NEWS AND NOTES
-Once again, Tennessee is better than we thought. Just like two years ago when they began the season unranked and ended up as a protected seed, the Vols have reeled off some notable wins already, and took down a really good Washington team in Toronto yesterday. Their defense was pretty solid, and they basically lead the whole way. Compared to much of the rest of the SEC, they’ve actually been one of the more impressive teams so far.
-DePaul is 5-0. Most of those wins (including yesterday’s) have been in buy games, but they’ve been blowing through those buy games in a way that they didn’t in the past, and they also have a big blowout win at Iowa.
-Belmont handed Boston College their first loss of the season and picked up a nice road win at the same time. The Bruins have a very small margin for error if they want to land back on the bubble, but it is perhaps doable.
-Harvard lost their second game of the year, and looked rather pitiful doing it. They fell to Buffalo 88-76. Perhaps the Crimson aren’t the top 40 team we thought they might be.
-Vermont remains unbeaten after they picked up their third win on the road when they knocked off Saint John’s yesterday. It was an ugly game, but on paper it’s a nice looking win for what appears to be a very good Vermont team.
-Congrats to Merrimack, who in their first two weeks as a div1 program have won at Northwestern, and now won against their crosstown rivals UMass Lowell. The game was actually quite exciting with Merrimack winning at the buzzer.
-Montana State, who just last week took Utah State to the wall, won a thriller on the road against UNC Greensboro. Montana State led for most of the game, but it was always close. UNCG hit what appeared to be the game winning shot with just three seconds left before Montana State hit a beyond-half-court shot at the buzzer to get the win. UNCG is a team that we thought might be in the at-large picture at the end, so any loss is rather crushing since their margin for error is so low. On the other side, it’s hard to not be impressed with Montana State and what they’ve done in the first two weeks.
-USC improved to 4-0 and picked up their first true road win of the season when they knocked off Nevada.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-MARQUETTE AT WISCONSIN. Marquette is coming off a nice win in the Gavitt Games, and is looking to keep that momentum going. Wisconsin has won two straight since their overtime loss to open the season against Saint Mary’s. It’s a resume building game, but also a rivalry game.
-NEW MEXICO STATE AT ARIZONA. I had been excited about this game since August, but with NMSU being so beat up with injuries I don’t think they’ve got it in them to pull the upset. Had they been at full strength, I wouldn’t even have classified it as an upset had they won this one.
-UCF AT ILLINOIS STATE. Illinois State already has a nice win against Belmont, and can get to 3-0 on the year with a win today.
-FLORIDA AT UCONN. Florida had expectations coming into the season, whereas UConn didn’t, but neither team has really looked any good at any point this year. Both could use a win in a game like this to kind of get their motors started. (Note from Stalica – both teams could meet again next weekend in the Charleston Classic, but this is NOT the “nonbracketed” game tied to this tournament. UConn already played Saint Joe’s and Florida played Towson in these nonbracketed games).
-SETON HALL AT SAINT LOUIS. Seton Hall is coming off a loss to Michigan State where they played well, but just couldn’t get it done. A win on the road against a SLU team that comes into this unbeaten would be a nice way to bounce back. As for SLU, getting off to a 4-0 start with a really nice win to go along with it wouldn’t be bad either, especially since they were a team that no one expected a whole lot from.
BUY GAMES
-Jacksonville State @ VCU – VCU gets to 4-0 with a win. Jax State ain’t bad, though.
-Yale @ Oklahoma State
-New Orleans @ Mississippi State – Mississippi State is unbeaten, and UNO is the preseason Southland favorite
-Detroit Mercy @ Clemson
-Cal State Northridge @ Richmond
-NC Central @ Louisville
-Rider @ Arizona State – Rider unbeaten, ASU 1-1
-Georgia State @ Georgetown
-UT Arlington @ Oregon
-Cal Poly @ Saint Mary’s