Bill Grier and San Diego surprise Connecticut

THE NCAA TOURNAMENT- DAY 2

March 22, 2008

SURPRISE, SURPRISE

Gyno Pomare #21 and Rob Jones #22 of the San Diego Toreros celebrate their team's 70-69 overtime win over the Connecticut Huskies

Gyno Pomare #21 and Rob Jones #22 of the San Diego Toreros celebrate their team's 70-69 overtime win over the Connecticut Huskies

Hours before the first tip on Friday, the CI staff compared notes with one another on the previous day’s results and what talked about what we might expect to see on the second day of the NCAA Tournament. Brad Holland suggested a possible upset in the 4-13 matchup between Connecticut and San Diego. Two weeks earlier Holland was convinced the Toreros would beat both St. Mary’s and Gonzaga and to win the West Coast Conference Tournament. After all, aside from Bill Grier and his staff, nobody would have a better feel for team than Holland, who spent the past 15 years coaching at the University of San Diego.

Grier has done a nice job in his first season as the head coach, but he has been quick to point out that he is coaching a team that was put together by Holland. That only confirms what a class act that Grier is. He’s a guy with a bright future in the profession.

The 45-year old Grier had spent his entire college-coaching career at Gonzaga, starting in 1992 under Dan Fitzgerald. He spent the last eight years as Mark Few’s top assistant and was to be the next head coach if Few left for another job. Instead he opted to take a job in the same league, down the coast at the University of San Diego.

Grier inherited a program with no seniors and a lot of young talent. Most believed USD would compete with Gonzaga and St. Mary’s for the top spot in the WCC. Grier had to feel pretty good about the situation. After all, Gonzaga had dominated the WCC since Dan Monson led the program to the Elite Eight in 1999. He would certainly know whether or not his new program could compete with Gonzaga.

Now he is on the verge of doing what his former team has only done once since 1999 -- Advancing to the Sweet 16. But less then two weeks earlier the Toreros appeared on their way out of the WCC tournament with no invite to the Big Dance.

St. Mary’s led USD by as many as 17 points in the first and held a double-digit lead for most of the second half in the WCC semi-finals. But down the stretch the Gaels struggled from the free-throw line and forced the action on the offensive end. But after being dominated for 33 minutes, the Toreros owned the final seven minutes of regulation and won it in the second overtime. They never even held a lead until overtime.

It was almost a complete roll reversal against UConn on Friday. San Diego was in complete control through the first 30 minutes. Some of that might be attributed to the Huskies loss of A.J. Price to injury. The UConn point guard played just nine minutes. Whether it was that, lack of energy or a combination of things, the Huskies looked like the lower seed.

After the game Jim Calhoun said simply, “San Diego outplayed us.”

Calhoun was upset at his team’s defensive effort or lack there of. He didn’t think they picked up their intensity until the final eight or nine minutes. But by then San Diego was playing with a swagger, believing they would win.

Back in late December the Toreros went into Lexington and knocked off the Kentucky Wildcats. Grier saw the same thing that night that he witnessed on Friday afternoon in Tampa, FL.

“We got off to a good start [at Kentucky], and I think at the first media timeout you could see it in their eyes that they believed they could beat them,” he said. “That was certainly the case today.”

ON THE MOVE

Much like Bill Grier singing the praises of former coach Brad Holland, Matt Brady gave a lot of credit to the man he replaced at Marist College, Dave Magarity. Now four years after taking over for Magarity, it appears Brady will be leaving to take over at James Madison.

Last year Brad was the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference coach of the year after leading the Red Foxes to a program-record 25 wins, the team's first outright MAAC regular-season championship and the program's first postseason victory - a 67-64 win at Oklahoma State in the NIT.

He will replace Dean Keener who resigned on Feb. 22 after four seasons.

THE SAINTS

At times during the regular season Siena looked a like a team capable of playing with anyone. At other times they looked average. But one thing they maintained throughout the season was a swagger. Fran McCaffery’s team plays with a brash attitude. And that’s a compliment.

There are a lot of teams at the mid-major level that step onto the court expecting to win. Siena expects to run people off the court.

Surprisingly Siena didn’t get a lot of love in the Mid-Major Top 25 this season. They were ranked at various times, but never really got ranked as high as they probably should have. That changed after they went to Boise State and drilled the first place team in the WAC by 23 points.

