Under the Radar Game of the Day: Cal State-Northridge at Hawai’i

Cal State-Northridge at Hawai’i, Midnight Eastern, OC Sports/hawaiiathletics.com

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The Under the Radar Game of the Day is heading west tonight — as far west as Division I athletics goes, to the city of Honolulu and the Stan Sheriff Center, home court of the Big West Conference’s Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors.  The defending Big West tournament champion Warriors are playing host to Reggie Theus’ Cal State-Northridge Matadors tonight.  Hawai’i enters the game at 7-9 overall and 1-2 in Big West play after picking up an overtime victory over Long Beach State this past weekend.  Although the record is not strong, it is a lot better than we expected from a team that lost almost every key player off of last year’s NCAA  Tournament team and entered the season with a postseason ban,  The ban is off (for now at least) while the NCAA is rehearing the infractions case.  And on the court there has been some success as well, led by the likes of Noah Allen, Jack Purchase and Leland Green.  All three players tied for the team scoring lead in the Long Beach win, putting up 25 points each in a 114-107 overtime victory.  Despite that game having gone overtime, it was a bit of a shock to see so many points scored as both Hawai’i and Long Beach are ranked in the mid-200s nationally in tempo by KenPom.

Tonight’s opponent for the Rainbow Warriors is Cal State-Northridge.  The Matadors are currently tied for second place in the Big West with UC-Davis, both at 3-1 in conference play and a game behind UC-Irvine.  CSUN (7-10 overall) suffered a disappointing 3 point loss at home to UC-Davis last time out after winning their first three league games of the year.  Of course, this team also lost a home game earlier this year to non-D1 Bethesda, so it remains to be seen whether or not they will actually be a contender in this year’s Big West.  Kendall Smith scored 21 points in the loss to Davis, while Tavrion Dawson added 13 points and 9 rebounds.  The Matadors will need big efforts from both of them again tonight if they want to pick up the road win.  If they do, CSUN certainly could prove to be a real player in a league that appears to be wide open, with unfortunately no teams even ranked within the top 150 at KenPom.  A trip to Dayton may be in store for this year’s Big West champion — but the games themselves to get there have a chance to be a ton of fun!