Hoops HD

NEWS AND NOTES:

-VCU at Memphis lived up to the hype. I had questions about both these teams coming in (especially Memphis), but I think both are solid tournament caliber teams. We’ll see what their profiles look like at the end of the year, but as far as what they look like on the court, both look good. VCU jumped out to an early lead, but it was close throughout. Memphis fought back and took the lead in the final seconds and VCU missed what would have been a game-winning shot. Memphis got the win, improved to 2-0, and probably has the two best collective wins of any team this year so far. Their other was against Iowa State. VCU falls to 1-1 and this one stings a little bit because they have limited opportunities to pick up these kinds of wins, but I still think they’ll be fine come March.

-San Diego State, who we believe to be in a rebuilding mode, is now 2-0 after winning 77-66 at Colorado.

-High Point got more of a battle than what I was expecting from Washington State, but held on to win 83-70 and stay perfect on the season.

-Dayton fell behind early to Northern Illinois. They fought back in the second half, but couldn’t pull away. Northern Illinois had three key players foul out, and Dayton still couldn’t pull away. Northern Illinois forced overtime, then won in overtime 81-76. NORTHERN ILLINOIS!! AT DAYTON!!! I said at the beginning of the year I would not be fooled by Dayton again and did not pick them to win the A10 or make the NCAA Tournament, but I never thought they’d lose at home to NORTHERN ILLINOIS!!! Now, to be completely fair to the Huskies, they have a lot of players no one had really seen play at the D1 level and may be a lot better than we expected. They certainly looked good and played with a lot of confidence last night. But this was a STUNNING result in that a team that was picked to finish pretty much at the bottom of the MAC went on the road and beat a team many were picking to make the NCAA Tournament.

-Nebraska got a nice 68-57 win against Providence in a game that turned out pretty much exactly the same way most of us were expecting.

-Santa Clara got a battle from Sacramento State, but held on to win 83-77. Sac State may make a little more noise in the Big Sky than what we were expecting.

-Last, and definitely least (but most interesting), Bethesda lost to Southern Utah by 94pts and Pepperdine by 73pts. In the same day.

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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-ARKANSAS VS VIRGINIA (Washington, DC). This is the first real test for both these teams and it’s a chance to pick up a big early season win that will look good on the team sheet. Both are high in the rankings and can contend for protected seeds.

-SAINT MARY’S VS NEVADA (Lake Tahoe Classic). Both teams have shown signs of being good early on, neither has a loss, and this should be a resume building opportunity for both of them. We are still trying to learn how good they both are and we should learn something tonight.

-USC VS WICHITA STATE (Lake Tahoe Classic). I like both of these teams. Wichita State looks to be very much improved this year and tonight they’ve got a chance to make a splash onto the national scene and add a huge win to their resume. USC is ranked, good, and expected to land easily in the top half of the bracket.

OTHER NOTABLE GAMES:

–Harvard @ Chicago (nonD1) – interesting only because Harvard is going on the road to play this game. It won’t count on the teamsheet as a true road win. At least I don’t think it will.

-Green Bay @ Saint Thomas – neither team is likely to be anywhere near the bubble, but it’s a solid UTR matchup

-Butler @ Boise State – neither team has a loss, but neither has really been tested either, or are they expected to do well. But as of today neither has given us a reason to not pay attention yet.

-Western Kentucky @ Tennessee Tech – WKU can stay unbeaten and pick up their first true road win of the year

-Richmond @ Temple – both teams unbeaten

-Norfolk State @ William & Mary – both teams unbeaten

-Pittsburgh @ Penn State – both teams are unbeaten, but I’m expecting both to finish about a hundred miles from the bubble. But today, neither team has a loss and today is the day we are writing this up.

