|
The UConn Daily Tournament Challenge
|
|
|---|---|
|
Want to show off your basketball knowledge? Interested in competing against other UConn fans? Join The UConn Daily’s NCAA tournament pool on ESPN.com!
|
|
 |
 |
Is Mississippi State Becoming UConn South?
The Story: UConn linebackers coach Jon Wholley, a former walk-on from Southington who had two stints coaching in Storrs, has landed at Mississippi State as an offensive analyst. He’s just the latest former UConn coach to head down to the SEC school.
OH, WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN: When the football team last finished above .500, the coaching staff of Randy Edsall 1.0 looks awfully good in hindsight. Joe Moorhead was in his second year of running the offense after Edsall plucked him out of Akron. Todd Orlando was the co-defensive coordinator. Nine years later, Moorhead is the head coach at Mississippi State and coming off a bowl game. Orlando is the defensive coordinator at Texas.
It’s not quite like Bill Belichick applying for the UConn job in 1983 (when UConn hired Tom Jackson!) or Lou Holtz coaching in Storrs — at least we hope not.
MOORHEAD PASSED OVER: When Edsall left for Maryland, Moorhead remained in Storrs for one year, only for Paul Pasqualoni to strip him of offensive coordinator duties in favor of George DeLeone (don’t get us started). Moorhead, demoted to quarterbacks coach, then left to take over at Fordham, his alma mater. Moorhead was the coach at Fordham when Bob Diaco was hired at UConn in 2014.
Edsall has spoken several times about what happened to the program after he left the first time and one of the big issues was not promoting one of the coordinators. Instead, the school went the veteran route in hiring Pasqualoni. That lack of continuity started a spiral from which the program has yet to recover. Would things have been different if Moorhead or Orlando were given a shot as head coach?
REUNION IN STARKVILLE: Moorhead hired several former colleagues at Fordham and has done so again at Mississippi State. Andrew Breiner, a grad assistant at UConn from 2009-11, is the quarterbacks coach at Mississippi State. He was Moorhead’s right-hand man at Fordham and was the head coach for two years before going to State. Jon Guynes is a recruiting assistant at State and was a grad assistant at UConn in 2012 and 2013 under Pasqualoni. Moorhead also added Edsall’s longtime assistant, running backs coach Terry Richardson, who spent a combined 14 years at UConn, as well as former UConn recruiting coordinator Dave Wilczewski, who is now Mississippi State’s director of operations after five years at Maryland.
BOTTOM LINE: Hindsight is 20/20, so who knows what would have happened? Coaches come and go and rise on fall by what the head coach succeeds. Who expected Pasqualoni to struggle as he did? And worse, who expected the guy hired to reset the program in Diaco fail that spectacularly? It was almost a decade ago, but it seems like only yesterday that The Rent was filled with 40,000 fans and UConn was playing in the Fiesta Bowl.
Anyhow, all we are saying is if you want to root for an SEC team, pick Mississippi State.
Hurley to Hurley: Dan Will Have Success
The Story: At least one Hurley brother will live to fight another day as Bobby Hurley led Arizona State to a 74-65 win over St. John’s in its play-in game last night. North Dakota State beat North Carolina Central 78-74 in the other play-in game.
The Sun Devils will be a No. 11 seed in the West Region and face No. 6 seed Buffalo tomorrow afternoon. North Dakota State’s reward is the No. 16 seed in the East Region and a meeting with top-seeded Duke tomorrow night.
BROTHERLY LOVE: Not only does Hurley now get to face the team he used to coach, Buffalo, in the first round of the tournament, but Arizona State won yesterday with Dan Hurley in the audience.
“We’re so close, and we talk so much,” Hurley said. “And I’m sure he’s very familiar with our team and our players. Just getting a chance to spend time with him this afternoon a little bit — it means everything that he took the time out.
“And he’s recruiting as his season’s ended, and trying to rebuild UConn basketball, and he’s going to be a major success there. But just looking over to him, I got a little strength. I usually only have my wife behind the bench to look at for strength in some tough moments, but it was nice to have more reinforcements.
“And to get a chance to see Dan after the game was awesome. I was able to watch his Creighton game a few years ago in the NCAA Tournament. And it was — I was just so proud of watching him do his thing out there on the basketball court.”
TODAY’S GAMES: The greatest day of the year has arrived! The first round of the NCAA tournament is set to kick off at 12:15 p.m. when Minnesota faces Louisville on CBS.
The schedule:
| No. 10 Minnesota vs. No. 7 Louisville, 12:15 p.m., CBS |
| No. 14 Yale vs. No. 3 LSU, 12:40 p.m., truTV |
| No. 12 New Mexico State vs. No. 5 Auburn, 1:30 p.m., TNT |
| No. 13 Vermont vs. No. 4 Florida State, 2 p.m., TBS |
| No. 15 Bradley vs. No. 2 Michigan State, 2:45 p.m., CBS |
| No. 11 Belmont vs. No. 6 Maryland, 3:10 p.m., truTV |
| No. 13 Northeastern vs. No. 4 Kansas, 4 p.m., TNT |
| No. 12 Murray State vs. No. 5 Marquette, 4:30 p.m., TBS |
| No. 10 Florida vs. No. 7 Nevada, 6:50 p.m., TNT |
| No. 15 Abilene Christian vs. No. 2 Kentucky, 7:10 p.m., CBS |
| No. 11 Saint Mary’s vs. No. 6 Villanova, 7:20 p.m., TBS |
| No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson vs. No. 1 Gonzaga, 7:27 p.m., truTV |
| No. 15 Montana vs. No. 2 Michigan, 9:20 p.m., TNT |
| No. 10 Seton Hall vs. No. 7 Wofford, 9:40 p.m., CBS |
| No. 14 Old Dominion vs. No. 3 Purdue, 9:50 p.m., TBS |
| No. 9 Baylor vs. No. 8 Syracuse, 9:57 p.m., truTV |
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: LSU sophomore Tremont Waters joked that if he “had a strong enough arm, [he] could probably throw a rock to Yale’s basketball facilities.” The two teams will square off in Jacksonville, Florida, in the second game of the day.
“That’s where I started playing basketball,” Waters said yesterday. “My dad got a membership to Payne Whitney gym, and it was like … the facility where everyone could go in, if you had a membership. So that’s where I started. … Now that Azar Swain goes there, I actually grew up playing basketball with him for the CT Elite Basketball Club, and just knowing that I’m from New Haven and that this team is from New Haven, it’s an honor to be able to play them in the first game of the March Madness NCAA tournament.
UPSET WATCH: Keep an eye on Belmont, which faces Maryland this afternoon. The Bruins defeated Temple in the play-in game and will face the inconsistent Terrapins. You may also want to root for your fellow Huskies as upstart Northeastern takes on reeling Kansas, and watch for Saint Mary’s tonight against defending champion Villanova. The Gaels defeated top-seeded Gonzaga in the WCC tournament final last week.
Morning Read
ROCK SOLID: Katie Lou Samuelson has recovered from a potentially serious left ankle injury to continue to remain one of the Huskies’ most important players this season. (Hartford Courant)
DOWNWARD TRAJECTORY: Several factors led to the women’s basketball team going from an unbeatable dynasty to the No. 2 seed in this year’s tournament. (Slate)
STUMBLE IN VIRGINIA: The baseball team surrendered three runs in the eighth inning to lose 6-3 at Virginia yesterday afternoon. (UConnHuskies.com)
FOND MEMORIES: With the NCAA tournament in Hartford, memories of old Big East battles are beginning to flood back for the coaches involved. (The Day)
