It's the most wonderful time of year

Ah, March. It's good to see you. Marquette and Kansas were certainly celebrating, while Iowa couldn't miss. Plus, what it's like making the jump to coaching D-I basketball.

Author

Mike Miller
March 01, 2023

It's March. Take a moment today and smile at the thought of what this month will bring.

I know I will.

Let's get to Tuesday's news.

1. Two games, two titles

It's been a season of surprises for No. 6 Marquette.

Well, surprises to most of the college hoops world. Probably not to the Shaka Smart's squad.

The Golden Eagles clinched the Big East title with 72-56 win at Butler on Tuesday night, its first outright conference title in 20 years (think Dwyane Wade and a Final Four) and its first in the Big East. Its also the first regular-season crown in any league for coach Shaka Smart, and will probably lead to league honors for guard Tyler Kolek and Smart.

Not bad for a team picked to finish ninth by league coaches in the preseason poll.

“The calendar is about to turn to March,” Smart said. “We’re very excited about winning the Big East regular season. But we’re not done.”

Kolek had 21 points and 10 assists in the win and now turn their attention to something else they've never done: Win the Big East Tournament. What else is possible? The AFTER DARK crew discussed.

Marquette wasn't the only clincher. But the other power conference team was a more familiar face.

No. 3 Kansas held off Texas Tech, 67-63, for at least a share of the Big 12 crown in front of a raucous home crowd on senior night for Jalen Wilson and Kevin McCullar.

Those seniors were the difference when it mattered most, too. Nursing a 61-60 lead and stuck in a field-goal drought for nearly four minutes, Wilson spun on the block for a shot, missed, and helped poke the ball away in the ensuing scramble ... right to McCullar, who laid it in. Related note: Kansas hasn't lost on Senior Night since 1984.

The Jayhawks (25-5, 13-4) can win the title outright with a Texas loss tonight, or a win in Austin on Saturday. Not that they're too worried about it right now. They're just gonna enjoy the win.

2. Iowa blitzes Indiana, plus more results

In the latest example of shooting cures everything, I present to you: Iowa 90, Indiana 68.

Entering Tuesday night, Iowa had won three road games this season: at Seton Hall, Rutgers and Minnesota. The Hawkeyes, always a dangerous offensive team, had struggled to score on the road. Their last two road trips, they averaged 56 points.

That script completely flipped against Indiana. The Hawkeyes (19-11, 11-8 in Big Ten) couldn't miss in a 90-68 win against Indiana (20-10, 11-8). Iowa hit 55.6% of its field goal attempts, and was 13-of-23 beyond the arc (56.5%), thanks to consistent, quick ball movement that found open shooters against a a sluggish Indiana defense.

Kris Murray hit five 3s and led Iowa with 26 points, while Payton Sandfort added five more triples and had 16. But the real difference maker was point guard Tony Perkins, who repeatedly sliced the defense and found open shooters, or finished at the rim by himself. He flirted with a triple-double (23 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists) for a stellar night.

Trayce Jackson-Davis was a the only thing Indiana had going. He had 26 and 13, and became the school's all-time rebounding leader. Not that it mattered on Tuesday.

“It's the worst day of the season for us,” Indiana coach Mike Woodson said afterward. “They were hitting 3s, 2s, whatever they wanted. That's not Indiana basketball and it's unacceptable.”

Other results to know:

Michigan State 80, Nebraska 67Something was in the water for Big Ten visitors. The Spartans (18-11, 10-8 in Big Ten) hit 16 3-pointers — 12 in the second half — and rallied past Nebraska for their fourth win in their last six games.

Duke 71, NC State 67The Blue Devils (22-8, 13-6) held off the Wolfpack (22-9, 12-8) for their fifth straight win and wrapped a perfect home season, going 16-0 at Cameron. Jeremy Roach scored 20 points, and was the counter for NC State's Jarkel Joiner, who led all scorers with 26 points.

Virginia 64, Clemson 57The home setting helped the Cavs (22-6, 14-5) snap a two-game skid, and move into a tie for second in the ACC. The Tigers (21-9, 13-6) close their season Saturday against Notre Dame, but probably need 1-2 more wins in the ACC Tournament to secure an at-large bid.

