PUPPET RAMBLINGS
-More often than not, I feel that Duke is overvalued. They are a top five caliber team at home, and since they play so many home games they oftentimes look like a top five caliber team. In the past, they have been only decent (if that) in true road games. For instance, last year they were 4-5 in true road games, and the only NCAA Tournament team they beat was Pitt. That’s not bad, but it’s not top five, which is where they are generally ranked. In the NCAA Tournament, they faced Mercer away from home, and lost that as well. The year before they were just 5-4 on the road, had to sweat out wins against weak teams such as Wake Forest and Boston College, and again only had one win against a tournament team, and that was North Carolina.
Well, last night, they get a MONSTER road win, and I was VERY impressed. Do not be surprised if it is the best true road win that any team is able to manage. That is a solid, #1 seed caliber win. Wow!
-Colorado State is now 7-0. Someone needs to make sure their fans are aware of that. Last night, they were hosting UTEP, who is another good team, and the place looked half empty. When you’re unbeaten and hosting a good team, you should be rammed full (pun intended). Colorado State did win the game.
-Wichita State’s regular season winning streak that dated back to March of 2013 is now over. They jumped out ahead of a very good Utah team on the road, but just couldn’t hold on. I’m still sold on them being a very good team. I was more impressed with Utah than disappointed in Wichita State. Beating ranked teams on the road is not easy to do.
-Louisville’s defense is very impressive. They picked up a big win against Ohio State, who looked awful early, but was able to fight their way back in it despite being on the road. Again, I’m more impressed with Louisville, particularly defensively, than discouraged about Ohio State after that one.
TONIGHT’S HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-LSU AT WEST VIRGINIA. West Virginia is off to a fantastic start, and LSU is off to an okay start. If LSU wants to kick down the door to the NCAA Tournament then these are the kinds of wins they need on their profile.
-BAYLOR AT VANDERBILT. Both teams come into this game with just one loss, and Baylor has looked rather impressive this year.
-WESTERN ILLINOIS AT AKRON. Akron has two losses and I don’t know how much we like their at-large chances at this point, but they are down to having very few (if any) strikes left and cannot afford a loss like this.
-GREEN BAY AT GEORGIA STATE. Fantastic game tonight. Read all about it here in our UNDER THE RADAR GAME OF THE NIGHT.
-ARKANSAS AT IOWA STATE. Two teams that are in the rankings and looking for a win of note. Arkansas, who has been terrible on the road in recent years, already has a notable road win at SMU. This will likely be an even bigger challenge.
-TCU AT OLE MISS. Chances are there is nothing to see here, but TCU is currently unbeaten and Ole Miss has just one loss, and that was the season opener.
-SAN DIEGO AT SAN DIEGO STATE. This appears to be a mismatch, but oftentimes this is a better game than what you would expect.