PUPPET RAMBLINGS
-I don’t want to read too much into this because I know we have a long way to go, but Kentucky looked so good against Kansas, that it appears as though the only way anyone will be able to beat them is if they have an off night. They had twice as many blocks as they did turnovers, they defended as strongly as any team I can remember, and they did this against a very good top five caliber team. Then again, like I said on Twitter, it’s possible that Kansas was simply looking past Kentucky and ahead to Rider.
-Gonzaga was extremely impressive in their game against SMU on Monday night. They looked like a Final Four caliber team (albeit, they were at home), and they made SMU look like…..SMU.
-Miami FL got a huge road win at Florida, which will definitely impress the selection committee come March if Florida turns out to have the kind of season we’re expecting them to have. Miami went from being questionable to now looking like a solid NCAA Tournament caliber team. What is perhaps as impressive as anything was how they won. They fell down by double digits, on the road, to Florida, in a hostile environment, but made adjustments and them fought back to get the victory. It was VERY impressive.
-I think one of the most important games of the day was Northern Iowa’s win at SFA. It was two legitimate top forty caliber teams, but both are somewhat under the radar, and both have limited opportunities at statement wins that will impress the committee. So, with that in mind, it was hugely important for both teams. It seesawed back and forth, both teams made great plays, and Northern Iowa ended up pulling it off. It will likely be the only home game SFA loses this year. I do believe that SFA needed the game a little more because they are at home, and because the Missouri Valley will at least give UNI the chance to pick up top 100 wins. The Southland will likely provide SFA with very few top 200 RPI wins, none of which will do the least bit to impress the committee. SFA has Xavier next, and Memphis and Baylor on the Horizon. They need to win some of those. After seeing them today, they may be good enough to actually win all three of those.
-Toledo, another team we feel is good enough to get an at-large, played a hell of a game at VCU, but came up just short. We oftentimes see teams who need big wins go in and play with a lot of valor, but come up short. That’s what Toledo did today. It’s an up hill battle, and sometimes these teams that are outside the major conferences feel the pressure a lot more, but at the end of the day they need to do more than just play well to impress the selection committee. They need to win a few of those. Toledo will have a few more chances, but not many. I hope they’re able to make their case because they are a good team and they did show that today.
-If you missed the Wichita State v Memphis game, don’t bother watching it. Wichita won rather easily. Memphis followed up their exhibition loss to Christian Brothers with a poor performance yesterday.
-Northeastern is unbeaten, and both wins have come away from home. Tonight, they won at Florida State, which is one of the more impressive road wins that anyone has managed so far. They have notable road games at UMass, Harvard and Richmond. If they can pick up a couple of those, which they’re good enough to do, and avoid too many slip ups in conference, they may not need to win the conference tournament. That’s why I always say that March starts in November.
-UMKC didn’t win at Kansas State the other night, but they played really well. This wasn’t a team that we were excited about, but now that they’ve won at Missouri and put up a hell of a fight at Kansas State, they may be the best team in the WAC. They’ve certainly looked better than New Mexico State so far.
-San Diego State picked up a big home win against their old conference rival Utah. The game was a rock fight, with both teams playing tough defense and struggling on offense.
HIGHLIGHTED MATCH-UPS
-WRIGHT STATE AT BOWLING GREEN. Neither team has lost yet.
-EVANSVILLE AT MIAMI OH. Evansville, who is a dark horse that we believe to be pretty good, needs to be able to win games like this on the road.
-ARMY AT SAINT FRANCIS COLLEGE. Army hasn’t lost yet, and has a real challenge on the road against the preseason NEC favorites.
-OHIO AT FGCU. Neither team has lost
-LIBERTY AT VIRGINIA TECH. Technically a buy game, and it isn’t likely that either team will be in the NCAA Tourney picture, but as of now neither team has lost.
-NJIT AT ALBANY. NJIT, our adopted team, looks to pick up a road win and improve to 2-1 on the year
-OKLAHOMA AT CREIGHTON. Neither team has lost. Creighton has looked pretty good, but they’ve done it against weaker competition and it isn’t known for sure yet if they can compete against top twenty caliber teams with so many new players. The Sooners are trying to pick up what they hope turns out to be a notable road win.
-ORAL ROBERTS AT MISSOURI. ORU opened with a big win over rival Tulsa, and is trying to improve to 2-0 with another notable win.
-DELAWARE STATE AT NORTH TEXAS. Both teams 2-0.
SANTA CLARA AT UTAH STATE. Both teams 2-0.
-UC IRVINE AT ARIZONA. Very intriguing game tonight with one of the best teams in the Big West taking on one of the best teams in the nation. It’ll be interesting to see what UC Irvine can do against a heavyweight.
-GREEN BAY AT WISCONSIN. Green Bay barely missed the tournament last year, and they have most of their players back. They fell to Wisconsin last year after leading for most of the game, and are looking to get revenge. If they can pull off this upset on the road, it would go a long way toward them getting an at-large.
-WAKE FOREST AT ARKANSAS. Neither team has lost, and both are looking for a notable win.
-SAINT JOSEPH’S AT GONZAGA. Gonzaga looked like a Final Four caliber team in their opener. Saint Joe’s has struggled in their first two games, so it could get ugly.
