Top 25 talk

[ronk]

From Redlands:

Texas-Dallas 74
Redlands 71 (OT)

Redlands was up 3 with 5 seconds to play in regulation after 2 FTs.  They chose to not foul...UTD (Jalen Weber) hit a 3 at the buzzer to send to OT.

In OT Redlands seemed in control late but Weber hit 3 huge shots, including one to tie it, and one to win the game.



No Dimitrius Underwood (preseason 3rd Team All-American) in the boxscore for the Comets.

+1 for the foul vs defend side.   

[Smitty Oom]

From Redlands:

Texas-Dallas 74
Redlands 71 (OT)

Redlands was up 3 with 5 seconds to play in regulation after 2 FTs.  They chose to not foul...UTD (Jalen Weber) hit a 3 at the buzzer to send to OT.

In OT Redlands seemed in control late but Weber hit 3 huge shots, including one to tie it, and one to win the game.



No Dimitrius Underwood (preseason 3rd Team All-American) in the boxscore for the Comets.

+1 for the foul vs defend side.   

Elsewhere in DePauw, Coach Fenlon is shaking his head reading this post.

[Titan Q]

Here is a team I will have in...and pretty high.

Texas-Dallas (24-5, 13-3 ASC)
* Gone: n/a
* Back: Dimitrius Underwood, 6-2 Sr. G (20.5 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 3.4 apg); Hans Burwitz, 6-7 Sr. C (14.8 ppg, 6.8 rpg); Jalen Weber, 6-0 Sr. G (12.7 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 3.5 apg); Michael Forster, 6-7 Jr. F (9.9 ppg, 6.1 rpg)

One thing I am confused about though - https://utdcomets.com/news/2019/10/17/mens-basketball-comet-men-picked-as-favorites-in-asc-east-division.aspx.

In that release about UT-Dallas being picked to win the ASC East, it says three Comets were named Preseason Players to watch -- Hans Burwitz, Jalen Weber, and Kelden Pruitt.  No Dimitrius Underwood (20.5 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 3.4 apg)? He was the ASC East Player of the Year last season, and is on the '19-20 roster - https://utdcomets.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster.

https://ascsports.org/news/2019/2/26/underwood-neal-highlight-asc-mens-basketball-award-winners.aspx

https://ascsports.org/news/2019/10/17/mens-basketball-utd-umhb-selected-to-win-asc-mens-hoops.aspx

Strange.

I wonder what the deal with Dimitrius Underwood is?  Per above, he was not mentioned as a "Player to Watch" in that ASC preview.

He is on UTD's roster, but is the only guy who doesn't have a 2019-20 season picture (they used his 2018-19 picture) - https://utdcomets.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster.

He is mentioned in the UTD season preview - https://utdcomets.com/news/2019/11/5/mens-basketball-season-preview-comet-men-have-high-expectations-for-2019-20.aspx.

He did not play last night vs Redlands - https://utdcomets.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2019-2020/redlands/boxscore/4710.

[Titan Q]

Elsewhere in DePauw, Coach Fenlon is shaking his head reading this post.

https://c510383.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/ath/mbasket/images/up3.pdf

I was at both of those games he mentions early the article and can still see both shots going in.

[Titan Q]

My guess, Titan ... combo of the two. Having talked to him last season (off air), I got the sense the coaching fire was not gone. He wanted to get back out there. I also sensed he didn't want to hurt the team not being at 100%. We all know he missed a few games the last two seasons, at least, with health issues. He didn't want to be back on the bench unless he could give it his all.

I felt he would be back, but I wasn't sure when he might hang it up. During the off-season, I could have argued he would retire any day while also countering that argument that 1,000 wins and a couple of more years was something he seriously wanted to accomplish.

I suspect he went into this year thinking he was ready to go and found he wasn't really 100%. I also think he knew that it was possible he wasn't going to be able to return and wanted to make sure he could dictate who took over - we know those types of coaches. I bet he knew that if he retired in April or June, the school would be forced to do a national search. He controls things more this way - we have seen that before.

However I think there was still a part of Glenn Robinson was ready to coach this season. If the idea was simply to position his assistant, he could have made this decision a month ago and they still would have made the same interim decision.

