NEWS AND NOTES
-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day, which is a really good one between SFA and Arkansas State – CLICK HERE
-North Carolina held on to beat Oregon in the third place game of the Battle 4 Atlantis. The fact that it was a third place game doesn’t mean anything. All the committee cares about was that it was a win over a highly ranked Oregon team (if they maintain that ranking until March) on a neutral floor.
-Michigan won the Battle 4 Atlantis by manhandling Gonzaga, and winning their second game against a top ten team by double digits in two days. Michigan is unranked, but that is certainly about to change. I don’t think the Wolverines will jump all the way up to #1 because that’s just not how voters do things, but speaking in terms of merit they’ve probably got the best tournament resume in the country right now.
-Texas Tech looked sluggish. Again. They fell to a Creighton team 83-76 in the consolation game of the Las Vegas Invitational, and are still looking for their first non-buy game win.
-Saint Mary’s held on to knock off 15th ranked Utah State at home, which puts SMC in pretty good shape. It was a home win, but they’ll still get some credit for it since Utah State will likely win a lot of road games this year. Having said that, they haven’t won any yet.
-Down in the Emerald Coast Classic, Purdue knocked off VCU and Florida State knocked off Tennessee. We kept saying that we thought Purdue and Tennessee were two good teams that hadn’t quite hit their stride yet. Well, beating a ranked team on a neutral court generally constitutes hitting your stride. The two will face each other later today, and VCU and Tennessee will face each other in what is suddenly a very opportunistic 3rd place game since both are ranked, which means both get the chance to pick up a high quality neutral floor win.
-DePaul won at Minnesota. DePaul is now 8-0 on the season with three true road wins. No one else in the Big East has a resume like that yet.
-Utah held on to beat UC Davis. At home. By 4. I’m starting to think this Utah team really isn’t any good.
-San Diego State came from behind and dominated the second half to beat Iowa, win the Las Vegas Invitational, and remain unbeaten on the season. This is looking like a solid NCAA Tournament team that probably also belongs in the rankings.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-SOUTH DAKOTA AT NORTHERN ARIZONA. A decent UTR game as South Dakota has the chance to improve to 7-1 and pick up their third true road win of the season.
-UNC GREENSBORO AT GEORGETOWN. It’s a buy game, but we are really big on this UNCG team and think they can land inside the bubble if they’re able to knock off some tournament caliber teams prior to conference play. This is one of those opportunities for them, but it won’t come easy. Georgetown is 4-2, but has shown a ton of improvement as the season has gone along and probably won’t overlook UNCG.
-BOSTON COLLEGE AT RICHMOND. The Spiders are off to an impressive 5-1 start and should remain on a pace to make the NCAA Tournament if they can hold serve at home in games like this.
-EAST TENNESSEE STATE AT LITTLE ROCK. ETSU is looking to improve to 7-1 on the season and pick up their second true road win. Their only loss so far has come at Kansas.
-TENNESSEE VS VCU (Emerald Coast Classic). This is a third place game, but it’s a really good match-up between two ranked teams and will be considered a high caliber neutral floor win for whichever team is able to pull it off.
-SFA AT ARKANSAS STATE. This is a really interesting UTR game. SFA is coming off their huge win at Duke, and they’ve got another tough test today against an Arkansas State team that has just one loss and has been one of the more impressive teams out of the Sun Belt so far.
-UNLV AT CINCINNATI. Cincinnati hasn’t really gelled yet, and while they’ve been winning games, they’ve been unimpressive showings against unimpressive teams. I do think they’ll snap out of it sooner or later. I just don’t know if it will be sooner or later. They face a UNLV team at home that has struggled all year, so this is another winnable game for them.
-FLORIDA STATE VS PURDUE (Emerald Coast Classic). Both teams have gotten off to slowish starts this season, but both picked up huge wins against ranked teams yesterday and appear to be hitting their stride. This is yet another chance for both of them to pick up a resume building win away from home.
-TULSA AT VANDERBILT. I don’t expect either team to be anywhere near the bubble come March, but as of now both teams are 5-1 so this game is worth keeping an eye on. We will continue to highlight them until they give us a reason not to.
-SACRAMENTO STATE AT COLORADO. This is a buy game, and the end result may look very unexciting, but both teams are unbeaten. Sacramento State is out to a somewhat surprising 4-0 start. If they can some how win today, then it would be a VERRY surprising start.
BUY GAMES (and equivalent games)
-Lipscomb @ Xavier
-Wagner @ Saint John’s
-McNeese @ Texas
-Montana Tech (nondiv1) @ BYU
-South Dakota State @ Indiana
-Stetson @ Kent State
-Northern Kentucky @ Arkansas – This one could be interesting since Arkansas is unbeaten and NKU is expected to be a Horizon League frontrunner
-Cal State Fullerton @ Santa Clara (Cable Car Classic)