Under the Radar Game of the Day: New Hampshire at Winthrop

New Hampshire at Winthrop, 2:00 PM Eastern, bigsouthsports.com

The NIT Season Tip-Off was played in Brooklyn this week, with Temple scoring the surprising victory over West Virginia in the championship game.  However, the games in Brooklyn (also involving Florida State and Illinois) were not the entirety of the event, as New Hampshire, Detroit, Winthrop and Manhattan all played campus site games at the four schools that went to Brooklyn, as well as a pair of games against each other to provide a full four games to each program.  At one time, this event was fully bracketed for all teams involved, meaning that an upset win by a smaller school over one of the major conference schools would allow that team to advance to the final rounds in New York.  If that had been the case this season still, today’s Under the Radar Game of the Day may have been played in Brooklyn, as Winthrop scored an 84-80 overtime win at Illinois and New Hampshire won at Temple 57-52.

Winthrop enters today’s game with a record of 3-1, highlighted by the Illinois win.  Keon Johnson was dominant for the Eagles in that win, scoring a career high 38 points.  Johnson did not play in Winthrop’s one loss of the season, at Florida State, and if he had added just half the number of points he scored last time out against the Seminoles, the Eagles would be undefeated right now.  However, no matter how good Pat Kelsey’s team has been so far, they will not have an easy task this afternoon with the HoopsHD 2016-17 Team of the People coming to town.

The University of New Hampshire Wildcats have never played in the NCAA Tournament.  No team from the State of New Hampshire has been to the Big Dance since Dartmouth, way back in 1959.  Although rival Vermont is out to a solid start (including a win yesterday at Yale), the Wildcats remain our pick to win the America East this season.  They are led by Tanner Leissner, who dropped 31 points on Detroit earlier this week, and Jaleen Smith, who had a double-double in the same game.  Winning at Winthrop may be a tall order for this team, but with a win over Temple already in their pockets, there is no reason to lack any faith in this team.

As a final side note, our campaign to have several key game dates for the Wildcats this season declared state-wide holidays appears to be going well.  All signs are that Saturday, December 31 (New Year’s Eve road game at Dartmouth) and Monday, January 16 (MLK Day home game vs Vermont) may both end up being declared days that all state offices will be closed.  We will continue to keep everyone updated on the progress of these efforts.  #GoDancingOrDie