NEWS AND NOTES
-The Merit Rankings/Bracket Projections should be posted late this morning/early this afternoon. We will also be recording this week’s Hoops HD Report this evening.
-Northwestern followed up their struggle in two buy games and home loss to Creighton with a blowout loss to Texas Tech. Texas Tech is probably better than we thought, but Northwestern is also playing a lot worse than we thought they were.
-Since blowing out Indiana on the road in their season opener, the Trees have lost three straight. They fell to Ohio in what is the season’s first quadruple overtime game yesterday.
-Tulane is out to a 4-0 start and can continue to build momentum and move closer and closer to relevance if they keep it up. I completely understand that 4-0 is not 14-0, but it’s still a much better than expected start for the Green Wave.
-Vermont came from behind to beat Northern Kentucky and pick up a nice win away from home for their profile, while at the same time denying NKU what would have been a nice win on their profile. It was an exciting and well played game that almost no one saw. The arena was empty (to be fair, the game was in the Bahamas), and I don’t think too many people outside of myself purchased the stream.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-LOUISIANA VS IOWA (Cayman Islands Classic). Iowa can improve to 4-0 with a win today and land on the winning side of the bracket which should provide them with the opportunity to face quality teams and potentially pick up quality wins.
-MISSOURI STATE VS GEORGIA SOUTHERN. Georgia Southern is off to a 3-0 start with a notable (at least for now) win at Wake Forest. Missouri State has dropped a game, but we still like their team and they can emerge as a contender for the NCAAs if they do well in this tournament.
-MARQUETTE VS VCU (Maui Invitational). This would be a nice early season win for either team, which is something that they may really need later on. Neither team has done much other than win against cupcakes so far.
-SOUTH DAKOTA STATE VS WYOMING (Cayman Islands Classic). We like both these teams, but also realize they’ll face limited opportunities. Today’s game is hugely important because it gives them a nice neutral floor wins and puts them on the winner’s side of the bracket where the competition will (in theory) be stronger.
-WICHITA STATE VS CALIFORNIA (Maui Invitational). This game could get exceptionally ugly. Wichita is a top ten team and Cal will struggle to finish in the top half of div1.
-EASTERN WASHINGTON VS GEORGIA STATE (MGM Resorts Main Event). This is a fairly decent UTR game with both teams looking fairly good in their games so far.
-UAB VS RICHMOND (Cayman Islands Classic). UAB comes in 3-0, but will have limited chances at statement wins. If they want any shot at all at landing inside the bubble then they need to do well in this tournament.
-FURMAN AT DUKE. It’s a buy game, and it could be ugly, but Furman is one of the better teams in the SoCon (or so we think), so we’ll go ahead and highlight it.
-TEXAS A&M VS OKLAHOMA STATE (Legends Classic). Both teams come into this undefeated, but TAMU has all the signs of clearly being the superior team. We’re thinking it could be a long year for the Pokes, but if they win this game then they will have proved us long (at least for now).
UCLA VS CREIGHTON (Hall of Fame Classic). Both teams come in unbeaten, including Creighton’s big win at Northwestern. UCLA had a nice win against Georgia Tech as well despite the soap opera that is surrounding their team. This is simply a good early season test.
-OAKLAND AT SYRACUSE. Oakland is coming off a really surprising and potentially very damaging loss to Toledo. This is a road game that we’ve kind of had circled as a chance to impress the selection committee with a high quality road win. That’s still the case, but they’ll certainly have to do better than they did the other night.
-SIENA AT BUCKNELL. Neither team has won a game yet. Having said that, this may be the best game between two winless teams after the first week of the season that I can ever recall.
-CINCINNATI VS BUFFALO (Cayman Island Classic). Cincinnati looks to be the strongest team in this tournament. They open against a Buffalo team who has won their first two games, but they haven’t played a team quite like the Bearcats yet.
-NOTRE DAME VS CHAMINADE (nondiv1) (Maui Invitational). Notre Dame is one of the stronger teams in the field along with Wichita State.
-BAYLOR VS WISCONSIN (Hall of Fame Classic). I think both of these teams are better than their current rankings. This is a good chance for each of them to pick up what I think will turn out to be a really good win.
-PENN STATE VS PITTSBURGH (Legends Classic). Penn State shouldn’t have any trouble winning this and staying unbeaten. Saying that makes me think we are now in Bizarro World.
-UTAH STATE AT PORTLAND STATE. We’ll highlight this because Portland State has the chance to face a non UTR team at home, and if they win it they’ll improve to 4-0 on the year.
-RICE AT UNLV. A win for UNLV, gets them to 4-0. Not sure exactly how good they are yet, but they look to be much improved.
-NORTH CAROLINA AT STANFORD. Stanford underwent a somewhat surprising loss to Eastern Washington recently, but they can completely rebound from that and then some if they’re able to knock off North Carolina at home. This won’t be a walk in the park for UNC. To their credit, they oftentimes play a big game away from home early in the season, but they also always seem to have trouble winning it and oftentimes don’t. I still think that it’s a good type of game to play because of how it prepares them later on for what they face on the road, but don’t be surprised if they struggle in this one.
-MICHIGAN VS LSU (Maui Invitational). Both teams are unbeaten. I wasn’t expecting much out of LSU this year, but they beat what I thought was a pretty good Samford team rather handily and could be better than I thought.
-OLE MISS VS UTAH (MGM Resorts Main Event). Both teams come in unbeaten, and Utah already has a rather impressive and decisive win over Missouri. It’s a chance for both of them to pick up an early season win away from home that could (and likely will) help their resume.
BUY GAMES
-Molloy (nondiv1) @ Saint John’s
-Long Beach State @ West Virginia
-Jackson State @ Maryland
-UMES @ Saint Bonaventure
-Troy @ Kentucky
-Emporia State (nondiv1) @ Missouri
-Green Bay @ Mississippi State
-Northern Arizona @ Kansas State
-Hampton @ Xavier
-Omaha @ TCU
-Pine Bluff @ Air Force – AFA can improve to 3-0
-Eastern Illinois @ San Diego State