Any tie at all between what happened at F&M last night and Glenn Robinson's departure?  I know zero about this, but I think it's fair to ask this question, right?

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2019/11/student-protest-forces-postponement-of-basketball-game-at-franklin-and-marshall-college.html

[y_jack_lok]

^^^ Wow! The article does say "athletes" rather than basketball players, so maybe not???

[Titan Q]

^^^ Wow! The article does say "athletes" rather than basketball players, so maybe not???

"The sit-in came after a day of rallying by students who were responding to offensive Halloween costumes worn by multiple Franklin and Marshall athletes, including two basketball players."

[y_jack_lok]

^^^ Oh, I missed the reference to basketball players. Hmmm.

[Gregory Sager]

My guess, Titan ... combo of the two. Having talked to him last season (off air), I got the sense the coaching fire was not gone. He wanted to get back out there. I also sensed he didn't want to hurt the team not being at 100%. We all know he missed a few games the last two seasons, at least, with health issues. He didn't want to be back on the bench unless he could give it his all.

I felt he would be back, but I wasn't sure when he might hang it up. During the off-season, I could have argued he would retire any day while also countering that argument that 1,000 wins and a couple of more years was something he seriously wanted to accomplish.

I suspect he went into this year thinking he was ready to go and found he wasn't really 100%. I also think he knew that it was possible he wasn't going to be able to return and wanted to make sure he could dictate who took over - we know those types of coaches. I bet he knew that if he retired in April or June, the school would be forced to do a national search. He controls things more this way - we have seen that before.

However I think there was still a part of Glenn Robinson was ready to coach this season. If the idea was simply to position his assistant, he could have made this decision a month ago and they still would have made the same interim decision.

Any tie at all between what happened at F&M last night and Glenn Robinson's departure?  I know zero about this, but I think it's fair to ask this question, right?

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2019/11/student-protest-forces-postponement-of-basketball-game-at-franklin-and-marshall-college.html

Unless that was Glenn Robinson himself wearing one of the offensive costumes -- I've seen the pictures, and they were offensive, and I'm not the easily-offended type -- I don't see how this has anything to do with his retirement. His successor has been helping to run the team for, what, seven years now? He's even served as acting head coach for a long stretch of a season when Robinson was in ill health. It seems to me that, despite the hoopla surrounding the retirement of college basketball's Grand Old Man, this has to be as close to a seamless transition for F&M as possible. I doubt that Robinson hung on over the past few seasons just because he had a lenient assistant and felt that someone with a whip hand needed to stay in charge.

Robinson or no Robinson, this is just another classic case of heedless and stupid post-adolescent-male behavior leading to predictable consequences.

What I'm curious about is how this will affect F&M's soccer team, since some of the costumed miscreants play soccer for the Diplomats. The Dips are hosting the Centennial Conference semifinals today and the finals tomorrow, with #1 F&M scheduled to play #5 Haverford in less than an hour. It seems highly likely that we'll see a reprise on the soccer pitch of what happened on the basketball court last night.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Here is a team I will have in...and pretty high.

Texas-Dallas (24-5, 13-3 ASC)
* Gone: n/a
* Back: Dimitrius Underwood, 6-2 Sr. G (20.5 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 3.4 apg); Hans Burwitz, 6-7 Sr. C (14.8 ppg, 6.8 rpg); Jalen Weber, 6-0 Sr. G (12.7 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 3.5 apg); Michael Forster, 6-7 Jr. F (9.9 ppg, 6.1 rpg)

One thing I am confused about though - https://utdcomets.com/news/2019/10/17/mens-basketball-comet-men-picked-as-favorites-in-asc-east-division.aspx.

In that release about UT-Dallas being picked to win the ASC East, it says three Comets were named Preseason Players to watch -- Hans Burwitz, Jalen Weber, and Kelden Pruitt.  No Dimitrius Underwood (20.5 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 3.4 apg)? He was the ASC East Player of the Year last season, and is on the '19-20 roster - https://utdcomets.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster.

https://ascsports.org/news/2019/2/26/underwood-neal-highlight-asc-mens-basketball-award-winners.aspx

https://ascsports.org/news/2019/10/17/mens-basketball-utd-umhb-selected-to-win-asc-mens-hoops.aspx

Strange.

