Indiana State at Valparaiso, 8:00 PM Eastern, espn3
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Indianapolis will be the site today for the annual Crossroads Classic between the State of Indiana’s top four schools, with Purdue matching up against Notre Dame followed by Indiana and Butler. However, for us Under the Radar fans, the true battle will be a couple hours north of Indy up I-65 as Indiana State will be in Valparaiso to take on the hometown Crusaders. Indiana State enters tonight’s game at 5-5 on the season, though the Sycamores have certainly been the victims of hard luck losses this year. They began the season with a 2 point overtime loss at Northern Illinois, and then went 0-3 at the AdvoCare Invitational, losing three games by a combined total of 8 points. They seemed to be turning things around with back-to-back one points wins at home over Utah State and, in a huge upset, over Butler, but them followed that up with a head-scratching 18 point blowout loss at home to Western Kentucky. Tonight, the Trees will need to play more like they did at the AdvoCare and against Butler than they did against the Hilltoppers if they want to have any chance to defeat one of the best Under the Radar teams in the nation.
Valparaiso may not be making national headlines, but they have been racking up solid wins and, at least in our opinions, would likely be good enough for an at-large bid to the Big Dance if the season ended today. The Crusaders went to Las Vegas and won games against BYU and Alabama, plus picked up a very solid home win over Rhode Island. Their only losses were at Oregon and at Kentucky, two teams that could end up challenging for the 1 seed line in March. That being said, the margin for error can often to razor-thin in conferences like the Horizon League, and with only home games against Santa Clara and Chicago State left to finish non-conference play, the Crusaders really need to pick up this win tonight. If Alec Peters can continue to dominate the game, his team should be able to win this one. Peters has already picked up four double-doubles and has topped the 30 point mark 8 times in only 10 games. The teams playing in Indianapolis may think they are the showcase teams in Indiana today, but we all know that what is happening up in Valpo may be just as impressive.