Under the Radar Game of the Day: Old Dominion at William & Mary, 7:00 PM Eastern, caa.tv
For our latest HOOPS HD Report podcast, CLICK HERE.
Although there are a couple of notable choices for the UTR Game of the Day tonight (including this year’s first installment of the Battle of the Boulevard down in Nashville between Lipscomb and Belmont), it was impossible to pass up the matchup between another pair of in-state neighbors — Conference USA’s Old Dominion Monarchs and the CAA’s William & Mary Tribe. ODU enters tonight’s game with a record of 3-3, somewhat disappointing so far this season for a team that started the year as the favorites to win CUSA. The Monarchs went 0-2 in their bracketed games in the Hall of Fame Tipoff, getting blown out by Purdue and then falling by a point to St. Joseph’s. They followed those two losses up with a loss at VCU by 9 points. Although none of the losses was devastating, there were certainly missed opportunities there to pick up resume building wins. Without very many key non-conference games left on the schedule, a win in tonight’s game is almost a necessity of they want to be in the at-large bid discussion in March.
Getting a win tonight will not be easy for ODU as they go up against one of the Colonial’s top teams so far this year, William & Mary. The Tribe enter tonight’s game at 4-2 on the season including a nice win at North Carlina State. They lost by 3 points at Dayton (certainly excusable) but are coming off of a game that was not excusable — losing this past Saturday at Howard. Although the Bison have a chance to be among the MEAC’s top teams, if the Tribe want to put together a strong enough resume for the committee to consider them, they cannot afford another loss like that one. Tonight’s game also has almost a must-win feel for the team, especially with a trip to Virginia looming this weekend. If they fall tonight, they could suddenly be looking at a significant losing streak as they get ready for conference play. However, a win tonight will help make up for a lot of what they lost this past weekend, especially with the CAA looking as strong top to bottom this season as it has since realignment cost the league some of its key members (including tonight’s rival).