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Louisiana Tech at Old Dominion, 3:00 PM Eastern, American Sports Network
The UTR Game of the Day was a fairly easy selection today despite the full slate of games out there. The first place team in Conference USA, the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, will be traveling up to Norfolk, Virginia this afternoon to battle the Old Dominion Monarchs, who at one point looked like the favorites to win C-USA and possibly even be in the at-large bid conversation. This is no longer true as ODU enters today’s game at 8-5 in conference and down in 5th place in the standings. The Monarchs are 19-6 overall, but have lost 2 out of their last 3 including a pretty much disastrous loss at Texas-San Antonio last week. The good news for ODU is that they are back home today, where they are undefeated this season including wins over VCU and Georgia State. Trey Freeman will need to be strong for the Monarchs today if they want to continue to defend their home court. He was held to only 6 points inn a loss last weekend at UTEP and if La Tech can do that to him as well, the Monarchs will find it very difficult to win.
Louisiana Tech enters today’s game at 12-2 in conference play and 21-6 overall. While those are numbers that may have one wondering if this team is at-large worthy, they have played the #235 SOS in the country and have RPI sub-100 losses to Louisiana-Lafayette, North Texas and UAB on their profile. In fact, a win at ODU today would be the Bulldogs’ best win of the season to date. Louisiana Tech does have a balanced scoring attack with the threesome of Alex Hamilton, Eric McCree and Raheem Appleby leading the way. Despite the bad losses and the weak SOS, this is a very solid and very dangerous team that could register an upset or two if they find a way into the Big Dance. That invitation to the Dance will most likely, however, have to come via an automatic bid. If there is any at-large chance here, a win today is a must.