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Games 11 and 12- DC Holiday Hoops Fest Tournament


clarkwgriswold

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The Zips head to DC next weekend for the DC Holiday Hoops Fest Tournament.  On Friday, December 20th, they face the Green Wave of Tulane.  The other side of the bracket is Liberty vs. Towson State.  The championship and third place games are on the 21st.

 

Currently, Tulane sits at 7-2.  Their biggest win is over 7-2 Utah.  They have lost to Mississippi State and St. Louis.  In the  American Athletic Conference Preseason Poll, they were predicted to finish last in the 12 team conference.  Tulane hired veteran Ron Hunter as its head coach in the offseason, replacing Mike Dunleavy Sr.  Hunter has 445 wins and four NCAA tournament appearances in 25 seasons as a head coach. Tulane also has 11 new players including guard/forward K.J. Lawson, who was the 2017 American Rookie of the Year at Memphis before transferring to Kansas.  6-5 junior guard Teshaun Hightower leads Green Wave scorers at 16.4 ppg.  Here's a preview of the Green Wave-

 

https://bustingbrackets.com/2019/10/17/tulane-basketball-2019-20-season-preview-for-green-wave/

 

Liberty is currently 11-0,  with wins over no one of consequence.  They won an NCAA tourney game over Mississippi State last year.  6-6 senior guard Caleb Homesley was voted ASUN Preseason player of the year and leads the team at 11.4 ppg.    They were chosen to finish first in the ASUN Preseason Poll.   They received 9 votes in the most recent AP poll and one in the Coaches Poll.  Here are two good previews of Liberty:

 

https://www.aseaofred.com/liberty-basketball-season-preview/

https://www.midmajormadness.com/2019/10/8/20901449/the-other-top-25-preseason-rankings-liberty-flames-preview-2020-ritchie-mckay-scottie-james

 

Towson State stands at 5-5, but has had close losses to PCCC, Buffalo and Florida.  They were predicted to finish 6th in the 10 team Colonial Athletic Association.  6-5 senior gaurd Brian Fobbs, who averages 16.2 ppg was chosen to the CAA Preseason First Team.    Here's a Preseason Preview of Towson-

 

https://www.midmajormadness.com/2019/10/7/20901405/towson-tigers-ncaa-basketball-season-preview-brian-fobbs-caa-2020

 

I think this tournament will give us a very good read as to where the Zips are going into the MAC season.

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This is the perfect pre-MAC tournament for the Zips. I think the bracket was initially poo-pooed by some just due to the lack of name recognition, but these are some competitive mid-majors that will give us a great gauge as @clarkwgriswold mentioned heading into MAC play. 

 

I didn't realize Tulane hired Ron Hunter AND nabbed KJ Lawson. Hunter has won just about everywhere he's been. He knows how to get his guys to play. Very intrigued by this match-up. 

 

Interesting Ron Hunter story from his Wikipedia...

 

On January 24, 2008, Hunter coached a game against Oakland University while barefoot. He did this to benefit Samaritan's Feet, a foundation that works to provide hope and love to impoverished children around the world by washing their feet and giving them a new pair of shoes. His goal was to collect 40,000 shoes, however, before tip-off, over 110,000 pairs of shoes had been donated.

 

Very cool story. Wishing him and Tulane success (outside of their game against Akron of course ?). 

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14 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

This is the perfect pre-MAC tournament for the Zips. I think the bracket was initially poo-pooed by some just due to the lack of name recognition, but these are some competitive mid-majors that will give us a great gauge as @clarkwgriswold mentioned heading into MAC play. 

 

I didn't realize Tulane hired Ron Hunter AND nabbed KJ Lawson. Hunter has won just about everywhere he's been. He knows how to get his guys to play. Very intrigued by this match-up. 

 

Interesting Ron Hunter story from his Wikipedia...

 

On January 24, 2008, Hunter coached a game against Oakland University while barefoot. He did this to benefit Samaritan's Feet, a foundation that works to provide hope and love to impoverished children around the world by washing their feet and giving them a new pair of shoes. His goal was to collect 40,000 shoes, however, before tip-off, over 110,000 pairs of shoes had been donated.

 

Very cool story. Wishing him and Tulane success (outside of their game against Akron of course ?). 

 

He sure got them back up to speed quickly.  11 new guys and 7-2.

