Hoops HD

NEWS AND NOTES:

-There were 186 games and while some of the matchups were great, most were just hot garbage buy games. Tonight there are far fewer games and there is no Monday Night Football. If teams would wait just one more day to open their season would probably get a much bigger audience. But…what the hell do I know?

-The surprise of the night (at least the surprise of the night that had national relevance) was Memphis’s win over Iowa State. The Tigers were just 13-19 last year and didn’t beat any ranked opponents, so to suddenly start off this year with a win like that completely changes the narrative of that program (at least in my mind). The American failed to get a team safely inside the bubble last year, so this was arguably a big win for the entire conference and not just Memphis.

-The upset of the day was East Texas A&M, who was picked to finish dead last in the Southland, going on the road and winning at Oklahoma 68-64. This isn’t overly surprising just because of how good we thought Oklahoma might be this year, but because of how God-Awful we thought ETAMU would be. This…was…well…shocking. It’s easily the biggest win I can ever recall that program ever having. Maybe we were completely wrong about them and they can make some noise in the SLC this year.

-UCLA got a massive win against rival Arizona and this should catapult them into the spotlight right out of the gate. We were big on the Bruins, we knew Arizona’s roster had been overhauled, and we thought they had a chance. To beat a rival that’s ranked in the top five in the first game of the year should get that fanbase very excited.

-A really good Miami FL team kept it interesting against top ranked Florida, but the Gators kept them at arms length the whole time and won 77-67. A neutral floor win against a highly ranked in-state rival is not a bad way for the Gators to start off

-Gonzaga got a battle form Purdue out in Las Vegas, but held on to win 78-72 to get their season off to a nice start.

-BYU held off a solid Ohio State team in Salt Lake City 94-83 to pick up a solid opening night win.

-In the Field of 68 Tip-Off Marathon, McNeese just manhandled UAB 99-78. I don’t think UAB is a great team, but I thought they were good enough to make a lot of noise in the American and McNeese just dump-trucked them. That got my attention. Just how good is McNeese this year?

-Murray State also sandblasted Tennessee State 94-64 in the Field of 68 Tip-Off at the fabled Samford Pentagon. The OVC can go ahead and start making potential travel arrangements for either Dayton or Wichita come March.

-The Field of 68 Tip-Off began with High Point running away from Liberty in the middle of the night to win their opener. As most of America woke up and went to work, area rivals Queens and Winthrop faced off with the Royals holding off the Eagles 103-98 in the highest scoring game of the day.

-Miami OH, who was a media darling last year, started off with a really nice road win this year at James Madison 86-77. They had to come from behind in the second half to do it, so to win on the road the way that they did is a statement of how good they can be. This is arguably as good as any of their regular season wins from a year ago. JMU should be pretty good this year.

-Overall, the MAC ended up going 7-5 against the Sun Belt in the first round of the MAC-Sun Belt Challenge; what’s noteworthy here is that all games were played in Sun Belt campus sites. The second round of this challenge will be played at MAC campus sites. Akron, UMass, Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan and Ohio U were other winners on the road.

-Arkansas State and Louisiana Tech saved the Sun Belt from a complete embarrassment; the Red Wolves beat Toledo and LA Tech got a nice win over Kent State in their return to the Sun Belt.

-Colorado State picked up a 84-74 win against Montana State. Nothing overly dramatic here, but Colorado State is a team that I think can make the NCAA Tournament and Montana State is one of the better teams in the Big Sky, so it did have some opening night appeal.

-Saint Mary’s got a battle from an Illinois State team that we think will make quite a bit of noise in the Missouri Valley. SMC held on to win 90-85, and it probably wasn’t the type of win that will get their fans overly excited, but it was a solid win against a solid team that’s better than what most probably realize.

-Our first buzzer beater of the season came in New Rochelle, New York where Kevon Vanderhorst hit a layup with time expiring to give Iona a 56-55 win against America East favorite Vermont.

We had some poor showings in buy games yesterday…

-North Carolina didn’t exactly bury Western Carolina. If you’re wondering just how good Western Carolina is expected to be in the SoCon this year, the answer is not very. It was just an 80-72 win over a team that’s expected to finish ahead of The Citadel, VMI, and one other team.

-Wisconsin slogged through the second half against Denver, who is probably as bad or worse than Western Carolina. The Badgers won 75-68, but I guess the nice way to say it is that there is room for improvement.

