Under the Radar Game of the Day (and other Highlighted Games) for Dec 3: Belmont at Valparaiso

Under the Radar Game of the Day: Belmont at Valparaiso, 8:00 PM Eastern, espn3

The UTR Game of the day heads to Valparaiso, Indiana as the Belmont Bruins and Valparaiso Crusaders will show the rest of the mid-majors and Under the Radar schools exactly what teams should do if they are having trouble scheduling strong competition.  The answer is NOT to schedule a bunch of cupcakes and non-D1 teams.  If the “big boys” refuse to play you, then you should all play games against each other.  Heck, go ahead and schedule a home-and-home series for the same season, putting two solid games against NCAA tournament caliber competition onto your non-conference schedule.  That is exactly what these two teams did, as they meet tonight at Valpo and will play again on December 28 in Nashville.

Belmont enters tonight’s game with a record of 5-3, although none of the three losses has been bad at all (at Arizona State, at Evansville and at BYU).  The Bruins main problem is that they are running out of chances to pick up key non-conference wins — something which could come back to haunt them even if they dominate the OVC like Murray State did last year.  With a win at Marquette being their best victory so far this season, the Bruins really need to win tonight and possibly a sweep these two games if they want to get any serious at-large bid consideration.  Craig Bradshaw is the player to keep an eye on for the Bruins, as he is a consistent double-digit scorer who dropped 26 points on BYU last week.

Valparaiso enters tonight’s game with a record of 6-2.  They had been rolling through the season with a nice home in over Iona and solid road wins at Oregon State and Rhode Island.  Then came this past Saturday when they visited neighboring Ball State and went home with a 69-66 loss.  The Crusaders did build up enough merit with their other victories that the Ball State loss will not be devastating, but they need to prove tonight that they can bounce back from that defeat and pick up a victory against a solid opponent.  As with Belmont, only the teams’ two games against each other remain on their non-conference schedules as tests against teams that look like they are NCAA tournament caliber.  Therefore, it is extremely important for Valpo to win at least one (if not both) of these games if they want to be considered by the Committee for a solid seed and possible at-large bid if needed.  Alec Peters was the one bright spot of the Ball State loss, scoring 28 points, and the Crusaders will need another solid effort from him and his teammates if they want to get the win tonight.

David’s Highlighted Games for December 3

-WESTERN MICHIGAN AT JAMES MADISON.  James Madison has gotten off to a somewhat sluggish start and missed some opportunities.  They’ll have to really play strong from here on out if they want to be in the conversation for an at-large come March.

-KENTUCKY AT UCLA.  Kentucky has never played at Pauley Pavilion before.  As good as they’ve looked this year, and as much as UCLA has struggled, they may not be welcomed back again any time soon.

-LONG BEACH STATE AT COLORADO STATE.  Colorado State has a lot of momentum going and can improve to 6-1 if they can knock off a fairly decent Long Beach State team.

-CENTRAL MICHIGAN AT GRAND CANYON.  This was a game we were really looking forward to before the season started.  The Team of the People have held up their end of the bargain!  They’re unbeaten!  Central Michigan….not so much.  This should still be a fun game to watch, but even though we thought CMU would be the superior team before the start of the season, now it’s the Lopes that are looking better.  #LopesWaiver

-USC AT UC SANTA BARBARA.  USC is a modest 5-2, which isn’t great, but it’s a lot better than what most of us were expecting.  This is their first true road game of the season, but it’s still a game they should win.

-NORTH TEXAS AT UT ARLINGTON.  UT Arlington still has a pretty healthy profile, and they’ll remain in pretty decent shape if they can rebound from the heartbreaking overtime loss to Texas.

-CENTRAL ARKANSAS AT OKLAHOMA – Buy Game