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Miami Herald
08-04-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Did Alabama State make 'One Shining Moment' video?
Alabama State represented the HBCU experience well in this year's NCAA Tournament. A miraculous full-court play in the waning seconds gave the Hornets their first-ever win in the 'Big Dance' with a 70-68 victory over Saint Francis (PA) in the NCAA First Four. TJ Madlock was fouled with 12.4 seconds left and missed the front end of a one-and-one that could have broken the 68-68 tie. However, Saint Francis turned the ball over on the ensuing possession giving Alabama State the ball back with 3.4 seconds remaining. Alabama State threw the ball the length of the court for a wild play that ended up with the ball being tipped to Amarr Knox, who made the game-winning layup with 1 second remaining. The play was one of many dramatic finishes in this year's tournament, which was won by the University of Florida on Monday night. So did the play merit a spot in the prestigious 'One Shining Moment' recap video that airs at the conclusion of the tournament? Yes it did. The play was edited down to five seconds and can be seen from the- 38-:43 second mark of the 3:02 long video. Mathematically speaking, 2.75 percent of the video featured Alabama State. So as it stands the official visual story of the 2025 NCAA Tournament can not be told without including the champions from the SWAC. You can see the video here. Knox was featured in an Alabama State jersey in the storied video but we may never see him in the SWAC or HBCU basketball again. A week after hitting the game-winning shot Knox entered the transfer portal. The latest check of his social media accounts doesn't have any information about Knox committing to a new school. He can return to Alabama State if he chooses but the expectation in today's basketball culture is that he will not. But for One Shining Moment, Amarr Knox and the Alabama State Hornets left us with one final reminder of 2025 that an HBCU can create its own magic in the Madness of March. The post Did Alabama State make 'One Shining Moment' video? appeared first on HBCU Gameday. Copyright HBCU Gameday 2012-2025
Yahoo
23-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Reports: Xavier's Sean Miller emerges as top candidate for Texas job
CINCINNATI, Ohio (WDTN) – Xavier head coach Sean Miller has emerged as a top candidate for the Texas Longhorns' vacant head coach position, the Austin American-Statesman reported Sunday. Miller led Xavier to a 13-point comeback against Texas in the NCAA First Four on Wednesday. The Musketeers went on to win 86-80. The Longhorns parted ways with head coach Rodney Terry after the loss. In two seasons as head coach and one as interim, Terry led the Longhorns to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances including an Elite Eight appearance in 2023. Terry took over as interim head coach in the 2022-23 season after Chris Beard's mid-season firing. Miller is a veteran head coach, leading 13 teams to the NCAA Tournament in 22 seasons. In his first stint at Xavier (2004-2009), the Musketeers made four NCAA Tournament appearances, including an Elite Eight berth in 2008. Miller spent 12 seasons as the head coach at Arizona where he led the Wildcats to four regular-season Pac-12 titles and three appearances in the Elite Eight. Following his firing at Arizona, Miller returned to Xavier in 2022 where he has led the Musketeers to a Sweet Sixteen and First Round appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Xavier's season came to an end Friday in the Round of 64 after an 86-73 loss to Illinois, bringing Miller's career record at Xavier to 185-87. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Chicago Tribune
20-03-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Illinois will face Xavier in the NCAA Tournament. 5 takeaways on the Illini's first-round opponent after its win over Texas.
