NEWS AND NOTES
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-Despite a lot of exciting games, nothing really earth shattering happened yesterday. Xavier took Auburn into overtime, and Illinois really made Gonzaga sweat out in Maui, but neither team was able to pull off the upset.
-Rutgers held Eastern Michigan to 4 first half points. It was 31-4 at the half. That’s just…..STUPID!!!
-Saint John’s might be the least impressive 4-0 team I have ever seen. They had to sweat out another game against Cal, who by all accounts should have been a vastly inferior opponent.
-A team to keep an eye on is Utah State. They are unbeaten, and they blasted what I thought was a pretty good Saint Mary’s team in the MGM Resorts Main Event yesterday. They have a big game coming up against Arizona State on Wednesday.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-UTSA VS SOUTH DAKOTA STATE (Gulf Coast Showcase). South Dakota State is running out of strikes. Their margin for error is basically zero the rest of the way.
-CLEMSON VS GEORGIA (Cayman Islands Classic). It’s always fun when these two get together, even if it is in the Cayman Islands. Clemson has looked impressive so far, and while no one is all that excited about Georgia people will definitely start to take them seriously if they pull off a win today.
-XAVIER VS SAN DIEGO STATE (Maui Invitational). Xavier hadn’t looked all that impressive in their first couple of games, but they played really well yesterday against a very good Auburn team. San Diego State, to the surprise of no one, was run off the floor by Duke. Still, both teams should have decent years and this is a chance for both of them to pick up a decent win.
-NORTH FLORIDA VS SOUTHERN MISS (Cancun Challenge). A win for Southern Miss gets them to 4-0.
-IOWA STATE VS ILLINOIS (Maui Invitational). Both teams had strong showings yesterday in losing efforts. Illinois was particularly surprising in how well they played against Gonzaga. Both are looking for what would be their most notable win of the season up to this point.
-TULANE VS UC IRVINE (Gulf Coast Showcase). Tulane is off to a fairly solid start this year, and picked up a nice win against South Dakota State yesterday. UC Irvine is still unbeaten, and one of the top UTR teams that we’re keeping our eyes on. Being in the Big West means they have a small margin for error in regards to making the NCAA Tournament, so every game is important.
-SAINT BONAVENTURE VS BOISE STATE (Cayman Islands Classic). You know what? Watch something else.
-CALIFORNIA VS TEMPLE (Legends Classic). Temple fell way behind early to VCU, but came storming back with a chance to win it. Cal didn’t look all that bad in their game against Saint John’s. We’re expecting a lot more out of Temple than out of Cal this year, and they don’t want to come out of this event with no wins.
-BRADLEY VS SMU (Cancun Challenge). SMU is off to a very slow start and needs to get things turned around. Doing well in this event would be a good start.
-DUQUESNE AT NOTRE DAME. Duquesne’s program still has a long way to go, but they’re off to a 3-0 start and have been playing better than what we are used to seeing. Notre Dame hasn’t exactly looked strong this season, so don’t be surprised if Duquesne finds a way to knock them off.
-USC VS MISSOURI STATE (Hall of Fame Classic). This wouldn’t be a great win for USC, but it would be their best win so far.
-SAVANNAH STATE AT KENT STATE. The Team of the People!!!! Traveling up to take on a very tough Kent State team, and trying to even their record out at 3-3 while picking up their first road win.
-TOLEDO VS LOUISIANA (Gulf Coast Showcase). Two strong UTR teams trying to pick up a good road win in an exempt event.
-GEORGIA STATE VS CREIGHTON (Cayman Islands Classic). Georgia State is one of the best teams in the Sun Belt who has a shot at picking up a big statement win tonight. They are probably overmatched, but Creighton hasn’t looked totally spectacular either, and could use a few statement wins of their own.
-SAINT JOHN’S VS VCU (Legends Classic). Both teams come in unbeaten, but Saint John’s has played a lot of bad teams and had to sweat out all the games. Still, they got a chance to add a really good win to their resume today. VCU wasn’t a team we were expecting all that much out of, but they looked good against Temple yesterday (especially at the beginning) and can add another decent win away from home to their resume today.
-AUBURN VS DUKE (Maui Invitational). Nothing to see here. Just two top ten teams going at it out in that tiny gym in Maui. This tournament always provides us with a unique setting for high caliber basketball, and that is certainly true today.
-LIPSCOMB AT TCU. This is a buy game, but Lipscomb has already won at SMU and returned pretty much their entire roster from a team that won the ASun and made the NCAA Tournament a year ago. On top of that, TCU has struggled in seemingly every game so far, so they better look out.
-WRIGHT STATE VS PENN STATE (Cancun Challenge). We liked this Penn State team coming into the year, but the loss at DePaul was a little head scratching. They face a very good Wright State team tonight that returns six of their top seven players from a team that won 26 games a year ago.
-TEXAS TECH AT NEBRASKA (Hall of Fame Classic). No one is all that excited about Texas Tech yet, but I think they’re good again. They came from behind to beat USC last night, and ended up running away from them. They came out of nowhere last year, and I think that by the time conference play starts they’re going to be in the Top 25 again this year. They face a Nebraska team that also looks to be pretty good. This is probably the biggest test for either team up to this point.
-ARIZONA VS GONZAGA (Maui Invitational). It seems like these two always put on a show when they get together. Arizona appears to be overmatched this year with how much they have working against them, but they looked good in picking up their win yesterday, and Gonzaga had to sweat a lot more than we thought they would against Illinois.
-COLORADO AT SAN DIEGO. Interesting early season game between a Colorado team that’s out to a pretty good 2-0 start and a San Diego team that has shown some signs of life this year as well.
-TEXAS A&M VS WASHINGTON (Vancouver Showcase). TAMU has had an awful start to the season and could really use a win in a game like this to get things turned around.
BUY GAMES
-Samford @ Ohio State – both teams are unbeaten
-Saint Peter’s @ NC State
-UT Arlington @ Indiana
-The Citadel @ James Madison – JMU is 4-0
-Cornell @ UConn
-Trevecca Nazarene (nondiv1) @ Belmont
-Tougaloo (nondiv1) @ Louisiana Tech
-Maine @ North Texas
-Santa Clara @ Minnesota
-Green Bay @ Oregon