Under the Radar Game of the Day – Monday, December 8

Incarnate Word at UTEP, 9:00 PM, No TV

Northern Iowa and Incarnate Word.  Amongst the “Under the Radar” conferences, these are the only two remaining undefeated teams.  UNI has been extremely impressive so far this season and is on the verge of breaking into the Top 25 nationally.  Incarnate Word, on the other hand, has received absolutely no attention so far this season.  Nor, quite honestly, have they deserved it.  The Cardinals, in their second of four transitional years to the D1 level, have won all five of their games to date.  Those wins do include a road win at Princeton, and four wins against non-Division I opponents, the maximum number of non-D1 games allowed in a season.

Incarnate Word and Abilene Christian both began their move to the Division I level as members of the Southland Conference last season (though for Abilene it was actually a return to Division 1 after being a member shortly from 1971-1973).  UIW was surprisingly successful, posting a 9-5 record against Southland Conference competition.  As a first year transitional team, they were not required to play a full D1 schedule and in fact only played a single D1 non-conference game, which they lost.  However, a winning record of 9-6 against D1 teams was impressive, and the team certainly showed they are able to win games, posting a 12-0 record in their non-D1 games to end with 21 victories on the year.  Four more non-D1 wins, plus the Princeton victory, have the Cardinals heading into tonight’s game as one of only two Under the Radar undefeated teams.

UIW’s perfect record is in a lot of trouble tonight as they head to El Paso to take on Tim Foyd’s UTEP Miners.  While UTEP is only 4-3 on the season, none of their losses have been awful.  The Miners have split a pair of games with New Mexico State, defeated Xavier, and lost games to Washington and Colorado State (both of whom are undefeated entering play toay).  UTEP was the preseason co-favorite, with Louisiana Tech, to win Conference USA.  With a chance for a marquee win coming up at home on December 19 when the Miners host Arizona, they certainly could find themselves in the conversation for an at-large bid should they need one.  However, the Miners cannot afford any major slip-ups, and despite the 5-0 record, a home loss to Incarnate Word would be the type of loss they may not recover from.  It was just such a loss last year, at home to New Orleans in December, that really kept the Miners from ever even being in the at-large discussion despite a 23 win season.