SWAC's Texas Southern Shocks Patriot's Cousy, Holy Cross 1950

In what was supposed to be a NIT blowout game to warm up for our Michigan State vs. UCLA All-Time NCAA great, Fred Sturdivant rejected Matt Forman's attempted game-winning shot and grabbed the rebound to let SWAC champ Texas Southern pull off perhaps the biggest upset in the history of the Value Add Basketball Game.

The stunning 72-71 final eliminated Hall of Famer Bob Cousy, with our best team ever from the current Patriot teams Holy Cross, from our all-time great NIT tournament of the 20 all-time champs from non-power conference.

Mike Davis inherited the team heading into probation, leading to a 1-13 start and Texas Southern ranked as the 234th best team in the country at www.kenpom.com. The rest of the way they were 16-1 and were one of the best 100 teams in the country and believe this would have been the SWAC team who would have entered the tournament so hot I believe would have been the most likely SWAC team to pull a couple of upsets. Norfolk State 2012, also in our game, is the last HBCU team to win a game not counting the 1st Four in Dayton.

While it was the guard play of Ray Penn and incredible 3-point shooter Omar Strong who usually put up the big points that season, Sturdivant was in the top 1% of all shot blockers in the nation (more than 10% of all opponents' 2-point shots blocked) and field goal percentage (61.5% and 67% during the 16-1 finish) and in the last five games he blocked 30 shots for an incredible end to his career.

In our game this team already pulled an opening round upset against another all-time great - Calvin Murphy and Niagara, and our guess is they would have been quite a challenge opening weekend but for the probation. Davis did follow with incredible 16-2 SWAC seasons, and in the last few years Texas Southern teams have won Opening Four games in Dayton, but our money is that this was the perfect combo that would have given the SWAC its best show at 1st or even 2nd round upsets.

Texas Southern is likely the best HBCU basketball program again today.
 

Pos	Texas Southern 2013 (SWAC)	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht	Actual Season
1-PG	Ray Penn	10	2	2	0	0	1	1	0	1	5'9	12.2 Pts, 2.4 Reb
2-SG	Omar Strong	17	2	3	5	5	3	1	0	1	5'9	17.0 Pts, 3.4 Reb
3-SF	Madarious Gibbs	2	0	1	0	0	3	0	0	3	6'1	6.5 Pts, 3.7 Reb
4-PF	Fred Sturdivant	23	0	11	1	3	13	3	2	3	6'7	11.1 Pts, 8.2 Reb
5-C	Aaron Clayborn	8	0	3	2	4	7	0	1	2	6'6	7.6 Pts, 5.4 Reb
1-PG	Dexter Ellington	2	0	1	0	2	1	0	0	2	6'1	2.3 Pts, 1.8 Reb
2-SG	Lawrence Johnson-Danner	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'4	8.5 Pts, 3.0 Reb
3-SF	Kyrie Sutton	8	0	4	0	0	5	0	0	1	6'9	5.1 Pts, 4.3 Reb
4-PF	Billy Rosenberg (no card)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6'5	1.5 Pts, 0.9 Reb
5-C	Ethan Blackwell (no card)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5'7	0.2 Pts, 0.6 Reb
	Turnovers 11	72	4	26	8	14	34	5	3	14
Pos	Holy Cross 1050 (Patriot)	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht	Actual Season
1-PG	Andy Laska	11	1	4	0	0	2	2	0	1	5'10	8.2 Pts
2-SG	Bob McMullen	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	3	6'3	6.5 Pts
3-SF	Bob Cousy	20	2	5	4	4	9	1	0	1	6'1	19.4 Pts
4-PF	Matty Forman	9	0	4	1	2	2	0	0	1	6'4	10.1 Pts
5-C	Frank Oftring	10	0	5	0	0	5	0	1	3	6'2	8.4 Pts
1-PG	Jim Dilling	6	0	3	0	0	1	1	0	1	6'5	5.5 Pts
2-SG	Bob McLarnon	5	0	2	1	2	1	1	0	2	6'0	4.4 Pts
3-SF	Gene Mann	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	1	6'1	2.6 Pts
4-PF	Bob McDonough	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	5'11	2.4 Pts
5-C	Dennis O'Shea	4	0	2	0	0	2	1	0	2	6'2	1.9 Pts
	Turnovers 12	71	3	28	6	8	25	7	2	17

Here is the all-time NIT Tournament with seven of the Elite 8 teams settled.

Best Ever in All 31 Conferences: Qualifying for the All-Time Tournament

We’ve decided to award automatic bids to the all-time champions from the 10 major conferences in our Value Add Basketball Game. Additionally, we’ll feature the best all-time team from each of the other 21 conferences and provide a bid to the top team among these 21 conference champions.

