Under the Radar Game of the Day: Houston Baptist at Central Arkansas, 8:00 PM Eastern, free streaming at ucasports.com
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The UTR Game of the Day has only made a few trips to the Southland Conference all season, so after a trip to Jonesboro, Arkansas for what proved to be major upset in the Sun Belt last night, today’s game is coming from a few hours away in Conway, Arkansas as the Central Arkansas Bears host the Houston Baptist Huskies. Central Arkansas has had a rough couple of years. Last season, the Bears were ineligible for postseason play due to their APR score, but a 2-27 overall record made that a moot point. Unfortunately, the score did not improve enough heading into this season, and they are on their second straight postseason ban list. On the court, the team has struggled mightily again, entering play tonight at 2-12 overall, 1-3 in Southland play. Jordan Howard and Derreck Brooks have led the team offensively this season. Howard scored 36 points earlier this season in a loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi while Brooks is coming off a double-double last week at Stephen F. Austin. Although Brooks is a senior, Jordan Howard is only a sophomore, and hopefully can turn into a team leader the next couple of seasons to improve things in Conway.
While the struggles and APR problems at UCA are noteworthy, the real reason this game was chosen for the UTR Game of the Day has been the play so far this season of Houston Baptist. HBU was only 5-7 during the non-conference portion of the season, though they did pick up a win over a CUSA team (Rice) and a UC-Riverside team that is much improved over its recent seasons. The Huskies also picked up a win early this season over one of our favorite non-D1 schools, Crowley’s Ridge. Most notably, however, Houston Baptist is out to a 5-0 start in Southland play, tied with SFA and Corpus Christi as the only three undefeated teams in the league. HBU is led by Anthony Odunsi, who scored 28 points in a win this weekend at New Orleans, and Josh Ibarra, who has four double-doubles on the season. Although the overall record and power rating numbers are not nearly as strong for the Huskies as the other two schools on top of the conference standings (an RPI of 261 is the lowest in the nation of any team currently undefeated in its league), if they keep winning conference games, those numbers won’t matter. What will matter is where they finish in the regular season, where they get seeded in the Southland Tournament, and whether or not they can win the automatic bid. The way the Huskies have played the last 5 games, there is no reason to they will not be a contender for that bid all season long.