SI:AM | College Basketball’s Most Surprising Team

One of men’s college basketball’s most historically irrelevant programs has authored a remarkable turnaround this season.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. The last time I wrote this much about Fordham basketball was in 2014.

In today’s SI:AM:

???? Ranking the NFL coaching hires

⚽ Manchester City’s big win

???? Remembering Jack Johnson

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Indulge me here for a minute

One of men’s college basketball’s most historically irrelevant programs has authored a remarkable turnaround this season. (No, we’re not talking about my editor Josh Rosenblat’s alma mater Northwestern, which was picked 13th in the Big Ten in the preseason and took down its second-ranked team in a row last night to move into second place in the league. Also, Josh definitely did not add this parenthetical during edits this morning.)

With a win at home last night against St. Bonaventure, the Fordham men improved to 21–5. It’s their first 20-win season since 1990–91, but that fact obscures just how dismal the men’s program has been since then. The Rams have had only three winning seasons in that time and lost at least 20 games in a season 15 times. They haven’t been ranked in the AP poll since ’71. (The women’s program has seven 20-win seasons and two NCAA tournament appearances since 2012–13, so it’s about time the men caught up.)

Full disclosure: I’m a Fordham graduate. Back when I spent two years covering the men’s basketball team for the school paper, a season like this one seemed impossible. In the two seasons before I arrived on campus, the team won a combined five games. In my four years there, the Rams never won more than 10 games in a season.

Last year, though, it looked like the program had finally turned a corner. The team went 16–16 under first-year head coach Kyle Neptune, its second .500 season since 2006–07. But when Neptune was hired as the head coach at Villanova, Fordham was forced to start fresh. The school promoted Keith Urgo, who had been associate head coach under Neptune, to head coach, and he has picked up right where Neptune left off.

Fordham is tied for second place in the A-10 this season. If the Rams are able to remain among the top four in the conference standings, they’ll earn a bye to the quarterfinal round of the A-10 tournament and be three wins away from a March Madness berth.

Now, here’s where I’ll rain on the parade a little bit. Fordham isn’t really that good. That 21–5 record is inflated by what KenPom rates as the easiest nonconference schedule in the country—363rd out of 363 teams. Though the Rams are one of just 23 teams that have won at least 21 games this season, they’re No. 129 in the overall KenPom rankings and No. 8 in luck.

Fordham is winning its games with defense, ranked 105th in the country with 67.2 points allowed per game and 96th in KenPom’s defensive efficiency. The Rams are blocking 5.0 shots per game, which is 19th in the country, and coming up with 7.5 steals per game (76th nationally). That makes up for the team’s offensive shortcomings, which are significant. They’re 156th in the nation with 72.6 points per game. Their 32.2% three-point percentage is 280th nationally, and their 42.6% cumulative field goal percentage is 277th. But I’ll be ignoring that when I’m in the stands at Barclays Center for the A-10 tournament next month.

The best of Sports Illustrated

• With all the openings filled, Conor Orr ranks every NFL head coaching hire.
• Greg Bishop writes about the day Jalen Hurts’s season changed.
• Jeremy Woo examines the landscape for the NBA’s No. 1 draft pick after all the trade deadline maneuvering.
• Chris Mannix remembers Jack Johnson, the first Black heavyweight boxing champ.
• After its 3–1 win over Arsenal yesterday, Jonathan Wilson writes that the Premier League title race has tilted in favor of Manchester City.
• The assault charge against former Texas men’s basketball coach Chris Beard has been dropped.

The top five...

… things I saw yesterday:

5. LeBron’s missed dunk attempt.

4. Mikal Bridges’s 45-point outburst in the Nets’ win over the Heat.

3. Kirill Kaprizov’s spinning goal.

2. Jack Grealish’s go-ahead goal for Manchester City against Arsenal.

1. Oilers goalie Jack Campbell’s lunging save in the third period of a tie game. (The Red Wings won in a shootout.)

SIQ

Jerome Bettis, who turns 51 today, is best known for his time with the Steelers but was originally drafted by the Rams. How many draft picks did Pittsburgh give up when it acquired him in 1996?

• 2
• 4
• 6
• 8

Yesterday’s SIQ: Though far from a hockey power today, which country won its only Olympic ice hockey gold in 1936?

• Great Britain
• Belgium
• Poland
• Hungary

Answer: Great Britain. Great Britain was one of the founding members of the IIHF, international hockey’s governing body in 1908 (along with Belgium, France, Switzerland and Bohemia, which joined later in the year). It won bronze in the second Olympic hockey tournament, in ’24. A fifth-place finish in ’48 was the country’s last Olympic ice hockey appearance. (The women’s team, which began international play in ’89, has never qualified for the Olympics.)

While the name on the jersey was Great Britain, the vast majority of the 1936 team had been raised and trained in Canada. All but two players had immigrated to Canada and learned the game there. Captain Carl Erhardt started playing hockey while attending schools in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Britain’s win in 1936 ended a preposterous stretch of Canadian Olympic ice hockey dominance. Canada had won the first four Olympic gold medals in the sport and had not lost a game in the process. It outscored its opponents 209–8. But in a second-round matchup against Britain in Germany in ’36, the Brits emerged with a 2–1 victory. Britain also won a rematch in the final round, 2–1, to help secure the gold.