These automatic qualifiers are seeded from 13 to 20, meaning they’ll first face off against each other, and then aim for a major upset against one of the four undefeated tournament championship teams—the top 4 seeds from the 258 teams in the Value Add Basketball Game.

The other Sweet 16 matchups consist of the four runners-up from our four previous tournaments (seeds 5 to 8) facing off against the four highest-rated teams that didn’t receive an automatic bid by topping their respective conferences.

Below is a breakdown of the automatic qualifiers by conference, followed by a rundown of the best all-time team from each conference. The rating by each team is our version of the kenpom ratings, but compares each team to the "average" great team in our game, which is the rare team that both makes an Elite 8 AND is ranked in the top 8 for the whole season.

10 New All-Time Conference Champs Added to the Game

1. Northeast Conference (NEC)

   • Fairleigh Dickinson 2005 (Ranked 257, rating -23)
   • A strong team, this squad pushed 3 Quad A teams to the limit, including an overtime loss at Buffalo and close games against Arizona State and Illinois. Best Player: Gordon Klaiber, All-Conference.

2. Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC)

   • Norfolk St. 2012 (Ranked 255, rating -20)
   • Famous for their shocking victory over Missouri in the tournament. Best Player: Kyle O'Quinn, who later had an 8-year NBA career. While we received kudos from NBA teams for predicting Jimmy Butler would be an NBA star, we actually received more credit for picking O'Quinn as a long-time NBA player and saw the two face each other.

3. Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC)

   • Texas Southern 2013 (Ranked 254, rating -19)
   • Under former Indiana Coach Mike Davis, this team was one of the most improved in history, getting battered by 7 early Quad A games including a overtime challenge at Colorado before settling into a 12-game win streak to close the season. If it were not for probation put on the team before Davis' arrival, this team could have taken this hot streak to the SWACs first wins in the Field of 64. Best Player: Fred Sturdivant, All-Conference and Defensive Player of the Year.

4. Ohio Valley Conference (OVC)

   • Morehead St. 2011 (Ranked 249, rating -17)
   • Known for their upset of Louisville in the tournament. Murray State and Belmont dominated most OVC seasons, but we only consider teams still in a conference. Best Player: Kenneth Faried, Conference Player of the Year.

5. Colonial Athletic Association (CAA)

   • UNC Wilmington 2017 (Ranked 226, rating -11)
   • Narrowly lost to Virginia in the tournament. Best Player: Devontae Cacok, still active in the NBA.

6. Big West Conference (BW)

   • Utah St. 2003 (Ranked 221, rating -10)
   • Played Kansas closely in the tournament, having previously upset Ohio State. Best Player: Desmond Penigar, who played in the NBA.

7. America East Conference (AE)

   • Vermont 2020 (Ranked 197, rating -8)
   • Had a strong finish to the season before COVID-19 shut it down, with a 16-1 record. Best Player: Anthony Lamb, who went on to the NBA.

8. Summit League (Sum)

   • South Dakota St. 2012 (Ranked 196, rating -8)
   • A strong team that lost closely to Baylor in the tournament. Best Player: Nate Wolters, who went to the NBA after once scoring 38 of his 53 points in the second half of a come-from-behind win.

9. Big South Conference (BSth)

   • Winthrop 2007 (Ranked 156, rating -5)
   • Defeated Notre Dame in the tournament before falling to Oregon. Best Player: Craig Bradshaw, All-Conference.

10. Southern Conference (SC)

• Wofford 2019 (Ranked 114, rating -2)
• Defeated Seton Hall in the tournament before losing to Kentucky. Best Player: Fletcher Magee, Conference Player of the Year.

These 10 champions are new additions to our game and, while not in the all-time tournament, are primed for potential upsets in future matchups.

One Auto Bid for Best Champion from 11 Conferences with Fewer than 6 Great Teams

These conferences have fewer than six all-time great teams in the game, so only one auto bid is awarded to the best team from each:

1. Big Sky Conference (BSky)

   • Weber St. 2010 (Rating -19)
   • Known for Damian Lillard.

2. Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC)

   • Niagara 1970 (Rating -14.5)
   • Led by Calvin Murphy.

3. Sun Belt Conference (SB)

   • James Madison 2024 (Rating -12.5)
   • With Terrence Edwards.

4. Southland Conference (Slnd)

   • Stephen F. Austin 2016 (Rating -10.3)
   • Led by Thomas Walkup.

