NEWS AND NOTES
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-Monmouth and Chattanooga were teams we actually thought had a chance of making the NCAA Tournament without winning their conference tournament. We now no longer feel that way. Monmouth dropped their second conference game with a loss to Saint Peter’s last night, and Chattanooga fell to UNC Greensboro. It’s not the lack of good wins that has hurt Monmouth the last two years. It’s the bad losses. I know it’s not easy to go on the road and win against anyone, but an NCAA Tournament caliber team is expected to beat sub NIT teams, much less sub CIT teams. When a team like Monmouth goes out there and loses multiple games like that then the committee looks at that the same way they’d look at a power conference team losing a buy game.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-ARKANSAS AT TENNESSEE (SEC). Arkansas has a bloated record but very few of their wins have been of note. Tennessee is hardly a great team, but they have been better than expected, they’ve been playing well lately, and they’ve lost just one home game. It will be a test for Arkansas.
-OLE MISS AT FLORIDA (SEC). The Gators have been playing well lately and shouldn’t have too much trouble beating a decent but not great Ole Miss team at home today.
-WISCONSIN AT INDIANA (Big Ten). This is a big early season conference game for both teams. Indiana has lost two straight and needs their momentum back, and while Wisky has had a good season they don’t have a win anywhere close to being as good as this one would be on their profile yet.
-NORTH CAROLINA AT CLEMSON (ACC). UNC is coming off a very surprising loss to Georgia Tech and a solid road win would be a great way to rebound from that. Clemson is off to their best start in several years, and a home win today could really energize their fanbase.
-BOSTON COLLEGE AT WAKE FOREST (ACC). Wake needs to win just to stay in the race. BC isn’t a good team, but they’re not nearly as bad of a team as we thought and with the signs of life they’ve shown Wake just can’t overlook them.
-SAINT JOSEPH’S AT RHODE ISLAND (Atlantic Ten). Rhody needs to absolutely dominate this league in order to land inside the bubble come March, and that certainly means being able to beat sub NCAA Tournament caliber teams at home.
-EAST CAROLINA AT UCF (American). UCF can make it to the NCAAs, but their margin for error is small. Losing at home to a non tournament team like East Carolina would certainly fall outside of their margin for error.
-DAYTON AT SAINT BONAVENTURE (Atlantic Ten). Dayton is another team that’s hovering around the bubble and has a very small margin for error. The Bonnies are likely an NIT team, so this is the kind of game Dayton needs to be able to win if they themselves want to demonstrate that they’re an NCAA team.
-ALABAMA AT MISSISSIPPI STATE (SEC). Mississippi State is much improved, but they’ll need to do very well in conference play in order to get the attention of the committee.
-TEXAS A&M AT KENTUCKY (SEC). Kentucky seems destined for the #1 line and blowing through this conference should land them there. TAMU’s profile is suddenly hurting and they’ll need to win some big games in conference. This game would certainly qualify, but they’re probably swinging over their heads.
-OKLAHOMA AT TCU (Big Twelve). TCU ran up a nice record against a weak schedule, which isn’t a bad thing for a program that’s trying to turn itself around to do. Now that conference play has started they need to pick up some big wins in order to keep pace.
-KANSAS STATE AT KANSAS (Big Twelve). Kansas is contending for the #1 line, and K State, while they just have one loss, is still contending for the NCAA Tournament. Their wins aren’t all that great, but they can completely change the complexion of their profile if they somehow pull off the upset tonight.
-WEST VIRGINIA AT TEXAS TECH (Big Twelve). West Virginia has had a great year with just one loss in a game where they really just had a bad half. Any road game is tough, and tonight will be no exception as Texas Tech is unbeaten at home and looking for a notable win of their own, but if WVU is a top fifteen caliber team it’s the kind of game they should be able to win.