December 1 – Respected Saint Louis coach Rick Majerus died at 64 of heart failure. Majerus had been placed on a medical leave of absence prior to the start of the season for medical reasons and was replaced on an interim basis by Jim Crews. Majerus had a record of 517–216 in his 25 years as a head coach, with stops at Marquette, Ball State and Utah prior to taking the job at SLU. His best finish came in 1998 when he led Utah to the NCAA championship game.[2]
February 28 – ESPN reports that the "Catholic 7" will launch their new conference in July 2013, two years ahead of schedule, and will purchase the rights to the "Big East" name from the remaining conference schools. Two Atlantic 10 Conference members, Butler (which had only joined the A10 in July 2012) and Xavier, will reportedly join the new Big East, with Missouri Valley Conference member Creighton also a possibility.[4]
March 8 – The Big East split is officially announced. As previously reported, the "Catholic 7" will leave on June 30 with the Big East name. As of the announcement, the "Catholic 7" were the only members of the new Big East, but Butler, Xavier, and Creighton are expected to be added shortly.[5]
March 20 – The new Big East is officially launched at a press conference in New York City, with Butler, Creighton, and Xavier joining the "Catholic 7".[7]
April 3 – The FBS schools that will retain the charter of the original Big East unveil their future name, the American Athletic Conference,[8] marketed as "The American."
The Great West Conference disbanded at the end of the season after four seasons of competition.
November 25 – Lehigh's CJ McCollum scored 26 points in a 91–77 win over Sacred Heart, which made him surpass Rob Feaster as the Patriot League's all-time leading scorer.[9]
January 2 – VCU senior guard Troy Daniels set a school and Atlantic 10 Conference record by hitting 11 three-pointers in a 109–58 win over East Tennessee State. Daniels scored all 33 of his points in the game on three-point shots.[13]
January 26 – Northern Illinois set several all-time Division I marks of offensive futility in a 42–25 loss to Eastern Michigan: fewest points in a half in the shot clock era (4), lowest field goal shooting percentage for a half (3.2%), and tied the record for fewest field goals made in a half (1).[26] The Huskies shot 1-for-31 in the first half, including 29 straight misses.[26]
March 5 – D. J. Cooper of Ohio becomes the first player in the history of college basketball to record 2,000 points, 900 assists, 600 rebounds and 300 steals in a career.[28]
The 2012–13 season saw the second wave of membership changes resulting from a major realignment of NCAA Division I conferences. The cycle began in 2010 with the Big Ten and the then-Pac-10 publicly announcing their intentions to expand. The fallout from these conferences' moves later affected a majority of D-I conferences.
In addition, one school moved from Division II starting this season. This school was ineligible for NCAA-sponsored postseason play until completing its D-I transition in 2016. Finally, one school that had announced a transition to Division II, New Orleans, announced that it would halt its transition and remain in Division I.
Coastal Carolina left behind one of the smallest venues in Division I basketball, Kimbel Arena (seating a little over 1,000). The Chanticleers remained on campus at the new HTC Center.
Beginning in 2012–13, the following rules changes were implemented:
College coaches are allowed to practice with players a maximum two hours per week during the Summer (May–August) as long as the student-athletes were enrolled in classes.[30]
Coaches could work their teams for a maximum of two hours a week beginning September 15 until official practice begins on October 13.[31]
There is now unlimited contact, including text messaging, allowed between college coaches and a prospective player in high school and junior college recruiting.[32]
^The former Coaches vs. Cancer Classic was renamed the 2K Sports Classic in 2012 due to a sponsorship change, and a new tournament named the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic began play in 2012. *Although these tournaments included more teams, only the number listed played for the championship.
† 2013 America East tournament winner As of March 22, 2013 Rankings from AP Poll *Ineligible for conference tournament due to changing conferences in 2013
† 2013 CAA tournament winner Rankings from AP poll *Ineligible for postseason play due to APR penalties **Ineligible for conference tournament due to changing conferences in 2013
† 2013 SWAC tournament winner As of March 21, 2013 *Ineligible for postseason play due to APR penalties **Ineligible for postseason play due to NCAA sanctions Rankings from AP Poll
After the NCAA tournament field is announced, the NCAA invited 32 teams to participate in the National Invitation Tournament. The tournament will begin on March 19, 2013, with all games prior to the semifinals played on campus sites. The semifinals and final will be respectively held on April 2 and April 4, 2013, at the traditional site of Madison Square Garden.
The fifth College Basketball Invitational (CBI) Tournament began on March 19, 2013, and ended with a best-of-three final scheduled for April 1, 3, and 5; the final went the full three games. This tournament featured 16 teams who were left out of the NCAA tournament and NIT.
