News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Tuesday, Jan 2nd

-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE

-BUTLER AT XAVIER (Big East).  Both teams are off to 2-0 starts and Butler is coming off a stunning win against top ranked Villanova at home.  This game is on the road, though, so as great as the Nova win was, this one would be infinitely better.  Xavier has had to come from behind in a few games, including their last game against DePaul, but they’ve been good enough to overcome big second half deficits on two occasions.  I think they have a shot at a #1 seed, but they can’t keep falling behind like that because against a team like Butler it will be a lot harder to catch back up.

-TCU AT BAYLOR (Big 12).  TCU is coming off a home loss to a very good Oklahoma team, and although Baylor has been somewhat disappointing, this is still the first big road test for TCU, and it comes against a Baylor team that’s really needing a win.

-MICHIGAN AT IOWA (Big Ten).   I had picked on Iowa quite a bit early in the season, and while they’re still not good, they’re not nearly as bad as they were back in November.  Michigan should win, but they won’t be able to just skate through it.

-PENN STATE AT MARYLAND (Big Ten).  Both teams have shown promise, but both still have a lot of work to do and could really use this game today.

-ALABAMA AT VANDERBILT (SEC).  Alabama is coming off a very impressive blowout win against Texas A&M, and can add a conference road win to their resume today against a Vanderbilt team that has struggled.

-EASTERN MICHIGAN AT BALL STATE (MAC).  Ball State is off to a great start and are red hot right now.  The chances of them landing inside the bubble are small, but not impossible.  If they can blow through MAC play then they should be there in the end.

-DELAWARE AT CHARLESTON.  If CofC can win out, which they are good enough to do, then they should be at least on the bubble come March.

-TEXAS TECH AT KANSAS (Big 12).  Texas Tech has been one of the bigger surprise teams of the season so far, but this is by far their toughest test up to this point.  If they win this one then they’ll be on pace to end up as a protected seed.

-FLORIDA AT TEXAS A&M (SEC).  TAMU is trying to rebound from a blowout loss, and Florida is still looking to find themselves.  During the PK-80 they appeared to be solid, but haven’t looked nearly as strong since then.

-ARKANSAS AT MISSISSIPPI STATE.  The Razorbacks are off to a great start.  Mississippi State comes in at 12-1, but their wins have been mostly buy games.  This is definitely a winnable road game for the Razorbacks.

-PITTSBURGH AT LOUISVILLE (ACC).  The Cardinals are coming off a blowout loss to rival Kentucky and have done very little to demonstrate that they are a tournament caliber team.  If they end up losing this one at home then they will have demonstrated that they are NOT a tournament team.

-NEBRASKA AT NORTHWESTERN (Big Ten).  Both these teams are on the outside looking in and the loser of this game will be even further outside.

-GEORGETOWN AT DEPAUL (Big East).  Georgetown still hasn’t won a game that’s worth mentioning yet.  They probably need to finish at least four games over .500 in Big East play to be considered for the NCAAs considering how weak their OOC schedule was.  That means needing to go 11-5 the rest of the way.

-SAN DIEGO STATE AT COLORADO STATE (Mountain West).  This is a road game that San Diego State simply must have.