-Creighton actually trailed at the half to Kansas City. They came back to win 76-61, which was a comfortable win, but this is a Roos team that some of us thought would be contending for the Centenary Award this year.

-Stanford had to sweat out Eastern Washington a little bit in their 74-65 win, but not many of us were all that big on Stanford anyway.

-Second to last, but not least…Seatlle U, my dark horse team this season, lost a thriller at Hawaii 74-73. It’s not easy to win at Hawaii, but I’m always saying that good teams need to be able to win games that are not easy to win. It’s just the first game, and I still like this Seattle team, but this would have been a really good win to have on their resume.

-Last, and definitely least, not so much because of the play but because of the officiating, Tulane held on to beat UT Martin 100-98 in double overtime. The last 29 seconds of overtime took over 19 minutes to complete because of how much time the referees spent at the replay monitor. It was so maddening that even though the game was a double OT thriller, I STILL wanted to change the station!!

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NOTABLE GAMES:

–Wofford @ Tennessee – Wofford is one of the better teams in the SoCon and Tennessee struggled (to put it nicely) in their exhibition games. Still, one would think Wofford is overmatched in this one

–Sam Houston @ Alabama – this is a buy game, but Sam Houston should at least have enough of a pulse to keep it somewhat interesting for a little while

-Cal State Fullerton @ San Diego State – a lot of question marks about both teams

BUY GAMES:

-Manhattan @ Kentucky
-Stetson @ South Carolina
-Coppin State @ Virginia Tech
-Hampton @ Georgia Tech
-Drexel @ Virginia
-Arkansas Pine Bluff @ Arkansas
-LSU New Orleans @ LSU
-Cleveland State @ Missouri
-Alabama State @ Texas A&M
-Lipscomb @ Iowa
-South Dakota State @ Kansas State

-The write ups at this point are making presumptions because…well…there’s no actual data to analyze yet. Regardless of what any of the write-ups say, technically speaking all the teams are starting off at zero and all of the team-sheets are blank. For all we know a conference like the NEC could blow up in the months of November and December and have 7 or 8 teams positioned to make the NCAA Tournament. It’s all (well…mostly all) decided on the court.

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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-NOTRE DAME VS VILLANOVA (Sunday) (Eternal City Tip-Off – Rome, Italy). Villanova was back in the NCAA Tournament last year after a three year absence and looks to be good enough to make it back this year. Notre Dame has really struggled in recent years and the expectations are not high this year, but a win in a game like this could instantly turn that around (at least for a little while). This is kind of a crazy game, but at the end of the day it counts as a neutral floor game on the team sheets and in the metrics just like any ohter game.

-LIBERTY VS HIGH POINT (Sunday) (Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon – Rock Hill, SC). These are two of the better Under The Radar teams in the country and it’s actually a fascinating game that is worth staying up for. Both teams are good enough to make a run at the bubble, but both have a small margin of error, which makes this a pretty high stakes game right out of the gate.

-MIAMI FL VS FLORIDA (Tampa, FL). Florida is the preseason #1 ranked team and Miami FL is in the top 15. Both are stacked with talent, both are potential protected seeds, and both get the chance to pick up a win that would be huge in their resumes tonight. Even though it’s the first day of the season, the committee is closely watching and these games will be discussed come March.

-MIAMI OH AT JAMES MADISON. We are highlighting this because I think Miami OH might have a better team this year than they had last year, but their margin for error is once again very small and this is not an easy road game to win. If they are good enough to be inside the bubble, then they need to be good enough to win games that are not easy to win.

-GONZAGA VS PURDUE (Las Vegas, NV). Both of these teams are likely NCAA Tournament teams. People are saying Purdue doesn’t look to be quite as good as they’ve been in recent years, and I agree with that, but if they win tonight that will completely change my mind. Gonzaga once again has a highly talented roster that should contend for a protected seed and they can pick up a really notable win tonight.

-OHIO STATE VS BYU (Salt Lake City, UT). Ohio State looks to be a solid NCAA Tournament team and they can really make a statement tonight if they can beat a nationally ranked BYU team in what isn’t a true road game, but is an environment that will definitely favor BYU. For both teams this is an opportunity at a quality win.

-ARIZONA VS UCLA (Las Vegas, NV). The rivalry resumes!!! Sort of. It’s not quite the same as the long time Pac 10/12 series, but at least they still play. Both are in the rankings, I think UCLA could have a really big year this year, and if they somehow take down an Arizona team that’s starting off ranked in the top 5 I believe many people will start to agree with me.

