Stanford earns the bracket’s top spot
UConn, South Carolina in familiar territory as No. 1s, but new feeling for NC State
UConn is in its normal spot with a No. 1 seed for the women’s NCAA Tournament. Familiar territory for Stanford and South Carolina, too.
It’s a brand new day for North Carolina State. And the Huskies, while used to their position in the bracket, are facing some uncertainty after coach Geno Auriemma tested positive for the coronavirus.
N.C. State is a No. 1 seed for the first time, joining Stanford, South Carolina and Connecticut on the top lines for the San Antonio-themed regions for the women’s tourney. The Cardinal earned the overall No. 1 when the field was revealed Monday night.
Auriemma’s Texas arrival will be delayed. He will remain in isolation for 10 days and can rejoin the team on March 24. The other members of UConn’s travel party have tested negative for COVID-19.
He’ll miss the Huskies’ opening game against High Point — one of four first-timers in the NCAAs — and a potential second-round matchup against either Syracuse or South Dakota State.
While the coronavirus caused many disruptions to the schedule throughout the regular season, it looks as if most of the teams in the field made it to the tournament healthy.
Stanford, which will open against Utah Valley, had quite the odyssey this season because of the coronavirus. It had to play on the road for nine weeks after Santa Clara County health officials announced they were prohibiting all contact sports in late November.
The Cardinal, who are looking for their third national championship, are the top seed in the Alamo region. The Hemisfair, Mercado and River Walk are the other region names.
For the past few years, earning one of the top 16 seeds would give a team home games in the tournament’s first two rounds, but that’s not the case this year. Every game will be played in the San Antonio area because of the pandemic, with the last four rounds tipping off at the Alamodome.
This could be one of the most wideopen tournaments, with a dozen teams capable of winning the title. There were five different No. 1 teams in Associated Press women’s basketball poll this year, including the Huskies, who finished the season at No. 1.
The national semifinals take place on April 2, and the championship game will be held April 4.
Tennessee continued its streak of making the NCAA Tournament all 39 years. Joining High Point as NCAA rookies are Stony Brook, Utah Valley and Bradley.
Notre Dame’s run of 24 straight NCAA appearances came to an end. The Irish were one of the first four teams out of the tournament.
Even without Notre Dame, the ACC is well represented with eight teams in the field. The SEC and the Big Ten each had seven schools earn bids. The Pac-12 had six. The Big 12 had five.
With no tournament played last season because of the virus, Baylor is still the defending champion. Coach Kim Mulkey’s team is very different from the one that won the title, but still is quite talented, winning the Big 12 regular season and conference tournaments.
The NBA said Monday that an investigation into whether Jazz player Elijah Millsap had a bigoted remark directed at him during an end-of-season interview six years ago has ended and was unable to find proof that the statement was made.
Millsap alleged last month that Dennis Lindsey, then the team’s general manager and now its executive vice president, said “if you say one more word, I’ll cut your Black ass and send you back to Louisiana” during an April 2015 meeting.
Lindsey denied saying that, and the NBA’s review — done by the league and with independent counsel — could not prove otherwise.
Millsap and Lindsey were both interviewed, the NBA said, as were others who were part of that meeting, including Jazz coach Quin Snyder, who said he had no recollection of Lindsey using those words.
NFL: The Chiefs made their first big move to rebuild their offensive line Monday, agreeing with Joe Thuney on a five-year contract. The deal is worth $80 million and includes some incentives. Thuney was among the most coveted offensive linemen on the market . ... The Raiders agreed to a two-year contract with edge rusher Yannick Ngakoue. ESPN reported the deal is worth $26 million. Ngakoue has the 12th-most sacks (45 ½), third-most strip sacks (15) in his five seasons . ... Shaquil Barrett agreed to a four-year, $72 million contract, and Rob Gronkowski will return on a one-year, $10 million deal with the Buccaneers.
Women’s college basketball: UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma has tested positive for the coronavirus and is isolating at home, the school announced Monday. He received a positive result from a COVID-19 test taken on Sunday and is not experiencing any symptoms, the school said. UConn is scheduled to leave for the NCAA Tournament in San Antonio on Tuesday.
Navy men’s basketball fans do not need to waste their time watching the selection show announcing the 16 at-large bids to the National Invitation Tournament.
That’s because the Midshipmen have already pulled out of consideration for a berth.
Coach Ed DeChellis told The Capital on Sunday night that Navy’s season is over because of a positive COVID-19 test involving a Tier 1 individual within the program. Spokesman Scott Strasemeier said the Navy athletic department informed NIT organizers late last week that its men’s basketball team would be unable to participate.
Navy athletics protocols call for varsity sports teams to suspend all activities for a minimum of 10 days following a positive test. There is then a return to play protocol that requires teams to have a certain number of practices before competing against an opponent.
DeChellis said Navy men’s basketball would not have completed that required pause in time to play a first-round NIT game next Wednesday or Thursday.
“When you consider the protocols and count the days, the math just doesn’t work. We didn’t have enough time,” he said.
That brings a disappointing end to an otherwise successful season for Navy, which posted a 15-3 record and earned the top seed for the Patriot League tournament. The Midshipmen finished in first place with a 12-1 Patriot League record and thought they had captured their first regular season championship since 2000.
However, Patriot League officials later clarified there was no regular season champion this season because all 10 member schools did not play each other because of a unique schedule created to combat coronavirus.
The Midshipmen were ultimately done in by the virus.
