Marching to Madness

Tony Delk makes his first appearance on the courts here on "Marching to Madness". The former Kentucky and NBA three-point shooter is now a scout for the Dallas Mavericks and hosts the Tony Delk Basketball Academy (tonydelk.com) in the Atlanta area. This is an analytical discussion on Tony's philosophies with the three-point shots, and he also looks at Kentucky Basketball, the Final Four, playing f...

Houston Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson will take his Cougars into the Final Four for the second time since 2021 as they face the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday. The Cougars have won 30 of their last 31 games which includes an outright Big 12 regular season championship, the Cougars' second Big 12 Tournament crown in as many years inside of the league, and the Coogs defeated Purdue and Tennessee last w...

Coach Lennie Acuff leads his Lipscomb Bison to the ASUN regular season and tournament crowns. In the championship, the Bison turned back North Alabama, 76-65, and await their NCAA Tournament seed on Sunday. Lipscomb's Joe Anderson was the tournament MVP. Topics of Discussion Include: Turning the page to the championship after a tough semifinals win over Queens The efficiency of play on both ends o...

Sonny Smith was the head coach at Auburn from  1979-1988 when he took the Tigers to six NCAA Tournaments and the Elite Eight in 1986 where the lost to eventual nation champion Louisville. Sonny has an offensive mind and he is a transition coach, and he developed Charles Barkley, Chuck Person, and Chris Morris as they were needed players in rotations in the NBA. Sonny chats about the 24-25  Auburn...

Coach Harrick was front row and center in March as he led the UCLA Bruins to the 1995 national championship and led four different programs in 16 of his 23 head coaching seasons. Jim was a players' coach who helped his players achieve at high levels on and off the floor. He posted 470 wins in those 23 years as the buy-in from his players reflected his ability to communicate with them and teach the...

Coach Mark Gottfried played guard at Alabama from 1984-87 and shot a high percentage as a playmaker. He followed basketball in his career when he was an assistant at UCLA for Coach Jim Harrick on the 1995 UCLA Bruins national championship team which preceded his skills as a coach. He won 498 games at Murray State, Alabama, NC State, and Cal State Northridge. He took the Crimson Tide to five consec...

The UNC Asheville Bulldogs are once again poised near the top of the challenging Big South Conference. Coach Mike Morrell has produced one of the nation's better offensive teams since the Bulldogs average 82.5 points per game, shoot 47 percent from the floor, and find 62.7 field goal attempts per contest. UNCA and Big South regular-season champion High Point had two interesting games as the Bulldo...

Coach Padgett joins "Marching to Madness" actually on the Friday before the Oklahoma game and talks about the Bulldogs who have won three of its last five. Coach Padgett played on Kentucky's national championship team in 1997. He was first-team all-America in '97 and a first-round pick of the Utah Jazz in 1998, soending the next eight seasons in the NBA. Bulldogs head coach Chris Jans brought Coac...

Coach Huss and the Panthers currently sit tied for first with the UNC Asheville Bulldogs in the Big South. High Point uses a strong offensive game paced by leading scorers Kezza Griffa (14.6 ppg), D'maurian Williams (14.5 ppg) and Kimani Hamilton (13.4 ppg). HPU works in a fast-paced offensive attack as the Panthers put up 81.9 points per contest (25th/CBB) while shooting 48.9 percent (14th/CBB) f...

Coach Skerry comes onto "Marching to Madness" before his Tigers defeated Monmouth, 73-67, on Saturday. It was Towson's 12th win in its last 13 games as the Tigers hold a one-game lead over UNC Wilmington with three weeks remaining in the regular season. Tyler Tejada (16.5 ppg) and Dylan Williamson (13.8 ppg) are the Tigers' top two scorers. Topics of Discussion Include: Creating a dominating recor...

Going into Saturday's game with Western Carolina, the UNCG Spartans sat tied with Chattanooga for second and one game behind Southern Conference leader Samford. Coach Mike Jones's teams always display a defense that can travel, and the defensive consistency puts the Spartans in the mix every season. Kenyon Giles is a top offensive contributor for UNCG. Topics of Conversation Include: Defensive ele...

Coach Russ Turner once again joins "Marching to Madness" as his Anteaters stand at 20-3 and lead the Big West by one game over UC San Diego. UCI features a defensive attack that allows opponents to shoot only 38.6 percent from the floor and produce 13.2 turnovers per game. The Anteaters battle the Tritons on ESPNU on Saturday evening and they feature back-to-back ESPNU dates when UC Santa Barbara...

