Under the Radar Game of the Day – Wednesday, February 4, 2015: Detroit at Valparaiso

For our most recent Under the Radar podcast, CLICK HERE.

Detroit at Valparaiso, 8:00 PM Eastern, espn3

The Valparaiso Crusaders will be trying to stay in a tie for first place in the Horizon League tonight as they host the Detroit Titans in our UTR Game of the Day.  Valpo enters tonight’s game with a record of 20-4 overall and 7-2 in the Horizon.  They have an RPI of 87, BPI of 84 and KenPom rating of 57.  As we discussed in last night’s podcast, this team has an outside chance to get on the Selection Committee’s radar for an at-large bid, but in order to do so cannot afford a loss before the conference tournament.  Of course, winning out during the regular season would also give the Crusaders home court advantage for the conference tournament and a bye into the semifinals, meaning they would probably be favored to win it, even over the likes of Green Bay and Cleveland State, whom they are tied with at the top of the conference standings for now.

Detroit enters today’s game a somewhat disappointing 4-5 in conference play and 11-13 overall.  Their RPI is now at 206, while their BPI is 172 and KenPom is 170, all numbers a lot worse than we had expected for this team.  While they did beat a solid Toledo team and played well against Wichita State, conference losses to Wright State and Milwaukee have really set this team back in the past couple of weeks.  The Titans are led by Juwan Howard, Jr. who has been in double digits in scoring all but twice this season.  Despite their record, the Titans can still be a very dangerous team for the top contenders in the Horizon League the rest of the season, and should give Valpo all they can handle tonight.