Under the Radar Game of the Day – Sunday, February 7: Hofstra at James Madison

Under the Radar Game of the Day: Hofstra at James Madison, 3:00 PM Eastern, NBC Sports Regional Networks/caa.tv

The battles in the Colonial Athletic Association continue to be among the most fun to watch this season as six teams enter play today within 3 games of first place, and seven of the league’s ten members are still above .500 overall.  Leading the way, surprisingly still, is the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks who have run off eight straight victories including winning at Hofstra earlier this week and at Northeastern yesterday to improve to 10-2 in CAA play.  Right behind Wilmington is William & Mary at 9-3 and Hofstra at 8-3.  Today, in the UTR Game of the Day, the Pride will be in Harrisonburg, Virginia trying to move into a tie with William & Mary and remain one game out of first place as we move deeper into February.

Hofstra enters today’s game at 16-7 overall, with an RPI of 77, good enough that we at least had them on our radar for a potential at-large bid had they been able to win out the regular season through the CAA title game.  The Pride have wins this season over Florida State (in the Paradise Jam) and at St. Bonaventure, as well as a home win earlier this season over William & Mary.  Unfortunately for the Pride, with 7 losses already, if they are going to make a case for a bid they have zero margin for error left (and their best bet at this point may be winning the automatic one).  One thing that is for certain, losing today at James Madison and falling two games out of first place in the conference standings will not help their cause.

James Madison currently sits at 17-7 overall, 7-4 in CAA play.  After losing two straight games (home against UNC-Wilmington and a loss last Sunday at William & Mary in a game they had gotten out to a huge early lead in), the Dukes stopped the bleeding Thursday night with a win at Drexel.  Yohanny Dalembert led the way in that win, scoring 15 points while pulling down 12 rebounds.  If the Dukes can get a similar effort out of him and his teammates today, they have a chance to pick up the win and stay within striking distance of the league leaders.