5. Mid-American Conference (MAC)

   • Bowling Green 1963 (Rating -4.3)
   • Featuring Nate Thurmond,.

6. Ivy League (Ivy)

   • Dartmouth 1944 (Rating -4.3)
   • Led by Dick McGuire.

7. Horizon League (Horz)

   • Detroit Mercy 1960 (Rating -1.8)
   • Featuring Dave DeBusschere.

8. Western Athletic Conference (WAC)

   • Seattle 1958 (Rating -2.8)
   • With Elgin Baylor.

9. Patriot League (Pat)

   • Holy Cross 1950 (Rating -1.4)
   • With Bob Cousy, this team has a 1-1 record in the game.

10. Missouri Valley Conference (MVC)

• Northern Iowa 2015 vs. Indiana State 1979
• Two teams that would likely have met in our all-time tournament conference championship, led by Seth Tuttle and Larry Bird.

Now we start getting into the teams actually in our 20-team all-time tournament field, so we will present the bracket:

1. Atlantic Sun Conference (ASun - and rated higher than all 20 previous conference champs to claim the one non-Power Conference Auto Bid)

   • Jacksonville 1970 (Rating -?)
   • Artis Gilmore leads this team into the all-time tournament as the top non-Power Conference Champion. They are the 19-seed on the bracket above.

The 10 All-Time Power Conferences with 6 All-Time Great Teams and Auto-Bid

These conferences have at least six all-time great teams in the game, and each of their champions earned an automatic bid to the tournament:

1. Atlantic 10 Conference (A10)

   • Loyola-Chicago (Seeded 20). A10 has 15 all-time great teams in the game. 

2. Conference USA (CUSA)

   • Western Kentucky 1969 (Seeded 18). CUSA has 6 great all-time teams in the game.

3. Mountain West Conference (MWC)

   • UNLV 1991 (Seeded 17). WCC has 9 all-time great teams in the game, San Francisco 1956 with Bill Russell is  WCC champ, 16-seed.  Note that Oregon State and Washington State are both in the WCC for this year only, then will rejoin the Pac-12 next year along with current Mountain West teams Utah State, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and Oregon State.

4. West Coast Conference (WCC)

   • San Francisco 1956 (Seeded 16). WCC has 9 all-time great teams in the game, San Francisco 1956 with Bill Russell is  WCC champ.

5. American Athletic Conference (Amer)

   • Cincinnati 1962 (Seeded 11). Amer has 7 all-time great teams in the game.

6. Big East Conference (BE)

   • Connecticut 2023 (Seeded 7).. 1.      BE has 31 all-time great teams in the game, and two will be in the All-time tournament. Connecticut 2023 goes into the tournament as one of the four tournament runners-up and (7-seed). Villanova 2018 will go in as the Big East champ because we had an extended conference schedule and they had the best record at 4-1 in conference play for a 15-seed.

7. Southeastern Conference (SEC)

   • Kentucky 2012 (Seeded 6). SEC has 32 all-time great teams in the game, and two Kentucky teams will make the tournament. Kentucky 2012 gets the higher seed as one of the four  tournament runners-up for the six seed (6-seed). The 1996 and 1978 Kentucky champs will face each other to break a tie and go as the SEC champ and a 14-seed.

8. Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)

   • Duke 2011 (Seeded 5). ACC has 43 all-time great teams in the game, North Carolina 1982 was a tourn runner-up (5-seed).

9. Big 12 Conference (B12)

   • Kansas 1997 (Seeded 3). B12 has 30 all-time great teams in the game, Kansas 1997 goes in as one of the four tourn winners (3-seed), while Kansas 2008 goes in as the  B12 champs but also a best of rest for a higher 10-seed. 

10. Big Ten Conference (B10)

• UCLA 1972 (Seeded 1). B10 has 39 all-time great teams in the game now that it has the all-time great Pac-12 teams as well – and they fill 6 of the 20 spots in the all-time tournament. UCLA 1972 with Bill Walton goes in as the B10 champ – but gets the even higher 1-seed having won our first tournament when there were just 96 teams. They have two of the other all-time winners as well so will get three of the top four seeds with UCLA 1975 as the 2-seed, and the Fab 5 Michigan 1993 as the (4-seed). Michigan St. 2000 was a tournament runner-up so gets an 8-seed, UCLA 1964 is an at-large best of rest to be the 9-seed, and Indiana 1976 is also a best of the rest as the 12-seed.

These auto-bids ensure that the best teams from each power conference are well-represented in the all-time tournament.

With a mix of historical powerhouses and potential Cinderella stories, this all-time tournament promises plenty of excitement.