Flowers Begins Natl's Tonight; Gonzo-Quinlan Rift

Seton Hall target Gary Flowers and his Chipola teammates (32-1) will begin their quest for an NJCAA national championship tonight against Seward County in Hutchinson, Ks.

Chipola was ranked No. 1 for much of the year and is currently No. 2 among JUCOs.

Sources close to the Seton Hall program say Flowers will verbal to the Pirates once his season ends.

According to an article on the Chipola Website, head coach Greg Heiar has been working his players out hard for the Big Dance.

"He tries to make our practices as hard as possible, so when we get into the game it will be fairly easy,” Flowers said.

“He says the way you practice is going to be the way you play, it always leads over to the court and that’s true,” Flowers said.

“I believe that at this time of year, it’s important that their bodies are ready to play but their mentality is that of a lion or a tiger, they’ve got that killer instinct, but their fresh so they can go and get their prey,” Heiar said.

GONZO-QUINLAN RIFT

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see the rift between Seton Hall head coach Bobby Gonzalez and AD Joe Quinlan.

After Gonzalez authored a column on how to pick the NCAA Tournament in Monday's New York Times, Quinlan questioned the move in Tuesday's New York Post.

"It could put the individual and the university in a less than favorable position," Quinlan told The Post in a telephone interview. "That's the equivalent of bulletin board material."

Apparently there was some confusion as to whether Gonzalez's words would end up in print. Really?

"We were quite clear," New York Times sports editor Tom Jolly told the Post. "In my opinion there was nothing controversial about what he said. We were looking for a coach to give us his opinion on the field and the article accurately reflects that."

The hullaballo over the Times article comes on the heels of an article in the Ledger saying Quinlan recently sent Gonzalez a letter admonishing him for driving the wrong way down one-way streets around Seton Hall.   

In other Seton Hall news, Quinlan said in a published report that the school considered competing in the College Basketball Invitational but decided against it. Cincinnati (13-18) is the lone Big East school in the tournament, a third-tier event that is making its debut.

The Pirates did not earn an NIT bid despite wins over Virginia and Louisville and a 17-15 overall record.

Comments

[1oldshu]

Again, don't put too much into the UVA win as they were 2nd-to-last in ACC, and Lville was in no way playing then like now with Padgett healthy and Clark and Caracter apparently out of Pitino's doghouse benchings for our game.

As for the growing rift between AD Quinlan and Coach Gonzo, it seems like the stage is setting for one of them to be shown the exit.