-Houston vs California (Lake Tahoe Classic) – this appears to be a huge mismatch in favor of Houston. Cal hasn’t lost yet and they can really make an unexpected splash on the national scene if they can somehow pull this out, but it isn’t likely

-UT Arlington @ Hawaii – both teams are unbeaten

BUY GAMES:

-Iona @ Saint John’s
-SEMO @ South Carolina – both teams unbeaten

NEWS AND NOTES:

-UConn kept Michigan at arms length the entire way during last year’s national championship rematch last night and won 85-77. At no point did it really feel like they weren’t in control. It was an impressive showing by the Huskies.

-Valparaiso stunned Purdue in a double overtime thriller. Valpo hit a last second 3-pointer to force overtime, and then hit another buzzer beater at the end of the second OT to win 83-80. We had said that we thought Valpo had improved and that we liked their roster, but we didn’t think they were quite this good! In order for an Under the Radar team to land inside the bubble, these are the kinds of games they need to be able to win.

-Saint Louis pretty much controlled Missouri from tip to buzzer and picked up an impressive 90-84 win. This was a big one for SLU because they don’t get that many opportunities at solid P4 teams.

-UCF is 2-0 with a solid 87-75 win over Yale. UCF actually trailed at the half, but then totally controlled the game down the stretch.

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SPOTLIGHT GAMES:

-BETHESDA (nonD1) AT SOUTHERN UTAH – 8:30pm, est

-BETHESDA (nonD1) AT PEPPERDINE – 9pm est

-you are seeing that correctly. Here is a link to BETHESDA’S ACTUAL SCHEDULE. They actually played out in Hawaii yesterday!! They are splitting their team!!! Half is going to Southern Utah. The other half is going to Pepperdine. This is…well…a lot of things. But it is also a first. I also think it may be time for a new Hoops HD Award!! Now, you’re familiar with our awards!! You can read about the Centenary Award and the Stallings Award here. Is it now time to institute a third award?? It will be given to the program who schedules the most ridiculous game in all of D1 college basketball!! And we will call it..THE BEHESDA AWARD!!!

-Note from Stalica: What the Puppet failed to mention is that the split squads will return to Hawaii for the Rainbow Classic in two neutral court games on back-to-back days on Sunday and Monday. Oh, and there will be two days later in the year where there will also be split squad games for Bethesda! (I still can’t figure out if the Puppet accidentally or intentionally misspelled the “Behesda” award)

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-VCU AT MEMPHIS. I have been trashing Memphis for over a year now, but I had to stop doing this after Monday when they beat Iowa State. That is one of the single best wins that any team has managed this season, and Memphis will be tested again this afternoon (albeit at home). VCU is a team that we feel is good enough to land inside the bubble, but their opportunities for big wins are limited. This is one of the more important games on the Rams’s schedule. As for Memphis, it’s a chance to continue to build on the success of their big win in the season opener.

-PROVIDENCE VS NEBRASKA (Hall of Fame Tip-Off – Uncasville, CT). Nebraska was in the Sweet Sixteen last year and appears to have a very strong team again this year. Providence isn’t expected to be that good, but they can change that narrative in a hurry if they can win a game like this.

-MARYLAND AT GEORGETOWN. This rivalry finally resumed last year after a long absence!! The only problem was that the game wasn’t all that good and neither were any of hte two teams. That could very well be the case again this year. But, it’s a game that you pretty much have to highlight.

OTHER NOTABLE GAMES:

-San Diego State @ Colorado – San Diego State doesn’t appear to be quite as good as they’ve been in the past, but they won their opener and this should be a winnable road game for them.

-Samford @UNLV – this should be a fun one. I think Samford can compete for the SoCon this year and while this is a tough road game, it’s one they can win

-Northern Iowa @ Furman – Northern Iowa is rebuilding, but they did win their first game. Furman is one of the better teams in the SoCon and this should be a fun UTR matchup. This is the kind of OOC game you liked to see UTR teams play.

-Washington State @ High Point – High Point shoudln’t have too much trouble remaining unbeaten.

