Small Conference Game of the Day – January 5

Binghamton at Maine, 4:30 PM Eastern (no TV)

The SCGD heads to Orono, Maine today for the America East battle between the Binghamton Bearcats and the Maine Black Bears.  This game is certainly not going to be between two teams vying for postseason berths, or even for winning records this seasons.  Binghamton enters the game at 3-10 overall while Maine is 2-10.  Both teams have RPIs, BPIs and KenPoms below 300.

Despite these weak numbers, this game is featured for a pair of fairly startling upsets pulled by these teams in the past week.  Binghamton defeated Bryant at home last Saturday.  Bryant is the current favorite to win the Northeast Conference and all other losses before last Saturday’s had been to teams ranked in the top 100.  While it was certainly not a game that garnered any national attention, this was actually one of the biggest upsets of the season so far just in terms of the relative talent between the two teams.

If the Binghamton upset was one of the biggest, perhaps what Maine did last weekend was the biggest.  The Black Bears entered the Dr. Pepper Classic in Chattanooga without a single Division I victory.  Their semifinal game against a solid Middle Tennessee team seemed to be a complete mismatch.  Instead, Maine pulled the shocking upset in overtime, and almost beat Chattanooga the next day to win the championship.  This upset victory, combined with Binghamton’s, makes today’s matchup between these two sub-300 teams our choice for the SCGD.