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I'll always prefer the tournaments that provide us the opportunity to play Louisville and WVU type teams on a neutral court. It's so hard to pick up those resume building wins when you're forced to play at their arena. Liberty & Tulane are having good seasons, but those are the type of teams we could (and should) schedule home and homes with.

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6 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

I'll always prefer the tournaments that provide us the opportunity to play Louisville and WVU type teams on a neutral court. 

I agree, that and guaranteed three game tournaments (and not the kind where winning still doesn’t advance you to the semifinals or finals). If we have to settle for a four team two game event with no marquee names, though, this one looks pretty good. Now if it were only being televised or streamed somewhere that didn’t require an additional paid subscription.

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12 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

I'll always prefer the tournaments that provide us the opportunity to play Louisville and WVU type teams on a neutral court. It's so hard to pick up those resume building wins when you're forced to play at their arena. Liberty & Tulane are having good seasons, but those are the type of teams we could (and should) schedule home and homes with.

Trips to Hawaii and Cayman Islands must take a lot of time, energy, and $ to plan and coordinate. A short trip to DC to play against solid competition without the jet lag or international travel seems like a more serious endeavor.  

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3 hours ago, NWAkron said:

Trips to Hawaii and Cayman Islands must take a lot of time, energy, and $ to plan and coordinate. A short trip to DC to play against solid competition without the jet lag or international travel seems like a more serious endeavor.  

 

...and much easier on the budget!

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On 12/13/2019 at 3:26 PM, Let'sGoZips94 said:

This is the perfect pre-MAC tournament for the Zips. I think the bracket was initially poo-pooed by some just due to the lack of name recognition, but these are some competitive mid-majors that will give us a great gauge as @clarkwgriswold mentioned heading into MAC play. 

 

I didn't realize Tulane hired Ron Hunter AND nabbed KJ Lawson. Hunter has won just about everywhere he's been. He knows how to get his guys to play. Very intrigued by this match-up. 

 

Interesting Ron Hunter story from his Wikipedia...

 

On January 24, 2008, Hunter coached a game against Oakland University while barefoot. He did this to benefit Samaritan's Feet, a foundation that works to provide hope and love to impoverished children around the world by washing their feet and giving them a new pair of shoes. His goal was to collect 40,000 shoes, however, before tip-off, over 110,000 pairs of shoes had been donated.

 

Very cool story. Wishing him and Tulane success (outside of their game against Akron of course ?). 

 

It was very nice of Ron to join the rest of the Horizon League coaches coaching barefoot in support of the Samaritan's Feet campaign. 

He's the only one that I know of that has the effort included in his Wikipedia page.

Scott Nagy, the Wright State coach routinely takes his team on foot washing tours to places like Haiti (however, this is not on his Wikipedia page either)..

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On 12/15/2019 at 10:19 AM, LZIp said:

Unsure how good Vandy is supposed to be, but Liberty beat them last night. I agree, this tournament should give us a good gauge on how good we will be come conference play.

 

They were picked 14th out of 14 in the SEC by SI.  Here's a blurb going into the season-  

In theory, things can only improve as Jerry Stackhouse begins to rebuild a battered program. Vandy going winless within the conference was improbable (unfortunately, that happened), and mathematically even more so the second time around. That’s not to say they’re ready to dig out of the basement, but progress needs to be measured reasonably here. There are high hopes for sophomore Aaron Nesmith, and if junior Saben Lee can rein in the turnovers, he should be able to better stabilize this group. Still, it feels like this could be another long season.

 

They've lost to Tulsa, Richmond and Liberty.

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According to the Sagarin rankings, Duquesne is ranked 57th, with a strength of schedule of 313.   Akron is at 100, with a SOS of 344.  Both teams have great records, but have not been tested.  I don't think you'll know enough about either team until they play better competition - most likely conference play.

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9 minutes ago, zipsrule said:

According to the Sagarin rankings, Duquesne is ranked 57th, with a strength of schedule of 313.   Akron is at 100, with a SOS of 344.  Both teams have great records, but have not been tested.  I don't think you'll know enough about either team until they play better competition - most likely conference play.

 

Duquesne finishes the OOC with 4-5 Austin Peay, 5-4 UAB and 3-6 Marshall, so I think they will have to wait longer to get a gauge.  I think we'll get an earlier gauge with Tulane, Liberty (hopefully) and UMass.

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