--- title: This College Basketball Team Banned Smartphones. Now It’s in the Final Four description: Texas Tech men's basketball team, the parents of America salute you. Our country's coaches also offer a hearty thanks, as does any teacher who's had... canonical: https://time.com/5565272/college-basketball-team-ban-cellphones/ author: Sean Gregory article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-04-05T23:07:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:52:51.680Z article:section: Sports og:title: This College Basketball Team Banned Smartphones. Now It's in the Final Four og:description: Texas Tech men's basketball team, the parents of America salute you. Our country's coaches also offer a hearty thanks, as does any teacher who's had... og:url: https://time.com/5565272/college-basketball-team-ban-cellphones/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f629e7187619836/698947e1656a3f3034bd6e72/texastechbasketball.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: NCAA Men's Final Four - Previews og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This College Basketball Team Banned Smartphones. Now It's in the Final Four twitter:description: Texas Tech men's basketball team, the parents of America salute you. Our country's coaches also offer a hearty thanks, as does any teacher who's had... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f629e7187619836/698947e1656a3f3034bd6e72/texastechbasketball.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This College Basketball Team Banned Smartphones. Now It's in the Final Four > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with Ally. Ally is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: July 2026. ## Ally: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Ally is a digital financial services company offering online-only banking, including checking and savings accounts, through Ally.com and its mobile apps. Launched in 2009 as an original disruptor in financial services, Ally was built to challenge outdated banking norms with a simpler, more convenient way to bank. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: Georgetown vs. Princeton: The Game That Saved March Madness [Watch (HLS stream): Georgetown vs. Princeton: The Game That Saved March Madness](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/z2mnNZ9m.m3u8) (9:34)  _Published 2014-03-19. No. 16 seed Princeton's near-upset of No. 1 seed Georgetown in a 1989 first-round game made sure Cinderella would always get invited to the ball._  by [Sean Gregory/Minneapolis](https://time.com/author/sean-gregory/)  ## Sean Gregory/Minneapolis Senior Correspondent Apr 5, 2019 11:07 PM UTC  The Texas Tech Red Raiders run the court with linked arms during practice prior to the 2019 NCAA men's Final Four at U.S. Bank Stadium on April 5, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Texas Tech Red Raiders run the court with linked arms during practice prior to the 2019 NCAA men's Final Four at U.S. Bank Stadium on April 5, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Streeter Lecka—Getty Images  by [Sean Gregory/Minneapolis](https://time.com/author/sean-gregory/)  ## Sean Gregory/Minneapolis Senior Correspondent Apr 5, 2019 11:07 PM UTC Texas Tech men’s basketball team, the parents of America salute you. Our country’s coaches also offer a hearty thanks, as does any teacher who’s had to battle an electronic device for attention. Why are millions of us so grateful to the Red Raiders? Well, because of your actions, we can now — with a straight face — tell our children, our players, our students that if they just put down their stupid phones and go to sleep already, they too can make the Final Four. These Red Raiders aren’t just a very fine basketball team that will face Michigan State in Saturday’s second national semifinal, in Minneapolis (Virginia plays Auburn in the first game, which tips off at 6:09 eastern). They’re also borderline heroes who’ve done more to prove the power of a tech disconnect than a dozen Ted Talks combined. Texas Tech’s glorious work all started before a Feb. 9 road game at Oklahoma. The Red Raiders had just lost three straight road games against conference opponents (Baylor, Kansas State, and Kansas). So senior captain Norense Odiase, a 6’9″ center from Fort Worth, came up with an idea: let’s bag up all our cell phones before bed. “Get locked in,” says Odiase. “No distractions.” The players complied — some with more protest than others — and Texas Tech won 66-54 the next night. A routine was born. Texas Tech’s third-year coach, Chris Beard, already has no love for cell phones: he bans them at team meals, and at a two-day team bonding retreat at a ranch some 100 miles south of Lubbock, his players surrendered their devices. (They did karaoke instead of scrolling through Instagram). So Beard pushed Odiase’s idea even further: cell phones would be collected on all nights of a road trip, not just the night before a game. “That was never my idea,” says Odiase. “Some of the guys give me some stuff for that.” They shouldn’t: Tech’s a cool 13-1 since the Odiase-ordered ban. Every night at a hotel, Texas Tech junior manager Cooper Anderson knocks on player doors around 11, to collect the contraband. He puts them in a red and black Texas Tech cooler bag (without the ice). He hears a smattering of groans: senior Bradone