It’s a huge day in football, but it’s a busy day in college basketball as well. Below is a rundown of all of today’s action, as well as a look back at yesterday.
NEWS AND NOTES
-For Chad Sherwood’s Under the Radar Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-The exempt tournament theme of renewing old rivalries continues this year! We’ve seen Texas v Texas A&M, Gonzaga v Washington, Syracuse v UConn, and tomorrow we’ll get to see Xavier v Dayton. Xavier blew past USC, whereas Dayton needed to hold on to beat what appears to be a very red hot Monmouth team, who had a shot to tie the game at the buzzer, but missed. The win for Monmouth would have meant infinitely more than the win for Dayton did, because Monmouth has so few opportunities at notable wins, so to pick up yet another one would have been huge. I still think Monmouth is good enough to make the NCAA Tournament, and to be in a position to where they don’t have to win the conference tournament to do it, but they’ll have a small margin for error. The third place game on Saturday is huge for them.
-Gonzaga likes to build up early leads, and then give them up. They appeared to be completely in the drivers seat against UConn, but let go of the wheel and UConn had a chance to tie it at the buzzer. The Zags held on to win. It wasn’t the first time they appeared to have a game in hand early, but let the other team back into it. They did the same thing against Texas A&M on Thanksgiving. UConn, again, lost in a thriller. It was the second time in about 24 hours.
-Northeastern finally looked like the team that was playing so well at the end of last season when they hit a shot at the buzzer to win at Miami FL. It was the first loss of the season for the Canes, who had looked extremely impressive up until that point. I was ready to give up on Northeastern, but when you look at their profile now they suddenly have just one loss, they’ve won multiple games away from home, and they have a win at Miami FL. The entire complexion of their season has suddenly changed.
-Providence is unbeaten, and got a big win against Arizona out in Las Vegas. Arizona really struggled in both games of this tournament, including two days ago against a winless Santa Clara team. Too much holiday turkey, I guess.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-TENNESSEE VS NEBRASKA (Barclay’s Center Classic). Neither team has has done anything yet to show that they’re good enough to make the NCAA Tournament.
-SOUTH DAKOTA STATE AT UMKC. A win for South Dakota State gets them to 7-0, which is impressive, but they haven’t had a really big test yet.
-VALPARAISO AT BALL STATE. Ball State has just one loss on the season and has yet to lose at home, but Valpo is likely too much for them. Valpo doesn’t have a wide margin for error due to a lack of opportunities at big wins, but they’re still good enough to play their way inside of the bubble.
-CHATTANOOGA VS JACKSONVILLE STATE (Emerald Coast Classic). Chattanooga has just one loss on the season and continuing to pick up wins away from home will help their profile.
-GEORGE WASHINGTON VS CINCINNATI (Barclay’s Center Classic). Both teams come in unbeaten, and for Cincinnati it’s probably their toughest test of the season so far. Both will have other chances at resume building wins, but not so many that this game isn’t important to both teams.
-NORTHERN IOWA AT NORTH DAKOTA. Northern Iowa has a nice win against North Carolina, but this is their first road game and they need wins away from home in order to build a solid profile.
-LA SALLE AT ROWAN (nondiv1). Very cool story behind this game. Read Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day – HERE
-LITTLE ROCK AT TULSA. Little Rock already has a big win against San Diego State, and if they can pick up a second big road win then you have to start thinking of them as an NCAA Tournament team, at least for now. Tulsa has a win over Wichita State, but it’s hard to say how much credit they’re going to get for that seeing as how much Wichita is struggling. They had a decent showing out in the Paradise Jam, but still have a lot of work to do.
-OLD DOMINION AT VCU. This is an old conference rivalry that is now an OOC rivalry, so it has probably cooled off some, but there is still some heat here. This year, it’s a actually a big game for both teams both on and off paper. Old Dominion was pitiful in their last two games and has a lot of work to do if they want their profile to impress the committee. They also have very few opportunities at notable wins, so from their perspective this is a rivalry game with a very pivotal feel to it.
-HOFSTRA AT SAINT BONAVENTURE. Hofstra got the big win against Florida State, but followed that up with two losses. They need to be able to beat teams like Saint Bonaventure in road games in order to build up their profile.
-HAWAI’I AT TEXAS TECH. Hawai’i hasn’t lost yet, and Texas Tech has just one on the season. Granted, neither team has really been tested yet either, so we should learn a little more about them today.
-KENT STATE AT PITTSBURGH. Kent State has just one loss, and a win in a game like this is how they can make a statement and get people’s attention. Pitt is still unbeaten, but other than a half of basketball against Gonzaga that didn’t count, they’re also untested.
-WILLIAM & MARY AT HOWARD. A win for W&M gets them to 5-1 and gives them another win away from home.
-UNC WILMINGTON AT EAST TENNESSEE STATE. We highlight this only to point out that UNCW is 3-0, and like a lot of Colonial teams, they’re off to a really good start.
-SOUTH DAKOTA AT SACRAMENTO STATE. A win for Sac State gets them to 5-0 on the year.
-IOWA STATE VS ILLINOIS (Emerald Coast Classic). Illinois finally looked like a decent basketball team yesterday against UAB after struggling against lower caliber competition, but they weren’t exactly playing against a team that’s as strong as Iowa State, who blew past VA Tech in their first game.
-GEORGIA AT SETON HALL. I think Georgia is a good team, but they need at least a decent win away from home in a game like this to jumpstart their season.
-WESTERN ILLINOIS AT CREIGHTON. Western Illinois has been one of the surprise teams of the year. They started off by beating Wisconsin at Wisconsin, but that was only the beginning. They haven’t lost since and have been running over their competition. If they pull off a win at Creighton then we really need to start taking them seriously.
-SAINT LOUIS VS LOUISVILLE (Brooklyn Hoops Holiday Tournament). Both teams are 4-0, but it still appears to be a big mismatch in Louisville’s favor.
-COLORADO STATE AT UTEP (Corpus Christi Coastal Classic). Both teams are still flying way under the national radar, but both are 5-0, and Colorado State has a win at Northern Iowa, so it’s an early test for both teams, who may be a little better than what most people realize.
-BELMONT AT BYU. I haven’t totally given up on Belmont yet, but if they are a team that’s good enough to get an at-large then they need to win this game.
BUY GAMES
-Bryant @ Georgetown
-Denison (nondiv1) @ Davidson
-SIUE @ Butler
-Lehigh @ Purdue
-Cleveland State @ Maryland
-New Orleans @ Northwestern
-Prairie View @ UNLV