Following Davidson’s A-10 Tournament semi-final victory, Hyunjung Lee stayed around to take pictures with about three dozen Korean and Korean-American fans.
This is why I love Davidson basketball. Class acts on and off the court.
Btw, VCU fans should be insanely excited for the future. Odom built a top 100 roster in the span of like a month, implemented an entirely new system that melded good defense and offense, and coached this squad of guys who've never played together before to the cusp of the NCAAT.
I get that this is how college basketball is played, but having literally no idea who’s on your roster year-to-year is exhausting. That’s exponentially more movement than there is in professional sports. Everything is basically a 1 year contract now.
Just to build on this, VCU won the regular season title by 3 games and won their 3 A10 Tournament games by 18, 12, and 12. They THOROUGHLY earned this.
I'm also happy for Loyola Chicago. They got a lot of crap for their admittedly catastrophic maiden voyage in the A10 but they've been one of the best mid-major programs in College basketball for the better part of the decade. They invest in basketball, pack their arena, and care.
Im honestly not even upset. Davidson won 15 fucking games in a row! We got ranked! We were down like 15 with 4 minutes left and had a chance to WIN the game! TWICE! This team has been so magical and a 2 point loss to VCU team with a top-5 Defense NATIONALLY doesnt change shit.
We need to stop with the "doing more with less" schtick. Bona may be a small school with limited resources, but Schmidt has total buy-in and commitment from the athletic department and school community.
Davidson was picked to finish 6th in the A10 and started the season 1-2. In the next 26 games Bob McKillop and the guys went 24-2 with wins over
#10
Alabama in Alabama, VCU in VCU, Bona in Bona, Richmond in Richmond (Henrico), and destroyed SLU at home without Foster Loyer.
VCU was there the whole game and had a really good shot to win considering SMC was just 3-17 from 3. Sometimes things are just not meant to be, and the SMC bigs dominated Johns and DeLoach. What a phenomenal season from the VCU Rams, their fans should be so proud of this team.
Well fuck, when you put it like that... With UMass out the door one NCAAT credit is worth about $143k to each school. Duquesne's upset could legitimately buy a NET-optimal non-con for every school and have more than a fair chunk of cash leftover
"I'm happy for the Atlantic 10. ... A share of an NCAA Tournament victory is about $2 million to a league. Maybe that doesn't matter much to the SEC or the Big Ten, but the A10 made roughly $4 million today. It's a good day for the league."
—
@GaryParrishCBS
on
@A10MBB
The ultimate irony is that college basketball has been gutted by changes made for football. The sport has been destabilized, de-emphasized, de-regionalized, and historic rivalries gutted for the sake of Football. And the people proclaiming CBB dead loudest are the CFB writers.
Men’s college basketball is a very flat, relatively unappealing product right now. Coaching legends are gone or diminished. No star players breaking through.
Enjoy this Davidson fans. This is a once in a lifetime type team. We have good, ncaa tournament teams consistently but this team has IT. Like bite your nails off, pull it out at the very last second IT.
The suddenness of getting a double bye, losing your first game in the A10 tournament, and not being a Tournament team is jarring. After a phenomenal 2.5 months that saw the Spiders go 15-3 their season is over just like that.
Frank Martin is KILLING IT rn. I honestly didn't know he had this level of social/twitter engagement. He's absolutely perfect for UMass and that fanbase.
Something is wrong that the A10 is about to have more teams left than the Mountain West, yet Richmond and Loyola can go 15-3 and be nowhere near the bubble.
I'm legitimately happy for Richmond. That's a great fucking program that has a WAY too long tournament drought. Mooney is a great dude and those players are stand up individuals. I mean it.
What a fucking night for the A10. The conference had road wins tonight against KenPom
#24
,
#87
, and
#123
and a home win against
#61
. On top of that George Mason keeps blowing out their opponents and La Salle is in 3OT on the road against a Top 150 team.
There’s nothing more Davidson-esque than doing amazing things in your four years at Davidson College and then going to graduate school and continuing to do amazing things.
The amount of guys going on their 3rd schools is rising fast with no end in sight. Hopefully someone, anyone is keeping an eye on graduation rates and quality of education b/c that trend is horrible for academics.
Also just some quick support for the guys. Sam Mennenga played the game of his fucking life and Mike Jones was AWESOME. Just because we lost shouldnt take away from how clutch those dudes were.
