NEWS AND NOTES
-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day between American and UMBC – CLICK HERE
-Tennessee v Kansas in the Preseason NIT (or whatever the hell they call it now) was the second top five match-up in three days, and like the first between Gonzaga and Duke this one did not disappoint. Tennessee seemed to have the lead for most of the second half, but Kansas kept it close, then went ahead, and then at the end of the half it was tied so it went into overtime where the Jayhawks picked up the big win, and will perhaps move into the #1 ranking next week. For Tennessee, the loss was disappointing, but it was hardly damaging. They’ll win a lot of games against a lot of good teams if they play like that the rest of the year.
-The third place game of the NIT also went into overtime with Marquette knocking off Louisville. Louisville led for most of the game, and the result wasn’t without some controversy as the Cardinals clearly made a three pointer with about ten mins to go, but were only given 2pts for it. You can’t really blame the loss on that, though. Louisville had three open shots at the end of regulation that could have won them the game, two of which were basically layups, and they missed all three.
-Virginia is off to a hot start. After winning three home buy games, they won three straight to win the Battle 4 Atlantis, and knocked off a very good Wisconsin team yesterday.
-North Carolina had no trouble with UCLA and bounced back after their loss to Texas.
-Florida State knocked off LSU in an overtime thriller. That game was close the entire way and while LSU didn’t get the win, the loss hardly hurts them. For Florida State, it will most likely turn out to be a huge resume builder seeing how it was a win against a current top 20 team, and also seeing how LSU appears to be good enough to stay in the rankings.
-Michigan State overcame a first half deficit to beat a very good Texas team and win the Las Vegas Invitational. Texas should continue to improve, and may even crack the rankings next week, so this was a very nice win for Michigan State
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-DEPAUL AT NOTRE DAME. If DePaul can knock off a struggling Notre Dame team, they can improve to 4-0 on the season, and arguably have one of the better resumes out of all the Big East teams to date. Notre Dame has basically played nothing but home buy games up to this point, and they even lost one of those, so they have a lot of workt od to do tget things turned around.
-NORTHERN ILLINOIS VS JAMES MADISON (Men Against Cancer Oakland Hoops Challenge). These ate two UTR teams that are off to pretty good starts, and JMU has some decent wins already.
-NORTHEASTERN AT DAVIDSON. Northeastern has been kind of disappointing so far considering how good we thought they’d be, but they still have time to turn it around. Davidson has appeared to struggle as well, but at the end of the day they have a 4-1 record and are in fairly decent shape if they can keep winning.
-SAVANNAH STATE AT ALCORN STATE. The Team of the People!!! Savannah State has a winnable road game today, and is trying to pick up their third win of the season, and improve to 3-2 in non-buy games!!
-WESTERN KENTUCKY AT INDIANA STATE. WKU has a nice neutral floor win against West Virginia, but missed some chances to add even more to their resume. They are going after their first true road win today.
-STONY BROOK AT RHODE ISLAND. Up to this point, Stony Brook has been the more impressive team. If they can pull this one off they can improve to 5-1 on the season, and 3-0 in road buy games.
-GEORGE MASON VS BAYLOR (Emerald Coast Classic). Both teams have been disappointing, and while both still have potential, the sooner they get things turned around the better.
-UNC GREENSBORO VS LOUISIANA TECH (Delaware Invitational). This is a UTR game, but it is also a very big game between a potential SoCon frontrunner in UNCG, and a potential at-large caliber team in LA Tech. LA Tech already has a big win at Wichita State, and their only loss was to LSU, who they took down to the wire in Baton Rouge.
-HOUSTON AT BYU. Both teams are off to good starts, but neither team has won a notable game yet, and since neither started out near the rankings no one has really noticed either team yet. It’ll be interesting to see what they do against each other today.
-NORTHERN KENTUCKY AT UCF. This is a really big game between an unbeaten NKU team that’s facing it’s biggest test, and a UCF team that appears to be among the best in the American, and who just won three straight to win their exempt tournament.
-COLORADO AT AIR FORCE (Front Range). We love the Front Range!!!! Colorado is looking for their first road win of the year.
-CINCINNATI VS OLE MISS (Emerald Coast Classic). Both teams have respectable records, but both need notable wins.
-HARVARD AT SAINT MARY’S. SMC has looked good at times, but they’re off to a somewhat modest 3-2 start and should be expected to win games like this at home if they feel they are an NCAA Tournament caliber team.
BUY GAMES (and other games worth mentioning, but not highlighting)
-Campbell @ Georgetown – Chris Clemsons for Campbell will be the best player on the floor
-New Hampshire @ UConn
-Saint Francis U @ Virginia Tech
-Marist @ Buffalo
-Western Illinois @ Nebraska
-Valparaiso @ West Virginia
-The Citadel @ South Florida – USF can improve to 5-1 on the year
-Chicago State @ Bradley – Bradley can improve to 6-1 on the year
-Denver @ Longwood – Longwood can improve to 6-1 on the year
-Saint Peter’s @ North Texas – North Texas looking to stay unbeaten
-Central Arkansas @ Saint Louis
-Iona @ Providence
-Belmont @ Kennesaw State – mentioned because Belmont can improve to 5-0
-Lehigh @ Kansas State – Lehigh has just one loss so far
-Dartmouth @ San Franscisco – the Dons can improve to 6-0
-High Point @ East Carolina
-Northern Colorado @ Texas Tech – both teams unbeaten
-Mercer @ NC State
-Hofstra @ VCU
-Missouri State @ Murray State – Murray can improve to 3-0
-Abilene Christian vs UC Riverside – ACU can improve to 6-0
-Jackson State @ San Diego
-Cal State Fullerton @ Sacramento State – Sac State can remain unbeaten
-Florida A&M @ LMU – LMU can remain unbeaten