NCAA Tournament notebook: North Dakota center did time at USU

Star watching

Northwestern has the attention of the country, and it also brought several famous faces to Vivint Smart Home Arena on Thursday.

Doug Collins, a former NBA player and coach and respected TV analyst, was a few rows behind the Wildcats' bench watching his son, Chris, coach the eventual winners against Vanderbilt. Doug Collins was caught on television trying to hold back tears after the final buzzer sounded.

Actress Julia-Louis Dreyfus was also in the stands. Her son, Charlie Hall, is a sophomore walk-on with the Wildcats.

Gonzaga, which opened the Thursday schedule of play, has a famous alumnus of its own in Utah Jazz legend John Stockton, who was not spotted at the arena during the Bulldogs' game. One of Stockton's daughters, Laura, is a sophomore on the Gonzaga women's basketball team, which plays against Oklahoma on Saturday in Seattle in the first round of the NCAA Women's Tournament.

— Matt Traub

It's all academic

The matchup of private schools Northwestern and Vanderbilt produced some words not traditionally found on the interview transcripts.

Vandy's players used the likes of neutralize, succumbing and demeanor in their news conference. Even so, Nolan Cressler, who transferred to Vanderbilt from Cornell of the Ivy League, used a snowboarder's go-to adjective. Vandy coach Bryce Drew's winning shot for Valparaiso in the 1998 NCAA Tournament was "sick," Cressler said.

— Kurt Kragthorpe

Hoosier haunts Valpo

Northwestern's Bryant McIntosh dropped 25 points on Vanderbilt, knocking Bryce Drew's Commodores out of the tournament on Thursday. But if Drew had gotten his way a few years ago, McIntosh would have been been playing somewhere else.

When he was still coaching at Valparaiso, Drew tried unsuccessfully to recruit the point guard out of Greensburg, Ind.

"He's one of the household names in Indiana, obviously, with his shot," McIntosh said. "And just also as a high school basketball player. It was really special to hear from him and was never able to take a visit, was scheduled a couple, and was never able to get on campus, just conflict with our schedules. But, yeah, just being able to hear from him was special."

— Aaron Falk

Blast from the past

North Dakota junior center Carson Shanks spent his first semester of college as a member of the Utah State basketball program. Shanks, a 7-foot native of Prior Lake, Minn., spent the fall semester of the 2013-14 season as an Aggie before he transferred to North Dakota for the spring semester. He sat out the spring semester as well as the fall semester of 2014-15. He played in 19 games as a redshirt freshman for North Dakota after he became eligible in 2014-15. He played in 31 games (24 starts) last season for the Fighting Hawks, averaging 5.5 points and 3.3 rebounds. Shanks has averaged 5.3 points and 2.2 rebounds in 30 games, including two starts, this season.

— Lynn Worthy

Few wishes he had Utah recruit in lineup

The No. 1-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs could've used a Utah kid Thursday afternoon. At least that's what coach Mark Few said. Following the 66-46 first-round win over South Dakota State at Vivint Smart Home Arena, Few said the program is looking forward to the arrival of former Davis High graduate Jesse Wade. Wade, a former All-State star guard at Davis, is set to return from his LDS Church mission in Lyon, France, sometime next month, Few said.

"We could've used Jesse today," he said. "He can bang in 3s from 30 feet."

Few said he first saw Wade at a Gonzaga camp when the former Dart star was a sophomore in high school.

"We think he's going to be a really, really good player for us," Few said.

— Christopher Kamrani

Back to the beginning

VCU's director of operations Nelson Hernandez is no stranger to Utah or Salt Lake City. His coaching aspirations have carried him around the country, including stints at Salt Lake Community College and Utah State University.

Hernandez, who joined the Rams staff last summer, is a Brooklyn native who earned his degree from Utah State in 2013. Following a time as a student assistant at Suffolk Community College in Selden, N.Y., he was an assistant coach at SLCC for the 2009-10 season. He served as Utah State's video coordinator for then-coach Stew Morrill from 2010 through 2014.

Hernandez went on to work as a video coordinator at Clemson (2014-15) and director of player development at Wright State (2015-16) before joining Will Wade's staff at VCU.

Hernandez also worked for the Salt Lake City Corporation as the Sorenson Multi-Cultural Center sports coordinator.

In 2011, he assisted in the production of a documentary called "Off the Rez" on Native American basketball players Shoni and Jude Schimmel who went on to play for Louisville's team.

— Lynn Worthy