Francis, according to Anderson, gives him the most gruff. “He’s a good guy,” says Anderson. “But he likes his phone a lot.” I asked Francis about his feelings on the ban, but by the time he looked up from his phone to offer an answer, he had to leave for practice. Indeed, the ban has required some adjusting. “At first, it was tough,” says sophomore guard Parker Hicks. “Our whole generation wants to look on our cell phones.” Hicks was used to idling away on Twitter before hitting the hay. “Actually having to lay there and actually go to sleep is kind of different,” says Hicks. “You look at the ceiling and look at random things. Count to ten or something. Count the sheep.” The upside of unplugging, however, has become clear. Ever since Texas Tech beat top-seeded Gonzaga in the Elite Eight to clinch a spot in the Final Four, Tariq Owens’ phone has exploded. Everyone’s reaching out to him. “Just to be able to get away from it, just live in the moment, feels great,” says Owens, who before transferring to Texas Tech as a graduate student, played at Tennessee and St. John’s. “I know this for a fact, not a lot of teams would be happy about it. This is the kind of culture we have. Guys don’t care about it. We’re locked into more important things than cell phones.” So let’s give Odiase, architect of one of the best bans ever, one more fist-bump. He has a message for the kids of America. “Your phone will always be there, your friends will always be there, notifications, all that stuff, will always be there in the morning,” he says. “Just get some rest.” So you can cut down the nets. ## Transcript You could look at it as a David and Goliath. I think that's an American trait, in't it? For Americans to root for the underdog. People like to see the Davids come out and destroy and beat the Goliaths. There were discussions At that point to eliminate the automatic bids from a lot of the quote unquote smaller conferences. There were serious discussions. And just with one game all those discussions came to a screeching halt. Bobby Winston gets a scream from Mueller. Comes up! Fires! We were on a roll in the regular season. Yeah. Georgetown was dominant that year. They won the regular season Big East title. We went to the Big East Tournament and rolled away with that. So we were feeling invincible. We were feeling like no one could beat us. For the Princeton Tigers number 30 will be Chris Markhart. You know Princeton was, they were a young team I think it was a rough year for them. They barely won the league. They lost three games in the league and they needed to win at Harvard to clinch the spot. [ NOISE ] At that point I had achieved my goal, and the team had achieved their goal to be in the tournament, and, and win the Ivy League, so, so this was, I, I don't wanna say gravy. You know, so they're all getting together. There, there, watching the selection show all excited.. When we found out that we were gonna play Georgetown. And they weren't, they weren't that happy about it. Hey, Princeton and Georgetown. I'll tell you what, I'm supposed to go home for the weekend. If Princeton can beat Georgetown, I am going to hitchhike to Providence. I am going to change into the Princeton cheerleading uniform. I'm going to lead all the cheers. Let's go tigers, Let's go Tigers. It will never happen. They were Pretty intimidating. [ MUSIC ] When you see it and feel it for yourself that people are literally scared of you on the floor. Coach used to always say, they're not scared of you, they're scared of the ghost. And that's the people that came before us and put this program on the map. Georgetown, That's the ballgame, the National Champions. It was definitely more than a basketball team, I mean, I think we were a cultural symbol. Everybody wanted to see the underdog beat the controversial coach. Not just Georgetown, but coach Thompson. They wanted to see that. Then, I think you can take it a little further you know, white against black. You know, people wanted to see that. Not saying that there was some kinda racial tension but, you know, a lot of people thought Coach Thompson was a racist. Which was unfortunate because they didn't get a chance to sit down and just talk with him, find out who he is and what he's all about. I could have given a damn what people thought about Georgetown basketball. You know, it's what I thought about Georgetown basketball that was significant to me. You know, we won ball games and Championships and that's what we tried to do. East region actions continue here from Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island. We are just about set to go. Kit Mueller And once the game started, I remember my, my first shot I took was blocked by Alonzo Mourning. And, you know, was a backdoor cut, and, and he blocked it, and I thought, oh, no. You know, I don't want this to be the you know, what it's gonna be like the, the rest of the game. I knew we were gonna get pressed, and we handled our press pretty good. We were running our stuff, we were getting lay- ups, we get some easy shots, we were making some baskets. We was known as a great defensive team. Full court and half court. But to play it consistently, every possession, at least 30 seconds. That could be a wear on. In the half court set, right away, Princeton was able to run their stuff, and they got few back doors early. The offense was working. That's