OTHER NOTABLE GAMES:

–Winthrop vs Queens (Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon – Rock Hill, SC) – These are two solid UTR teams that will likely be near the top of their conference standings

–Murray State vs Tennessee State (Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon – Sioux Falls, SD) – these are two super talented UTR teams, both of whom are the preseason favorites to win their conferences

–UAB vs McNeese (Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon – Rock Hill, SC) – UAB has a solid roster and a good coaching staff, so I’m a little surprised they haven’t gotten more respect in the preseason. None of that matters, though. This is a good McNeese team they are facing and it will be a good win for whichever team can pull it off

-Memphis vs Iowa State (Sioux Falls, SD) – Memphis is talented, but I’m not a huge believer in them this year. Having said that, my mind will instantly change if they’re able to pull of a win (or even just play well) in this game tonight.

–Howard @ Yale – It’s not likely that either team will be inside the bubble, but there is a very good chance that both will be in the field. This is just a really good early season game between two solid UTR teams

–Toledo @ Arkansas State – neither team will likely be inside the bubble, but both are solid UTR teams and Arkansas State is good enough to win the Sun Belt

-Montana State @ Colorado State – this is a sneaky good game between a Montana State team that is one of the better teams in the Big Sky and a Colorado State team that I think is undervalued and has a shot at making a run at the bubble.

-Illinois State @ Saint Mary’s – another really interesting game between Illinois State who should be one of the better teams in the MVC and Saint Mary’s who is having to adjust to life without Randy Bennett.

–Seattle U @ Hawaii – I like this Seattle team. I think they can win the WCC. This is not an easy road game, but it’s one that they should win if they’re as good as I think they are.

-Southeastern Baptist (nonD1) @ West Florida – Welcome to D1 West Florida!! That is the only reason we are mentioning this. It’s their first ever official game as a D1 program

BUY GAMES/PASTRY CART (The home teams will get virtually ZERO credit for winning):

-UMBC @ George Mason
-Oakland @ Michigan
-Army @ Duke
-Monmouth @ Saint John’s
-Loyola MD @ Georgetown
-Quinnipiac @ Michigan State
-Jackson State @ Texas Tech
-Bellarmine @ Vanderbilt – I like Bellarmine’s team, but they’re likely overmatched tonight
-Niagara @ West Virginia
-FGCU @ UCF – this is a fun inner-state match-up, but UCF is likely far superior
-Little Rock @ VCU – Little Rock has some talent, but VCU should cruise
-Stetson @ Clemson
-Bucknell @ Maryland
-Eastern Illinois @ Indiana
-Western Carolina @ North Carolina
-American @ Cincinnati – I like this Bearcats team this year
-Charleston Southern @ South Florida
-NJIT @ Dayton
-New Haven @ Syracuse
-Rider @ Pittsburgh
-Mount Saint Mary’s @ Xavier
-Maine @ Providence
-Morehead State @ Western Kentucky – WKU is good enough to make a run at the bubble
-Denver @ Wisconsin
-Saint Peter’s @ Seton Hall
-Le Moyne @ Nebraska
-Campbell @ NC State
-Navy @ George Washington – GW should win, but they better not completely overlook Navy
-Mercyhurst @ Marquette
-Tennessee Tech @ Mississippi State
-NC Central @ Georgia
-Fairleigh Dickinson @ Illinois
-Fordham @ Kansas
-Binghamton @ Northwestern
-Lindenwood @ TCU
-Southern @ SMU
-Lehigh @ Saint Louis
-UMES @ Wake Forest
-West Georgia @ DePaul – I like DePaul’s team this year and think they’ll be much improved
-Kansas City @ Creighton
-East Texas A&M @ Oklahoma
-Alcorn State @ Ole Miss
-Florida A&M @ Florida State
-Gardner Webb @ UConn
-Chicago State @ Texas
-La Salle @ Houston
-Chattanooga @ Louisville
-Utah Tech @ New Mexico
-Incarnate Word @ Oklahoma State
-North Dakota @ Minnesota
-Texas Southern @ Grand Canyon – The Lopes are good enough to land inside the bubble
-Idaho State @ Utah State
-Northwestern State @ Baylor
-Montana @ Oregon
-East Tennessee State @ Arizona State – The Randy Bennett Era begins!
-Radford @ San Francisco – The Dons should be a force in the WCC
-Towson @ Santa Clara
-Robert Morris @ Nevada
-Milwaukee @ USC