Under the Radar Game of the Day: Southern at Grand Canyon, 9:00 PM Eastern, COX-7, free streaming at cox7.com
For our latest HOOPS HD Report video podcast, CLICK HERE.
For John Stalica’s latest bracket projection, CLICK HERE.
For the detailed breakdown of why Grand Canyon should be NCAA Tournament eligible, CLICK HERE and then join is in tweeting #LopesWaiver at the ncaa (@ncaa), WAC, national media, and anyone else you like!
The Grand Canyon Antelopes had a chance this past weekend to make national headlines and really help us kickstart the #LopesWaiver campaign. Unfortunately, they came up a wee bit short in the trip to Louisville (and a decision has been made that we will never mention that game again). The good news is that losing that game does nothing to change our opinion of where they will finish in the WAC this season. Tonight, Thunder Dan’s squad, led by the likes of Joshua Braun, Gerard Martin, Dewayne Russell, De’Andre Davis, Grandy Glaze, Matt Jackson and more will have a chance to return to the victory column when they host the SWAC’s Southern University Jaguars. This is the first of a three game homestand. Tonight’s game (along with Sunday’s game against Omaha) is also a preliminary non-bracketed game in the Global Sports Classic, an event that will send the ‘Lopes to Las Vegas later this month to play Houston and either Wyoming or Marshall.
The ‘Lopes should not overlook Southern by any means. Although the SWAC has been among the worst rated conferences over the past decade or longer, the conference as a whole has gotten off to one of its strongest starts in recent memory. SWAC teams have already registered 7 non-conference true road victories against Division I competition, tieing the league’s highest total in at least that last 8 years, if not longer. Southern has recorded two of those victories en route to their 5-1 start, including a shocker at Mississippi State. Although we have been making a big deal this season of the #LopesWaiver campaign for GCU, Southern has finally been released from their own NCAA Purgatory, a story that we have been following here at HOOPS HD the last couple of seasons. All of the school’s athletic programs were banned from postseason play for the last two years due to a complete failure by the university over a span of almost ten years to submit properly calculated APR data to the NCAA. As a result of these issues, which were not the fault of the current students playing at the school, the kids at Southern were in the same spot the ‘Lopes currently are — being unable to compete for a championship due to no fault of their own. The good news for Southern is that their blanket postseason ban is gone and their postseason eligibility has been restored. For men’s hoops, it may be just in time as well, as this season’s squad seems poised to make a run at the conference title.