Latest news with #AhmetJonovic
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Bradley beats Valpo, moves into MVC title game Sunday
ST. LOUIS (WMBD/WYZZ) — Senior Darius Hannah scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds as Bradley defeated Valparaiso, 70-65, in the semifinals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at Enterprise Center on Saturday. The second-seeded Braves (26-7) will face top-seeded Drake in the tournament final on Sunday at 1: 15 p.m. The game will be televised by WMBD. Ahmet Jonovic had his second strong game at Arch Madness with a 12-point, 8-rebound game. The Braved trailed 34-31 at halftime but scored 39 points and while shooting 61-percent (14 of 23) from the floor in the second half. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New York Times
19-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
College basketball Cinderella factories: Mid-majors whose champs you don't want to meet in March
Selection Sunday is less than a month away, which means it is a perfect time to start familiarizing yourself with this year's potential darlings of March Madness. Mid-majors such as Saint Peter's, Florida Atlantic and Princeton have captivated the nation in recent seasons, and more Cinderella stories are just around the corner. Advertisement Many of those underdog darlings emerge from the same handful of leagues with a reputation for wreaking NCAA Tournament havoc. Below, we highlight five of those consistently dangerous groups — plus one bonus league — to give you an early look at who could blow up brackets across the country in a month. You may recognize some familiar names, but a few new contenders also are rising through the ranks. Record in the last five tournaments: 3-6 Over the last 15 years, the Missouri Valley has lost some key programs via conference realignment: Creighton (Big East), Wichita State (American), Loyola Chicago (Atlantic 10). New members have stepped into the void, though, and Bradley and Drake now stand as the conference's model basketball schools. Bradley has won at least 20 games in six of the last eight seasons, and 10th-year coach Brian Wardle's veteran squad is once again a threat to win Arch Madness in St. Louis. The Braves have typically done it with defense, and this year's team can still get after it on that end, but it is the flamethrowing offense that should frighten potential opponents. The Braves lead all of Division I in 3-point percentage, knocking down 40.7 percent of their treys as a team. Only one player in the rotation, seven-footer Ahmet Jonovic, is not a deep threat, meaning Bradley can constantly spread the floor with four or five shooters. Drake is a balanced squad with a terrific story. Division II coaching legend Ben McCollum (395-91 overall record and four national titles) finally made the step up to D-I, and he brought four starters with him from Northwest Missouri State. Those up-transfers have been the backbone of a squad that frequently frustrates opponents while playing at the nation's slowest pace. Neither member of the Bennett Stirtz-Mitch Mascari guard duo ever leaves the court, and their complementary games put immense stress on defenses. Stirtz is a tough-as-nails point guard with size; a huge portion of the Drake offense is built on his brilliant playmaking. Mascari, meanwhile, is a pure gunner who has buried 80 triples this season at a scorching 45.5 percent conversion rate. Advertisement The Braves and Bulldogs split their regular season meetings. A Bradley win in the MVC tournament would give the league a chance at two bids; Drake sits firmly in the at-large mix at 23-3 overall with key wins over Kansas State and Vanderbilt. Two extremely well-coached squads lurking on the No. 11 or No. 12 seed lines would certainly present a challenge to the teams that draw them on Selection Sunday. GO DEEPER Drake brought D-II stars to D-I, then started winning. Can it last? Record in the last five tournaments: 5-5 Conference USA's recent NCAA Tournament record is benefiting from some inflation. Four of those five wins came from Florida Atlantic's Final Four run in 2023, and the fifth is from 2021 North Texas, which toppled Purdue as a No. 13 seed. Neither the Owls nor the Mean Green are in the conference anymore. Even so, the league has some potentially spicy would-be Cinderellas. Liberty is the most notable candidate. College basketball junkies may recognize the Flames from their fantastic three-year run from 2019 to '21. They dominated the ASUN over that span and notched an NCAA Tournament victory over Mississippi State in 2019. The same aspects that made the Flames a tough out then hold true