I wonder what the deal with Dimitrius Underwood is?  Per above, he was not mentioned as a "Player to Watch" in that ASC preview.

He is on UTD's roster, but is the only guy who doesn't have a 2019-20 season picture (they used his 2018-19 picture) - https://utdcomets.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster.

He is mentioned in the UTD season preview - https://utdcomets.com/news/2019/11/5/mens-basketball-season-preview-comet-men-have-high-expectations-for-2019-20.aspx.

He did not play last night vs Redlands - https://utdcomets.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2019-2020/redlands/boxscore/4710.

My initial guess was injury, but given the lack of pictures, maybe he's ineligible this semester?  It seems pretty clear they expect him to play.  I'll be seeing the team at Christopher Newport in a couple weeks, I'll try to figure it out.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

My guess, Titan ... combo of the two. Having talked to him last season (off air), I got the sense the coaching fire was not gone. He wanted to get back out there. I also sensed he didn't want to hurt the team not being at 100%. We all know he missed a few games the last two seasons, at least, with health issues. He didn't want to be back on the bench unless he could give it his all.

I felt he would be back, but I wasn't sure when he might hang it up. During the off-season, I could have argued he would retire any day while also countering that argument that 1,000 wins and a couple of more years was something he seriously wanted to accomplish.

I suspect he went into this year thinking he was ready to go and found he wasn't really 100%. I also think he knew that it was possible he wasn't going to be able to return and wanted to make sure he could dictate who took over - we know those types of coaches. I bet he knew that if he retired in April or June, the school would be forced to do a national search. He controls things more this way - we have seen that before.

However I think there was still a part of Glenn Robinson was ready to coach this season. If the idea was simply to position his assistant, he could have made this decision a month ago and they still would have made the same interim decision.

Any tie at all between what happened at F&M last night and Glenn Robinson's departure?  I know zero about this, but I think it's fair to ask this question, right?

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2019/11/student-protest-forces-postponement-of-basketball-game-at-franklin-and-marshall-college.html

Unless that was Glenn Robinson himself wearing one of the offensive costumes -- I've seen the pictures, and they were offensive, and I'm not the easily-offended type -- I don't see how this has anything to do with his retirement. His successor has been helping to run the team for, what, seven years now? He's even served as acting head coach for a long stretch of a season when Robinson was in ill health. It seems to me that, despite the hoopla surrounding the retirement of college basketball's Grand Old Man, this has to be as close to a seamless transition for F&M as possible. I doubt that Robinson hung on over the past few seasons just because he had a lenient assistant and felt that someone with a whip hand needed to stay in charge.

Robinson or no Robinson, this is just another classic case of heedless and stupid post-adolescent-male behavior leading to predictable consequences.

What I'm curious about is how this will affect F&M's soccer team, since some of the costumed miscreants play soccer for the Diplomats. The Dips are hosting the Centennial Conference semifinals today and the finals tomorrow, with #1 F&M scheduled to play #5 Haverford in less than an hour. It seems highly likely that we'll see a reprise on the soccer pitch of what happened on the basketball court last night.

My understanding is that this is a bigger issue on campus with the costumes creating a flash point.  Much of the protest centers around the athletes continuing to compete while student development works through the disciplinary process.  I suspect what F&M is doing is pretty standard for any student misconduct, but maybe even d3 schools need to recognize that athletes play an out-sized role on campus.  I suspect there's nothing to prevent the coaches of these athletes from instituting suspensions, etc as they see fit.

I've talked with Justin Kupa in the past.  He's an impressive kid and although not a captain, the definitely leader of the basketball team.  I expect him to assert some leadership through this, but it will be an interesting situation to monitor.

[Titan Q]

Final from Greensboro:

#6-Emory 89
#19-Guilford 67

Emory is really good.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Swarthmore looking fantastic out of the gate.  Threes not dropping, but still put up 100 points, six guys in double figures.  Nice start.

[Titan Q]

Final from Whittier:

Whittier 91
#11 Texas-Dallas 86

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Oshkosh leads Augustana by just 3 at the half.  The champs are playing a lot of freshman and showing some real potential out there. Augie's outside shooting is keeping them in this one.