a goal tend with a bucket for [ INAUDIBLE ]. It all, you know, all of a sudden they're up. You know, they, they had this lead. Well I think it has a lot to do with styles of play. You expected them to get some back doors. You expected them if they got a lead for you to be in a position where you had to chase them, and to be a little bit more cautious. And as it progressed, we realized, we're just playing, we're playing basketball. We're playing Georgetown, but, we were gaining confidence as the game progressed. Absolutely. Your, your Georgetown, you're the number one seed. Your, you're losing to Princeton. What's going on? And you can see, you could kind of tell they were thinking about that. Starting to think about it, sounded psychologically like oh wow, you know, we in for a war. This is why they call it March madness. I guess speechless would be the way to describe this here. The only thing I can say Dick is that the head of the Princeton cheer leading squad just called, wanted to know what sized tutu you wear. I can't believe what I'm looking at John! This is unbelievable! College basketball. Incredible. You know, if this was happening now it would be all over. It would break the system. Viral back then is like you pick up you're buddies, there's like, you know, holy crap, you know, like what's going on? And I mean, and, and then, and it wasn't just Princeton people. People are aware of this at halftime. You're seeing this moment and you just know that like it's, you know, I don't believe this. Heading back out there and, you know, going through warm- ups and there's obviously a buzz in the, in the arena. One of the key things is we come out And we score right away, which is huge, because it gets the crowd right back into it. I thought everything was fine until the first eight calls of the second half went against us. Then I said, oh, somethin's fishy here. They changed their defense I had less opportunities to shoot. We were missing shots. Well, we tried to play to our advantages, see I mean, just as their advantage was pulling it out, tempo and, which they do very well, you know, our advantage was Zo. It was a very simple strategy, Alonzo Mourning at half time was realizing wait a second just give me the ball. He deserved to get every ball every time down the court. So Mourning hits another big foul shot. 50- 49 Princeton down a point. 15 seconds left. I mean and this is like, you know when there's a one point difference you know this is a do or die shot. [ MUSIC ] Scrabis and Mueller Well, that was sort of like sort of a pick and roll, which you have, well we have the pick but we didn't have the roll, Georgetown man to man, They give it to Scrabis, So, I know I was gonna get the ball, I get the ball to the top of the key, and then you, you know, you always want that shot, you know, when your, your backyard or on the, on the playground you don't leave the playground until you make it, but, you don't have, 6'11 future pro's jumping out of the bushes to, to block your shot. Bobby Winston, he gets a scream from Mueller. Comes up, fires, blocked by Mourning! Loose on the floor! Jefferson can't save it. It's out of bounds! He made a, he made a great play. You know, the ball scrambles around after that, it's kinda chaotic. And we get the ball back with one second left. Lap and Mueller fires no, the Hoyas escape. And I mean escape. And advance to the second round in the Eastern regional. Unbelievable. The Princeton TIgers. Every time the game comes up, in Princeton circles, it's an emphatic, yes, he was fouled. [ LAUGH ] Was it a clean block, or was Bobby fouled on the last shot? That, you can argue until you're blue in the face. Tigers, putting on just a fantastic show here tonight. What am I gonna say? Alonzo fouled somebody? No, I didn't think he he fouled anybody. I thought he made a good block. He's very capable. of making a good block. They were a 20 point plus underdog coming in here. You have all this excitement. You have all this anticipation. You have all this transpire. And then, boom, it's over. [ MUSIC ] It was hard. It was, you know. There's a, there's 100 little reasons that you think of. Maybe we coulda done 'em. And then a 100 more, which had been worse. So you take things the way they are, or the way, the way they happen, and that's, that's all. That's all you can do. It was a huge loss for Princeton, huge win for college basketball. The way that game played out, make the world kinda say, oh, maybe we shouldn't get rid of Of the quote unquote little guys because they can play, too. That's what makes this, this event special giving smaller schools the opportunity to do something. People saw how big an audience it got, how magical and fun it is at the 16- 0 to one, it's like, we've, we can't lock any of these Cinderellas out. That would be ridiculous. The beauty of the NCAA tournament is, is that it's not like the pros, it's not a series, it's on, on any given night, the starts align themselves properly, a 16 can give a 1 a game, a 15 can beat a 2. And on and on and on. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5565272/college-basketball-team-ban-cellphones/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5565272/college-basketball-team-ban-cellphones/"},"headline":"This College Basketball Team Banned Smartphones. 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