NEWS AND NOTES
-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day between Loyola MD v Fairfield – CLICK HERE
-Minnesota picked up what is the biggest true road win of the season for any team (so far) with a really impressive showing against Providence. Providence looks like a tournament team, and we believe they’ll be able to beat a lot of strong teams at home this year, so this one is going to look really nice on Minney’s NCAA Tournament resume. It’s the caliber of win that we see out of protected seeds.
-Wichita State blew out College of Charleston. I thought it was going to be a good game and it was…well…not. CofC may not have the brand name that gets people excited, but we do believe they are a top 50 team, and potentially a fringe bubble team if they end up not winning their conference tournament. So, it was a really impressive showing for the Shockers.
-We will get to this later in the week, but two UTR teams that looked really strong yesterday were Jacksonville State, who went into Richmond and completely blew the Spiders off their own floor, and Florida Gulf Coast, who has racked up two decisive wins against Illinois State and Siena. Those may not be tournament teams, but they’re not chopped liver either, and to blow out Siena at Siena is rather impressive.
-Belmont pretty much led Vanderbilt for the entire game and picked up what was a feel good win against their crosstown foes at home. Belmont lost just one game at home last year, and may not lose at home at all this year. This loss may have bruised Vandy’s ego a little bit, but it won’t crush their season. I applaud Bryce Drew and Vandy for playing the local teams. They played (and lost) to Middle Tennessee early in the season last year, and it hardly resulted in their season being a wash. The same is true for this season. If they end up being a bust, it won’t be because of this game. Most P5 schools don’t like to play games like this, but there really isn’t all that much to lose by doing it. In fact more is gained than lost. As for Belmont, they’ve beaten Vanderbilt and almost won at Washington. They are once again a UTR team to keep an eye on.
-South Carolina won rather handily against Western Michigan. That may not sound noteworthy, but Western Michigan appears to be pretty good this year whereas not many people were all that big on the Gamecocks. The fact that they won so handily may indicate that Angry Frank and Co. are better than what we thought.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-DUKE VS MICHIGAN STATE (***Spotlight Game***) (Champions Classic, Chicago IL). On just the fifth day of the season we have a match up between the top two teams!! A neutral floor win against a highly ranked team looks really good on an NCAA Tournament resume. It’s the caliber of win that a team needs if they want to land on the #1 line.
-KENTUCKY VS KANSAS. (***Spotlight Game***) (Champions Classic, Chicago IL). On just the fifth day of the season we have a match up between two top five teams!! A neutral floor win against a highly ranked team looks really good on an NCAA Tournament resume. It’s the caliber of win that a team needs if they want to land on the #1 line.
-IONA AT SYRACUSE. This is a buy game, but it’s interesting enough to put up here. Syracuse is struggling, and while Iona has had better teams in the past, they’re not all that bad this year and are coming off a very close loss at Albany in their opener. They may squeeze the Orange a little bit.
-GEORGE WASHINGTON AT FLORIDA STATE. We don’t know a whole lot about either team yet, and today is a good test for both of them, as well as a chance to build up some early season momentum.
-UNC WILMINGTON AT DAVIDSON. We like this Davidson team. We think that they can have the kind of season that would impress the Selection Committee. If they fail to win this game at home, we’ll realize that we were probably wrong!
-MONMOUTH AT LEHIGH. Monmouth landing inside the bubble is a long shot, but this would be a nice road win for them, and that’s something that not many teams manage in the month of November.
-LIPSCOMB AT ALABAMA. This is a buy game, but since both teams come in 1-0 and since Lipscomb is one of our favorites in the A-Sun we will go ahead and put it up here.
-DELAWARE AT BRADLEY. Both teams are 1-0 and Delaware had a really nice win at Richmond to open the season (which quite honestly looks a lot less nice today, but still).
-PURDUE AT MARQUETTE (Gavitt Tipoff Games). both teams come into this after winning a couple of buy games. This would really be a nice road win for the Boilers if they’re able to pick it up. It’s a really good test for a Marquette team that could also use a big early season win.
-SAN DIEGO STATE AT ARIZONA STATE. Both teams are 1-0. We’ve talked a lot about the Mountain West’s inability to land a team inside the bubble the last two years, and how we think San Diego State could be on the committee’s radar again this year. Plain and simple, these are the kinds of games they need to win. It’s not easy to win road games like this, but it’s not easy to make the NCAAs either.
-DENVER AT COLORADO (Front Range). WE LOVE THE FRONT RANGE!!! Colorado is trying to improve to 2-0 on the season, and in Front Range play!!!
-WINTHROP AT COLORADO STATE. I know it’s a buy game, but it should be an interesting one. Colorado State is trying to improve to 2-0 against a Winthrop team that should be one of the better teams in the Big South
BUY GAMES
-Nicholls @ Villanova – both teams 1-0
-Central Connecticut @ Saint John’s
-Sacred Heart at Boston College
-Cleveland State @ Rutgers – a win can get Rutgers to 3-0
-Bryant @ NC State – NC State can get to 3-0
-High Point @ Tennessee – both teams 1-0
-SC Upstate @ Georgia
-Stony Brook @ UConn
-VMI @ Duquesne – Duquesne can get to 2-0
-Liberty @ Wake Forest – If Liberty wins this then they will have our attention
-UMKC @ Kansas State
-New Hampshire @ Texas – both teams 1-0
-Maine @ Texas Tech
-Alabama State @ South Dakota State – we like this SD State team, and a win (which is likely) gets them to 3-0
-Howard @ Gonzaga
-Omaha @ New Mexico
-Eastern Washington @ Stanford