Two starters, senior captain and leading scorer Cam Davis along with forward Richard Njoku, were unable to play in the Patriot League tournament opener as Navy was upset by ninth-seeded Loyola Maryland, 76-68, in the quarterfinals.
Afterward, DeChellis expressed a desire to compete in the NIT and stated his case as to why the Mids were deserving. However, a few days later another positive test within the program put a sudden end to the season.
“The last two weeks have been very, very frustrating. COVID got us. Timing is everything and the virus hit us at the wrong time,” DeChellis said. “We were at the wrong place at the wrong time at the end of the season. It’s just a shame because these kids worked really hard to get to this point.”
Navy’s hopes for one of the 16 at-large berths seemingly received a big boost over the weekend.
That’s because the Midshipmen’s biggest win of the season looked a lot better after what happened in the Big East tournament.
Georgetown, which entered the postseason with a losing record, upset its way to the Big East championship and earned an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament. The eighth-seeded Hoyas (13-12) won four straight games, knocking off top-seeded
Villanova in the quarterfinals and No. 2 seed Creighton in the final.
Navy beat Georgetown, 78-71, at McDonough Arena on Dec. 1 — making a major statement by beating a Big East opponent on the road for the first time since 1986.
Georgetown became the second school that lost to Navy this season to earn an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament. Navy also beat Mount St. Mary’s, which captured the Northeast Conference tournament title.
“We had a great season and did great things. We beat two teams that are going to the NCAA tournament and only lost three games. There are a lot of things to be positive about,” DeChellis said.
However, DeChellis acknowledged it would have been tough for a Patriot League program to earn an invitation to the NIT in a unique year when there is only a 16-team bracket.
“If they were taking 32 teams, I would have felt pretty good about it. However, with a 16-team field it would have been very difficult for us to get in,” he said.
One by one, the St. Frances boys basketball team has successfully taken on all challengers during this abbreviated season. The Panthers lean on their defense and depth, with several players capable of taking on the lead role on any given night.
On a night St. Frances celebrated its nine seniors, it was guard Byron Ireland who had the big scoring night — with plenty of help.
The senior scored a game-high 25 points Monday night to help St. Frances pull away from visiting Mount Carmel early in coasting to a 82-59 win to improve to 12-0 on the season.
Fellow seniors Khyrie Staten (eight points, eight rebounds, five assists) and Elijah Davis (eight points) also had big moments, while junior reserve forward Cortez Johnson (14 points, five rebounds) provided quality minutes as senior standout Julian Reese dealt with foul trouble throughout the game.
St. Frances improved to 11-0 in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference and 6-0 in Baltimore Catholic League, while Mount Carmel (11-2) fell to 9-2 in the MIAA and 4-2 in the BCL.
“I don’t think a lot of people know how good our guys are because there are so many of them and we come in waves,” St. Frances coach Nick Myles said. “We’re just blessed to have a lot of guys. We got nine seniors that have committed themselves to this program and this is what you get on Senior Night.”
Senior Tevin Curtis scored all seven of his points in the first quarter to help offset a hot start from Mount Carmel junior Deon Perry, whose second 3-pointer gave the visitors a
10-9 lead with 4:56 to play.
With Ireland scoring 10 points later in the quarter, the Panthers took a 25-19 lead into the second quarter and used harassing defense that often turned into easy points at the other end to pull away by halftime.
Leading 35-27, the Panthers got two straight baskets from Staten — a steal and layup followed by another easy lay-in off a long outlet pass from freshman Derick Queen — before a Daquan Davis 3-pointer put them ahead 44-27 at the break. Ireland
helped keep them there with 15 second-half points, including a dunk off a steal and three 3-pointers.
“It started with my teammates tonight — they were getting me open looks tonight,” Ireland said.” We’re just taking it one game at a time and focusing on each team. We got a lot of talent, a lot of good players — we just have a really good team.”
As far as enjoying the fine performance on Senior Night?
“Yeah, I didn’t think my Senior Night would be like this because we have a lot of seniors, so I just thought I’d try to get mine and then you just keep going,” he said.
After a thrilling 80-79 home win over Archbishop Spalding, Mount Carmel wasn’t able to carry the momentum into Monday’s game. The Cougars got a team-high 21 points from Toby Nnadozie and Perry finished with 15. Too many defensive lapses did them in.
“The first quarter, we were kind of trading baskets and you really can’t do that — it’s not sustainable when you’re playing St. Frances,” Mount Carmel coach Trevor Quinn said. “The thing that hurt us the most was transition defense. In the second quarter, I don’t know, they had like six run-outs for layups and you just can’t defend that.”
The regular season concludes Wednesday for both teams. While Mount Carmel travels to John Carroll at 5 p.m., St. Frances hosts Mount Saint Joseph in a rematch of last year’s MIAA and BCL title games. The teams split the two meetings.
The BCL playoffs begin next week, and Myles is happy with how his Panthers are playing.
“You want to play your best basketball for the playoffs, and I think as long as we share the ball and defend — that’s our best basketball,” he said. “And Mount Saint Joseph-St. Frances is what it is. It’s the best rivalry in Baltimore basketball and I can’t wait for Wednesday night at 7 o’clock.”
— Nnadozie 21, K. Kalu 7, Perry 15, Dixon 4, M. Kalu 1, Chinnia 2, Gudonis 9. Totals: 236-959
— Staten 8, Queen 6, Reese 2, Lamothe 2, E. Davis 8, Ireland 25, D. Davis 5, Curtis 7, Johnson 14, Taylor 3, Jones 2. Totals: 393-482
MC, 46-34
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