-Bellarmine @ Miami OH – this is likely a mismatch. Bellarmine hasn’t won a game yet and Miami OH is an NCAA Tournament caliber team, but I think Bellarmine will be one of the better teams in the ASun so this one is at least worth watching

–Pacific @ Bradley – both teams 1-0

-UNC Wilmington @ East Carolina – both teams 1-0

–Fresno State @ UC San Diego – both teams 1-0

-San Jose State @ UC Irvine – both teams 1-0

BUY GAMES:

-Morehead State @ Louisville
-Boyce (nonD1) @ Liberty
-Omaha @ Utah State – both teams 1-0
-New Mexico State @ Gonzaga – both teams 1-0
-Northern Arizona @ New Mexico
-Northern Illinois @ Dayton
-Northwestern State @ Murray State – may technically not be a buy game, but it practically is
-Bethune Cookman @ Grand Canyon
-Sacramento State – Santa Clara
-Portland State @ Seattle U

NEWS AND NOTES:

-Be sure and check out our new SCOREBOARD TAB. It is the best damn scoreboard you will find on our site (and better than most you will find elsewhere as well).

-Six of the top ranked teams were in action yesterday!! They all played home buy games, all won easily, and nothing interesting really happened at all.

-Rank East Texas A&M!! They are now 2-0 with two true road wins!! No one else in the nation has done that!! They won at Oklahoma on opening night and held on to win 72-71 at Rice last night! This was a team that was picked to finish last in the Southland, and while this likely won’t continue all season long, they’re off to an incredible start.

-DePaul held on to beat South Florida 82-80 in what was a thriller. This game flew way under the radar (despite neither team being what we categorize as UTR), but I think this was a really important game between two teams that may end up fighting for spots inside the bubble and that the committee will be talking about come March. It was a good win for the Blue Demons. In fact it’s one of their better wins as a program that they’ve had in a while.

-Vanderbilt won handily over Wake Forest 74-51. At no point did it ever feel that Vandy was not in complete control. Wake isn’t expected to be great this year, but Vandy made it look like a buy game.

-McNeese was not able to hold on at North Texas. They picked up an impressive and decisive win against UAB in their opener, and were close at North Texas (and even had a lead for much of the game), but North Texas got control late and won 77-67.

-Chattanooga trailed Penn State 54-31 at the half, but completely dominated the second half and almost came back and won, but Penn State barely held on 97-93. Not exactly a solid performance by Penn State in a buy game, but they did get the win.

-Seton Hall also had to sweat out Long Island and really didn’t get control of that one until the final minute, but did win 67-60.

-Princeton came from behind in the second half to beat Hofstra 60-58 in what was a really good game between two solid UTR teams. This was a missed opportunity for Hofstra to pick up a road win that the committee likely would have given them a fair amount of credit for.

-Last, and definitely least, should we just go ahead and give the Centenary Award to Florida A&M?? They lost at home to Fort Valley State 75-70. Fort Valley State is not exactly a top level D2 program. They had a losing season last year. And the year before that. And the year before that. In fact their last winning season was 2013-2014. And they beat Florida A&M last night. Let that sink in!

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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-SAINT LOUIS VS MISSOURI (Saint Louis, MO). This is a neutral site game, but it’s in SLU’s home city and it’s a huge opportunity for the Billikens. They don’t get as many chances at high caliber wins as teams from the power conferences get, but they are still a solid NCAA Tournament caliber team, so the committee will likely be looking at this one. It would be a really nice win for Mizzou as well. This one should be a fun one!! The sport really needs more games like this.

-UCONN VS MICHIGAN (Hall of Fame Series – Boston, MA). This should have been the season opener, and the season should open on a Friday with a big showcase game and not on a Monday with a bunch of crappy buy games. It’s a rematch of last year’s championship game. UConn looks to again be good enough to get back to the Final Four and this would be a high caliber early season win. Michigan lost a lot after winning it all, but they are still really good and can make a big statement if they can pull off a win in this one.

