NEWS AND NOTES
-For our latest Under the Radar Podcast – CLICK HERE
-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day, which I think is the overall game of the day between Northern Iowa and Texas Arlington – CLICK HERE
-Last night was another greater than expected night of action full of some great finishes and surprises. Yesterday I commented about how we had top ten teams lose to unranked teams on back to back nights. This is strange in the sense that if you look at the top ten at the end of the season, they normally have ten or less home losses combined, and almost none of those are to unranked teams. Well, we’ve now seen it happen on back-to-back-to-back nights!! But, there is one huge asterisk to that. It happened to Florida twice, which raises the question….are they really a top ten team?
I’m starting to think that the best thing for Florida to do is schedule highly ranked teams away from home. In the PK-80 they were absolutely fantastic. This week at home, they were boat-raced by rival Florida State, and then beaten by Loyola of Chicago last night. Loyola it was a huge win that could play a huge role in them getting a bid. These are the kinds of wins UTR teams need in order to make it.
-Kansas didn’t lose at home, but they lost mostly at home, and rather decisively to Washington in another hugely shocking result. Washington, a team that none of us believed would be able to punch their way out of a paper bag, is suddenly 7-2 with one huge win on their resume. The Huskies really looked good in this game and if they play at that level they could make quite a bit of noise in a rather weak Pac Twelve.
-There were two other Pac Twelve teams that were blown out by UTR teams. Washington State, who a week ago we were all praising, was blown to bits at Idaho. Cal faired even worse getting blown out at home by Central Arkansas. Cal has now been blown out by a div2 team and a Southland team that we’re not expecting much out of.
-Temple played their first home game last night and beat a Wisconsin team that is looking better, but still isn’t quite there yet.
-Rhode Island at Alabama was another exciting game with the Tide winning another close one at home.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-VALPARAISO AT PURDUE. Valpo comes into this game unbeaten, but this is their first real test. It’s also the kind of game they’ll need to win if they want to impress the selection committee. Purdue is suddenly looking a lot better. Their neutral floor win against Arizona is gaining value, and they also have wins against Louisville, Maryland, and Northwestern to go along with it.
-IOWA AT IOWA STATE. This has been a great series in recent years, but with Iowa State looking more like an NIT team than an NCAA Team, and Iowa looking just flat out awful, it’s a little harder to get excited about this year’s edition.
BUY GAMES
-Ohio @ Maryland
-NJIT @ Rutgers
-Howard @ Georgetown