NEWS AND NOTES
-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day between Winthrop and East Tennessee State, which may be the best overall game of the day today – CLICK HERE
-LSU v VCU was an entertaining game. VCU kept pulling ahead, and LSU kept coming back, and the fans were going crazy, and when the horn went off VCU picked up a huge win to remain unbeaten on the season.
-Ohio State blew Villanova off the planet last night. Granted, Ohio State hasn’t really been challenged away from home yet, but they played poorly against a good Cincinnati team and still won, and when a team can play poorly and still win it’s a sign that they’ve got a high ceiling. Last night they played fantastic and won huge.
-South Florida, who we thought of as a potential dark horse, has dealt with injuries and it shows. IUPUI blew them off the court last night 70-53. Their expectations aren’t quite what they were a few weeks ago, and it’s hard not to feel for them.
-Penn continues their dominance over the Big Five!! They didn’t have any trouble with La Salle last night in their 75-59 win.
-Saint Joseph’s looked like they had quite a bit of rebuilding to do at the start of this season, and while they may not get to the NCAA Tournament, the rebuilding is going rather smoothly. They got a big win at UConn last night, and were actually blowing the Huskies out for much of the game before UConn had a late comeback. They didn’t come back far enough, though.
-Oklahoma State looked impressive on the road against a pretty good Charlotte team. It wasn’t an Earth shattering win, but it’s at least worth mentioning because they played well on the road against a good team.
-Northwestern is rewriting the book on schizophrenia!! They followed up their loss to Merrimack with a win over Providence.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-MICHIGAN STATE AT SETON HALL (Gavitt Tipoff Games). We’ve got yet another match-up between ranked teams. Michigan State is still looking for their first really big scalp, and they’re going to need a few of them if they want to end up on the #1 line. Seton Hall is looking to knock off a highly ranked team at home. This one should be a fun one!
-PENN STATE AT GEORGETOWN (Gavitt Tipoff Games). Both teams come in 2-0, and while it hasn’t always looked pretty they’ve both managed to win. This will be the biggest test of the season for both teams who (we think) are much improved.
-VANDERBILT AT RICHMOND. We still don’t think either team is all that good, but neither have lost yet, so we will go ahead and highlight it.
-WINTHROP AT EAST TENNESSEE STATE. It’s Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day, and it’s a good one! Winthrop is coming off a huge road win against Saint Mary’s, and East Tennessee State is a team that we think can land inside the bubble.
-SAN JOSE STATE AT ARIZONA. I don’t like putting this with the buy games since San Jose State isn’t in a UTR conference, but it probably should be down with the buy games.
BUY GAMES
-Towson @ Florida
-UL Monroe @ Mississippi State
-Alabama A&M @ Cincinnati
-Long Beach State @ Saint Mary’s
-Central Connecticut @ Arizona State – Arizona State looking for their first win