South Florida Bulls head coach Ben Fletcher visits "Marching to Madness," as he has done an excellent job moving the program forward after the devasting passing of Coach Amir Abdur-Rahim last fall. The Bulls have plenty of dynamic players, which allows them to create different lineups and enables different matchups. South Florida won 69-64 over Rice on Tuesday, as they were without Jamille Reynold...

Middle Tennessee carved a 5-1 mark over six games and the Blue Raiders are in a three-way tie for the top of Conference USA. This is an up-tempo team and currently MT holds opponents to 6-for-22 each game from the three-point line on average. Jestin Porter and Essam Mostafa set up a nice inside-outside attack in Conference USA. Topics of Discussion Include: Jestin Porter as a primary component in...

Going into Saturday's home outing with FAU, Coach Hodge has the Mean Green atop the AAC as North Texas is tied in the loss column with Memphis and UAB. NT holds opponents to 58.6 points per game (4th/CBB) and limits the opposition to only 19-of-47 as a shooting ratio on the season, only about 41% from the field. Atin Wright, Rondel Walker, and Jasper Floyd join Latrell Jossell and Johnathan Massie...

Coach Sendek has Santa Clara sitting in a four-way tie for second place in the WCC as the Broncos host Washington State in a key contest on Thursday evening. SC comes off of a 103-99 win over Gonzaga as the post 18 three-point field goals, the most by an opponent in the Kennel's history. Adama Ball and Carlos Stewart are prime leaders in the Broncos' 9-man rotation. Topics of Conversation include:...

Coach Eric Musselman's USC Trojans have shown impressive form lately, winning six of their last eight games. In the upcoming 1000th episode of "Marching to Madness," Coach Musselman will discuss his team's recent successes, including back-to-back victories over Illinois and Iowa, as they prepare to face Wisconsin at the Galen Center this Saturday at High Noon PST. Key players to watch, such as Des...

Oregon State is 12-5 overall and 2-2 in the WCC and the Beavers feature one of the top defensive attacks in college basketball, holding opponents to 40.2 percent from the floor and 63.7 points per game. Coach Tinkle is developing his roster which includes quality depth as he has nine new players on his roster for this '24-25 season. Senior Michael Rataj is a solid inside-outside player who leads t...

Coach Dustin Kerns brings the Mountaineers back onto "Marching to Madness." They broke a four-game losing streak on Saturday night with a 72-61 win over Texas State. Coach Kerns' defense is always a focal point of his teams and this season Appalachian has held it's opponents to 28.7 percent from three and 39 percent from the field. Topics of Conversation Include: The effectiveness of Myles Tate as...

Coach Ritchie McKay is closing in on that 400th win as the boss of the Flames as he sits at 397 as of now and presides over a club that currently sports a 12-1 ledger. Liberty won at Seattle and then took back-to-back wins over Kansas State and McNeese State as they won the title of the Paradise Jam. The Flames have a strong strong 8-man rotation as they will be a tough out in Conference USA. Libe...

Coach Tim Miles joins "Marching to Madness" as his Spartans have won five of their last six games as they match up with Kennesaw State on Saturday before breaking into the Mountain West schedule next week. We discuss leading scorer Josh Uduje and his growth into the San Josè State program after being the Mountain West Sixth Man of the Year at Utah State last season. Coach Miles gets into the depth...

Coach Moser has led his Sooners to a 10-0 start after they defeated Oklahoma State, 80-65 on Saturday night. Sam Goodwin scored 20 points and grabbed 14 rebounds as the Sooners' defense held the Cowboys to only 39.3 percent from the floor with just five made three-point shots. Coach Moser discusses his defensive approach on "Marching to Madness" as well as the three-point game and many of his idea...

Coach Claxton has seen the Hofstra Pride win four out of its last five games to start with an 8-3 record. Over those 11 games, Hofstra has been a strong defensive team in holding opponents to 38.7% from the floor. Coach Claxton is in his fourth season at Hofstra where he has posted a 74-37 mark to win 67% of his games. Before we start, there is some terrible noise coming from my end of the convers...

Coach Pearl has his Auburn Tigers posted at No. 2 in the AP Top 25 where the SEC has nine teams ranked in the poll this week. Auburn is led by a deep rotation where post Johni Broome averages 19.6 ppg and 11.9 rebounds while dishing out 3.8 assists per contest. Broome is joined in the paint by Dylan Cardwell and Chaney Johnson. This trio complements a consistent three-point attack where Chad Baker...