AAC Basketball

Nineteen years ago, John Calipari led Memphis to an NIT championship to kick off the strongest period in school history.

Penny Hardaway will hope history repeats itself.

Boogie Ellis scored 23 points and D.J. Jeffries added 15 points and five blocks off the bench, leading Memphis to a 77-64 win over Mississippi State to take the 2021 NIT.

This is the second NIT title in program history, joining the 2002 Calipari squad. The Tigers would make the NCAA tournament in six of the next seven seasons, thanks in part to the momentum Calipari created with that NIT run.

Memphis has not reached the NCAA tournament since 2014, a streak many expected to end when Hardaway took over before the 2018-19 season. However, James Wiseman's arrival was abruptly ended last season, and the program hasn't quite recruited at the level some expected with Hardaway leading the fold.

These Tigers reinvented themselves midway through the season, going 10-3 in their last 13 games of the regular season to narrowly miss the tournament. Two of those three losses came against Houston, a team that reached the Elite Eight over the weekend.

Memphis carried that momentum to North Texas for the NIT, winning three of its four games by double digits. The only close call was a three-point victory over Boise State in the Tigers' second game.

Memphis ran out to a 13-0 run to start the game against Ben Howland's Mississippi State team on Sunday, though the Tigers weren't able to keep that lead. The Bulldogs had evened the score at 33 by the break before Memphis pulled away with a stellar offensive performance in the second half.

Cameron Matthews led the way with 19 points for Mississippi State, which was playing in its first NIT final. 

DraftKings announced Saturday that a Houston furniture store mogul placed a $1 million bet on the University of Houston to win the 2021 NCAA men's college basketball tournament.

DraftKings noted that the bet will pay out a total of $10 million ($9 million in profit) if the Cougars win it all at 9-1 odds:

The bet was placed by Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, who owns Gallery Furniture stores in the Houston area and is well known for placing huge sports bets.

In February, McIngvale bet $3.46 million on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win Super Bowl LV. The Bucs beat the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9, netting him $2.75 million in profit.

Per Darren Rovell of The Action Network, Mattress Mack said he flew on his plane from Houston to Denver on Friday night in order to place the $1 million bet on the Cougars on the DraftKings mobile betting app, and then flew back home.

Mattress Mack had to fly out of Texas since mobile sports betting is not legal in the state.

When asked why he decided to place the bet through DraftKings, Mattress Mack said:"DraftKings had the best number at 9-1 and they were willing to take the full amount."

Mattress Mack is known for tying the fate of Houston-area sports teams into promotions at his furniture stores, and he plans to do the same with the Houston men's basketball team.

McIngvale said the bet is a hedge against a Final Four promotion he plans to run if the Cougs make it that far. Should that happen, he plans to give patrons 50 percent off purchases if Houston wins in the Final Four and 100 percent off if the team wins the national championship.

Houston is a No. 2 seed by virtue of its 26-3 record this season, and it has already beaten Cleveland State and Rutgers en route to the Sweet 16.

The Cougars will face the 11th-seeded Syracuse Orange on Saturday for a spot in the Elite Eight, where they would take on either No. 8 Loyola Chicago or No. 12 Oregon State for a spot in the Final Four.

Houston has never won a national title, although it has lost in the Final Four five times and the National Championship Game twice, but not since 1984.

For all the latest betting information and reaction, check out B/R Betting.

The University of Cincinnati announced Friday that it will conduct an internal investigation into allegations made against the men's basketball program, according to Justin Williams of The Athletic. 

Per Williams, Cincinnati athletic director John Cunningham said: "The University has always put the welfare of its student-athletes first. We feel this is an essential step to ensure that all of our athletic programs meet the highest standards."

The university noted that it is using "independent fact finders" to conduct the investigation.

The investigation comes after Williams reported a "rift" had developed between players and head coach John Brannen which resulted in a "mass roster exodus" as six players entered the transfer portal in the days following the team's loss to Houston in the AAC tournament title game. Seven players Brannen has recruited since 2019 have left the program, and just two of seven players who joined the team ahead of the 2020-21 season remain, per Williams.

The University of Cincinnati did not specify what allegations were made against the program or when they were made.