BUY GAMES
Morehead State @ Cincinnati
Coppin State @ Notre Dame
LIU Brooklyn @ Saint John’s. A win for the Johnnies will get them to 3-0
Ramblings and Highlighted Match-Ups: Wednesday, Nov 19th
PUPPET RAMBLINGS
-I don’t want to read too much into this because I know we have a long way to go, but Kentucky looked so good against Kansas, that it appears as though the only way anyone will be able to beat them is if they have an off night. They had twice as many blocks as they did turnovers, they defended as strongly as any team I can remember, and they did this against a very good top five caliber team. Then again, like I said on Twitter, it’s possible that Kansas was simply looking past Kentucky and ahead to Rider.
-Gonzaga was extremely impressive in their game against SMU on Monday night. They looked like a Final Four caliber team (albeit, they were at home), and they made SMU look like…..SMU.
-Miami FL got a huge road win at Florida, which will definitely impress the selection committee come March if Florida turns out to have the kind of season we’re expecting them to have. Miami went from being questionable to now looking like a solid NCAA Tournament caliber team. What is perhaps as impressive as anything was how they won. They fell down by double digits, on the road, to Florida, in a hostile environment, but made adjustments and them fought back to get the victory. It was VERY impressive.
-I think one of the most important games of the day was Northern Iowa’s win at SFA. It was two legitimate top forty caliber teams, but both are somewhat under the radar, and both have limited opportunities at statement wins that will impress the committee. So, with that in mind, it was hugely important for both teams. It seesawed back and forth, both teams made great plays, and Northern Iowa ended up pulling it off. It will likely be the only home game SFA loses this year. I do believe that SFA needed the game a little more because they are at home, and because the Missouri Valley will at least give UNI the chance to pick up top 100 wins. The Southland will likely provide SFA with very few top 200 RPI wins, none of which will do the least bit to impress the committee. SFA has Xavier next, and Memphis and Baylor on the Horizon. They need to win some of those. After seeing them today, they may be good enough to actually win all three of those.
-Toledo, another team we feel is good enough to get an at-large, played a hell of a game at VCU, but came up just short. We oftentimes see teams who need big wins go in and play with a lot of valor, but come up short. That’s what Toledo did today. It’s an up hill battle, and sometimes these teams that are outside the major conferences feel the pressure a lot more, but at the end of the day they need to do more than just play well to impress the selection committee. They need to win a few of those. Toledo will have a few more chances, but not many. I hope they’re able to make their case because they are a good team and they did show that today.
-If you missed the Wichita State v Memphis game, don’t bother watching it. Wichita won rather easily. Memphis followed up their exhibition loss to Christian Brothers with a poor performance yesterday.
-Northeastern is unbeaten, and both wins have come away from home. Tonight, they won at Florida State, which is one of the more impressive road wins that anyone has managed so far. They have notable road games at UMass, Harvard and Richmond. If they can pick up a couple of those, which they’re good enough to do, and avoid too many slip ups in conference, they may not need to win the conference tournament. That’s why I always say that March starts in November.
-UMKC didn’t win at Kansas State the other night, but they played really well. This wasn’t a team that we were excited about, but now that they’ve won at Missouri and put up a hell of a fight at Kansas State, they may be the best team in the WAC. They’ve certainly looked better than New Mexico State so far.
-San Diego State picked up a big home win against their old conference rival Utah. The game was a rock fight, with both teams playing tough defense and struggling on offense.
HIGHLIGHTED MATCH-UPS
-WRIGHT STATE AT BOWLING GREEN. Neither team has lost yet.
-EVANSVILLE AT MIAMI OH. Evansville, who is a dark horse that we believe to be pretty good, needs to be able to win games like this on the road.
-ARMY AT SAINT FRANCIS COLLEGE. Army hasn’t lost yet, and has a real challenge on the road against the preseason NEC favorites.
-OHIO AT FGCU. Neither team has lost
-LIBERTY AT VIRGINIA TECH. Technically a buy game, and it isn’t likely that either team will be in the NCAA Tourney picture, but as of now neither team has lost.
-NJIT AT ALBANY. NJIT, our adopted team, looks to pick up a road win and improve to 2-1 on the year
-OKLAHOMA AT CREIGHTON. Neither team has lost. Creighton has looked pretty good, but they’ve done it against weaker competition and it isn’t known for sure yet if they can compete against top twenty caliber teams with so many new players. The Sooners are trying to pick up what they hope turns out to be a notable road win.
-ORAL ROBERTS AT MISSOURI. ORU opened with a big win over rival Tulsa, and is trying to improve to 2-0 with another notable win.
-DELAWARE STATE AT NORTH TEXAS. Both teams 2-0.
SANTA CLARA AT UTAH STATE. Both teams 2-0.
-UC IRVINE AT ARIZONA. Very intriguing game tonight with one of the best teams in the Big West taking on one of the best teams in the nation. It’ll be interesting to see what UC Irvine can do against a heavyweight.
-GREEN BAY AT WISCONSIN. Green Bay barely missed the tournament last year, and they have most of their players back. They fell to Wisconsin last year after leading for most of the game, and are looking to get revenge. If they can pull off this upset on the road, it would go a long way toward them getting an at-large.
-WAKE FOREST AT ARKANSAS. Neither team has lost, and both are looking for a notable win.
-SAINT JOSEPH’S AT GONZAGA. Gonzaga looked like a Final Four caliber team in their opener. Saint Joe’s has struggled in their first two games, so it could get ugly.
BUY GAMES
Morehead State @ Cincinnati
Coppin State @ Notre Dame
LIU Brooklyn @ Saint John’s. A win for the Johnnies will get them to 3-0