Under the Radar Game of the Day: Arkansas-Little Rock at Appalachian State, 7:30 PM Eastern
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There is only a small handful of Under the Radar teams with the potential to grab an at-large bid this season should they falter in their conference tournaments. Wichita State, St Mary’s and Monmouth are three teams that we have been discussing all season (and the first two of those have both climbed back into the Coaches’ Poll Top 25 this week). One other team with such a chance is in the Sun Belt and will be playing their final regular season game tonight. Arkansas-Little Rock enters play today with a record of 27-3 overall and in first place in the conference at 17-2. The Trojans have solid RPI (35), BPI (56) and KenPom (45) ratings. They hold a pair of road wins over teams that are at least in the bubble discussions, San Diego State and Tulsa. Their losses include a game at a clear NCAA Team (Texas Tech) and two additional conference road games (at Arkansas State and at Louisiana-Monroe, the team that has proven to be the second best in the conference). With those two conference losses and no wins against clear NCAA teams, however, winning tonight’s game at Appalachian State is pretty much a must if an at-large bid becomes necessary. The Trojans will look to Josh Hagins to lead them again tonight, as he has been a consistent double-digit scorer with the ability to dish out close to double digits in assists as well.
Standing between UALR and their 18th conference victory tonight is the Appalachian State Mountaineers. App State is 7-22 on the season and 5-13 in Sun Belt play. Their RPI is 285, meaning that a Little Rock win tonight will not help the Trojans’ at-large case much, but a loss would be devastating to it. Appalachian State is on the verge of being mathematically eliminated from finishing in the top 8 in their conference and qualifying for the conference tournament, and a loss tonight would officially eliminate them. The Mountaineers are led by Frank Eaves, a deadly three-point shooter who has made the same number of three point baskets this year as two pointers (82 of each). Amazingly, he is shooting a couple percentage points higher from beyond the arc than from inside it (40% from three and 38% from two). He will need to do better than his 1-foor-8 field goal shooting in the Mountaineers’ earlier 81-55 loss at Little Rock if his team wants to pull the upset tonight. But if he does catch fire, the Little Rock could be in trouble and find themselves having no choice other than winning the Sun Belt Tournament if they want to go to the Big Dance.