Under the Radar Game of the Day: Tennessee Tech at Chattanooga, 7:00 PM Eastern, socondigitalnetwork.com
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92-90 overtime win at Georgia. 81-77 win at Illinois. 61-59 win at Dayton despite star Casey Jones being out for the game. And we are only a month into the season! This is what the Southern Conference’s Chattanooga Mocs have done already, and they have squarely placed their program on our radar as a potential at-large candidate come March if they can avoid stubbing their toes the rest of the way. The good news for the Mocs is that they do not have a single team ranked in the KenPom top 100 left on their schedule this season, meaning they should be favored to win almost every single game the rest of the way. This is also the bad news, as any loss from here on out will likely be a black mark on their record, and they cannot afford too many of those if they wind up needing an at-large bid. Tonight, the Mocs (who are still without Casey Jones), host the Ohio Valley Conference’s Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles. Chattanooga will look for another big effort from Greg Pryor, who led the team with 15 points in the Dayton win, but could see almost anyone step up. Seven players other than Jones and Pryor have already scored in double digits at least once this season, so the scoring could come form almost anywhere — making the Mocs a difficult and dangerous team to game plan and defend against.
Tennessee Tech enters play tonight with a record of 7-3, though none of those wins have come against anyone in the top 200 of the KenPom ratings, and only a victory over Lipscomb came away from Cookeville. The Golden Eagles are led by Torrance Rowe, who had 26 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals against Lipscomb, and Ryan Martin who added 18 points and 11 rebounds in the same game. They will need both players to be just as effective if they want to pull off the road upset tonight. If the Mocs shut Rowe and Martin down, and noone else steps up, it could be a very long night for the Golden Eagles.