Tennessee 75, Arkansas 57The Vols (22-8, 11-6) won the game, but lost sophomore guard Zakai Zeigler to a knee injury in the opening minutes. It's unclear how significant the injury is; he did not play the rest of the game, which saw Tennessee's defense do its usual thing against opponents. Arkansas (19-11, 8-9) made just 36.7% of its shots and had 16 turnovers.

Texas A&M 69, Ole Miss 61The Aggies (22-8, 14-3 in SEC) set a school record for SEC wins and locked up their best conference finish. Next up? A trip to Tuscaloosa on Saturday.

Miss State 74, South Carolina 68Shakeel Moore scored 20 points as the Bulldogs (20-10, 8-9 in SEC) inched closer to .500 in conference play and kept their hopes for an at-large bid alive. They'll need a win at Vandy on Saturday and at least 1 win in the SEC tourney to keep it that way.

Villanova 76, Seton Hall 72Speaking of slim hopes for an at-large bid, here's Nova, winners of six of their last seven games. Justin Moore led the Cats (16-14, 10-9 in Big East) with 23 points. A win vs. UConn on Saturday, plus a run in the Big East tourney, might be enough to impress the committee.

Boise State 66, San Diego State 60Max Rice scored 26 points, including 12 in a 14-0 run to close a win for the Broncos (23-7, 13-4), who snagged their first win against a ranked team this season. The Aztecs (23-6, 14-3) lost for the first time in February.

VCU 79, Saint Louis 67The Rams (23-7, 14-3 in A-10) clinched the outright regular-season title and the top seed in the A-10 tourney behind Jalen DeLoach's 14 points and — what else? — some nasty defense that forced 20 turnovers from the Billikens (19-11, 11-6).

Toledo 99, Central Michigan 65Setric Miller scored 32 points as the Rockets (24-6, 15-2 in MAC) clinched at least a share of the conference crown. They'll close out their regular season on Friday against Ball State.

Detroit Mercy 81, Purdue Fort Wayne 68The Titans (14-18) now play top seed Youngstown State with some history on the line. Detroit senior Antoine Davis scored 38 points in Tuesday's win, leaving him 26 points shy of breaking Pete Maravich's all-time scoring record of 3,668 points. It also was his final game at home.

In regular-season games against the Penguins, Davis scored 32 points and 15 points, both losses. He didn't shoot great from beyond the arc in either game, but was effective inside the arc in the first outing. You can watch it at 8 pm on Thursday on ESPN+.

Kennesaw State 67, Queens 66We nearly had the first shocker of conference tourney season. The Owls (24-8) are the top seed in the ASun tourney, and was tied in the final minutes against the Royals (18-15). But they made three defensive stops in the final minute to get the win.

More conference tournament results:

  • Atlantic Sun: Liberty 76, Bellarmine 56; Eastern Kentucky 73, North Alabama 48; Lipscomb 83, Stetson 70

  • Horizon: Wright State 77, Green Bay 57

  • Patriot League: American 64, Bucknell 59; Loyola Maryland 73, Holy Cross 69

  • Sun Belt: Arkansas State 86, Coastal Carolina 69, Texas State 81, Georgia State 76

3. Making that jump to Division I

When the Northeast Conference opens its conference tournament tonight, there are a couple things to keep in mind: regular-season champion Merrimack is still in its four-year transition to Division I. Even if it wins the tourney, it can't take the automatic bid to the Big Dance. Same goes for Stonehill, which tied for second place.

That leaves Fairleigh Dickinson (17-14, 10-6 in NE) as the favorite to earn the auto bid. And that'd be quite the debut season for coach Tobin Anderson.

Not that Anderson's a newbie when it comes to coaching. He's been a head coach since 1999, starting with D-III schools Clarkson (from 1999-2004), then Hamilton (2004-2011), and was at D-II power St. Thomas Aquinas, where he was 209-62 over nine seasons, won four league titles and reached three Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight. He knows success. But this season represented a new challenge, and one that Anderson, 51, had always wanted.

So how's that jump to Division I gone?

"It's been better than I hoped, to be honest with you," Anderson told me last week. "It's been more of a challenge, for sure. I've had to do a better job as a coach. I've had to do a better job with preparation. We've had to figure some things out that worked in the past, and don't work at this level. But there's not one thing, not one thing, that I haven't enjoyed. It's been great.

"It definitely feels different when you go to Pittsburgh and play at a place that seats 10,000 people. Then there's going to Loyola-Chicago and Sister Jean is sitting there and the place is packed. It's an adjustment."

