A weekly round-up of Atlantic 10 men’s basketball.
The strongest ‘staches in college basketball
With Fran Dunphy’s mustache in its final hours, and Old Dominion coach Blaine Taylor’s lip carpentry now deceased, SI.com’s Andy Glockner posed a worthwhile, hard-hitting question on Twitter Tuesday afternoon. Who owns college basketball’s best mustache?
So few head men these days, no matter the sport, invigorate and inspire their teams with their facial hair, specifically the mustache. Still, there are a few follicle-faced men roaming the sideline in college hoops. We’ve taken it upon ourselves to list the men with the strongest, boldest and most distinguished ‘staches in the sport. If we’ve forgotten someone, our apologies. There are more than 340 head coaches out there — it was quite a list to scan in the dramatic wake of the depressing news about Dunphy’s soon-to-be naked lip.
Nicholson named to pre-season Wooden Award list
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – St. Bonaventure senior forward Andrew Nicholson is one of 50 players named to the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 List, as announced Monday by the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
The list is comprised of 50 student-athletes who, based on last year’s individual performance and team records, are the early frontrunners for college basketball’s most prestigious individual honor.
Holloway named to pre-season Wooden Award list
Los Angeles– The Los Angeles Athletic Club has announced its Preseason Top 50 list today on ESPN.com and it includes Xavier University senior guard Tu Holloway. Chosen by a preseason poll of national college basketball media members, the list is comprised of 50 student-athletes who, based on last year’s individual performance and team records, are the early frontrunners for this prestigious college basketball honor. Holloway, a 2010-11 Associated Press Third Team All-American and the 2011 Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Year, earlier was named preseason First Team All-American in the 2011-12 Athlon Sports College Basketball magazine.
In addition to his 2010-11 AP All-America honor, Holloway was also named 2010-11 Third Team All-American by Sporting News, Basketball Times, SI.com, CBSSports.com and FOXSports.com. He was named to the All-America Team and Defensive All-America Team for Collegeinsider.com. He was also an A-10 All-Defensive Team selection and on the Collegeinsider.com Defensive All-America Team.
Colonial Invasion 2011
Colonials Invasion starts immediately after the women’s volleyball match versus Fordham. That starts at 6pm. If you can’t make it to the match, you’re missing out, but we recommend you get to the Smith Center by 7pm if you want to get a good seat for the show.
Pair of Philly Hoop Group games to be televised on Comcast
PHILADELPHIA – La Salle’s Philly Hoop Group Classic games at The Palestra versus Robert Morris on November 25 and Rider on November 26 will be televised live by The Comcast Network, it was announced today. Both games will tip off at 4:30 PM.
UD lands NYC point guard, loses Dunbar prospect
When first-year University of Dayton basketball coach Archie Miller was assembling his staff, he wanted an assistant with a big-time background and New York City ties. He found that in former Syracuse star Allen Griffin, and hiring the Brooklyn native is already starting to pay off.
The Flyers have received a verbal commitment from 5-foot-11 senior point guard Jevon Thomas, who grew up in New York City’s Queens borough, but is attending Quality Education Academy in Winston-Salem, N.C.
UD may finally show spark in A-10
The Atlantic 10 coaches and media were asked to fill out preseason ballots this week for men’s basketball, and I had a hard time projecting where Dayton will finish this year.
I’ve been burned in the past. I picked the Flyers to win the conference two years ago (so did practically everyone else), and they went 8-8. I pegged them to come in second last year (they were fourth in preseason voting), and they flopped again by going 7-9.
Ex-Flyer Riazzi contributes to new suite
Carmen Riazzi, a key player on some of the best basketball teams in University of Dayton history, dished out a few assists in his day. And he has delivered another one to his alma mater to help the school provide a new suite for the men’s basketball program in the Cronin Athletics Center.
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A-10 tourney changes format, eliminates home court first-round games in 2013
After a three-year run where the first round of the Atlantic 10 basketball tournament was played on school’s home courts, the top 12 teams in the league will all go to the tournament site when the event moves to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in 2013.
