Welcome to the VICE Sports College Basketball Grab Bag, where every week we’ll round up the biggest news stories in the sport. Random stuff, too, because it’s college basketball. Enjoy!
Candidates for the Wisconsin basketball job
Bo Ryan abruptly retired as Wisconsin’s basketball coach Tuesday night, which means the Badgers are looking for a new coach for the first time since 2001. Wisconsin has become a much more attractive coaching destination since Ryan took over, mostly because he turned the Badgers into a consistent Big Ten power.
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That said, Wisconsin largely has been successful because of Ryan’s system. It will not be easy to attract top out-of-state recruits to Madison. The Badgers can’t just hire any coach with an impressive resume. They need the right fit. With that in mind, there are really just three main candidates for the job—that’s it. Here’s a closer look:
1. Tony Bennett, head coach at Virginia
Bennett has long been tied to the Wisconsin job, and there are obvious connections. His dad, Dick Bennett, was the coach before Ryan. He’s from Wisconsin, was once a Badgers assistant and played for his dad at UW-Green Bay. Moreover, he plays a slow-down style of offense similar to Ryan’s. Virginia gave Bennett a raise this summer, and also raised his buyout. Will that be enough to keep him? Bennett, and/or his agent, should be one of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez’s first calls.
Please talk to my agent, and secure the services of a large vehicle with plenty of cargo room and the ability to go in reverse. —Photo by Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
2. Ben Jacobson, head coach at Northern Iowa
Jacobson doesn’t have ties to Wisconsin, but he basically runs a mini-Wisconsin at Northern Iowa. He’s made the Panthers program better than a good two-thirds of the programs in power conferences, and he has some big wins under his belt, from this year against No. 1 North Carolina to the 2010 NCAA Tournament against No. 1 Kansas. He plays a system similar to Ryan’s, he knows how to recruit the rural Midwest and Wisconsin, and has a reputation for being an outstanding talent developer, particularly with big men who fall through the power conference recruiting cracks. He also has recruited very talented guards—both transfers and overlooked recruits—to Cedar Falls. Cedar Falls! Plus, his athletic director at UNI just left. This could be a perfect storm.
3. Greg Gard, interim coach at Wisconsin
If Ryan had his way, Gard would be the new head coach. Ryan initially was going to retire in the summer, but Alvarez reportedly did not guarantee the job would go to Gard, who has has been with Ryan for 23 years at UW-Platteville, UW-Milwaukee and Madison. So Ryan returned, and now he has retired in the middle of the season to give Gard a tryout as the interim coach. Gard certainly has the chops to run a program, but will Alvarez want someone with more experience doing so? The whole situation could comes down to a Bo versus Barry power struggle within Wisconsin athletics.
NCAA be damned, SMU keeps winning
SMU will not play in this year’s NCAA Tournament despite being one of the 25 best teams in college basketball—and that, in a way, is progress for the Mustangs, who usually don’t play in March because they aren’t close to good enough to merit a tournament bid.
This year, the NCAA has banned SMU from postseason competition for academic fraud and “unethical conduct” violations. This really isn’t all that surprising. While coaching at Kansas, current SMU coach Larry Brown saw NCAA sanctions levied against the Jayhawks immediately after he bolted for the NBA; meanwhile, SMU’s football program is the only program to ever receive the NCAA death penalty.
So, not exactly the most innocent pair.
However, what Brown has done in his three-plus years at SMU is remarkable. In his second season, he led the Mustangs to the NIT for the first time since 2000, bringing them all the way to the finals. Last season, SMU made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1991—and did so without star recruit Emmanuel Mudiay, who is currently in the NBA and would have played for the Mustangs were it not for NCAA sanctions of his own.
When he’s not busy painting, this guy enjoys a little SMU hoops. —Photo by Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports
Then there’s this season. The Mustangs are No. 18 in the Associated Press poll, their highest ranking in either of the past two years. They’re also undefeated, and they’ll likely climb higher before they lose, which would be just the second season since 1957 that an SMU team was ranked higher than No. 18.
