NEWS AND NOTES
For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-We had some very exciting games yesterday, but nothing too cataclysmic or unexpected with a few exceptions.
-Last year at this time, we felt that Andy Enfield was on the hot seat at USC. The Trojans had been bad for several years in a row and showed no signs of coming out of it. They had a fantastic year last year and surprised just about all of us. They came into this year, and because of what they lost we again ignored them. Well, last night they picked up a very impressive road win at Texas A&M and remain unbeaten. They’re not a top ten team, but they’re definitely a relevant team. That was an NCAA Tournament caliber win that they picked up yesterday.
-After struggling against Missouri and causing all of us to question how good they actually were, Xavier looked impressive against Clemson yesterday. They’ll face a Northern Iowa team in the finals of what used to be called the Puerto Rico Tip-Off that has been somewhat surprising this year. They overcame an 18 point deficit to beat Oklahoma in overtime yesterday.
-UCF doesn’t have anything on paper that makes you jump up and down just yet, but if you watch this team play you’ll see that on the court they are very good. They’ve blown through their schedule so far and advanced to the finals of the Charleston Classic where they will face Villanova tomorrow. Now, if they pick up THAT win, then they’ll have the attention of the nation.
-Purdue also came into their game against Georgia State with a hangover from their loss to Villanova earlier this week. They were trailing the Panthers 56-44 with 7:08 remaining in the game, but they held Georgia State scoreless the rest of the way and scored the final 20 points of the game en route to a 64-56 victory. This was a nonbracketed game that is part of the upcoming Cancun Challenge, although both teams are in separate brackets (Georgia State in the Mayan division, Purdue in the Riviera division).
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-PENN STATE VS DUKE (Hall of Fame Tip-Off). This event features one national title contender, two ranked teams, and Penn State. Okay!! I guess it’s a chance for Penn State to really make some noise and catapult themselves onto the scene, but in reality you can probably just skip this game.
-SAINT MARY’S AT DAYTON. This is one of the better games of the day. Dayton already has a notable road win against Alabama, and SMC is facing their first big road test. They do have an impressive and decisive home win against Nevada. It will be interesting to see how these two fare against each other.
-LAMAR AT FRESNO STATE. Lamar has a win at Oregon State and can improve to 3-0 with a win today.
-CINCINNATI VS RHODE ISLAND (Hall of Fame Tip-Off). Both these teams are in the rankings, both are getting their first real test of the season and have a chance to pick up a quality win away from home, and the winner will most likely face Duke tomorrow.
-PENN AT MIAMI FL. Both teams unbeaten.
-GREEN BAY AT MURRAY STATE. Murray State is a team to watch. They have a win over a very good Illinois State team, and their loss was on the road against a good Middle Tennessee team.
-TOLEDO AT WRIGHT STATE. A win for Wright State gets them to 3-0, but they’ll be tested today.
-TENNESSEE STATE AT MIDDLE TENNESSEE. Both teams are under the radar, but both are unbeaten and have looked really good up to this point. It’s underexposed, but it really is one of the more intriguing games of the day.
-WESTERN KENTUCKY AT BELMONT. See Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day
-CHATTANOOGA VS CENTRAL ARKANSAS. Chattanooga already has a win at Tennessee and shouldn’t have too much trouble picking up their second road win of the season today.
-SOUTH DAKOTA STATE AT WYOMING. I don’t know how long Wyoming will be able to stay in the picture, but they are unbeaten and already have a win against a pretty respectable Montana team, so we’ll keep our eyes on them until they give us a reason not to.
BUY GAMES
-Savannah State @ Memphis
-Bucknell @ Butler
-Eastern Kentucky @ Texas Tech
-Liberty @ Indiana
-VMI @ Virginia Tech
-Louisiana Tech at Nebraska
-Idaho State @ Utah State
-Coastal Carolina @ BYU