The league has signed a five-year deal to play its games at the new facility in Brooklyn, which will also be home to the New Jersey Nets.
The past two seasons, and again this season, the league has had the teams that finished fifth through eighth host first-round tournament games on their home courts, figuring they would draw better crowds there than at Atlantic City. (Teams 1 through 4 get first-round byes.) Road teams have done surprisingly well in those games; last year, road teams won three of the four games. The only home team to win was Rhode Island, which beat SLU.
LaSalle head coach John Giannini said his team’s problem has never been a lack of talent, more so a lack of chemistry.
This year, the head coach expects the young Explorers to surprise a lot of people after a sub-.500 finish last season. If they are to do so, they’ll have to rely on youth. LaSalle returns only three seniors and only one of which saw significant time last season.
Former Minuteman Williams named to Auburn staff
AMHERST, Mass. – Former UMass basketball star Harper Williams has been named Administrative Assistant on former Minutemen teammate Tony Barbee’s staff at Auburn. The 1992 Atlantic 10 Player of the Year has played professionally in Europe for 17 seasons.
Williams, a four-year college teammate of Barbee at UMass from 1989-93, spent the previous 17 seasons playing professionally in the top leagues of Europe, including the Spanish ACB, the Lega Basket Serie A in Italy, the Heba A-1 in Greece and Ligue Nationale de Basketball. He was a player/coach I Liga Espanola de Baloncesto – Adecco Oro, Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional and Novo Basquete Brasil.
URI announces several changes to schedule
KINGSTON, R.I. — The University of Rhode Island announced several changes – including an additional game – to the 2011-12 men’s basketball schedule.
Date Change for Maine Game: The regular season opening game versus Maine has been moved from Friday, Nov. 11 game to Sunday, Dec. 4 at 2 p.m. Season ticket holders may redeem their game tickets and parking passes with the Nov. 11 date for the new December date.
UMass basketball’s most well-known alumni
While I was lucky enough to see the Minutemen become A-10 conference regular season champions in 2007, the team’s glory days of the 1990s, along with consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, remain a high watermark. Those years not only saw some of UMass’s greatest scorers, but also some of the best scorers in the history of the A-10 Conference. Nevertheless, with as much storied history as UMass basketball has, it’s tough to rank the program’s most famous alumni. Here’s a try at five of the most well-known, though keep in mind that I might be a little biased towards more recent history (especially since I saw Freeman and Lasme play together firsthand).
Field for 2011 2K Classic announced
PITTSBURGH- The Duquesne men’s basketball team will open the 2011-12 season on Nov. 9 at Arizona as part of the opening round of the 2K Sports Classic it was announced today.
The game, which will be televised nationally by ESPNU at 9:00 (EST), will be followed by three subregional games at Valparaiso, Ind. on Nov. 18-20.
The Dukes will face Division II University of the District of Columbia at 6:00 p.m. (EST) on Nov. 18, Akron at 6:00 p.m. (EST) on Nov. 19 and host Valparaiso at 4:30 p.m. (EST) on Nov. 20 in the subregional.
Click here to read more and see a breakdown of Duquesne’s non-conference opponents.
Trivia Time
Once was a time when La Salle basketball carried some clout. The Explorers won the title once. I wasn’t on that team. I came a few decades later. When I left college, I was third all-time in points scored. Yeah, I scored more than 3,000 points and grabbed more than 1,300 rebounds. Can anybody else claim that? I scored 37 points in one game at the Dean Dome. Not many visiting players can say they did that. You probably don’t know who I am, but I was AP Player-of-the-Year. I won the Wooden, I was Philly 5 POY and I won the Naismith. I was taken seventh overall in the N.B.A. draft. I switched coasts and played seven seasons for one team averaging 15 points and more than 7 rebounds. We only got to the playoffs once in my career.
Who am I?
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