Harvard at Vermont, 7:00 PM Eastern, americaeast.tv
The Under the Radar Game of the Day heads up to Burlington, Vermont tonight for one of the last handful of non-conference games left, this one featuring the America East’s Vermont Catamounts hosting the Ivy League’s Harvard Crimson. Vermont enters tonight’s game at 9-5 overall and with their conference’s top KenPom rating at 90. They have already picked up two home wins against the Ivy League (Yale and Dartmouth) and will be looking to make it 3-0 today. Last time out, the Catamounts picked up a solid road win at Siena, led by 17 points off the bench (in only 16 minutes of play) from Darren Payne. Also keep an eye on freshman Anthony Lamb, who had a career high 26 points three games ago in a win over Eastern Michigan.
Harvard began the season a disappointing 1-4, but has quietly run off five straight wins, including winning at Boston College and at Houston. Bryce Aiken led the way in the Houston win with 21 points, while Chris Lewis had 22 in the win over BC. With neither player having started, the Crimson certainly have shown that they have the depth to contend for their conference championship. With a win today, Harvard will be the hottest Ivy League team as we head towards conference play and will send notice to the rest of the league that the 1-4 start was just an aberration and that this team is ready to win the Ivy.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-CHATTANOOGA AT UNC GREENSBORO (SoCon). If Chattanooga wins out they should at least get a look from the committee. Anything short of that and they’ll need the auto bid. This is probably one of their tougher remaining games outside of having to go to East Tennessee State.
-MONMOUTH AT SAINT PETER’S (Metro Atlantic). Monmouth is coming off a loss and pretty much needs to win every game until the conference tournament. Anything short of that and they’ll have to win the auto-bid.
-ELON AT UNC WILMINGTON (Colonial Athletic). UNCW should be able to run away from this conference. If they do that and avoid bad losses they should be safe for a tournament bid. But, having said that, just about any loss will be considered a bad loss.
-APPALACHIAN STATE AT UT ARLINGTON (Sun Belt). I really like this UTA team. I’m expecting them to run away from the rest of the league and earn an NCAA Tournament bid.