Under the Radar Game of the Day: Concordia at California Baptist

Concordia at Cal Baptist, 10:00 PM Eastern, cbulancers.com

The Under the Radar Game of the Day is heading to Riverside, California tonight — yet not to visit UC-Riverside.  Instead, we are taking this chance to pay a visit to the newest team to announce its coming transition to the Division I level, the Cal Baptist Lancers.  Yesterday evening, CBU announced that it will make its application to begin transitioning up in March 2018.  The school was unanimously accepted as a member of the WAC, one of our favorite Under the Radar conferences here at Hoops HD.  The Lancers have a new 5,200 seat arena opening this year and have a chance to become a solid member of the WAC and D1 in the upcoming years.  Unfortunately, for now at least, the rules will require them to undergo a four year transitional period before they become eligible for the NCAA Tournament.  We here at Hoops HD hate this rule and vow to start a #LancersWaiver movement to get them eligible faster!!!!

Tonight, the Lancers, who are ranked 5th nationally at the D2 level, will be hosting Pac West rival Concordia.  Cal Baptist is 14-1 on the season, including a road win at #18 Hawai’i Pacific.  They played California (Berkeley) in an exhibition contest to start the season and only lost by 8 points, proving that they should be ready for D1 play right away.  In fact, given some of the garbage resumes we may be considering for the Field of 68 this season, maybe they should be eligible for the D1 tournament this year!  We fully expect the Lancers to win tonight, though Concordia does enter at a solid 9-6 and is only one game behind the Lancers in the Pac West standings.  But tonight’s game is not the real story here.  The real story is the exciting forthcoming move up to the Division I and entry into the WAC by a very good school and a very solid athletics program.