Under the Radar Game of the Day: Northern Arizona at Arkansas-Little Rock, 2:00 PM Eastern
And then there were 6. After yesterday’s results, we now have six undefeated teams left in the nation. Michigan State. Oklahoma. SMU. Xavier. South Carolina. And Arkansas-Little Rock. The UALR Trojans are the only undefeated team that has not yet cracked the Top 25 rankings (though we believe they will soon if they keep winning). Despite not being a team that we were looking at seriously heading into the season (Yours Truly picked them to finished 7th in the Sun Belt), the Trojans have exceeded expectations and looked extremely good all season long. They have won at San Diego State and at Tulsa already, and went to DePaul last week, picking up a 22 point victory over a Big East team. The Trojans have been led so far by Josh Hagins (19 points at 8 assists against DePaul) and a deep bench (their top three scorers in the win over Idaho all came off the bench). Enough cannot be said for the job that has been done by ex-Bob Knight assistant Chris Beard so far this year. He is 9-0 for his career as a D1 coach, and one cannot argue with perfection.
This afternoon, Little Rock goes for 10-0 as they host the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks out of the Big Sky Conference. Despite making a run to the CIT Championship game last season, NAU has been off to a very rough start so far this year, sitting at 2-7, with both wins having coming against non-D1 competition. And they have not been playing the toughest of teams either, as their resume includes home losses to Norfolk State and Hampton. The brights spots so far have been the play of Kris Yanku (double figure scoring in all but one game) and Torry Johnson (if we throw out his game against Arizona where he was held scoreless). It appears that the Lumberjacks may be in over their head’s today in Little Rock — but the games are played on the court and not on paper, so you should never count any team out until the final buzzer sounds.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-PITTSBURGH VS DAVIDSON (New York, NY). Both these teams have good records, but don’t really have any good wins. Both have potential, but need to start putting some meat on their profile, and winning today would be a good start.
-MONMOUTH AT RUTGERS. If we’re going to talk about Monmouth as if they are an at-large candidate, then the only way to sum up this game is to say that they need to avoid a bad loss at Rutgers.
-EVANSVILLE AT FRESNO STATE. Evansville has been good this season, but they need some notable wins. Fresno isn’t a great team, but they are 7-0 at home and if Evansville can go there and win they will get some credit for it.
-Bradly @ Boise State. Buy game
-UMass Lowell @ UConn. Buy game
NEWS AND NOTES (David Griggs)
-In case you were out Christmas shopping, or had just given up on basketball in general until March, yesterday was a VERY exciting day. We had a lot of notable upsets with Ohio State taking down Kentucky, Utah beating Duke in overtime, Northern Iowa holding on to beat Iowa State, Seton Hall taking down an improved Wichita State team in overtime, Gonzaga and Oregon State winning close games, as well as some other results. There is another reason yesterday was great. For the first time, I think we’re starting to see how the new rules emphasis on officiating, particularly on cleaning up the physical play, has improved the game. Yesterday’s games were not only close, they were so much fun to watch. Utah made one big defensive play after another against Duke, and they did it without playing like it was a rugby scrum. The skill and finesse have come back! So, for everyone that was complaining about all the fouls and all the whistles, this is why!! This is what we want the game to look like! Yesterday was just a fantastic day with so many well played games, and it should hopefully be this way from here on out! That’s all I really wanted for Christmas!
Now that college basketball is starting to get good again TURN ON YOUR TELEVISIONS!! BUY TICKETS!! It’s not just Madness in March. It’s Madness ALL SEASON LONG!!!