For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day between Middle Tennessee and Rice – CLICK HERE.
Be on the lookout tonight for a double feature podcast – we will have our season premiere of the Bracket Racket podcast along with our weekly Under-The-Radar podcast tonight.
All good things eventually come to an end, and last night was no exception. Villanova’s 20-game winning streak that dates back to last year’s NCAA Tournament run was snapped by Butler last night thanks to the Bulldogs’ 66-58 triumph at Hinkle Fieldhouse. It was Butler’s 2nd win over a #1 team in program history.
Duke won comfortably at home against Georgia Tech in Mike Krzyzewski’s final game before back surgery tomorrow. The big story from last night’s blowout win was Grayson Allen’s reinstatement into the Duke starting lineup. It turns out that “indefinite” would be defined as one game for his series of tripping incidents. While a one-game suspension is somewhat in line with what you would see in the NBA for excessive technicals in a season (or accumulated yellow/red cards in soccer), calling this an indefinite suspension was a joke from the get-go. At least Jeff Capel has one less distraction to deal with as he takes the coaching reigns for Duke now.
Baylor survived their first stiff test at home against Iowa State, and if they’re able to beat Oklahoma State at home this weekend, there is an excellent chance the Bears will be ranked #1 next weekend. That ranking would immediately be put to the test with a road swing at West Virginia and Kansas State next week.
All the home teams held serve last night in the ACC. Syracuse finally beat a major program with a decisive win over Miami at home, and Louisville and Virginia were also upset on the road against Notre Dame and Pitt, respectively. However, the only blowout that was not bigger than Duke’s win was NC State thrashing Virginia Tech in Raleigh.
Teams that did manage to win tougher-than-expected games last night included Michigan at home against Penn State, Fort Wayne on the road at Omaha, and Houston at home over Tulsa.
South Carolina once again looked like an NCAA Tournament-caliber team with Sindarius Thornwell back in the lineup after a 6-game suspension. They won by 6 at Georgia – it gives them a little payback against a team that helped to send the Gamecocks to the NIT last season. They’ve still got a ton of work to do in the SEC, but at least beating an NIT-caliber Georgia team in a hostile environment is a good start.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-PURDUE AT OHIO STATE (Big Ten). Purdue has had a good season so far, but they are still looking for their first true road win. Ohio State has more warts than good wins on their profile and needs to get it turned around soon or they’ll be watching the tournament on TV.
-UCONN AT MEMPHIS (American). Memphis has an outside shot at best to get in. They certainly can’t afford to lose at home to non-tournament teams.
-UNC WILMINGTON AT DREXEL (Colonial). If UNCW picks this up it will be their sixth true road win of the year.
-IOWA AT NEBRASKA (Big Ten). Nebraska is coming off two huge road wins that seems to have landed them inside the bubble. If they want to stay in that range they need to hold serve and beat non-tournament teams at home.
-MINNESOTA AT NORTHWESTERN (Big Ten). Both of these teams are off to great starts and both are looking to continue to grow their profiles. I wouldn’t be surprised to see both of these teams in the NCAAs.
-CALIFORNIA AT UCLA (Pac Twelve). I really like this UCLA team and am expecting them to end up as a #1 or #2 seed. Cal is actually to a point to where they need a monster win like this in order to get their season turned around.
-COLORADO AT ARIZONA STATE (Pac Twelve). Colorado was a team that we liked coming into the season that has been somewhat disappointing up to this point. This is the kind of game they should be expected to win even though it’s a road game.
-GONZAGA AT SAN FRANCISCO (West Coast). The Zags have blown through their schedule so far, and even though San Francisco is one of the better teams in this conference and could make Gonzaga sweat a little bit, it’s still a game they can probably easily win.
-UTAH AT ARIZONA (Pac Twelve). Arizona shouldn’t have too much trouble picking this one up at home. Utah has a good record up to this point, but doesn’t have any monster wins yet. If the Utes do somehow pull the upset it would really boost up their resume.
-STANFORD AT USC (Pac Twelve). USC was clobbered against Oregon in their last game, and needs to rebound in a winnable home game tonight.
-BYU AT SAINT MARY’S (West Coast). These are two of the better teams in the WCC. If BYU wants any shot at all of making the NCAA Tournament, they need to pick up a road win against either SMC or Gonzaga.