Connecticut at Houston, 3:00 PM Eastern, CBS Sports Network
It is an historic day here at Hoops HD. For the first time in the history of the SCGD/UTR Game of the Day, we are featuring the defending national champions. The UConn Huskies, who cut the nets down at the Final Four last season, have (along with their conference) fallen and fallen and finally quite possibly hit rock bottom. They are now Under the Radar and the feature team in this afternoon’s UTR matchup!
UConn enters today’s game at 11-8 overall and 4-3 in conference. They have suffered losses to the likes of Yale, Temple and Tulsa while their best wins were at home over Cincinnati and in Puerto Rico over Dayton. The Huskies, whom we all but inked in as a certain NCAA tournament team and potential American Athletic Conference champions this season, would not be in the field if it was chosen today. On top of that, they only have two games left this season to try to prove their merit, both against SMU. In other words, any loss other than those two games will continue to bury this team. The best that can be said about the Huskies is that the AAC tournament will be played in Hartford this season, giving them home court advantage in an attempt to get in through the conference’s automatic bid.
One of the most mystifying losses suffered by UConn last season came on New Year’s Eve when they were upset in Houston. The Cougars will try to make it two straight home victories over UConn today. Houston enters the game with an 8-12 record overall and an 0-8 mark in AAC play under new head coach Kelvin Sampson. They did break their losing streak Wednesday night with a non-conference win over Rice and will try to build a winning streak today. A win in this game will also be Houston’s most noteworthy yet this season, though arguably the season-opening win they recorded at Murray State is, on paper at least, a better one.
Once again, we welcome UConn and their American Athletic Conference mates to Under the Radar status — at least for today.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-MIAMI FL AT FLORIDA STATE (ACC). Miami is one of the most schizophrenic teams out there right now. Some nights they win decisively at Duke, and other nights they get beaten badly at home by Eastern Kentucky and Georgia Tech. All and all, they’ve got a healthy profile, and have a chance to win a road game against a conference rival.
-CINCINNATI AT EAST CAROLINA (American). For one day only, this is a UTR conference. Cincinnati has a good profile, but the one thing missing from it is true road wins. This is a very winnable conference road game that they need to pick up.
-MICHIGAN AT MICHIGAN STATE (Big Ten). This is a rivalry game between two teams who should both be feeling a sense of urgency. Michigan has been playing a lot better, but they still have a lot of work to do. Winning a road game against a conference rival will give them a ton of momentum. Michigan State appears to be just inside the bubble, so this is a pivotal game for them as well.
FORDHAM AT DAYTON (Atlantic Ten). Dayton is coming off a close road loss, but shouldn’t have too much trouble today. Fordham is still looking for their first conference win.
-UTAH AT USC (Pac Twelve). Utah is highly ranked and until recently I thought they were as good as their ranking, but they have slipped a little bit. Nevertheless, I don’t think they’ll have too much trouble getting the win today.