Luka is Davidson's 4th A10 Player of the Year in just our 8th season in the conference! Luka joins Davidson legends Tyler Kalinoski, Peyton Aldridge, and Jón Axel Guðmundsson. Congrats Luka! You've earned this thoroughly!
I just want to acknowledge how amazing the leadership is at the highest levels of the college. They both represent the school and support our athletics immaculately.
@carolquillen
and
@cclunie40
.
Alright here we go. We all expected this to be a tight game and it played out exactly like that. The guys had TREMENDOUS fight and we will always be so incredibly proud of these dudes of lucky to have watched them have one of the best seasons in program history.
We are happy to announce that the Belk Report is launching its very own website! We will post weekly articles to go along with our podcast and other content. We are very excited for this next chapter and to keep providing in-depth Davidson Basketball and A10 coverage!
UMass is very legit. Only a handful of A10 teams could go into Dayton Arena and do this. Then add in how piss poor the minutemen have been from 3 and this is absurdly impressive.
Here is the GIGANTIC pickup. Nelson has already shown us he can be a good A10 player and is on track to being an all-A10 player. That's amazing for VCU.
So you develop an unheralded local recruit for 3 years and turn him into one of the best players at his position in the entire country. The payoff? That same guy, through his agent, talks to P5 coaches and programs so he can leave and play immediately at his new, “bigger” school.
Among everything else, I'm kind of shocked that UMass is going for it in football now just when the top 50 or so teams are preparing to split off from the NCAA for good. Just feels like betting on Blackberry the minute the iPhone came out.
We’ve all felt it but the actual data irrefutably shows that mid and low majors are getting absolutely hammered by the new rules. Treating the situation like this feels like blatant ignorance of reality at best and support for the subjugation of mid and low majors at worst.
Looking at VCU's resume, it looks pretty solid! 3 Q1 wins, 6-6 v Q1/Q2, and 1 bad loss. That alone is probably a last four in team, but also the committee will take into account VCU before and after Ace's return. All in all, I think VCU is an at-large team for sure!
When they showed Mooney's little boy cry and like grab his mother's hands I was like "f*ck, im the bad guy" lol. The pure emotion and jubilation from richmond is awesome. Good for them.
I know everyone wanted Oakland but the fact that State had literally anything left in the tank after the Miracle ACC Championship let alone are making the Sweet 16 is wild in its own right. Plus, as far as P5s go State is about the most likable.
UNC is sitting right on the cut line, just ahead of VCU and Bona and below Davidson. They play Syracuse tonight, a loss would be of the Q3 variety and push them out of the bracket. So, it seems like it’s in A10 Twitter’s best interest to join me in rooting on OUR Orange.
Gonzaga to the Big East... The rumors are swirling. I've been saying for a long time that for the Big East to ever expand it would require a big fish. As good of programs Dayton, SLU, VCU, etc are they dont move the needle for the Big East. Gonzaga does.
I hope people are really grasping what
@DavidsonWBB
is doing rn. Not only have they beaten two ACC squads, they went blow for blow with the
#16
ranked team ON THE ROAD on 0 DAYS REST. These women are like 1.5 bounces away from being ranked.
Davidson played
#18
Clemson really tough and should've beaten them. Granted we had Skogman in that game but Dayton impresses me way more. Yes, I think Dayton is better than the
#18
team in the country.
🚨
#A10MBB
𝘾𝙊-𝙋𝙇𝘼𝙔𝙀𝙍 𝙊𝙁 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙔𝙀𝘼𝙍...
@DaytonMBB
's DaRon Holmes II 🚨
🏀 Leads the A-10 in scoring (20.2) and ranks 2nd in rebounding (8.27)
🏀 Finalist for 4️⃣ major national awards
🏀 All-Conference First Team & the All-Defensive Team
📰:
I gotta say, I’m really happy for my UMass friends. They’re celebrating a win over New Mexico State like it’s michigan breaking its drought against Ohio State, just goes to show how invested they’re and how much they deserve it.
At the end of the day, 3 A10 programs with a ton of potential that have struggled as of late got 3 really good coaches. That's exciting stuff and its awesome for the league.
VCU is going to be a FASCINATING combination of that Richmond based AAU squad and some of Odom's Utah State guys. If you're VCU you hope that the Odom veterans help acclimate the AAU guys to the Odom system.