New Mexico State at UTEP, 9:00 PM Eastern, cusa.tv (subscription required)
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El Paso, Texas is the site of tonight’s Under the Radar Game of the Day as Conference USA’s UTEP Miners play host to the WAC’s New Mexico State Aggies. Head coach Tim Floyd’s UTEP Miners have gotten off to a very slow start to the season, entering play tonight at 2-5 with one of those two wins having come against a non-D1 opponent. On top of that, and unfortunately for the Miners, their record has not been a product of their schedule as their losses include Northwestern State and Southeastern Louisiana, both at home. They did play a very good game last time out, losing by only a single point at New Mexico, one of the toughest places in the country for a road team to win. Freshman Deon Barrett, who had very limited production during the team’s first six games, was an amazing 7-for-8 from three-point range in that game, scoring a career high 25 points. If he can continue to light things up from downtown, expect to see Barrett get a lot more playing time moving forward, and this team to start finding a way to pick up a few more wins.
New Mexico State enters tonight’s game at 8-2 overall, with their losses having come at Colorado State and at New Mexico (a loss they avenged last time out by picking up a home victory over the Lobos). Ian Baker led the way in their last game with 26 points while Jemerrio Jones came off the bench to notch his second straight double-double. The Aggies have been the team to beat in the WAC for the past few seasons and, despite being upset by Bakersfield in last year’s conference tournament, once again should be right there among the conference’s top contenders all season long. But first, they need to finish their non-conference slate which will also include a trip to Arizona State and a second game, this time in Las Cruces, against UTEP on December 30.
NEWS, NOTES, AND OTHER HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-South Carolina’s unbeaten season came to an end last night as they fell in a close game to a Seton Hall team that picked up one of their biggest wins so far. It was the second game of a doubleheader. As for the game that preceded that….
-Auburn had looked pretty good this season and came into last night’s game against Boston College expecting to walk all over them, especially following BC’s comedically bad loss to Hartford, which capped off a stretch where they had lost four out of five. Surprisingly, BC pretty much led for the entire game, and you just kept waiting for Auburn to snap out of it, but they never did. Auburn will certainly have opportunities to make up for this, but this is a BAD loss on their profile.
As for tonight’s action….
-TEMPLE AT VILLANOVA (Big Five). Every year there are schizophrenic teams, and this year Temple is one of those teams. They have big wins against West Virginia and Florida State as well as some head scratching losses to teams like New Hampshire, UMass and George Washington. I don’t want to entirely count them out tonight, but they’re overmatched by the #1 team in the country who has been rolling over their Big Five rivals, and who already has big wins away from home against Notre Dame and Purdue.
-MONMOUTH AT MEMPHIS. Monmouth’s at-large hopes are flickering, but barely. They need a win like this on their profile, and they basically need to run roughshod over the rest of their schedule. Memphis comes in at a very quiet 7-2 and is trying to build a profile of their own.
-STONY BROOK AT HOFSTRA. Not as meaningful as last season from a postseason standpoint, but we at HoopsHD love rivalry games. In this case, this is the Battle of Long Island.
-TEXAS SOUTHERN AT CINCINNATI. Buy game
-SOUTH CAROLINA STATE AT CLEMSON. Buy game
-NC CENTRAL AT LSU . Buy game
-CENTRAL ARKANSAS AT MICHIGAN. Buy game
-MONTANA AT OREGON. Buy game