in 2025. They play at a slow pace, shortening the game and limiting the effect of any talent disadvantage. And they take care of the ball and launch a ton of 3-pointers. That jump shot volume leads to increased single-game variance, giving them a fighting chance to get hot and topple better teams on any given night. Of course, Liberty is not even sitting atop the conference standings as of this writing. Jacksonville State is a game ahead thanks to its Jaron Pierre-led offense; the uber-talented Pierre is the nation's third-leading scorer. Parity reigns in this league: Outside of Liberty (No. 68 in KenPom's rankings) and FIU (No. 269), every team lands between 112th and 170th nationally. Each squad has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the race for both the CUSA regular season and tournament titles should be thrilling. Any of the league's top nine could be a thorn in a higher-seeded opponent's side; it will likely all come down to the specific matchup. Advertisement Record in the last five tournaments: 3-4* The Ivy gets an asterisk on its record since it did not play a season in 2020-21. The league's recent history has been incredibly strong, though: Last year, Yale knocked off Auburn, and in 2023 Princeton beat Arizona and Missouri en route to the Sweet 16. This year's Yale team looks capable of making it three straight NCAA Tournaments with an Ivy victory. The Bulldogs have been a juggernaut on offense, torching Ivy foes at a ridiculous 1.22 points per possession. They possess the rare combination of being outstanding on the offensive glass while also being a highly efficient 3-point shooting team. Yale's perimeter attack comes mostly from the lethal left hand of John Poulakidas, who dropped 28 on Auburn last March. The 6-6 senior is a gravitational threat who has hit six triples in a game three times already this season. Opponents have to be highly attentive to his whereabouts, which opens up driving lanes for lightning-quick point guard Bez Mbeng. The Bulldogs are not all offense, though. In addition to his work as a slasher and creator (plus an improved jump shot), Mbeng is the two-time reigning Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year. He is a demon on the ball, combining strength, length and quickness to terrorize guards. James Jones has been a fixture on the sideline in New Haven for 26 years now, and his Yale teams have two NCAA Tournament wins in the past decade. Under Jones' careful direction, the Bulldogs do not beat themselves. The Ivy's depth is lacking this year. Princeton has disappointed despite returning its two best players plus a third starter, while injuries have stunted Brown's and Columbia's prospects. Dartmouth has been on a tear in league play, skyrocketing nearly 150 spots up KenPom's rankings since late November, but the Big Green would not be much of a threat to a high seed. Yale is the league's best hope. Due to the conference's tournament format, the Bulldogs will have to win two games at Brown to punch their ticket — including a possible road game against Brown. GO DEEPER Men's college basketball Top 25: How far should Memphis, Kansas fall? Record in the last five tournaments: 2-5 People forget that the last team to beat UConn in the NCAA Tournament was a WAC representative. Back in March 2022, New Mexico State took down the fifth-seeded Huskies before Dan Hurley's squad went on a two-year rampage through the Big Dance. Although the Aggies are no longer in the WAC, the league does still have a couple of threats to higher seeds. Grand Canyon is the obvious candidate, having returned four starters from the team that sent No. 5 seed Saint Mary's packing last March: GRAND CANYON UPSETS SAINT MARY'S 🦌 The Antelopes earn the first NCAA Tournament win in school history in the final game of the night 🙌 #MarchMadness @GCU_MBB — NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 23, 2024 The encore campaign has seen its ups and downs, but with an NBA wing prospect in Tyon Grant-Foster and plenty of size and experience, the Antelopes once again have the upside to challenge a high-level opponent. At this point, though, GCU is not even the WAC leader. That would be Utah Valley, a rising power that has become a coaching pipeline to the power conference ranks. Its last two coaches, Mark Madsen (California) and Mark Pope (BYU/Kentucky), had great success at UVU, and Todd Phillips is next in line. Advertisement The Wolverines lack the same veteran core as Grand Canyon, but their defense is imposing thanks to tremendous size at every position. Backup point guard Kylin Green is the only rotation player shorter than 6-4, and the frontcourt of Osiris