Below is a rundown of all of tonight’s action, and a quick look back at some of the games of note from last night..
NEWS AND NOTES
-For Chad Sherwood’s Under the Radar Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-A busy night last night. Maryland fell behind early at North Carolina and fought their way back into it throughout the second half, but UNC held on. I was more impressed with Maryland in this game than most of the other games I’ve seen them play. They were on the road against a full strength UNC team that will contend for a #1 seed, so the loss isn’t at all damaging.
-UT Arlington had a shot to beat Texas at the end of regulation, and ended up falling in overtime. Still, it was an impressive showing and it’s an indication that this team is good. At the very least, they are one of the best eight teams in their conference. The question is whether or not they’ll have enough meat on their profile to impress the selection committee. They have a razor thin margin for error. It’s also worth noting that a UT Arlington basket that should have been ruled a three was only counted as a two-pointer. You can’t say that Texas wouldn’t have been able to tie it had they gotten the credit for it, but it is worth noting.
-Northwestern’s profile is currently really respectable. They’ve been winning. The problem is that they’ve been sweating out some sub par teams. They needed overtime to get by Virginia Tech last night.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-LOUISVILLE AT MICHIGAN STATE (Big Ten/ACC Challenge) (***Spotlight Game***). The last time these two met it was a thriller in last year’s Elite Eight. Both come in unbeaten and in the rankings, although Michigan State has done it against a much tougher schedule than Louisville has. Louisville has looked good against okay teams, but this is their first real heavyweight.
-BUTLER AT CINCINNATI. lost convincingly against Miami FL, which has been their only really big test of the season so far. Cincinnati is coming off a neutral floor win against a pretty strong GW team, and has looked in impressive in all of their games up to this point. These are both likely tournament teams, so it’s a quality win for whoever wins it.
-AUBURN AT COASTAL CAROLINA. Auburn is 3-1 and needs to get wins away from home. This certainly qualifies as a winnable road game.
-SETON HALL AT GEORGE WASHINGTON. GW is off to a great start this season with some notable wins and no real bad losses. Seton Hall isn’t a team I was all that big on, but they do come in 5-1 and if they can pick up this one on the road then they’ll have our attention.
-HOFSTRA AT LA SALLE. This game may not end up being noteworthy come March, but as of now Hofstra has a notable win against Florida State and La Salle has just one loss. We’ll keep highlighting them so long as one or both of them keep it up.
-FORDHAM AT SAINT JOHN’S. Coming into the year I believed these two be the two worst teams in New York, but Fordham is off to a 4-1 start, which is remarkable considering how bad they normally are, and the Johnnies are 4-2. The winner should be able to keep some of that momentum going.
-HARVARD AT NORTHEASTERN. Bean Pot!!! Well, that’s a hockey thing, but still. The complexion of Northeastern’s entire season changed when they won at Miami FL. It will change again if they follow that up with a home loss to a Harvard team that’s really been struggling.
-WISCONSIN AT SYRACUSE (Big Ten/ACC Challenge). Wiscy has struggled to start the year, and that’s putting it nicely. Syracuse, on the other hand, has been surprisingly good. They won three big games to win the Battle 4 Atlantis, and already have quite a bit of money in the bank saved up for March as terms of having a very good early season profile. This would be another notable win for them if they pull it off.
-PENN STATE AT BOSTON COLLEGE (Big Ten/ACC Challenge). Lee Delvecchio will be watching this game, and probably tweeting about it non stop. So, we have to highlight it. I’m not sure anyone else will be watching, though. In fact I would advise using the parental lock feature on your televisions to make sure that you don’t even accidentally turn this game on!!
-TULSA AT OKLAHOMA STATE. Tulsa has looked good at times, but bad at others. Oklahoma State has a solid 5-1 record, but they’ve amassed it against questionable competition, and that’s putting it nicely. This is somewhat of a regional rivalry, both teams have work to do, and winning this game would certainly help.
-MURRAY STATE AT HOUSTON. Houston is unbeaten, but also untested. Murray isn’t particularly good, but they are at least decent.
-NORTH FLORIDA AT LSU. One of these teams has looked decent at times, and it’s not LSU. LSU has looked so bad that you have to ask yourself if North Florida will actually get any credit if they manage to win the game.
-ARIZONA STATE AT CREIGHTON. Both have looked decent but not great at times throughout the season. Both have work to do, and winning this game would certainly help.
-WYOMONG AT DENVER (Front Range). We here at Hoops HD Love the Front Range!! Both teams come in with decent records, but neither have really played anyone yet. The winner should walk away with some momentum, though.
-UTEP AT NEW MEXICO STATE. UTEP is unbeaten, and although they haven’t played any top teams, they haven’t all been complete cupcakes either. Still, it’s hard to say how good they actually are at this point, but if they can pull off a win in a road game against an OOC rival, their momentum will continue. CLICK HERE TO READ CHAD SHERWOOD’S WRITE UP
-VCU AT MIDDLE TENNESSEE. Middle Tennessee is out to a 4-1 start despite not having played any games at home yet. VCU has looked good this year, but they don’t have any really big wins just yet. They better not sleep walk through this one or MTSU may pull the upset.
-INDIANA AT DUKE (Big Ten/ACC Challenge). Indiana is 5-2, but it’s a very unimpressive 5-2, especially when many were expecting them to be a top fifteen team. Duke has looked great this year, and the Hoosiers could be in for a long night. If Indiana is for real, then they need to at least show up and compete with Duke, but up until now they haven’t given any indication that they can even do that, much less beat them.
-NOTRE DAME AT ILLINOIS (Big Ten/ACC Challenge). Illinois is just 3-4, but they’ve looked much better in their last two games since they got healthy. Notre Dame was expected to do big things this year, and they still could, but they’re off to a sluggish start. Both teams have a lot of work to do, so this game, while early, does have some sense of urgency to it.
-FLORIDA STATE AT IOWA (Big Ten/ACC Challenge). Iowa didn’t set the world on fire in the Advocare Invitational, but they didn’t play poorly either. Both teams could really use a notable win at this point, so this is an important game.
-BYU AT UTAH. This is a huge rivalry even though it’s no longer a conference game. It’s about bragging rights off paper. It’s also about picking up a quality win on paper, which is something both teams could really use, especially BYU.
-GONZAGA AT WASHINGTON STATE. Wazzu is unbeaten, but they haven’t played anyone near the caliber of this Gonzaga team. This is somewhat of a rivalry game even though it’s been a very one sided rivalry.
BUY GAMES
-Sacred Heart @ Connecticut
-South Carolina Upstate @ Clemson
-Hartford @ Providence
-FGCU @ Texas A&M
-Grambling @ Marquette
-Detroit @ Vandberbilt
-Morehead State @ Saint Louis
-Fort Lewis (nondiv1) @ Colorado
-Chicago State @ Northern Illinois – this may not be a buy game, but it is a practical one if not a technical one.
-SEMO @ Southern Illinois
-Wayne State (nondiv1) @ South Dakota State
-Silverlake (nondiv1) @ Western Illinois
-Prairie View A&M @ Baylor
-LMU @ Oregon State
-Arkansas Pine Bluff @ Hawaii. Hawaii has just one loss.