Jeff Hufnagle, of the Huf Blog Spot, is joining my web site as a guest author. When he has time, he will post columns of his choosing on college basketball. Jeff, like me, writes a lot about mid major college basketball. Check out Jeff's link above. He recently had some good thoughts on the NCAA tournament. Jeff, thanks for joining my site. Its great to have another point of view on this site.
Now for some CAA goings on. As the major sports sites and news' services talked about Kelvin Sampson becoming head coach at Indiana (interesting that they chose someone whose program has come under scrutiny for alleged phone call violations with recruits) along with the great contract extension Hofstra gave Tom Pecora to keep suitors like Seton Hall away, a very interesting coaching move involving a now former CAA coach was lost in the shuffle. Ron Everhart, formerly coach of the Northeastern Huskies accepted the head coaching position at Duquesne, member of the Atlantic 10. A press conference introducing Everhart will be held today.
Its an interesting move for Everhart. First, going from the CAA to the A10 is hardly a step up anymore. The CAA had as many teams (and should have had one more) as the Atlantic 10 did in the NCAA Tournament. Second, Duquesne is well, no offense, Duquesne. Its not like he is going to Temple, GW, UMass or Richmond for that matter. Its Duquesne. There are two reasons for this. One has to be duh, financial. Duquesne must have offered significantly more money than Northeastern was willing to pay. Second, Everhart knew that with Jose Juan Barea, Aaron Davis and Janon Cole, three of his top six players graduating, the Huskies were going to struggle in the ever improving CAA. If there was a time to fly, now was the time. But still, Duquesne? Well here's hoping Everhart turns the Dukes around as he did with McNeese State and Northeastern.
Well if you saw the NIT game Tuesday night, ODU was up 21-14, then for the next twelve minutes and fourteen seconds, the Monarchs could not hit a field goal. To be precise, they couldn't hit the side of a barn the rest of the first half as Michigan pulled out to a 33-24 halftime lead. Its amazing it was only nine. Then ODU came out on a 9-2 run to pull within 35-33 in the second half as Brian Henderson hit three straight three pointers. Henderson's fourth attempt went in and out and soon as you heard the collective groan from the crowd, the momentum ended there for ODU. Michigan went on a 13-5 run as they outscored the Monarchs 31-10 the rest of the way enroute to a 66-43 drubbing of ODU.
When down 21-14, Michigan changed to a 1-3-1 zone which forced ODU to shoot from the outside. The result was horrendous. ODU's leading scorer, Isaiah Hunter had a horrible shooting night, going 1 of 15 from the floor scoring only two points. Yikes. Throw in Alex Loughton's sore ankle, then Arnaud Dahi reinjuring his knee early on, which resulted in him missing the rest of the game, plus foul trouble on the rest of the team, the result was predictable. Give Michigan credit. They played stifling D, holding ODU to 28 percent from the field. Michigan also worked the post and took advantage of mismatches as Courtney Sims had 18 points to lead the Wolverines. Still it was a good year for another CAA team as ODU finishes 24-10 on the year. Michigan will take on South Carolina for the NIT championship. The game features the last two NIT champions (South Carolina won in 2005, Michigan 2004).
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