Under the Radar Game of the Day – Thursday, February 12, 2015: Sacramento State at Eastern Washington

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Sacramento State at Eastern Washington, 9:00 PM Eastern, free streaming at watchbigsky.com

The game of the season to date may very well be here in the Big Sky Conference as the league’s top two teams meet up tonight for the second time this year to break the tie in the loss column for the conference lead and determine which team will have a leg up in the battle for the right to host the conference tournament.  Sacramento State, which won the first matchup back on January 17 in Sacramento, enters tonight’s showdown with a 10-1 conference record and a 16-6 overall record.  They are ranked 136 in the RPI and 201 by KenPom, based mostly on a sub-300 Strength of Schedule.  But the SOS does not matter if the Hornets can keep winning games in what has already been their best season at the Division I level ever.  With 5 of their last 7 games on the road, starting tonight, Sac State will need to prove themselves if they want to clinch their first ever Big Sky regular season title.  A win tonight, however, will give them a sweep of Eastern Washington on the season and put them in the driver’s seat for the championship.

Eastern Washington made headlines back in November when they went to Assembly Hall and knocked off the Indiana Hoosiers by an 88-86 score.  The Eagles now sit at 9-1 in Big Sky play and 18-5 overall.  None of their losses have been awful (at SMU, at Washington, at Sam Houston State and at Cal in addition to the Sacramento State loss), but their RPI of 62, KenPom of 126 and overall SOS of 203 are not good enough for serious at-large consideration.  That being said, we do believe this to be a dangerous team should they make the field of 68 that could definitely win at least one game there.  In order to get to the field, winning the Big Sky regular season title and getting to host the conference tournament on their home floor is a huge advantage.  And that makes winning tonight pretty much a necessity.