Marching to Madness

Coach Hodgson led his red Wolves to an upset of Appalachian State in the Sun Belt semifinals as they won 10 of their last 13 games, placing them in the title game of the CBI. They lost to High Point, 81-80, but the prevalence of the end of last season has built confidence going into the 2024-25 season. Leading scorer Taryn Todd returns as a threat from the three as well as a solid scorer at gettin...

Coach Prosser enters his fourth season at Winthrop where his Eagles are a huge challenger inside the Big South Conference. Coach Prosser talks about returnee Kelton Talford, who could be a front-runner for Big South Player of the Year. Coach Prosser and I discuss some philosophies and his basketball knowledge in a prime conversation. Topics of Discussion Include: Key ways of potentially challengin...

Coach Spradlin comes over to the Dukes after building Morehead State into a winning program as he finished 94-40 in his last four seasons with the Eagles. As of now, a group of 11 players has planted themselves into the JMU program. Eddie Ricks and Mark Freeman come over to the Dukes with Coach Spradlin while Syracuse transfer Justin Taylor comes back into Virginia after starting 34 of 61 games fo...

Coach Smith took his Utes to the NIT Championship game where they lost to Indiana State, but the plethora of positivity in being one of eight teams still playing in August could have major impact this season. Coach Smith discusses bringing 11 new players into the program and how you start from the beginning in putting together a new team. Coach also discusses the Utes' move to the Big 12. Topics o...

Coach Golden checks in after leading the Florida Gators to 24 wins and a berth in the SEC Tournament championship. Florida had one of the most potent offensive systems in the nation as the Gators averaged 85.6 points, 6th in the nation and they found 65.3 field goal attempts per contest. Returning Walton Clayton, Jr. and Will Richard to the backcourt gives the Gators a solid offensive advantage go...

Coach Ryan Odom returns to "Marching to Madness" with his VCU Rams, who won 24 games last season and made it to the NIT's Elite Eight. Returning three key scorers in Max Shula, Zeb Jackson, and Joe Bamisile return as three prolific shooters and scorers who will help VCU focus on an Atlantic 10 title. Coach Odom also discusses some philosophical and analytical details as well. Topics of Discussion...

Coach Dustin Kerns looks forward to another season of Mountaineers basketball as he led ASU to its most wins in a season at 27 and the 16-2 record to win the Sun Belt regular season was Appalchian's best league record in school history. Coach Kerns had eight losses in the transfer portal, but he has a recruiting class of strong players who can make the transition into the new season and the upper...

Coach Justin Gainey checks into "Marching to Madness" as he is in his 19th season in college coaching which has featured a position in each of the Power 6 conferences. Coach Gainey discusses his role as the Volunteers' defensive coordinator and brings in philosophical ideas and the approach to basketball under Coach Rick Barnes at Tennessee. Coach Gainey played on the point at NC State for Coach H...

Coach Chris Mooney, who missed the end of the 2022-23 season with heart surgery, led the Richmond Spiders to a 15-3 record last season in the Atlantic 10 as UR shared the regular season title with Loyola Chicago. Coach Mooney has 366 wins in 20 seasons as he led Richmond to four NCAA Tournaments and had tournament wins in 2010 and 2022. He was the A-10 Coach of the Year this past season. Topics of...

Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson checks into "Marching to Madness" as his Cougars won the Big 12 regular season title in their first season in the conference. His roster and rotation generally remain intact as Jamal Shead moved onto the Toronto Raptors, but he returns a quality backcourt with Lj Cryer and Emmanuel Sharp on the perimeter and J'Wan Roberts and Ja'Vier Francis inside. Watch role pla...

Coach Dan Monson moves to Eastern Washington as the Eagles head coach after he took Long Beach State to a Big West Tournament title and an NCAA berth last season. The Eagles have a staunch program in Cheney, Washington as they are a tough Big Sky Conference basketball challenger. Topics of Discussion Include: Team building with the Eagles Bringing Maddox Monson and Shaumba Ngoyi Breaking down a pr...

Coach Ed Schilling begins his first season at Pepperdine as he will work to piece together the program and make it competitive in the tough WCC. Coach Schilling has assisted Coach John Calipari at UMass, Memphis, and with the New Jersey Nets. He was an assistant at Indiana and UCLA before checking in with Bryce Drew at Grand Canyon where they led the Antelopes to their first NCAA Tournament win in...

