Under the Radar Games of the Day: Sunday, December 21, 2014

Arkansas-Little Rock vs Green Bay, 2:00 PM
UC-Irvine vs Bradley, 4:30 PM
Both games streamed live at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/holiday-hoops-classic-2014

Today’s UTR Games of the Day are the two semifinals of the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic at South Point Arena in Las Vegas.  While we normally feature only a single game each day, this four team event is certainly under the radar and therefore both games merit our attention.

In the first semifinal, the 4-4 UALR Trojans will be taking on one of the top UTR teams this season, the Horizon League’s Greeen Bay Phoenix.  UALR’s wins have been all against teams ranked 263 in KenPom or worse, including one non-D1 win.  As a result, they are going to have a very tough time with Green Bay today.  The Phoenix enter the game at 8-2 on the season, with only losses at Wisconsin and at Georgia State to tarnish their record.  The Phoenix most notably have a road win at Miami, though that victory does not look quite as good after Miami got blown out by Eastern Kentucky a couple nights ago.

The winner of the first semifinal will take on the winner of the second game in Monday’s championship (and the two losers will meet in a third place game).  The second game features UC-Irvine taking on Bradley.  UC-Irvine was one of our top teams in the Big West heading into the season, especially with 7-6 monster Mamadou Ndiaye in the middle  Ndiaye has missed the last four games with a sprained foot, and the Anteaters dropped three of the four, including a loss to KenPom rated 301 Morgan State last time out.  If Ndiaye is able to play and contribute, they should not have too much trouble with Bradley.  The Braves are 4-6 on the season with only one win over teams rated better than 300 in the KenPoms.  Their losses include bad home losses to Robert Morris and Texas-Arlington.

While both of Sunday’s games appear to be mismatches, if we do in fact get the Green Bay vs UC-Irvine championship, it could be a chance for both teams to get a notable non-conference win as we head towards the start of conference play.  Such a win is very important for Green Bay, which may find themselves in the at-large discussion before the end of the season should they slip in the Horizon League tournament the way they did last year.  A loss to UALR, or one to Irvine (especially if Ndiaye is not available), could be disastrous to the Phoenix’s at-large resume.