Grady and Carter Welling can compete with any power conference duo. Those two squads have separated themselves from the rest of the WAC pack. Every other team would likely be destined for a No. 16 seed, so if the conference wants any postseason success, it needs UVU or GCU to win the WAC tournament in Las Vegas. Record in the last five tournaments: 2-5 Yes, the SoCon only has two wins in the last five years. But in 2022, Chattanooga came within one jump shot of beating No. 4 seed Illinois, falling 54-53 in the opening round. And last season, No. 13 seed Samford gave Kansas all it could handle, falling 93-89 in a highly entertaining battle. The league has consistently been competitive on the biggest stage. Whether that's true again this year is more of a question. Bucky McMillan's Samford squad lost a ton of key pieces off last year's champion, and no team has stepped into the void as a dominant contender. Samford is currently KenPom's highest-ranked SoCon team, and the Bulldogs sit just 100th nationally. The conference has dealt with some serious coaching 'brain drain' in the last five years, with Wes Miller (UNC Greensboro to Cincinnati), Steve Forbes (ETSU to Wake Forest), Mike Young (Wofford to Virginia Tech) and Lamont Paris (Chattanooga to South Carolina) all getting promoted to the big leagues. Looking ahead to March, Chattanooga may be the biggest threat to a top seed. The Mocs have a veteran backcourt led by Honor Huff and Trey Bonham, who is back with his old VMI coach, Dan Earl, after a pit stop at Florida. Both players can torch the nets from deep. The real difference maker, though, has been Division II transfer Frank Champion. The physical big man missed the first eight games of the season, and as he has gotten more comfortable in the lineup, the Mocs have steadily ascended. Advertisement Defensive-minded UNC Greensboro and ultra-veteran Wofford could also pose some problems, and of course, Samford is still in the picture. But the Mocs likely have the highest upside of this bunch. Record in the last five tournaments: 1-5 Over the last three NCAA Tournaments, the Big West has not been remotely competitive, losing by an average of 18.3 points per game. In 2021, UC Santa Barbara got close, giving Creighton a huge scare, but the Gauchos ultimately came up short. Not since 2019, when UC Irvine knocked off No. 4 seed Kansas State, has the Big West come away from the Big Dance with a victory. That could change this year. The Big West has two at-large candidates, both of whom are fully capable of pulling off an upset against a high seed. UC San Diego is the more highly ranked squad analytically, and the Tritons' shocking mid-December win at 22-4 Utah State displayed their considerable upside. They are a fine-tuned machine of perfect role allocation, loaded with shooting and playmaking all across the lineup. Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones is a jack-of-all-trades point forward, setting the tone on the ball and feeding skilled shooters such as Tyler McGhie, Chris Howell and stretch big man Nordin Kapic. The Tritons lack depth, but they play a tricky zone to slow the game down and limit foul chances. That zone also unleashes Hayden Gray as a passing lane poltergeist; Gray leads the entire country in steal rate. Even more impressively, this year is the first that UC San Diego is eligible for the NCAA Tournament after a four-year transition period following its elevation from Division II. Head coach Eric Olen deserves a ton of credit for quickly elevating the Tritons into a threat. That's the opposite of Russell Turner's UC Irvine Anteaters, which have been a fixture atop the conference for nearly 15 years. Over the last 12-plus seasons, Irvine is 158-50 in Big West play, though that incredible run of success has only led to three NCAA Tournament bids. Advertisement Turner's teams do it with defense. This year marks the 10th time in the last 12 years that UC Irvine has ranked in the top 10 nationally in two-point percentage defense, a completely absurd run that speaks to the coach's incredible ability to build a defense. This year's anchor is German seven-footer Bent Leuchten, a two-way force who could overwhelm a power conference frontcourt in March. The two split their head-to-head meetings, with each team winning on the other's home court. A rubber match in the Big West title game would give the conference a legitimate shot at getting two bids, which would really put power conference squads on high alert. (Photos of Yale's John Poulakidas and Bradley's Duke Deen: Steph Chambers / Getty Images; Matt Dayhoff / Journal Star / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
