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Milligan at Middle Tennessee, 12:00 PM Eastern, cusa.tv
Milligan College is a small school with enrollment of just over 1200, located outside of Johnson City, Tennessee. The Buffaloes, who have been participating in collegiate basketball since 1914, are coming off a 16-14 season in the NAIA’s Appalachian Athletic Conference. Normally, despite their history, Milligan is not the type of school that would garner any attention here, even from the Under the Radar Game of the Day. But this year they do have our attention. They have our attention because at noon Eastern today they will be in Murfreesboro to take on Middle Tennessee in the first official game of the 2016-17 men’s college basketball season.
It may be appropriate that head coach Kermit Davis’ Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders are the first team on the court this year, given that they pulled off one of the top upsets of all time in last year’s NCAA Tournament, knocking out #2 Seed Michigan State in the Round of 64. Although the Blue Riders lost a pair of double-digit scorers off of that team, they do return their top two scorers in Giddy Potts and Reggie Upshaw. Both players averaged right around 14 point per game last year. A pair of new additions, Arkansas transfer Jacorey Williams and junior college transfer Brandon Walters figure to be big pieces of this team this year as they look to not only return to the Big Dance but maybe even secure a better seed than 15.
This will be the first game to tip since Kris Jenkins hit his three-pointer to capture the national championship for Villanova. Let the games begin!