The Illinois men's basketball team learned its NCAA Tournament opponent late Wednesday when Xavier beat Texas 86-80 in an NCAA First Four game in Dayton, Ohio. The Illini (21-12) and Musketeers (22-11) will now meet in a first-round game at 8:45 p.m. Friday at Milwaukee's Fiserv Forum. Here are five takeaways from No. 11 seed Xavier's win as No. 6 seed Illinois prepares for the matchup. 1. Xavier came back from a 13-point deficit in the first half to pull off the win. The Musketeers trailed by eight points at halftime and as many as 10 in the second half. But they used a 13-3 run to pull even at 65 with 8 minutes and 10 seconds to play. They went ahead for good on a Zach Freemantle turnaround jumper in the paint with 1:48 to play. Freemantle made six points in the final two minutes — including two free throws and a game-sealing dunk — to help Xavier pull off the win. The Musketeers shot 56.7% in the second half, including 50% on 7-for-14 shooting from 3-point range after halftime. Coach Sean Miller said at his postgame news conference that Xavier has been more of a first-half team this season, in part because some quick, deep Big East teams wore them down. 'Tonight we did not wear down,' Miller told reporters. 'If anything, maybe we had a wearing-down effect, especially with the way the crowd was against Texas. But it was great to see us be down at halftime and respond because we've really been more of a team this season where we had to hold our lead and get to the end.' 2. Zach Freemantle's story is one made for March. In an era of player transfers, Freemantle, Xavier's 6-foot-9 forward, is playing his sixth season for Xavier — and this is his first NCAA Tournament appearance. He missed Xavier's run to the Sweet 16 in 2023 because he had season-ending surgery on his left foot. He then missed all of last season after another foot surgery. Despite getting into early foul trouble — and finishing the game with four fouls — Freemantle had 15 points, two rebounds and two assists in 28 minutes. But he didn't classify it as a 'storybook' first appearance in the tournament. 'Storybook, maybe not,' he said. 'Obviously we would have liked to maybe win by a little more. But any win we can get is a great thing. It was a very hard-fought game. That's a very good team we just played, and I'm just thankful to be a part of it.' Freemantle was selected to the All-Big East second team and is averaging 17.2 points and seven rebounds per game. 3. Marcus Foster was a driving force in the Musketeers' win. Foster, a 6-foot-5 graduate student guard who transferred this season from Furman, led Xavier with 22 points and eight rebounds. He shot 8-for-9 from the field and 4-for-5 from 3-point range. All four of Foster's 3s came in the second half as Xavier mounted its comeback, including a huge 3 to cut Texas' lead to one point with 6:27 to play. Foster is fifth on the team in scoring with eight points per game for Xavier, which is led by Freemantle and Ryan Conwell (16.7 points per game). But he stepped up Wednesday. 'I'm glad my teammates were confident in me,' Foster said. 'I know (Freemantle and Conwell) they found me a couple times. So I was able to get some clean looks. And that's what we need. We need players to step up during these times and pull out wins.' 4. Texas' hot offensive start tailed off in the second half. Texas guard Tre Johnson, the SEC Freshman of the Year, showed why he has been a star, making a couple of head-turning plays in the first half. He made an off-balance 3-pointer against a Xavier double team look easy for an early 18-10 Texas lead. Later in the half, he drove the baseline for a pretty layup and a 13-point Texas lead. He finished with 23 points. But the Longhorns offense struggled more in the second half as they shot 38% — compared with 58% in the first half. 'I would just say (it was) our defensive intensity, getting more deflections, focusing on getting kills at halftime,' Foster said. 'We only had one kill and not enough deflections. We're a 30-deflection team every night. And when we get deflections, it's hard to beat us. 'So we really just locked in on that. We understood that we really didn't have much of a problem on offense but a problem on defense. And once we addressed that, things started to go our way.' 5. Xavier had the home-court advantage to aid their comeback. Xavier in Cincinnati is less than an hour from Dayton, and the pro-Xavier crowd Wednesday was apparent from the TV broadcast. The Musketeers got their crowd going late in the game, including when Jerome Hunter made a 3-pointer to tie it, the first time Texas didn't have a lead since the first five minutes of the game. 'Obviously the energy of the crowd, our fans certainly took advantage of the proximity to Cincinnati,' Miller said. 'And that emotion when we needed them, it was certainly a factor in the game. All three of these guys would tell you that we certainly felt it, really appreciated it.' Illinois, playing a few hours from Champaign in the first round in Milwaukee, hopes to give Xavier a taste of its own medicine with a pro-Illini crowd Friday. Xavier, however, is also within driving distance.
USA Today
19-03-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Auburn vs Alabama State prediction: Who has edge in 2025 NCAA Tournament first round?