While the nature of the allegations being investigated is unclear, Williams reported that some players took "their concerns directly to Cincinnati athletic director John Cunningham in recent days and weeks."

Cincy is coming off a 12-11 record in its second season under head coach John Brannen. Despite the Bearcats' poor record, they fell just one win short of the NCAA tournament.

Cincinnati went 20-10 in Brannen's first season, but there was no NCAA tournament held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under previous head coach Mick Cronin, who is currently coaching UCLA in the NCAA tournament, the Bearcats reached the NCAA tournament in nine straight seasons from 2010-11 through 2018-19.

With Cronin at the helm, the Bearcats won two AAC regular-season titles and two AAC conference tournament titles, and they also reached the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament once.

The University of South Florida is investigating men's basketball associate head coach Tom Herrion after allegations he made racist comments on multiple occasions, according to Collin Sherwin of DraftKings.

Head coach Brian Gregory is also under investigation for allegedly failing to discipline Herrion. 

"We are aware of troubling concerns that have been reported involving a member of our men’s basketball coaching staff," the school said in a statement, via Jeff Goodman of Stadium. "We take these matters very seriously."

Per Goodman, the school said it is conducting an independent review and Herrion has been put on administrative leave until the investigation is complete.

Herrion, who is white, has been on the USF staff since 2017 and was promoted to associate head coach in August.

He previously served as an assistant under Gregory for two years at Georgia Tech and then followed the coach to South Florida in 2017. In four years, the team has gone 57-66 with a 9-13 record in 2020-21.

The 53-year-old also spent eight total years as a Division I head coach with the College of Charleston and Marshall.

Seven South Florida players have entered the transfer portal since the end of the season, six of them Black, per Chris Torello of Spectrum Bay News 9. This includes senior David Collins, who was the only player to average double figures in scoring this past season.

Connecticut moved into the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press' Top 25 women's basketball poll on the strength of its 63-59 overtime win over previously top-ranked South Carolina last Monday.

The AP's Doug Feinberg noted the Huskies, who were No. 2, have been ranked first in nine straight seasons. The second-longest active streak is only two years, an achievement shared by South Carolina and Stanford.

"It becomes a little more meaningful or significant when you see some programs and where they were nine years ago and where they are today," said UConn head coach Geno Auriemma, who has been with the Huskies since 1985. "You appreciate it for sure when you see how hard it is that other really, really good programs [don't do it]. It does bring a sense of, yeah, we're fortunate that we put ourselves in that position every year."

The AP poll was bound to have a new No. 1 team for the third straight week once the Gamecocks suffered their second loss of the year.

Paige Bueckers finished with 31 points, six steals, five assists and four rebounds, and the freshman guard confirmed the outcome with a three-pointer as the shot clock expired deep into overtime.

Connecticut hasn't won a national championship since 2016, which feels like an eternity for a program that reeled off four straight titles and six over an eight-year span.

Bueckers has lived up to the hype. Evina Westbrook has made an immediate impact upon being eligible to play following her transfer from Tennessee. Bueckers' success is also overshadowing the fact UConn has another freshman, Aaliyah Edwards, who's averaging 9.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.0 block in just 19.4 minutes per game.

No team in women's basketball looks to be head and shoulders above the pack. This could be the opportunity for the Huskies to once again reign supreme.

Basketball Hall of Famer John Chaney has died at the age of 89, according to a statement from Temple University (h/t Jonathan Poet of the Associated Press). 

Chaney is best known for his 24-year run as men's basketball coach at Temple from 1982-2006. The Owls had made just one NCAA tournament appearance in 10 seasons from 1972-81, but after a 14-15 record in Chaney's first year, Temple had winning records in each of the next 23 seasons.

He led the program to a school-record 32 wins twice (1986-87, 1987-88). The '88 team is the only one time the Philadelphia school has earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. That season saw Chaney honored with the NABC Coach of the Year, Associated Press Coach of the Year and UPI Coach of the Year awards after leading Temple to a 32-2 record. 

The Owls advanced to the Elite Eight five times, won the Atlantic 10 regular-season title eight times and the A-10 tournament title six times with Chaney at the helm. He is the program's all-time leader in games coached (769), wins (516) and was named A-10 Coach of the Year five times.  