The fourth CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament was held beginning March 2013 and ending with a championship game in April 2013. This tournament places an emphasis on selecting successful teams from "mid-major" conferences who were left out of the NCAA tournament and NIT. 32 teams participated in this tournament, which granted an automatic bid to the Great West Conference men's basketball tournament champion.
Braswell was fired after 17 seasons, ending with a 14–17 season. Although he led the Matadors to two NCAA tournaments and three 20-win seasons, his tenure was also marked by numerous off-court problems. Ironically, incoming Northridge athletic director Brandon Martin, who announced Braswell's firing, played under him in high school.[108] Northridge went to the D-League to hire Theus, who is also a former coach of New Mexico State and the Sacramento Kings, and played 13 seasons in the NBA.[109]
Calhoun retired on September 13. He won 873 games in 40 years as a head coach, first at Northeastern and the last 26 years at UConn, where he put four teams in the Final Four, winning national titles in 1999, 2004 and 2011.[111]
Enfield guided the Eagles to the school's first-ever NCAA tournament appearance in only its second year of Division I eligibility, then advanced to the Sweet 16 as a #15-seed – the first time in tournament history that a 15-seed had gotten so far. The University of Southern California lured Enfield away on April 1.[113]
Gillian guided the Lancers through their transition from Division II to Division I play, and into their first season as a member of the Big South Conference. He resigned on March 14, 2013, after the Lancers' first season with less than ten wins since 2008.[114] On April 3, Cleveland State associate head coach Jayson Gee was hired.[115]
Smith was fired after six seasons at Minnesota and having compiled a 124–81 record. The Golden Gophers never finished higher than sixth in the Big Ten Conference, however.[116]
Carmody was fired after failing to lead Northwestern to its first ever NCAA tournament bid in thirteen seasons.[119] He was replaced by Duke assistant Collins, the son of former NBA player and coach Doug Collins. Collins took over after the Blue Devils exited the NCAA tournament.[120]
Rice was fired on April 3 after ESPN's Outside the Lines aired a video taken at a Rutgers practice that showed Rice shoving and throwing balls at players and using gay slurs.[122] Jordan, a player on the school's 1976 Final Four team and most recently an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers, was hired as Rice's replacement.[123]
Majerus stepped down prior to the season for health reasons and later died. Interim coach Crews led Saint Louis to an Atlantic 10 regular season title and was named conference coach of the year.[124] Saint Louis removed the interim tag from Crews on April 12.[125]
San Jose State was looking to upgrade the program before its move to the more strenuous Mountain West Conference next season.[126] Boise State associate head coach Dave Wojcik was hired as Nessman's successor on March 30.[127]
According to ESPN.com, "Buonaguro went 35-59 in three seasons with the Saints, never finishing a season with a winning record or in the top half of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The three-year slide immediately followed the most successful three-year run in school history. Siena won MAAC titles in 2008, 2009 and 2010 -- all under coach Fran McCaffery, with Buonaguro his top assistant."[128]
Arrow retired December 19, 2012. Jeff Price was named interim head coach. Butler associate head coach Matt Graves was named the new head coach of South Alabama on March 25, 2013.
The Red Raiders were 8–23 overall, 1–17 in the Big 12, in Gillispie's lone season as successor to Pat Knight. Gillispie's tenure in Lubbock began to unravel in September 2012 when CBSSports.com and ESPN.com, citing several former players, reported the coach regularly violated NCAA practice-time rules and mistreated players to the point of causing injury[131]
According to the Orange County Register, "...the perfect storm of attendance, reputation, and very little NCAA tournament success was enough to doom Howland after 10 seasons."[132]
Monroe resigned as head men's basketball coach on October 10. He led UMBC to its lone America East Conference title and NCAA tournament appearance in the 2007–08 season. Monroe directed the third-most games (245) of any head coach in UMBC men's basketball history and finished with a career mark of 85–160.[133] On March 4, Aki Thomas' interim tag was removed and he was promoted to permanent head coach.
Brown was fired on March 12, 2013. He went 64–122 with UMKC, including an 8–24 record in 2012–13.[134] He was replaced by Louisville assistant Richardson, who took over after the Cardinals won the NCAA title.[135]
O'Neill was fired on January 14, 2013. USC athletic director Pat Haden cited "new energy" was needed for their program.[136] On April 1, USC announced that they had hired Andy Enfield, the head coach who just taken Florida Gulf Coast University to the Sweet 16 as a #15-seed, the first time in NCAA tournament history that has occurred.[113]
^Texas Southern had the league's best regular-season record, but was not recognized as the champion due to major NCAA sanctions. Arkansas–Pine Bluff was tied with Southern in the league standings, but was also not recognized due to Academic Progress Rate sanctions.
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