Georgia's Carlos Strong thought it was strange, and teammate Shandon Anderson described it as odd - looking at the other bench and seeing their coach's son directing the opposition.
Doug Durham, the 30-year-old son of Georgia coach Hugh Durham, suddenly found himself in charge of Georgia Southern's basketball program Monday when he was named interim coach after Frank Kerns and two of his other assistants resigned."I don't know how he (Hugh) feels, but it feels odd to me," Anderson said after his 17-point performance helped the Bulldogs coast to an 87-57 victory Monday night. "They really got after us in the first half. He had 'em fired up."
"Strange?" asked Strong, who led the Bulldogs (2-0) with 20 points. "Yeah, it was. I've known him since about the 10th grade. He knows what he's doing, and I was glad to see him there."
The Durhams became the fourth father-son coaching matchup in NCAA history when Kerns and his assistants resigned. Georgia Southern said the resignations came because of allegations that a recruit was given academic help with their knowledge.
Doug, the middle son of three, didn't back away from the competition prevalent in the Durham family.
"He wanted to kick me, and I wanted to kick him," he said. "Ain't no different than in golf or racquetball or anything else we compete in."
"I told him I'd see him after the game," the elder Durham said. "I found out some of the situation last night, but not everything. I know it had to be tough for him as a young coach."
In other father-son coaching matchups, Jan van Breda Kolff's Cornell team twice beat Hofstra, coached by his father, Butch; Ray Meyer of DePaul had a 1-0 record against his son Tom's Illinois-Chicago team and Ed Diddle of Western Kentucky met his son, Ed Jr., of Middle Tennessee 12 times, with the father winning 11.
No. 10 Cincinnati 72, Rutgers 61
Art Long scored five of his 17 points during Cincinnati's 13-4 spurt in the second half.
LaZelle Durden added 17 points for Cincinnati, Damon Flint 11 and Darnell Burton 10.
Andrew Kolbasovsky led the Scarlet Knights with 12 points.
No. 20 Georgia Tech 90,
Coastal Carolina 78
James Forrest scored 30 points and Drew Barry and Matt Harpring 19 apiece for Georgia Tech (2-0).
Visiting Coastal Carolina (0-2) was led by KeKe Hicks, who scored a career-high 40 points with a school-record 10 3-pointers.
No. 25 New Mexico St. 99,
W. New Mexico 71
Skip McCoy had 17 points and New Mexico State broke an early tie with a 23-2 surge.
The Aggies (4-1) was coming off a second-place showing last week in the Preseason NIT.