Under the Radar Game of the Day: Monmouth at Canisius, 7:00 PM Eastern, espn3
For our most recent Under the Radar video podcast, which includes a length discussion of the Monmouth Hawks, CLICK HERE.
Daniel Pillari. Louie Pillari. Tyler Robinson. Greg Noack. Four players that have combined for under four minutes of game time so far this season (and all of the from Daniel and Tyler). And yet these four kids have made national headlines for the Monmouth Hawks. They are the “Monmouth Bench”. If you have not seen them yet, you have probably been living under a rock. But just in case you haven’t, here it is:
It is fun. It is entertaining. And here at HOOPS HD we fully support and endorse anything that makes the GAME even more FUN!!
By the way, Monmouth has been a pretty darn good team on the court as well. Entering tonight’s game, the Hawks are 4-2 with wins away from home over UCLA, USC and Notre Dame, three of the biggest name brands in college sports. And oh yeah, they did something at UCLA (namely winning) that a certain program named Kentucky could not even do! The Hawks have two losses, neither of which was awful by any means (at USC — a loss they have already revenged and a neutral court loss to a very good Dayton team). Five non-conference games still remain, including a trip to Georgetown and their lone early season home game (December 13 vs Wagner, tickets still available!). However, before the Hawks get to those games, they will be spending this weekend in Buffalo, New York for a pair of early season conference games, at Canisius tonight and at Niagara on Sunday.
The Canisius Golden Griffins enter play tonight with a 2-3 record, coming off of an overtime loss last weekend over Western New York Big Four rival Buffalo. They will present a balanced scoring attack to the Hawks, as five players were in double figures in scoring last time out, led by Kassius Robertson’s 43 points and Phil Valenti’s double-double. The Griffins finished 11-9 in MAAC play last season and would like to servce notice to the conference that they intend to move up in the standings this year. They could certainly do so with a victory in tonight’s game.
On the court, Monmouth has been led by one of the most exciting payers this season, 5-8 Justin Robinson. Robinson may be one of the smallest players every time he takes the court, but that hasn’t slowed him down one bit. He has scored at least 22 points in every game since the opener, and amazingly added in 7 rebounds in the USC victory last time out. And Robinson is not alone, as the teams does have size and talent, including the likes of Deon Jones, Zac Tillman and Micah Seaborn. All of the pieces for a fun and exciting season are certainly here. And when you add in the best non-playing bench in college hoops, we can very easily call Monmouth thee most entertaining story to come out of the MAAC in quite some time. Now it is up to the team to make certain that they can turn this excitement into wins and the eventual goal of an NCAA Tournament berth. Oh…and just how much fun would the Monmouth Bench guys be in March Madness?
OTHER GAMES OF NOTE
-KANSAS STATE AT GEORGIA. K State has just one loss, but I think their record is more impressive than their team. If they win tonight I’ll change my mind about them, though. Georgia is a team that I thought would be good, and they still might be, but like last year they had a sluggish November and have a lot of work to do.
-PITTSBURGH VS DUQUESNE. The City Game! This is a very one sided rivalry, but the atmosphere for this is always more venomous than what most outsiders probably realize. Duquesne is actually decent this year at 6-1, and a win in this game would be their biggest statement win since….I can’t even remember!
-ARKANSAS AT WAKE FOREST. I like this Wake team. They’ve done some good things on paper already and can improve to 6-2 tonight.
-SAINT JOSEPH’S AT COLUMBIA. If Joe’s is gonna show us anything this year, this is the kind of game they’re expected to win.
-ALABAMA AT SOUTHERN MISS. If there is any such thing as a “Road Buy Game” then that’s what this practically is.
-NORTHERN ILLINOIS AT MISSOURI. Northern Illinois is unbeaten, and Missouri has really struggled this year. Could be interesting.
-OREGON AT UNLV. I wasn’t expecting much from UNLV this year, but as of now they’re 6-1 with some impressive wins and will probably be the toughest test for an unbeaten Oregon team so far, since this is the first “sort of” road game for the Ducks (it is being played in Vegas, but at the MGM Grand).
BUY GAMES
-Saint Francis University @ Maryland
-Jackson State @ Louisiana Tech
-Samford @ Texas