Auburn vs Alabama State prediction: Who has edge in 2025 NCAA Tournament first round? Will Auburn prevail against the red-hot Hornets on Thursday? After two days of waiting, Auburn basketball finally learned who it would face in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Auburn, the top overall seed of the NCAA Tournament, draws Alabama State from nearby Montgomery after the Hornets stunned St. Francis on Tuesday during the NCAA First Four. Despite being outplayed offensively, Alabama State outscored the Red Flash, 36-29 in the second half to secure the 70-68 win. Sophomore Guard Amarr Knox sealed the win with a layup with 0:01 remaining in the second half. He finished the game with a team-leading 16 points and two steals. How does Auburn stack up with Alabama State? Here is a full breakdown of the matchup ahead of Thursday's tipoff. How the Alabama State Hornets got here The Hornets upset Jackson State in the SWAC Championship Game to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament. In Tuesday's First Four game with St. Francis, the Hornets shot 43% from the field, 31% from three-point land, and an abysmal 25% from the free-throw stripe. Alabama State trailed for more than 30 minutes of game time and was behind by as many as nine points. However, they connected on four of their final five field goals including the last-second layup to earn the win. How the Auburn Tigers got here Auburn wrapped up the SEC regular season championship on March 1 with a win over Kentucky in the very building they will play their NCAA first round game, Rupp Arena. The Tigers won 15 of their first 16 SEC games before dropping three of its final four games, including its most recent loss to Tennessee in the SEC Tournament semifinals. Auburn grabbed the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA Tournament by boasting a 16-5 record against Quad-1 competition, two wins more than Houston, the No. 2 team in the category. Players to watch Auburn's player to watch is forward Johni Broome. Broome has first-team honors from several outlets and is in the running to win a few more after ending the regular season averaging 18.9 points and 10.9 rebounds per game. Broome has reached double-figures in 27 games this season, which includes 17 games with 20 or more points. He has scored at least 20 points in his last three games. For Alabama State, CJ Hines is the most dangerous. Hines is second in points with 14.3 per game, 0.1 less than the team's leader, Amarr Knox. However, Hines shoots 42.5% from the field with a 38.9% three-point percentage. He is a consistent player on both sides of the ball, which could keep Alabama State within striking distance in Thursday's game. Auburn prediction vs Alabama State: March Madness first round Auburn holds a glaring advantage in every category over Alabama State. However, the Hornets have won seven games in a row and find ways to win despite facing adversity throughout the game. Auburn should win this game but do not be surprised if the Hornets play the Tigers close. Prediction: Auburn 93 Alabama State 73
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
First Four bringing big boost to local businesses
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — Dayton businesses and hotels are gearing up for a boost this week, thanks to the NCAA First Four games. This year marks the 14th time the University of Dayton has hosted the First Four since the play-in games began in 2011. PHOTOS: First Four floor installed at UD Arena The Marriott Hotel at the University of Dayton is hosting three of the eight First Four teams, saying it's going to be a packed week. Hotel employees have been hard at work preparing for the teams and fans to arrive Monday evening. 'We anticipate a lot of traveling fans and students,' said Micah Stampf, general manager of the Marriott Hotel at UD. The hotel says the busiest days for them will be Tuesday and Wednesday, but the hustle begins Monday. 'It will be very busy with the team arrival. Obviously we want to create as memorable of an experience for these gentlemen as possible,' said Stampf. 'We'll have hotel staff and members from Destination Dayton that will help us welcome them when they get here.' And it's not just the First Four bringing business. The Marriott will also see more guests with the Ohio State University men's basketball tournament this week. 'With such an influx in a very short period of time with teams and fans, we always make sure we have the right people on hand, and the right amount of people so that we're able to serve these folks,' said Stampf. First Four: The 8 teams playing in Dayton this week The same is true over at Milano's Subs on Brown Street — but they expect this year's First Four to be busier than ever. 'It's going to be really super busy, with a big name like Caroline coming to town, and Xavier, which is only an hour down the road' said Larry Adkisson, general manager at Milano's. 'I think this will be one of the biggest First Fours yet.' Adkisson says they will be the busiest on game days starting two hours before tip off time. He promises they're all about keeping the energy high and the excitement rolling all week long. 'We partnered up with Modelo, and we're doing a little, pop-a-shot basketball contest. Anybody can come and play it. We've got prizes that we're going to give out,' said Adkisson. Local businesses say their goal is to make teams and visitors feel welcome — and make Dayton feel like home over the next few days. 2 SPORTS will cover the tournament all week on WDTN Channel 2. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
