2017-18 Basketball happenings around the American Athletic!

[WuShock Reaper]

"Memphis loses guard Jeremiah Martin for season with broken foot" - ESPN

By Associated Press
Posted: 02/23/18, 6:02 PM CT

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/22558399/jeremiah-martin-memphis-tigers-season-broken-left-foot

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Memphis point guard Jeremiah Martin has a broken left foot that will force the Tigers to play the rest of the season without the American Athletic Conference's leading scorer.

The 6-foot-3 sophomore will undergo surgery Tuesday and is expected to be out six to eight months. Martin was averaging 18.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists and a league-best 2.3 steals per game.

He was injured hurt Thursday during Memphis' 91-85 victory over No. 23 Houston . Memphis coach Tubby Smith announced the severity of Martin's injury Friday.

Memphis (17-11, 8-7 American) has three regular-season games remaining. The Tigers next play Sunday at Connecticut (13-15, 6-9).

[1972Shocker]

What a tough year this has been for AAC teams with injuries.

[ShockTalk]

And so many top players!

[ShockdaWorld]

Never like to see a kid get hurt, but I thought they actually played better without him.

[WuShock Reaper]

"Mack, Cronin among Naismith Coach of the Year semifinalists" - Cincinnati.com

By Dave Clark,
Published 10:30 a.m. ET, Feb. 23, 2018

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/college/othercolleges/2018/02/23/mack-cronin-among-naismith-coach-year-semifinalists/366719002/

"...Xavier head coach Chris Mack, UC Bearcats head coach Mick Cronin and Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Chris Holtmann are three of the 10 semifinalists for the Werner Ladder Naismith Men's College Coach of the Year, announced Friday by The Atlanta Tipoff Club...."

[WuShock Reaper]

"Tubby Smith thinks allowing transfers teaches athletes to quit" - ESPN

Posted: 12:11 PM CT

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-bas...ely-teach-quit

"Memphis coach Tubby Smith expressed his displeasure Sunday with the high number of players transferring in college basketball, telling reporters the practice teaches athletes "to quit."

Memphis was hit particularly hard by transfers after last season, when six players transferred from Smith's team. On Sunday, he was asked whether he thought the bulk of his team would return in 2017-18.

That prompted a rant from Smith on the "new NCAA regulations" that allow players to "transfer whenever they want."

"I've been in this business a long time, never seen anything like it," Smith said. "We had over 800 Division I players transfer last year. We're teaching them how to quit. That's what we're doing. Things not going well, let's quit."

Smith has been the head coach at six different NCAA schools since 1991. But he said players who transfer need someone "to tell them you made a commitment. Stick to it." He acknowledged that most players "have a lot of people in their ear."

Smith told reporters Sunday that he wanted to transfer from High Point during his freshman season in 1969. But in his case, his father was there to tell him to "stick to it."

He said his father asked if somebody did something to him, and when he said "no," his father replied with several questions: "'You still getting your scholarship, aren't you? They're still feeding you? They still housing you? You still getting an education?'"

When Smith replied, "yes, sir," his father said: "'Well, you can't come home. Your bed's been taken. ... But you can join the Army.'"

Smith said Sunday that was the "best thing he ever said to me."

[Cdizzle]

I agree with Smith that the transfer rules are way too loose.

I disagree with a coach that has been at 6 D1 schools calling out players for moving around when the going gets tough.

[WuShock Reaper]

"Cincinnati's Mick Cronin is the 2018 Sporting News Coach of the Year" - Sporting News

By Mike DeCourcy
Updated at 1:16 p.m. ET

http://www.sportingnews.com/ca/ncaa-basketball/news/mick-cronin-house-jp-macura-xavier-cincinnati-bearcats-ncaa-tournament-bracket-march-madness/uvnpa90xyd8h1oe0rnru4uth7

"If you want to take the entirety of the season that turned Mick Cronin into the Sporting News Coach of the Year for 2017-18, or even the decade-long journey his Cincinnati Bearcats followed from broken program to orphan program to top-10 program, and condense it to a single moment, it arrived around 1 p.m. CST in a smoking cauldron of basketball emotion in Wichita, Kansas.

With Cincinnati protecting a one-point lead that it simply ran out of energy to extend, 6-11 sophomore center Nysier Brooks was harassing Wichita State sharpshooter Conner Frankamp as he attempted to inbound the ball under the WSU basket. When Frankamp tossed the ball into play, Brooks had no option but to accept the assignment to cover him as he retrieved the ball on a dribble handoff. Frankamp has made 178 3-pointers in his career. Any jumpshot is a threat to connect. And he is a 100 percent foul shooter..."

[WuShock Reaper]

"Bold predictions: This is bad news for the ACC and SEC" - ESPN

Myron Medcalf, ESPN Staff Writer
Posted: 03/12/18, 8:21 AM CT

http://kwese.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/ncaa-tournament/story/_/id/22703778/college-basketball-historical-facts-consider-filling-men-tournament-challenge-bracket-2018

4 vs. 13
No. 13 seeds are mired in quite a slump, as they have just one win in the past four years, easily their fewest in any four-year span. This drought comes on the heels of the most successful run 13-seeds ever had, when they won at least one game in a record six straight tournaments from 2008 to 2013.

Despite the recent struggles, at least one No. 13 seed has beaten a No. 4 seed in 23 of 33 years. Asking for multiple such upsets in a single tournament is rather ambitious, though. Only three times have two 13-seeds won a first-round game in the same tournament (1987, 2001, 2008), with this being the 10-year anniversary of the last such occurrence....


Seventh-seeded UConn got the American Athletic Conference off to a great start back in 2014, winning the national title in the conference's first year of existence. In all, the American had two Sweet 16 teams and nine tourney wins that season. Since then, the conference has just three wins in as many years, all coming in the first round, though it's worth noting no team has been seeded higher than sixth in this span. Those first-round games the past few years have been really close, too, as five of the seven were decided by one or two points. Poor seeding is not an issue this year, as Cincinnati received the AAC's best seed ever (No. 2), while Wichita State got a 4-seed and Houston a 6.