Coach Schwartz expresses his philosophies on many different ideas inside the game from things off the floor to offensive and defensive modes of attack. He was Coach Rick Barnes's assistant at Tennessee for six seasons where the Volunteers made four NCAA appearances and won the SEC Tournament in 2022. We talk about RJ Felton, who will be a versatile player for East Carolina as the team's returning...

Coach Mark Byington comes into Nashville to take over the Commodores since turning James Madison into a potent winner after his Georgia Southern Eagles netted 20-plus wins in four of his last five seasons. The Dukes finished with a 32-4 record last season with a Sun Belt Tournament Championship and a 72-61 decision over Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament's Field of 64. Vanderbilt will look for a mor...

Coach Sendek begins his 31st season as a head coach after his job as an assistant to Coach Rick Pitino at Providence where he helped take the Friars to the Final Four in 1987. Sendek begins the 2024-24 season with 553 wins as he has overseen the rebuilds at Santa Clara, Arizona State, NC State, and Miami-Ohio. He welcomes back Carlos Stewart, who was injured two seasons ago and returned near his h...

Coach Musselman moves back to the West Coast as he takes over at USC where the Trojans will now join the Big Ten with UCLA, Washington, and Oregon. Coach Muss moved back into college basketball as the head coach at Nevada in 2015 and Arkansas in 2019 where he turned both programs back into solid winners in the Mountain West and the SEC. After turning the roster over in LA, the Trojans will feature...

Coach Forbes has had the Demon Deacons on the cusp on the NCAA Tournament in the last three seasons, but Wake Forest has been unnecessarily left on the outside in all three of those tourneys. Forbes returns a potential ACC Player of the Year in Hunter Sallis, who was the fifth leading scorer in the league at 18 ppg. Coach Forbes also talks about his philosophies and ideas based on the game as it s...

Coach Lutz comes over to Oklahoma State from Western Kentucky where the Hilltoppers won the Conference USA Tournament which placed them into their first NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013. He also had taken Texas A&M – Corpus Christi to two Southland Tournament titles, leading to NCAA Tournament berths in 2022 and 2023. The Cowboys return Bryce Johnson and Jamyron Keller as the only ret...

Coach Mills brought an impressive coaching career into Wichita as he coached as an assistant to Scott Drew at Baylor for 14 years and he took over the ORU Titans and turned them into a power where they won the Summit League championship and finished 18-0 in his last season there in Tulsa. In rebuilding the Shockers, he played a major non-conference slate which saw his team grow into a much tougher...

Coach Dawkins comes back onto the "Marching to Madness" hardwood after his UCF Knights were a tough out immediately in the Big 12 after winning seven games and then they lost five of those 11 by 8 points or under. UCF's adjusted defensive efficiency was 21st in college basketball while their opponents shot only 41.2 percent from the field, 36th out of the 352 D-1 teams. The key will be on offense...

Coach Wayne Tinkle looks forward to the Beavers' being able to play in the WCC with Washington State after the Pac-12 was disbanded after 109 years. The Beavers will have a tough schedule as Saint Mary's and Gonzaga are generally the top two teams in the league. Still, the middle of the conference — San Francisco and Santa Clara are generally in the mix while San Diego — moved forward last season...

Coach Tony Skinn played at George Mason and was a starter on the Patriots' 2006 Final Four team, averaging 11.3 points in GMU's five games in that tournament. He scored 1,079 points in 68 games and was a two-time All-CAA selection. Coach Skinn was most recently with Kevin Willard at Maryland in 2022-23 when he worked to lead the Terps to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. He spent three seas...

Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard is back on MTM, discussing plenty of analytics and ideas from his philosophies as well as his strategies and ideas. He discusses similarities and differences between the SEC and Big 12 with his approach through the SEC basketball courts in his first season. He notes offense and defense from his points of view which makes for an excellent knowledge base of basketball...

Coach Dwight Perry checks in for his initial appearance on "Marching to Madness." He played for three seasons at Kentucky while also working as an assistant to Shaka Smart at VCU, Johnny Dawkins at Stanford, and Niko Medved and Bob Richey at Furman. He has helped to orchestrate five winning seasons at Wofford as he was Mike Young's assistant for two years and then became the associate head coach w...

Chipola Head Coach Donnie Tyndall has one of the best junior college teams and groups of players every season inside the game. He has placed 28 of his players at the D-1 level in four years. Homes for these kids have included Kansas State, Syracuse, and Florida State, among others. He has led the Indians to the Final Four twice in his four seasons and has won the tough Panhandle Conference in all...