Sometimes teams come along that you just have to talk about. No matter how many times they play, you just cannot avoid mentioning them again and again. And although this is at least the third appearance for this team in the SCGD this season, there was just no way to avoid not featuring them once again.
Tonight’s SCGD comes from the Harrison Complex in Itta Bena, Mississippi, where the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils will be hosting the final road game of the year for the Grambling State Tigers (8:30 PM Eastern). While MVSU enters the game at 4-22, and ranked by KenPom as the 340th out of 347 Division I teams, the point for tonight;s feature is once again Grambling State. GSU now stands at 0-24 on the season. Tonight marks the first of three games the Tigers will play this week, following tonight’s game with home contests against #338 Alabama A&M (Thursday night) and #335 Alabama State (Saturday). These are also the final three regular season games for the Tigers, with only the SWAC tournament left after this week.
Entering tonight’s game, the #1 rated team at KenPom is Florida with a .9816. The #2 team is Indiana at .9755. No margin of more than one or two hundredths of a point exist between any two teams. Coming in at #345 is Lamar with a .0489 and at #346 is New Orleans at .0469. Between 346 and 347 is the largest gap in actual ratings of any two teams. Grambling’s raw rating is .0044. Similar results can be seen in the RPI, where the average difference between teams is 1 or 2 hundredths of a point, yet Grambling enters dead last with a .3113, well behind UNO’s .3495.
This week is Grambling’s last chance to find a regular season victory. And even though they will be facing three of the worst teams in Division I this week, it will still be a monumental upset if they can win one. The way they have played all season — it may be an upset if they just lose by single digits.