One member of the Mid-Major voting panel said, “It wasn’t just Siena’s win. The entire league did very well in Bracketbusters.

He was right on. While one game doesn’t necessarily determine supremacy, the fact is that the best teams in the MAAC won on the road. Niagara won at Appalachian State, Loyola won at William & Mary, Fairfield won at Drexel, Rider won at Cal State Northridge and Siena won at Boise State.
In that win over Boise, Alex Franklin (6-foot-5, sophomore) had 30 points and 18 rebounds. As good as Franklin is, he’s not even the best player on the roster. This team is loaded. Edwin Ubiles is a future pro. Ronald Moore has a lot of upside and Tay Fisher gives them senior leadership and outstanding guard play. But what makes this team special is the play of junior Kenny Hasbrouck.

He ripped Vanderbilt for 30 points, but scoring isn’t what makes him so valuable. In the Saints quarterfinal win over Manhattan, in the MAAC tournament, Hasbrouk was all over the floor making plays. But a look at the halftime stats showed he had only scored two points. What he brings to the court doesn’t show up in statistics.

By the way that coach on the Mid-Major voting panel went on to say, “Siena is really ‘bleeping’ good.”

AROUND THE REGIONS

In Miami’s win over St. Mary’s Jack McClinton had 38 points, with 32 coming in the second half. During one stretch, early in the second half, the junior guard scored 10 straight points for the ‘Canes. Not bad considering that he didn’t practice until Thursday. McClinton had a fever earlier in the week. McClinton transferred to Miami following the 2004-05 season. Had he stayed he would have been a senior now at Siena. Imagine that team with McClinton in the rotation.
Miami head coach Frank Haith made light of the fact that his team really didn’t do much different in the second half. He pointed out that the biggest reason for their success in the final twenty minutes was simply making shots. The Hurricanes got good looks in the paint in the first half. The shots just didn’t fall. Haith did point out that he stressed more attacking in the paint, which did result in more opportunities in the second half. Still the difference was simply that the same shots went down in the second half.
St. Mary’s freshman point guard Patty Mills followed up a sub-par effort in the West Coast Conference Tournament semi-finals with an outstanding effort against Miami. The Australian import had 24 points and 5 assists. St. Mary’s didn’t make a big splash in this year’s tournament, but next year they should be a legitimate Sweet 16 caliber team. Head coach Randy Bennett will welcome back all his key contributors.
Tennessee was less than impressive against American in the opening round. That was the assessment a lot of people offered after the Volunteers 72-57 win over American. Did anyone notice that Tennessee shot nearly 50% from the field and over 70% from the free-throw line? Is that sluggish? After beating UMBC, Georgetown head coach John Thompson III summed it all up best -- noting that these teams are conference champions and they can play -- Somehow that gets lost in the postgame analysis. Everyone wants the high-profile teams to hammer the lower seeds.
Drake’s magical season ended on long-distance three-pointer by Western Kentucky’s Ty Rogers. The final few seconds of that game were a prime example of how sometimes the other team just makes a play. Drake doubled WKU’s Tyrone Brazleton forcing him to the right where he had no place to go. His only option was to flip the ball back to Rogers who trailed him. Keno Davis’ team did everything right in those final few seconds. Brazleton and Rogers just made the play.
It will be interesting to see how Georgetown approaches Davidson. The Hoyas, who lead the nation in field-goal percentage defense, have one of the best on-the-ball defenders in Jeremiah Rivers. It’s likely at some point he will be matched up with Stephen Curry who torched Gonzaga for 40 points. Is there still anyone out there who doesn’t believe Curry is an All-American? I would imagine Curry would also see a lot of Patrick Ewing Jr. This will be a real chess match between two excellent coaches.
So what happened to Gonzaga? They were seemingly in control for most of the game, until Davidson made a late charge. Davidson did a great job on the defensive end. They forced 19 turnovers and the Bulldogs uncharacteristically had a quick trigger down the stretch. Once Davidson got close Gonzaga seemed to get out of their offensive flow. They didn’t take bad shots, but they opted for tougher shots early in the possession. They may have been able to run their offense and get better looks.
Can Louisville play any better? Rick Pitino’s team shot it well and was smothering on defense. I don’t think Boise State had one comfortable offensive possession all night. And Scott Padgett was a non-factor with two quick fouls to start the game. .

Joe Dwyer is a editor-in-chief writer for collegeinsider.com. EMAIL JOE