NEWS AND NOTES
-For Chad Sherwood’s Under the Radar Game of the Day featuring the 2K Classic Visitor’s Bracket – CLICK HERE
-We had another busy night last night, and we’ll begin with the Team of the People!! New Hampshire put on a spectacular and gutsy display of basketball in the final ten minutes of their game against Abilene Christian where they totally outplayed their opponents!! It’s all about how you finish, and they clearly finished looking like a top 25 team!! #RankUNH. Now, we can get into unimportant trivialities about what happened in the first thirty minutes of the game, but when it comes to the Team of the People, we here at Hoops HD are NOT concerned with trivialities!! #GoDancingOrDie!!
-Okay, as for the 350 schools that are not the Team of the People, we are very much concerned with the entire game. Xavier has played three games. They looked weak in their first game, great in their second game, and abysmal in their third game. All were wins, but sweating out Missouri and actually needing overtime to beat them with the aid of a bizarre play at the end, that’s a sign things are not going well. Xavier has Clemson today, who isn’t ranked and isn’t believed to be as good, but has so far played better teams than Xavier and looked much better against them. Don’t be surprised if Clemson knocks them off and springboards themselves onto the national picture early on.
-Lehigh, who nearly knocked off Xavier in their opener, followed that up with another tough road game at Yale, who was coming off the big road win at Washington. This was a very exciting game between two good teams, and it’s unfortunate that it wasn’t more highly exposed. At the end of regulation Lehigh had tied the game, and in a battle for a loose ball called timeout. The problem was they didn’t have any timeouts, so Yale went to the freethrow line with a chance to hit a game winning freethrow, but missed. The second chance wasn’t enough for Lehigh, and for the second time they lose a road game to a good team that they really had a chance to win. Yale improves to 2-0 and has a pretty good looking profile early on, and that’s important since there is now a tournament in the Ivy League. The first place team needs to make sure they’re in a position to get an at-large bid if they want in now.
-In the Gavitt Tip-Off games, Seton Hall picked up a pretty impressive win at Iowa. The Pirates are off to a great start. Marquette fell behind by about 20 to Michigan seemingly before the game even tipped off and the Wolverines rolled over them in a very impressive looking win, and Rutgers won at DePaul to remain unbeaten so far.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-DAVIDSON VS MISSOURI (Tire Pros Invitational). Mizzou isn’t expected to be good at all this year, but they did come very close to upsetting Xavier in the first game. The loser of this game is kind of behind the eight ball. There’s still the entire rest of the season left, but it’s not the best start to lose two straight.
-SAINT JOSEPH’S VS LOYOLA CHICAGO (Paradise Jam). Both teams come into this event unbeaten and have a chance to build up their profile if they do well in the tournament.
-VILLANOVA VS WAKE FOREST (Charleston Classic). Both teams come in unbeaten. Nova struggled some against Western Michigan, but Wake rolled in their game. A win for Wake would be a very big and very much needed boost for a program that has struggled in recent years.
-CLEMSON VS XAVIER (Tire Pros Invitational). Clemson rolled over Davidson yesterday, whereas Xavier had to sweat out what we think is a pretty bad Missouri team. Xavier is highly ranked, but so far Clemson has looked better against better teams. A win here would be huge for a Tiger team that desperately wants to make the NCAAs.
-OLE MISS VS ORAL ROBERTS (Paradise Jam). A win keeps Ole Miss unbeaten and gives them the opportunity to take on the winner of Loyola or Saint Joe’s.
-MONTANA VS NC STATE (Paradise Jam). NC State is the favorite in this tournament, and they open against a winless Montana team.
-USC AT TEXAS A&M. Not many people are all that excited about USC, but they do come into this game 2-0 and will gain quite a bit of attention if they pull off this road win.
-WINTHROP AT FLORIDA STATE. This is a buy game, but Winthrop is unbeaten and they are the Big South favorites, so we’ll go ahead and highlight it.
-MARQUETTE VS PITTSBURGH (2K Classic). Both teams lost their openers last night, but the opportunity is still there to get a decent win away from home.
-MONMOUTH AT SYRACUSE. This game would have had a much more intriguing storyline had a last second shot not fallen for South Carolina to defeat Monmouth, but the goal is the same. They need a win that will impress the selection committee, and this would certainly qualify.
-BOISE STATE VS MISSISSIPPI STATE (Charleston Classic). There isn’t much that’s expected for either team, and a loss would probably mean speeding up the slide out of the picture.
-NORTHERN IOWA VS OKLAHOMA (Tire Pros Invitational). We didn’t think either team would be an NCAA Tournaemnt team, but both are unbeaten and both have looked good in their first couple of games. A win means continuing that momentum, as well as helping build their resume.
-MICHIGAN VS SMU (2K Classic). Both teams are 3-0, and both have looked really good so far this year. This appears to be a match-up between two good teams, and the kind of win that would look good on an NCAA Tournament resume.
-OHIO AT GEORGIA TECH. Ohio has looked really good so far, especially in their last game. We think they’re good enough to have a chance at making the NCAA Tournament without an automatic bid, but if that’s true then this is the kind of game they need to be able to win.
-SIENA AT KANSAS. Siena was a preseason dark horse of ours, but they’re coming off a road loss to George Washington that they should have won if they’re as good as we think they are. We never thought they were good enough to win at Kansas, but if it somehow happens, it’s the kind of win that can earn them an NCAA berth.
-WASHINGTON STATE VS CREIGHTON (Paradise Jam). Wazzu is still in building mode, but they do come into this event at 2-0 and if they were to pick up some big wins it would really kickstart their season. Creighton is coming off a big home win against Wisconsin, and they can keep their season on the right track by continuing their winning ways in this tournament.
-SAINT JOHN’S AT MINNESOTA. We’re not really expecting either team to be in the picture come March, but both come into this game unbeaten and we’ll keep our eyes on both of them until they give us a reason not to.
-NEW MEXICO STATE AT NEW MEXICO. The first leg of this OOC rivalry. A win for New Mexico gets them to 3-0.
-UCF VS CHARLESTON (Charleston Classic). UCF has been surprisingly good so far, and picking up a win over the unbeaten host will continue to boost their momentum and their profile.
-OREGON STATE AT NEVADA. Oregon State is coming off a home loss to Lamar, and things won’t get any easier as they go on the road to face what we think is one of the better teams in the Mountain West.
-NORTH CAROLINA AT HAWAI’I. UNC is looking to pick up their second true road win of the season.
BUY GAMES
-South Carolina State @ South Carolina
-Mississippi Valley State @ Michigan State
-Georgia State @ Purdue (Cancun Challenge)
-Loyola MD @ Notre Dame
-Jacksonville State @ TCU
-Binghamton @ VCU
-UT Arlington @ Arkansas. UTA is the Sun Belt favorite
-North Florida @ LSU
-Norfolk State @ Vanderbilt
-Detroit @ Illinois
-Coppin State @ Utah
-FGCU @ Baylor
-Bryant @ Gonzaga
-Ball State @ Alabama
-Sacred Heart @ Arizona