If you’re a regular reader, you know this, and if you’re not, it won’t surprise you. We love a good sports fight. So we were excited last night, with UC Irvine ahead by ten and time running out, when Justin Hohn did what Justin Hohn did. Alone in the frontcourt, the guard stopped, pulled up, and knocked down a three. He could have laid the ball in. Most would have run the clock to zero. Hohn shot a fast-break three, and he hit it. It was the perfect disrespectful move for the National Invitation Tournament.
Gratuitous dunks—like Jamiya Neal’s against UConn last weekend, the one which made Gus Johnson say Neal was the spawn of Satan even though Hassan Diarra was objectively more out of line—are defiant and triumphant. They’re shows of force. A gratuitous three? A fast-break three up ten with the shot clock turned off? That’s a show of insolence. A gratuitous dunk is a scream and a fist. A gratuitous three is a laugh and a middle finger. I don’t know the specifics which led Hohn to shoot that three, but it was a funny thing to do, and it led to Isaiah Hawthorne pushing Myles Che, which led to Myles Che saying a whole lot of things to Isaiah Hawthorne, which eventually resulted in a double technical. Then, the coaches subbed Che and Hawthorne off the court, and off we went into the night.
I think we should learn from this, as NIT fans. I think we should internalize the lesson Hohn taught. Our victory over the NCAA T*urnament (and the Crown, I suppose, as though the Crown is even a serious adversary) will not come with thunder and shattered glass. It’ll come with raccoons and toilet paper. It’ll come when the shot clock’s been turned off and we decide to shoot a fast-break three up ten.
Last night’s games:
UC Irvine 82, Northern Colorado 72
We’re already talking about this, so let’s lead with it. UC Irvine survived! Looked scary for the Anteaters well into the second half, but eventually they stopped Northern Colorado in the halfcourt, and a scoring drought ended with a 1-seed moving on.
UAB 69, Saint Joseph’s 65
Earlier in the night, another minor comeback, with Alejandro Vasquez and Christian Coleman keying a Blazers surge that made it two straight first-round heartbreakers for the Hawks.
George Mason 86, Samford 69
George Mason busted this open out of the gate, and while Samford did put the game back on the table, the outcome never got back to being in doubt.
Dayton 86, FAU 79
A thing about Dayton is that they probably should be better than the rest of these teams. I haven’t gone through and checked, but I’d imagine they had the highest preseason expectations among teams in our field?
So, when Javon Bennett went on the road and hit eight threes…it made sense.
Dayton will be on the road again on Saturday. Apologies for getting that wrong in yesterday’s post. The website on which I was checking the UD Arena schedule was not the official UD Arena website. I got got. (I think the Nutter Center rodeo is real, though.)
Bradley 71, North Alabama 62
We got a good hustle guy moment in this one. Bradley led UNA 16–1 after seven minutes of play, but they let the Lions back in it, with Jacari Lane closing the gap to four with a few minutes left in the game. Anxiety built. Then, long story short, Peoria native Connor Dillon got a little scrappy, and the Braves pulled back away.
North Texas 75, Furman 64
North Texas had its hands full, but the Mean Green don’t lose the week of St. Patrick’s Day. Shoutout to Jasper Floyd, who had a big night.
SMU 73, Northern Iowa 63
Neck and neck through thirty minutes and close with four to play, SMU and Northern Iowa kept us busy, but Dallas was as chalky as everywhere else.
San Francisco 79, Utah Valley 70
The Dons couldn’t quite shake UVU, but this was always at arm’s reach.
Loyola 73, San Jose State 70
Tim Miles’s boys don’t quit, and I don’t know whether Drew Valentine’s boys quit or not but it was an ugly last ten minutes from the Ramblers out west. Seed-line upset. Not an upset in any other sense.
**
Nobody in our NIT Bracket Challenge made it through these sixteen games untouched. We do, though, have six brackets standing at 15/16. Not bad work, everybody.
**
We’ve got a bigger first round recap over on Free Hoops, along with an interview with Gene Henley of the Chattanooga Times Free Press. We’ll have more of a second round preview tomorrow, here on the site. We’ll also probably have a post up about Texas and Rodney Terry. To do a little bit of that now:
- How did Texas let this happen? Jeff Goodman was already reporting Terry’s firing as imminent before Terry had reached his postgame press conference. That’s cruel.
- How did Texas let this happen? Plenty of us said Terry would be a bad head coach, but Texas marched right along in that direction. Was this their expectation all along?
- Are Rodney Terry’s results actually bad, by Texas’s standards? Because they aren’t that different from the rest of recent Texas basketball history.
- Sean Miller really feels like a Texas coach. That’s not a good sign.
Among other consequences, Chris Beard put Texas in a really bad spot when he allegedly got in that fight with his fiancée. Beard seemed like the perfect coach for Texas. Beard messed that and other things up. But Texas dug its own Terry hole, and Texas dug it in the name of treating Terry fairly. Then, Texas turned and started treating Terry very unfairly. They’ve spent the whole journey a few steps off track. That doesn’t exactly inspire trust as they reportedly take these next steps.
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