NEWS AND NOTES
-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day between Miami OH and South Alabama – CLICK HERE
-Let’s begin out in Maui, where Virginia Tech pulled off a stunning upset against #3 Michigan State. I don’t think there has ever been a single game that shifted my opinion about a team more than that one did. VA Tech lost all five of their starters from a season ago, along with their head coach. All the buckets appeared to be empty and they looked like one of the bottom two teams in the ACC. Now all of a sudden they are undefeated with a road win at Clemson (which is Clemson’s only loss) and a neutral floor win against Michigan State. This is a solid top 25 caliber team. 24 hours ago I would have told you they were not even a top 100 team.
Also impressive out in Maui was Dayton, who will face Virginia Tech tonight. They blew past a talented (but young) Georgia team in their game yesterday, and it will be interesting to see if they can keep that momentum going tonight.
-Cincinnati needed overtime to get past Valparaiso. The good news for Cincinnati is that they’ve been winning their games. The bad news is that they haven’t looked impressive at all in doing so. The coaching change is probably effecting them since the style he wants to play is something they’re not used to, but to barely beat Illinois State, then lose to Bowling Green, and then barely beat Valpo….it wasn’t exactly a strong showing for them down at the Paradise Jam.
-Pittsburgh picked up a nice win against a pretty good Kansas State team, which was kind of a surprise. Pitt now has wins against Florida State and K State, and a loss to Nicholls. #SchizophrenicPitt
-Butler pretty much rolled past Missouri. Butler looked to be shorthanded coming into the year, and then they lost a few more players to injury within the first couple of games, so I wasn’t expecting much from them at all. But, they’re unbeaten and have some pretty good wins. And on top of that, they’re starting to get healthy again.
-Stanford was another team that I wasn’t expecting much out of, but they are undefeated and looked pretty good yesterday as they absolutely rolled over Oklahoma. Their game against Butler tonight should be a good one.
-Richmond picked up a huge win over Wisconsin. Suddenly you have to sit up and take notice of the Spiders who are undefeated and now have a couple of notable wins on their resume. If they can somehow knock off Auburn tonight then we may be talking Top 25 for the Spiders.
-Arkansas remained unbeaten with a bank-shot game winning three pointer at the end of overtime to knock off Georgia Tech on the road. That’s a pretty good start for the Razorbacks.
-Nevada picked up their third straight win to win the Paradise Jam, which gets them to 5-3 on the year after a somewhat sluggish start.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-NEW MEXICO STATE VS SOUTH FLORIDA (Cayman Islands Classic). Both of these team were set up to have big years, and I suppose that they still can, but as for now they are both dealing with big time injuries that are impacting their teams. Still, the winner will move on to the finals of this event tomorrow.
-GEORGIA VS MICHIGAN STATE (Maui Invitational). Georgia lost big to Dayton yesterday, which may have been a bit of a wake up call for this young roster, but they’ve got another huge test today against a Michigan State team that fell to Virginia Tech in a really big upset. Both teams are looking to bounce back and get notable neutral floor win on their resume.
-UCLA VS CHAMINADE (nondiv1) (Maui Invitational). If UCLA loses this one then they are really in trouble.
-WISCONSIN VS NEW MEXICO (Legends Classic). It’s the third place game, but that means absolutely nothing. It counts the same as it would if this were just a regular season one-off on a neutral floor. Wisconsin suffered a somewhat surprising loss to Richmond yesterday and is looking to bounce back against a decent New Mexico team that’s still looking for its first really big win.
-WICHITA STATE VS SOUTH CAROLINA (Cancun Challenge). Wichita State is unbeaten and has looked pretty good, but they haven’t been challenged the way that they likely will be in this event. South Carolina has just one loss and this is a chance for them to pick up some notable wins as well.
-APPALACHIAN STATE AT EAST TENNESSEE STATE. ETSU is good enough to land inside the bubble this March, but they have to keep winning and avoid losses in games like this.
-ARIZONA STATE AT PRINCETON. Kind of an odd road game for the Sun Devils, but it’s a winnable road game which will help out their resume more than just a regular home buy game would.
-FURMAN AT ELON. A win for Furman gets them to 6-1 on the year, as well as their third road win of the season
-OKLAHOMA VS MISSOURI (Hall of Fame Classic). Both teams have looked good at times, but both could also use a notable win on their resume, so this game does have a bit of a sense of urgency to it. That being said, both will have many opportunities between now and the end of the year to prove themselves to the selection committee.
-AUBURN VS RICHMOND (Legends Classic). Richmond has been fun to watch this season, and they picked up a huge win against Wisconsin yesterday to get to the championship game tonight against an unbeaten Auburn team that absolutely steamrolled New Mexico. It’s a resume building opportunity for both teams.
-GEORGE MASON VS NEBRASKA (Cayman Islands Classic). Nebraska has been awful this year and George Mason has been better than expected. They can continue to add neutral floor wins to their resume if they can get past the Huskers.
-CENTRAL MICHIGAN AT DEPAUL. This is a buy game, but since Central Michigan has just one loss and since DePaul is unbeaten I guess we will go ahead and highlight it.
-DAYTON VS VIRGINIA TECH (Maui Invitational). Dayton just looked fantastic in their win against Georgia, and in one sense you wanted to see what they could do against a heavyweight like Michigan State, but in another sense you’re excited to see what they can do against a Virginia Tech team that appears to be a much bigger heavyweight than what anyone realized. This one should be fun tonight, and like so many of these games it’s a resume building opportunity.
-NORTHERN IOWA VS WEST VIRGINIA (Cancun Challenge). A really interesting game here between a Northern Iowa team that we think is one of the better UTR teams out there, and a West Virginia team that’s looking to have a bounce back season. Both teams come into this one unbeaten.
-WYOMING VS TCU (MGM Resorts Main Event). TCU is off to a fairly decent start, but needs to bounce back from their overtime loss to Clemson and take advantage of some winnable games away from home like this one.
-STANFORD VS BUTLER (Hall of Fame Classic). I didn’t expect either of these teams to be good this year, especially Butler with all of the injuries they’ve dealt with, but both have looked fantastic and both have knocked off some solid opponents along the way. This should be a fun one tonight.
-KANSAS VS BYU (Maui Invitational). BYU has been up and down this season, whereas Kansas has pretty much been up ever since they lost their season opener to Duke in what was a very close game. The winner moves on to the championship game tomorrow night.
-COLORADO VS CLEMSON (MGM Resorts Main Event). Both teams are coming into this with quite a bit of momentum, and a win in this game would look good on an NCAA Tournament resume, so it should be a fun one.
BUY GAMES (and equivalencies)
-Hampton @ San Francisco
-Fairleigh Dickinson @ Notre Dame
-NJIT @ Rutgers
-Lindenwood (nondiv1) @ Illinois
-Houston Baptist @ Houston
-SFA @ Duke
-UC Davis @ California