Anderson's move isn't unique, but it is unusual. Most D-I head coaches spend time as a D-I assistant, or even an NBA assistant. Youngstown State coach Jerrod Calhoun was an assistant at West Virginia before coaching for five years at D-II Fairmont State, which might be more typical.

Still, there are others like Anderson out there. About 20 current D-I coaches have jumped into D-I jobs without any previous D-I experience. Some, like Donte Jackson at Grambling State made the leap quickly. Others such as Lipscomb coach Lennie Acuff, racked up nearly 500 wins at D-II Alabama-Huntsville. But few have taken Anderson's path.

There's game prep, player development, recruiting, but they're all related to basketball. When he was at Clarkson, Anderson doubled as "the worst tennis coach of all time," along with game management, solving logistical challenges, you name it. And at 27, he loved it. But it was an adjustment.

"You're like 'Holy shit, this is it. I'm in charge of this program,'" he laughs, recalling other duties. "I wanted to be a head coach. I didn't want to go the assistant route, work my way up being a video guy and all that. Nothing wrong with it, but it's not what I wanted. So I had to figure out pretty quickly what I was good at, because everything falls back at you."

One of the things that helped was actually three things. Seniors Demetre Roberts and Grant Singleton, along with junior Sean Moore, all followed Anderson from Aquinas to Dickinson. they've been stalwarts all season, especially that senior duo. They understood that simply playing D-I wasn't the goal.

The goal is to win.

"At one point, somebody said 'we've already won as much as we won last year.' That's not the goal. The standard is to win championships, win the conference, win the conference tournament," Anderson said. "I knew early on we had a chance to do that. When we played [Loyola] Chicago, we didn't blink. We beat St. Joseph's. We saw we could compete at a high level. So we readjusted our goals and realized we just gotta keep pushing.

"If we keep raising the bar and trying to get better, then you know it's been a good first year. We're not done yet, and there are still things we want to accomplish. But we're getting there."

Next up will be St. Francis, NY, who the Knights beat on Saturday for a season sweep. Another win will place them in the NE semifinals against the winner of the St. Francis U-Central Connecticut game.

And then there's a chance for something big to happen. An automatic bid sure would make that D-I jump worthwhile...

4. POY awards starting to roll in

It felt like Monday's Daily was already overstuffed with conference tournament notes and links, so ended up saving this a day.

Four leagues — the Atlantic Sun, Horizon, Patriot and Sun Belt — announced their Player of the Year and All-Conference honors this week. Here's a rundown:

5. Food for (NET) thought

Here's one for the Terrence Oglesby hive: Maybe we should re-think what we consider Quad 1 games.

Per JG Trends, home Quad 1 wins happen twice as often as road Quad 1 wins. So should they have equal value for the NCAA Tournament seeding committee when it comes to grouping "impressive" wins over the course of the season?

A road win is always going to be less frequent given most teams play most of their games at home. But there's some value into determining what the most "impressive" win is and how much value it should have when considering an entire body of work.

Know what? This is a topic for another newsletter, probably entirely on its own. Sorry, TO.

Texas two-step

Kansas held serve and snagged a share of the Big 12 on Tuesday night. If the Longhorns (22-7, 11-5 in Big 12) do the same tonight against TCU (19-10, 8-8), it sets up a Saturday showdown in Austin where they can share the Big 12 crown. If Texas loses either game, Kansas wins the league outright for roughly the 538th time under Bill Self. (9 pm ET, ESPN2)

  • Xavier (21-8, 13-5 in Big East) at Providence (21-8, 13-5), 6:30 pm (FS1)

  • Auburn (19-10, 9-7 in SEC) at Alabama (25-4, 15-1), 7 pm (ESPN2)

  • Oklahoma (14-15, 4-12 in Big 12) at Kansas State (22-7, 10-6), 8 pm (ESPN+)

  • Penn State (17-12, 8-10 in Big Ten) at Northwestern (20-9, 11-7), 9 pm (Big Ten Network)

  • Utah State (22-7, 11-5 in MWC) at UNLV (17-11, 6-10), 11 pm (CBS Sports Network)

We're just here to torture Terrence

Normally, I just use this kind of thing in The Fast Break, but it's a perfect lead-in to this DTF podcast convo: What's up with the ACC? Here's a chart that illustrates how the ACC compares to previous seasons (hint: not great).

Links as you track what's happening with Biden's student debt plan.

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