Mid-Major Minutes: Florida Gulf Coast’s Brian Thomas shines and Evan Bradds writes about his conference tournament heartbreak

Good morning! If you’re reading this, you’re clearly starting your day off right with an effort to better yourself by becoming more educated about the goings-on in the mid-major world.

In a landscape so dominated by the biggest schools and conferences, it’s quite hard to winnow down the information you want and need to hear about your favorite mid-major programs.

Thankfully, Mid-Major Madness is here to aggregate the news and links for you, providing you with a brand-new, daily post about the world of mid-major hoops.

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#Content to Read

Duquesne’s non-conference schedule is...a snoozefest (Duquesne Athletics)

The Duquesne Dukes released their non-conference schedule for the upcoming season, and it’s really nothing special. Honestly, this is probably a good thing for a Duquesne team that is fresh off of a 10-22 season and looking to rebuild under new head coach Keith Dambrot.

Below is their complete non-conference schedule. Pitt is their toughest opponent. I’m not even sure which team is the 2nd-toughest. San Francisco maybe??

Duquesne Athletics

Being left out of the NCAA Tournament Evan Bradds’ perspective (Mid-Major Madness)

As the leader of the #EndConferenceTournaments movement, I loved the piece that former Belmont Bruins player Evan Bradds wrote for this site yesterday. It was about what it felt like to not make the NCAA Tournament as a member of two really exceptional Belmont teams.

Reading this is a good look into a mind of a player who has experienced the things we so often write about, and reading it is highly worth your time. However, this one particular paragraph will help bolster my #EndConferenceTournaments campaign:

I know all too well how it feels to come up short. Three times in my college career, we won the regular season title and got knocked out of the conference tournament. It is the worst feeling that you can have — to play so well during the year and lose one game that completely derails your season.

FGCU’s Brian Thomas shines in summer practices (Naples Daily News)

Florida Gulf Coast’s Brian Thomas — a freshman big man for the Eagles — has been wowing the coaching staff like none other. Apparently he has been dominating practices this summer, and coach Joe Dooley has clearly landed a future star for his team.

And, as Dana Caldwell wrote, it sounds like Dooley saw something in Thomas early that other teams just didn’t take note of:

It's a good thing the Eagles got him early because Thomas blew up to be called Georgia's 16th-best player. HoopSeen named him the top get in the Atlantic Sun and he chose the Eagles over "a couple" Power Five schools, two Atlantic 10 programs and other top-notch mid-majors.

Ronald Dupree accepts an NBA job (Nevada Athletics)

The Nevada Wolf Pack will be down a coach as assistant Ronald Dupree has accepted a job of some sort in the NBA. The job/team isn’t specified, but the Nevada Athletic Department was quick to point out Musselman’s coaching tree:

Dupree joins a long list of staff members that have worked under coach Musselman that have moved on to the NBA ranks. He joins former Musselman assistant coaches who are currently coaching in the NBA, Scott Brooks (head coach of the Washington Wizards), David Fizdale (current head Coach of Memphis Grizzlies), Brandon O'Connor (Los Angeles Clippers), Keith Smart (Memphis Grizzlies), Duane Ticknor (Sacramento Kings), Larry Lewis (Sacramento Kings), Mark Hughes (New York Knicks), Clay Moser (Los Angeles Lakers), Phil Handy (Cleveland Cavaliers), and Sammy Gelfand (Golden State Warriors).

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Tweets of Interest

Big news on the Twitter front for UIC

Interesting fact from Evan Bradds about coach Rick Byrd

This isn’t really a tweet, but North Texas mic’d up Coach McCasland

Ah, the good old days when Montana State and Seattle were basketball powerhouses

It’s TBT day on the Twitter

^See previous heading^

EPCOT, baby

MAKEOVER SZN

Well, well, well

Lots of mid-majors on the Iowa State schedule

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Recruiting News