Oakland at Milwaukee, 8:00 PM Eastern, espn3
Conference play is starting across the nation this week, and tonight’s Under the Radar Game of the Day features an intriguing matchup from the Horizon League as preseason favorite Oakland is on the road to take on a surprising (and somewhat schizophrenic) Milwaukee team. The visiting Golden Grizzlies enter tonight’s game at 8-5 on the season, having won back-to-back games over Towson and Eastern Michigan after a hard fought loss to Michigan State. Oakland finally has their three-headed monster of Martez Walker, Jaylen Hayes and Kendrick Nunn healthy and playing together. They combined for 69 of Oakland’s 86 points in a win last week over Eastern Michigan.
The Milwaukee Panthers were one of the stories of Championship Week last year when they turned a last place Horizon League finish into a run to the conference tournament title game (and a new job at Butler for head coach LaVall Jordan). Pat Baldwin is now running the show, but the team is still doing a Jekyll and Hyde impersonation. The Panthers are currently 7-6 with solid wins over Elon, Loyola-Chicago and at Iowa State. They also have some inexplicable losses, including by 21 points at Western Illinois and at home by 14 points to non-D1 Concordia! Brock Stull’s play may be the key to their success, as he missed the Western Illinois game, but has scored 23 points in each of their last two outings, including the win over Loyola-Chicago.