Prior to being hired at Temple, the Florida native spent 10 seasons as head coach at Cheyney State in Pennsylvania. He had a 225-59 record with the HBCU program and won the 1978 Division II tournament. 

Chaney was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001. He was part of the inaugural class enshrined in the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. 

The UConn Huskies women's basketball team blew out the Butler Bulldogs on Tuesday night, 103-35, giving head coach Geno Auriemma the 1,099th win of his legendary career.

That victory propelled him to second place on the all-time wins list in Division I women's basketball, ahead of late Tennessee Volunteers head coach Pat Summitt.

He is now chasing Stanford's Tara VanDerveer, who sits atop the wins list with 1,105. That number will continue to grow with VanDerveer—who has been coaching since 1978—still leading the Cardinal.

Auriemma, 66, reflected on the accomplishment before the game, telling reporters he was proud of the achievement:

"It's obviously something that you take tremendous pride in. And you can look back on as an incredible accomplishment, to be able to coach this long. To have the opportunity to coach this long, and to want to do it.

"If you put me back in time and drop me down here in 1984 again and say, 'Hey, try to do this,' I would say it's not doable.' Yet in the next breath I can say, 'But we did it.' And we're not finished yet."

In his 36 years as the head coach at UConn, Auriemma has posted an incredible list of accomplishments:

• 11 national championships
• 20 Final Four appearances
• 12 Final Four appearances in a row (2007-08 to 2018-19)
• .886 winning percentage (best in D-I women's basketball history)
• 111-game winning streak (2014-15 to 2016-17)
• Six undefeated seasons
• 13 National Player of the Year winners

Passing Summitt is no small feat. She was a legend in her own right during her time at Tennessee, with the rivalry between the Huskies and Volunteers becoming the main attraction for women's college basketball in the 1990s and 2000s.

"Back when Pat was alive and winning championships, everybody would talk about Pat in two ways," Auriemma told reporters. "One, 'I admire her so much, she wins so much, she does it the right way.' Then you had the other part of the population that would go, 'Man, I want to beat Tennessee so bad.'"

These days, teams around the nation want to beat UConn so bad. Few do.

The Big East Conference announced Friday the men's basketball game between Connecticut and Villanova scheduled for Jan. 15 has been postponed because of COVID-19 issues within the Wildcats' program.

No makeup date for the contest was immediately announced.

Villanova last played Dec. 23, a 85-68 victory over Marquette that improved its record to 8-1. The team's last six games have now been postponed.

The Wildcats formally entered a COVID-19 pause Jan. 4.

Head coach Jay Wright said Monday the team had seemingly turned a corner with nine straight days of negative coronavirus test results, but after they returned to practice, there were two new positive tests among the players.

"We're obviously going through a tough time right now in our program," Wright told reporters. "I was the first one [to test positive]—it had nothing to do with the players, it was me. It started with me."

The 59-year-old Pennsylvania native, who's in his 20th season leading the Villanova program, said he's fully recovered after testing positive in late December.

"I had 'em all. I'm good now," Wright said about his COVID-19 symptoms. "But it was like having a bad case of the flu. That's what it was for me. That's what it seemed like to me."

He added the "biggest concern" right now is the players' mental health after a 10-day quarantine followed by another stoppage to basketball activities.

For now, the Wildcats' next game is scheduled for Jan. 19 against Seton Hall.

No. 5 Houston is undefeated no more.

Unranked Tulsa (5-3, 2-1 AAC) toppled the Cougars 65-64 thanks to free throws from Brandon Rachal with 0.1 seconds left in regulation. Houston (7-1, 2-1 AAC) held a 64-63 lead with 10 seconds remaining after Caleb Mills sank a jumper, but Rachal drew the foul just before the clock expired, giving him a chance to at least tie the game.

Instead, he sank both free throws to win it.

The Cougars were coming off a 63-54 victory at UCF that was a bit too close for comfort until the end as the Knights trailed by just six with under 2:30 to play. Yet the top-ranked program was able to escape with a late run and some clutch foul shooting.

That wasn't the case Tuesday.

After racing out to an early 11-point lead, Houston struggled to create any separation from Tulsa for the rest of the night.

