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NEWS AND NOTES
-After pulling off the biggest regular season upset of the year (so far) Evansville returned home to face a decent but not great SMU team, and couldn’t come up with the win. Now, it’s not like they lost to a sub 200 team, but an NCAA Tournament caliber team would have been expected to win that game at home. So, one can’t help but lean a little more to the side of the win at Kentucky being an anomaly. Speaking of Kentucky…
-They kind of had to sweat again last night against Utah Valley. Utah Valley was as close as 1 with just a few minutes to go in the game before Kentucky got control and got the win. Kentucky has a history of being rather average in November. It’s just that after they start blowing through teams in mid-to-late December that everyone kind of forgets that they were blown out by Duke, or struggled against UNC Greensboro, or struggled against Vermont (a few years ago), or struggled in a lot of early season games. I still think Kentucky has a ceiling that they are no where near yet, and aren’t the same caliber team that we will see in another six weeks or so.
-There were some exciting games, but it was a rather chalky night in terms of results. William & Mary led Oklahoma for about 37 minutes and looked really good, but then just went cold in the final few minutes of the game. The Sooners pulled out the win and remain unbeaten.
-Teams like West Virginia, Pittsburgh, and Notre Dame struggled in their buy games, but managed to get it done.
-The upset of the night was Montana Tech from the NAIA taking down Montana!! THE OREDIGGERS HAVE WON OUR HEARTS!!!!
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-VERMONT AT VIRGINIA. This is technically a buy game, but Vermont has a really good team that may be good enough to make the NCAA Tournament
without needing to win the America East Tournament. Pulling off a win tonight would be a huge step in that direction, but it is far easier said than done. As good as we think they are, going on the road to Virginia and matching up against that pack line is a tough order. But, it should at least be interesting.
-NICHOLLS AT RHODE ISLAND. Who knows if either of these teams will be in the picture in the latter part of the season, but for now both have picked up some nice wins for their profiles. Rhody knocked off Alabama rather decisively over the weekend and Nicholls has the road win at Pitt.
-NEVADA AT DAVIDSON. I know it’s early, but neither of these teams have gotten out of the gate quickly and both could really use this win tonight to get back on track.
-UMBC AT LSU. It’s a buy game, but UMBC comes in at 4-0 and if they can somehow pull off the upset it could really catapult them into the national consciousness. LSU has won a couple of buy games (one of which was against Nicholls) and has a road loss to VCU, so they are just looking to hold serve in this one.
-DELAWARE AT SAINT FRANCIS U. A somewhat intriguing UTR game between a 4-0 Delaware team and one of the preseason favorites in the NEC.
-EAST TENNESSEE STATE AT KANSAS. East Tennessee State is another UTR team that we think could land inside the bubble. Having said that, winning at Kansas is probably swinging over their heads, but will be interesting to see what they can do against a top five caliber team on the road. They probably won’t win the game, but it’s an interesting litmus test.
-FURMAN AT ALABAMA. It’s a buy game, but I’ll go ahead and say that I think Furman is the better team. If they can pick up yet another road win they will continue their pace (albeit an early pace) to end up inside the bubble on Selection Sunday.
-HOUSTON AT RICE. Houston is looking to bounce back from their home loss to BYU over the weekend, which is a game they really did kind of blow. They face their crosstown rivals (I guess you can call it that) in Rice today.
-NEW MEXICO AT UTEP. The preseason prognostications for both of these teams weren’t exactly stellar, but both come into this one unbeaten and can pick up a huge win to keep that momentum going. Both these teams have passionate fanbases that haven’t experienced good basketball in several years, so it should be fun watching them go at it tonight as they try and stay unbeaten.
-PEPPERDINE AT USC. USC is unbeaten and is coming off a fairly good win at Nevada. They face a 3-1 Pepperdine team that has won two straight on the road and is trying to pick up what would be an early season signature win.
BUY GAMES
-Bucknell @ Penn State
-Loyola MD @ George Mason – George Mason can get to 5-0
-Navy @ Liberty – Liberty can get to 5-0
-Merrimack @ Providence
-Alcorn State @ NC State
-Purdue Fort Wayne @ Kent State – not a buy game, but Kent State can get to 3-0
-Boston U @ South Carolina – South Carolina is unbeaten
-Omaha @ Dayton – Dayton is unbeaten
-Seattle @ Ole Miss – Ole Miss is unbeaten
-UT Martin @ Northern Iowa – Northern Iowa is unbeaten
-Texas Southern @ Arkansas – Arkansas is unbeaten
-Gardner Webb @ Wichita State – Wichita State is unbeaten
-Southern Miss @ Iowa State
-Arkansas Pine Bluff @ Kansas State – K State is unbeaten
-Fairfield @ Maryland – Maryland is unbeaten
-UT Arlington @ Gonzaga – Gonzaga is unbeaten
-Cal State Bakersfield @ San Francisco – USF is unbeaten
-UMES @ Stanford – Stanford is unbeaten
-Maine @ Washington