Two years after getting dinged by the NCAA Tournament selection committee for a non-conference schedule that included no quality wins, SMU is racking up those victories now, sanctions be damned. Led by two seniors, including star Nic Moore, two juniors and a freshman—a mix of the group that brought this team back to life, and the people who will carry into the next era—SMU has beaten Stanford by 15 points on the road and Michigan by 24 points at home. According to KenPom.com, the Mustangs won’t be underdogs until a Feb. 18 trip to UConn.
No, SMU can’t go to the NCAA Tournament back-to-back years for the first time since 1984-85, but good for those upperclassmen. The Mustangs are back on the college basketball map, even if the association is trying to hide them.
Arkansas-Little Rock and UT-Arlington are the best stories of the first month
There are eight undefeated teams in college basketball right now, and a lot of them make sense—Michigan State, Iowa State, Oklahoma, Purdue, etc. Then there’s Arkansas-Little Rock, perhaps the most unlikely undefeated team ever a month into the season.
The Trojans are 8-0, and while that record is padded by victories against two non-Division I teams, they’ve also had some very legitimate wins, including winning on the road against San Diego State and Tulsa, both of which are in the KenPom top 60. Arkansas-Little Rock also beat DePaul on the road by 22, the largest margin of victory against DePaul this season.
Making this more remarkable? December is “guarantee game” season, in which teams like Arkansas-Little Rock get paid a bunch of money to go on the road and get their asses beat. The little schools get paid, the bigger schools get wins, and everyone’s happy for the holidays. Little Rock needs those games. It has one of the poorest athletic departments in Division I, bringing in less than $10 million per year.
March is that way. —Photo by Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports
The same goes for Little Rock’s conference mate, UT-Arlington. The Mavericks have lost two games this year, but they’ve played a brutal schedule full of guarantee games, because their athletic department brings in less than $12 million per year.
Despite that, UT-Arlington has wins at Ohio State and Memphis this year, and also took Texas to overtime. By the numbers, that means a school that brings in $12 million per year beat one team that brings in $145 million and another that brings in $50 million, then nearly beat one that brings in $160 million.
One of these two teams will likely be in the NCAA Tournament. And now you know one at least first-round upset to pick.
Best week: Texas Longhorns
This is Texas’ first year with new coach Shaka Smart, and although there have been some growing pains—specifically, losses to Washington, Texas A&M and Michigan—the Longhorns got a big win on a buzzer-beater over North Carolina. Expect more to come. Smart has brought his fast-paced “havoc” system to Texas, and he has a lot of talent to work with. With the school’s football team still rebuilding, basketball might become a hot ticket in Austin.
Worst week: Georgetown Hoyas
Georgetown has been perplexing. The Hoyas beat Wisconsin and Syracuse, and they nearly beat Maryland and Duke, but they also lost to Radford to start the season, then lost by 15 to Monmouth on Tuesday. Monmouth is legitimately good (and awesome), but you can’t be losing to Monmouth by 15 at home, Georgetown.
Not everyone at Georgetown is having a bad week. —Photo by Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
Random Ranking
For this week’s random ranking, let’s take a look (and laugh) at the most hilarious “guarantee game” losses by Big Ten teams. So far, the conference is pretty weak, and it’s showing with these brutal non-conference results:
1.Western Illinois 69, Wisconsin 67: Sorry Bo Ryan, but this has to be the craziest loss you’ve ever had. Wisconsin doesn’t lose at the Kohl Center … but the Badgers lost to a team that’s barely in the top 200 nationally.
2.UT-Arlington 73, Ohio State 68: UT-Arlington might actually be legitimately good, but considering the previously-discussed wealth gap here ($145 million to $12 million) this should never happen.
3.The Entire State Of South Dakota :) … Minnesota :( Minnesota found a way to lose to both South Dakota and South Dakota State in back-to-back games. SDSU is decent, but South Dakota isn’t even a top 200 team.
4.North Florida 93, Illinois 81: Illinois didn’t just lose to North Florida, the Illini damn near got run off the floor. I was also considering their loss to UT-Chattanooga for this spot, but KenPom says the Mocs (93) are better than the Illini (109).
5. Radford 86, Penn State 74: There’s a rumor out there that it’s actually difficult to play at Penn State because it’s so quiet at games. Didn’t stop Radford.