Rachal, a senior from Louisiana, kept the Golden Hurricane alive with 22 points and eight rebounds. Only one other player for Tulsa scored more than seven points as Curtis Haywood II added nine off the bench.

Quentin Grimes led Houston with 19 points, seven rebounds and four assists in the loss.

The Cougars' road trip continues Sunday as they travel to SMU (5-0, 1-0) before returning home to face Wichita State (4-2, 2-0). Meanwhile, Tulsa heads to Cincinnati (2-5, 0-2) on Saturday to try taking advantage of a Bearcats team that's struggled to find many wins this year.

Gregg Marshall's time as the Wichita State men's basketball coach is coming to an end after 13 seasons.

According to Jeff Goodman of Stadium, Wichita State is expected to "part ways" with him by the end of the week.

This decision comes after a number of shocking allegations regarding physical and verbal abuse by Marshall toward players and others inside the athletic department surfaced. On Oct. 9, Wichita State released a statement acknowledging the allegations and explaining there was an independent investigation:

"The investigation is being completed in an expeditious and deliberate manner. We have received full cooperation from university staff, coaches, and current student-athletes, and Coach Gregg Marshall and support any individual who chooses to participate in order to conduct a fair, impartial and thorough investigation.

"In the interim, activities of the team will continue as scheduled, and, as it does regularly, the university has reminded all staff, coaches and student-athletes of relevant policies and channels for reporting concerns."

Marshall also released a statement through his agent in which he defended himself and explained he would cooperate with the investigation, per Goodman:

Goodman reported on the allegations of abuse, noting he contacted 36 former and current members of the basketball program, including 26 players, who had experience with Marshall and detailed patterns of physical and verbal abuse that also included alleged instances of racism.

Among the most notable allegations was Shaq Morris saying Marshall punched him twice during a 2015 practice.

"Shaq Morris told me that he informed Gregg Marshall that his mother had cancer just hours prior to Marshall punching him in the head in practice," Goodman wrote.

"I love my teammates, the city and Wichita State," Morris said. "But if I could go back to that day when he punched me, I would have left."

The Stadium report also detailed allegations that Marshall choked assistant coach Kyle Lindsted during the 2016-17 season, told Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler, who is of Native American descent, "to get back on his horse" and make "Indian howling noises" during the 2018-19 season, and told Jamie Echenique, who is from Colombia, that he would be "a great coffee bean picker" when he struggled on the court.

"We were tight-knit off the court," a player said. "We all wanted to beat Marshall up. If he wasn't the head coach, we'd whoop his ass. I'm not a fan. I'm not rooting for him. I got tired of being mother(bleeped) and being called a son of a bitch every day."

Goodman noted 10 players transferred away from Wichita State in just the last two years, which was almost double the national average.

CJ Moore and Dana O'Neil of The Athletic also reported on the allegations of misconduct and abuse, including an instance in which a student-athlete allegedly parked in Marshall's spot, which angered the coach and led to a frightening encounter:

"As Marshall approached his spot that day, he did not get there fast enough to block the student in. Instead, Marshall quickly turned his car around and followed the student's car, eventually blocking his car at an intersection in the parking lot. According to an eyewitness, Marshall got out of his car and started yelling at the student, asking 'Do you know who the f--k I am?' 

"The student had his window down and responded, 'I don't give a f--k who you are.' Marshall approached the car and, according to the eyewitness, attempted to punch the student through the driver's window."

One former player suggested more than just members of the basketball team knew about Marshall's reputation.

"It wasn't just players—the academic people, the marketing, everybody," he said. "If you had to associate with Wichita State basketball, you got caught in the crossfire. I lost respect for him because I saw the way he treated my teammates and other people."

Marshall was the head coach at Winthrop from 1998-99 through 2006-07 before coming to Wichita State and finished his time there with a 194-83 record and seven NCAA tournament appearances.

The Shockers hired him going into the 2007-08 campaign, and he quickly built them into a winning program. He went 11-20 in his first season but was 29-8 by his fourth, underscoring his ability as a coach when it came to wins and losses.

In all, Marshall finished with a 331-121 record at Wichita State and made seven NCAA tournaments. The Shockers also reached the 2013 Final Four during his tenure.