OTHER NOTABLE GAMES:

-UMass vs Boston College (Hall of Fame Series – Boston MA) – UMass looked good in their season opener and BC managed a win as well. The expectations for both teams are low, but as of now they’re both 1-0 and this could be a fun one

–James Madison @ Kentucky – JMU is expected to be one of the better teams in the Sun Belt, but they’re likely overmatched tonight

-Yale @ UCF – It’s a mismatch, and it’s a buy game, but I like both these teams. Yale is good enough to where UCF better not just overlook them. Both are coming in 1-0.

-Arkansas State @ Alabama – it’s a buy game, but it could be a fun one. Arkansas State is the preseason favorite to win the Sun Belt and if they could somehow knock off the Tide tonight they would get the committee’s attention

-Northern Kentucky @ Texas A&M – NKU is probably way overmatched, but they have managed two really solid wins away from home so far and could really make some noise if they can pull off an upset tonight

-Wofford @ North Carolina – UNC really struggled with Western Carolina in their opener, and Wofford is a lot better. The Tarheels need to play better tonight

-Central Arkansas @ Ole Miss – this will likely be a blowout, but Central Arkansas clearly looks to be the best team in the UAC so it will be fun to see what they can do tonight

-North Dakota State @ San Francisco – North Dakota State is the preseason Summit League favorite, but they got blasted the other night by Saint Mary’s and they face another tough team tonight in San Francisco

-Florida Atlantic @ Wright State – both teams 1-0

-UNC Greensboro @ Elon – both teams 1-0. Neither are expected to be good, but for now both are 1-0

-UT Arlington @ Portland – both teams 1-0

BUY GAMES:

-Northeastern @ Virginia
-Arkansas Pine Bluff @ Baylor
-Eastern Washington @ Oregon
-Valparaiso @ Purdue – Purdue lost the opener to Gonzaga and Valpo ain’t bad!
-Youngstown State @ Ohio State – Ohio State looking for their first win
-New Haven @ Rutgers
-Stetson @ West Virginia
-Holy Cross @ Villanova
-Georgia Southern @ Georgia Tech – both teams 1-0
-Coppin State @ George Mason
-East Tennessee State @ NC State – NC State better not sleepwalk
-American @ Clemson
-Troy @ Florida State
-Eastern Michigan @ Xavier – both teams 1-0
-Presbyterian @ Georgia
-Delaware @ Wisconsin – both teams 1-0
-Southern Miss @ Iowa State – Iowa State is looking to bounce back from the loss to Memphis
-Texas Southern @ LSU
-Stony Brook @ Northwestern – both teams 1-0
-Southern @ TCU
-Saint Thomas @ Minnesota – both teams 1-0 and this could be a fun one
-Detroit Mercy @ Marquette
-Mississippi Valley State @ Oklahoma
-Eastern Illinois @ Iowa
-Wagner @ Miami FL
-Middle Tennessee @ Kansas – both teams 1-0
-Idaho @ Colorado State – both teams 1-0
-Queens @ Oklahoma State – both are unbeaten and Queens has two nice road wins so far
-Tarlton State @ San Diego – both teams 1-0
-Oakland @ Stanford
-North Florida @ UCLA – both teams 1-0

NEWS AND NOTES:

-Last night was another slow night consisting mostly of buy game blowouts.

-High Point did not totally dismantle UMES like you would expect. They did win comfortably 63-49, but UMES (who we think is one of the worst teams in all D1) played them pretty even in the second half.

-A couple of nice Under the Radar road wins as Queens knocked off LMU 96-65 to improve to 2-0 on the year and Northern Kentucky went out to South Dakota and beat the Yotes 102-94.

-The one game yesterday that I thought would be a good game was not. Saint Mary’s clobbered North Dakota State 105-64 and looked fantastic doing it.

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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-WAKE FOREST AT VANDERBILT. Both teams breezed through home buy games for their seaosn openers, but both will be tested tonight. Vandy is a top 25 team and they’re at home, so they are the favorites, but it’s also a chance for a Wake team that not many people are expecting to do well to pick up a huge statement win early in the season.

