DeMonte Buckingham is  far way from his  hometown of Richmond VA, but he'll be a major factor in the Roadrunners' on-going improvement improvement.
UT Rio Grande Valley- Tyson Smith and Terry Winn III are Vacqueros  worth watching.
UM Kansas City: McKissic remains the key player
Chicago State:  Cougars won't get out of the basemnt this season but  Xavier Johnson  opened the season scoring 37 points in a win against a non 1A team
Nov 13: Cal Baptist hung  with Texas most of last night before losing 67-54  MILAN ACQUAAH (17pts, 7 reb , 3 assists)
Dec 15: Cal Baptist has the best OOC record among WAC teams and UVU , the worst. I don't catch many televised WAC games but did get to UTRGV lose to Creighton 89-58 the other night.

dec 22

 Quinton Johnson II led the UTRGV Vaqueros (4-8) with 17 points and seven rebounds in a 69-59 loss to Texas Tech, who madeit to the final game of the Dance last season.

dec 25

 Terrell Brown had 17 points, eight assists and four steals in a 79-57  Seattle win over Long Beach St(BIG West). Redhawks needed this win to shake off a rough OOC December heading into WAC play.

 dec 29

Seattle turned around and gets crushed by St Mary's 80-58.  I'm getting an education on school names from the WAC OOC schedule. Cal Baptist beat Ottawa University Arizona 92-75, and UVU beat Antelope Valley 80-65.

dec 30

 Back to more recognizable names: CS Bakersfield was within 3 points (44-41) of Texas Tech with 12:54 left but lost 73-58 last night.

jan 3, 2020

WAC play is underway and nothing changes for Chicago St who lost Utah Valley. UMKC beat Seattle, and  #brandonboyd (25 PTS, 5 REB, 4 AST ) led Cal Baptist to a 76-67 victory of UTRGV.

jan 12

 Brandon Boyd had 16 points as Cal Baptist edged past Grand Canyon 61-57  and trail NMST, who barely beat UMKC last night, by a half a game in the WAC. In other games Seattle beat UVU and UTRGV beat Chicago St.

jan 17

Grand Canyon beat Chicago St 78-64, but either they're low on talent or Chicago St is improving.  Rajeir Jones scored 19 points in the Cougars' loss. NMST(4-0) beat UVU to stay a game up on idle Cal Baptist(3-1) and Seattle (3-1) who beat UTGRV. Bakersfield beat UMKC.

jan 27 

Franck Kamgain registered 16 points and six rebounds for UMKC in a win over Cal Baptist(4-2) who fell two games behind NMST (6-0) , a winner over UTRGV yesterday.

 jan 30

 #De'jonDavis tallied 19 points and 17 rebounds for Cal Baptist in a win over UVU. Big win that keeps them 2GB of NMST .

feb 2

 Milan Acquaah had 18 points and eight assists as Cal Baptist defeated Seattle 72-65 to remain 2GB of NMST, a winner over Grand Canyon, in the WAC. UMKC beat Chicago St. UTRGV beat Bakersfield.

feb 9

Cal Baptist's(7-3) comeback  against an improving Grand Canyon(5-4) squad fell short in 103-98 loss . NMST(10-0) remained undefeated in WAC play witha 67-61 win over UMKC, Seattle(5-4) beat UVU(3-6). Chicago St(0-10) got closer to it's first conference win in a long time, but Lesley Varner II made 4 of 5 treys and 9 of 10 free throws to score 23 points for UTRGV(5-5) in a comeback 75-64 win.

feb 15

Coach Majerlie has Grand Canyon getting into gear for a late season run . They beat UMKC 71-66 to move to 6-4 in WAC play but NMST beat Seattle to move to 11-0. Second place Cal Baptist (7-3) played an OOC game against Westcliff.  UTRGV beat UVU and  Bakersfield beat Chicago St.

feb 21

Seattle(6-6) put the brakes on Grand Canyon's(7-5) recent run with a 95-89 win. Terrell Brown SEA - G(31 PTS, 6 REB, 10 AST) had a big night. UVU(4-8) beat Bakersfield (5-7). NMST (12-0) has 4.5 games lead on second place Cal Baptist(7-4).

feb 23

Yes, Chicago St is a bad team but  they were handed one of their worst defeats this season by Cal Baptist who hit 18 treys in a 95-53 victory. NMSt beat remained undefeated in WAC play with a win over UTRGV. Seattle continued to improve with a win over Bakersfield, while Grand Canyon lost to UVU.

feb 27

 Milan Acquaah scored 24 points and De'Jon Davis added a double-double for California Baptist(20-8, 9-4 WAC) in a 73-66 win over UVU

March 1

 De'jon Davis scored 31 points and grabbed 15 rebounds and Milan Acquaah added 27 points  for Cal Baptist(10-4) in a narrow win over Seattle. UMKC crushed Chicago St and UTRGV beat Grand Canyon.

mARCH 4

i THINK Chicago St men's hoops may be working its way out of the WAC and 1A hoops  the men's team would not travel to Seattle or Utah Valley for WAC games  this week, and the woman's team won't be hosting the same teams . And also may not attend the WACT. tHE REASON: coronavirus . No response yet from the WAC.

March 6

  Wow, Cal Baptist got a taste of the big dog. NMST 83 CB 50. UMKC beat UVU

March 13

 Tarleton St near Dallas TX, and Dixie St  in Utah are joining the WAC in 2020.
 CAL St Bakersfield is leaving the WAC for the Big West.  UMKC is leaving for the Summit League which leaves Chicago St, the lone member from the Midwest section of the USA. All of these moves were scheduled a few years ago.

March 17

Jerry Colangelo, Grand Canyon strategic advisor,said this after the school  fired Dan Majerle  "GCU has become a premier mid-major basketball destination with its resources, facilities, and student and community support." Just a bit of overhype. So much for Phoenix Suns alumni hanging tough.

March 28

Looking back to 1962:  The WAC’s  original six-team league: Arizona, Arizona State, Brigham Young, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. AZ and ASU exited the Pac 10 in 1978. 

March 31

look who's back: Tarleton St who's moving to 1A and the WAC hired #BillyGillispie , who had decent stints at the first two schools: UTEP, Texas A&M, Kentucky and Texas Tech. He 's been a coaching at Ranger College, a community college in TX, since 2015.

may 7 2020

  I was kind of surprised Chris Jans, the NMST HC, considered replacing Forbes, who took the Wake Forest job, at E Tenn St (Southern Conference). At best it would've been a lateral move with maybe a few more $$$$. ETSU elevated Shay an asst to the HC job.

may 20, 2020 

#WAC hoops stays in the off-season spotlight. Dan Majerle, ex GC HC,  is suing Grand Canyon for waging a campaign to disparage him as part of its effort to avoid its severance obligation. He was replaced by  former Valparaiso and Vanderbilt coach Bryce Drew.

May 26, 2020

#terrellbrown (PTS 20.7  REB 6.2 AST 4.9 last season), a native of Seattle , used the grad transfer portal and left Seattle U for Arizona.

July 10, 2020

Is hiring ex NBAers to be  college head coaches a growing trend?  Mark Madsen had a rough season(11-18, 5-11) at UVU(WAC) replacing Mark Pope who went 24-8 at BYU(WCC) and was probably going to get the Cougars to a No. 6 or No. 7 seed.

dec 10, 2020

 #BillyGillispie , who had decent stints at the first two schools: UTEP, Texas A&M, Kentucky and Texas Tech has  Tarleton (WAC) off to a 2-2 start including battling Texas A&M hard before falling 73-66.e slated to play Kansas on Dec 13.