NEWS AND NOTES
-I’ll begin by mentioning a game that most of the country wasn’t even aware of, and that’s Chicago State at Illinois State. Chicago State is a perpetually pitiful program, and based on how they had played so far this year things didn’t look to be getting any better. But with less than three minutes to go they had a lead at Illinois State, who we feel is at least a likely NIT team. Had Chicago State won this game, I would rate it as a bigger upset (at least in regards as to how far apart the two teams appeared to be) than when UMBC beat Virginia last year. They weren’t able to hold on, but it was an impressive showing for a team and program that has had so few impressive showings in the last thirty years. Hopefully they are able to build from this and experience some moments of success this year.
-Wisconsin picked up a nice road win at Xavier, which historically is not an easy place to win. They basically controlled the game for the entire second half.
-The Atlantic Ten continues to trip over the rug while carrying their lunch tray back to their seat. George Mason had a 20 point lead going into the second half at Georgia Southern….and lost. They are now 0-3 on the year.
Rhode Island went down to Charleston and got beat, which isn’t too terrible considering that CofC returned a good core group of players from last year’s team, and to be fair one of the things I took away from it was that CofC is better than I thought, but it still went to show you that the Rams have fallen off quite a bit from a year ago.
UMass also dropped a home game to Harvard. I haven’t looked this up, but I now believe that the A10 leads the nation in home losses to Ivy League teams.
-One more quick UTR note is that Furman really had to sweat out Gardner Webb at home after their big win at Loyola Chicago, but managed to pull it out 68-66.
-Other than that, there were some pretty exciting games, but nothing too surprising. Georgetown got a nice early season win at Illinois in a game where the atmosphere was electric and the lead seesawed back and forth. I don’t know how good either team will end up being, but it was a fun game to watch early in the season.
-Memphis hung in with LSU a lot more closely than I expected, but LSU ended up pulling it out in the end.
-Last but not least, THE TEAM OF THE PEOPLE WON THEIR SECOND GAME IN A ROW!! A decisive win over Tennessee Tech!!!
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-MICHIGAN AT VILLANOVA (Gavitt Tipoff Games). The last time these two met there was a little more at stake. As it stands now, both teams come in 2-0 and are looking for their first big win of the season.
-EASTERN MICHIGAN AT DUKE. Some of us liked Eastern Michigan so much coming into the season that they were picking them to win the MAC. They haven’t looked up to that level yet (especially when you consider how well Buffalo has played), but they do come into this game 3-0. I’m not expecting them to beat Duke, but it will be interesting to see how well they play against the nation’s top team (not the top team in the Sagarin ratings, but the top team in the polls).
-RADFORD AT NOTRE DAME. It’s a buy game, and it may end up looking very much like a buy game, but this is a good Radford team that’s coming in 2-0 and that could make quite a bit of noise in the Big South later this year, so we’ll go ahead and highlight it.
-TOLEDO AT WRIGHT STATE. A UTR game, but it’s between two pretty good teams that we think will make quite a bit of noise in their conferences.
-SETON HALL AT NEBRASKA (Gavitt Tipoff Games). Both teams come into this game unbeaten against the collection of creampuffs that they’ve played. This is the first real test for either team, and a chance to see if Nebraska really does belong in the rankings.
-NIAGARA AT LOYOLA CHICAGO. Niagara comes into this game with a home win over Saint Bonaventure, and Loyola is looking to rebound from a rather surprising loss to Furman in their first game.
-RICE AT HOUSTON. A nice cross city rivalry game. Houston’s program continues to improve over time, and they need to take care of business in games like this if they want to be in the discussion come March.
-MARQUETTE AT INDIANA (Gavitt Tipoff Games). Both these teams are believed to be much improved this year, so it will be fun watching them square off in an early season game.
-SAINT MARY’S AT NEW MEXICO STATE. This is a really good series for both these programs. Both come into this game at 2-0, and both could really use an early season win like this on their resumes.
BUY GAMES (and other games worth mentioning, but not highlighting)
-UL Monroe @ Michigan State – ULM hung with Texas the other night
-Sam Houston State @ Clemson
-IUPUI @ Boston College
-La Salle @ Florida
-Mount Saint Mary’s @ Marshall
-Miles (nondiv1) @ Samford – not expecting much from Samford, but a win gets them to 4-0
-Mississippi College (nondiv1) @ Auburn
-Western Carolina @ SMU
-UTEP @ Arizona
-Jacksonville State @ Bradley – Bradley can improve to 3-0
-North Dakota @ Kentucky – North Dakota comes in 2-0
-Montana State @ Colorado State – Colorado State can improve to 3-0
-Stetson @ USC
-Washington State @ Seattle
-Texas Southern @ San Diego State