NEWS AND NOTES
-We will be recording our Hoops HD Report Video Podcast tonight, so be sure to watch and/or listen once it’s posted.
-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR GOTD – CLICK HERE
-We will discuss this on the podcast tonight, but we’ve made some changes in regards to how we will be doing our Bracket Projections. Essentially, we will be posting two kinds of brackets. One will be the Hoops HD Staff Brackets, which reflect what WE think the field SHOULD look like.
The other will be an attempt to guess what the ACTUAL COMMITTEE will do, which is entirely different from what we’ve done in the past. Jon Teitel is our official NCAA Selection Committee Bracket Guessing Expert! We plan to put that on his business card! Last year, Jon accurately predicted 66 out of 68 teams correctly, and a remarkable 62 out of 68 teams’ seedings either exactly or within one of the actual seed line. This made him among the most accurate in the nation. For more CLICK HERE to check out our BRACKET PROJECTIONS page.
-Oregon State got a big win over rival Oregon yesterday in a win that’s just as important off paper as it is on paper. This program has had so little going for it for the better part of a quarter century, and now they have a solid record and have just beaten their rivals at home. For Oregon, they are sorely lacking in wins away from home, so each conference road game is important from here on out.
-Utah Still hasn’t won a true road game. They need at least a few before the end of the year or they could be in trouble despite an otherwise fairly strong profile.
-Arizona State Head Coach Bobby Hurley was less than thrilled with the officiating in their game against rival Arizona, and ended up leaving early because of it. It was a nice road win for an Arizona team that didn’t give themselves many chances at true road wins out of conference, but now has two big ones against Arizona State and Gonzaga.
-Louisville finally beat a team that isn’t a sub NIT team!! And, it was a little harder than they thought. Wake Forest had cut the lead to just 1 with less than two minutes to go, but Louisville still held on to win. Louisville had two close losses on the road against very good teams that aren’t likely to lose at home, but as far as actually winning games, yesterday was clearly their biggest of the year.
HIGLIGHTED GAMES
-WEST VIRGINIA AT TCU (Big Twelve). West Virginia picked up a big win at Kansas State over the weekend, and needs to take advantage of what is perhaps their most winnable true road game of the season.
-NORTH CAROLINA AT FLORIDA STATE (ACC). North Carolina is obviously a very strong team, but to date the one thing that’s missing from their profile is a true road win. Florida State is unbeaten at home. UNC is winless in true road games. If the Tarheels win this one then it drastically improves their resume.
-CANISIUS AT MONMOUTH (Metro Atlantic). We will be saying pretty much the same thing about Monmouth for the rest of the year. They have a very strong profile, and need to avoid bad losses in order to sustain it.
-OKLAHOMA AT KANSAS (Big Twelve). Both teams will contend for first place in the Big Twelve, and both will contend for #1 seeds. In fact it wouldn’t surprise me to see both teams earn #1 seeds. With Oklahoma City hosting first/second round games, and Louisville and Chicago both hosting regionals, both could also end up being sent to ideal locations throughout the entire tournament. Oklahoma is unbeaten on the year, and Kansas has just one loss, which came to Michigan State in a close game when they weren’t at full strength. This one tonight should be fun.
-VIRGINIA AT VIRGNIIA TECH (ACC). Virginia Tech is a lot better than I thought they’d be. I still don’t think they’ll end up anywhere near the tournament, but they are certainly good enough to pull off some big wins at home. As good as Virginia is, they have struggled at VA Tech in recent years.