-SOUTH FLORIDA AT DEPAUL. This may be a sneaky good game. I think DePaul could be a dark horse in the Big East this year, but they did seem to struggle in their season opener earlier this week. Tonight will be a much tougher test against a South Florida team that had no trouble in their season opener and is shaping up to once again be a strong team in the American

OTHER HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

–McNeese @ North Texas – McNeese blew out a pretty good UAB team in their season opener and will face another tough road test tonight. It’s not easy to win at North Texas and if McNeese can pull it off that’s two solid wins away from home to start the year

-Hofstra @ Princeton – both teams are 1-0 and both are expected to have fairly solid years. This is a fun UTR matchup

–Green Bay @ Cincinnati – it’s a buy game, but Green Bay is expected to do really well in the Horizon this year and Cincinnati is a team that we think can break out onto the national stage and make the NCAA Tournament, so it’s a game worth watching

-East Texas A&M @ Rice – come March this game will likely mean very little, but as of today both tams are 1-0 and ETAMU is coming off a road win at Oklahoma

BUY GAMES:

-Bellarmine @ Indiana
-Long Island @ Seton Hall – Long Island is the NEC favorite, but is likely overmatched
-Mercer @ Virginia Tech – both teams 1-0
-Mercyhurst @ Notre Dame
-Central Connecticut @ Syracuse
-Buffalo @ Pittsburgh
-Kentucky Wesleyan (nonD1) @ Western Kentucky
-Northwestern State @ Mississippi State
-Jacksonville @ Florida – both teams are 1-0 and Florida is ranked #1
-Coastal Carolina @ Duke
-Toledo @ Michigan State – Toledo should be solid in the MAC but is overmatched tonight
-Gardner Webb @ Texas
-Northern Illinois @ Tulsa
-VMI @ SMU – both teams 1-0
-Le Moyne @ Creighton
-Penn @ Illinois – Penn is a good Ivy League team, but this is a tall order
-Bethune Cookman @ Texas Tech
-Towson @ Utah
-Cal Poly @ Arizona – Arizona should bounce back after their loss to UCLA

NEWS AND NOTES:

-South Dakota State picked up a nice road win at Kansas State. I don’t want to get too carried away with calling this a big upset because K State is…well…terrible, and South Dakota State is expected to at least do decently well in the Summit League, but it’s still a nice win for any UTR team when they’re able to beat a power conference team on the road. South Dakota State tried to give it away by missing key freethrows and coming up empty on key possessions in the final minute, but K State couldn’t capitalize and after a defensive stop on the last play of the game SD State got the big win.

-North Florida did get a somewhat surprising 71-63 win at Cal Baptist, which was unexpected (at least to me) because we were kind of thinking the Ospreys at the bottom of the ASun. It could be they are much better than we thought. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time we were wrong about a team.

-Other than that, it was a very chalky and unexciting night full of buy game blowouts.

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HIGHILIGHTED GAMES:

-NORTH DAKOTA STATE AT SAINT MARY’S. North Dakota State is the preseason favorites to win the Summit League and they will really be challenged tonight against a Saint Mary’s team that’s expected to do well in the WCC and who won their season opener, but who is also trying to adjust to the post-Randy Bennett Era. This will be a test for the Gaels and this is the kind of game they need to be able to win if they’re an NCAA Tournament caliber team.

OTHER NOTABLE GAMES:

–UMES @ High Point – High Point will have little trouble getting to 2-0

–Fairleigh Dickinson @ Butler – I’m not all that big on Butler this year, but I think they’ll win this one and improve to 2-0

–Northern Kentucky @ South Dakota – both teams 1-0, this is the first road game for NKU (Note from Stalica – it’s the first true road game for the Norse, but keep in mind they did beat UTEP at the nearby Sanford Pentagon two days earlier)

–SELA @ Auburn – likely a buy game blowout

–Radford @ California – Cal should get to 2-0

-Queens @ LMU – Queens looked impressive in their season opener against Winthrop in the Field of 68 Tip Off and if they can follow that up with a true road win tonight that is a very solid start to the season

-Milwaukee @ Santa Clara – Santa Clara should cruise to 2-0