For today’s UTR Game of the Day between North Dakota and Campbell – CLICK HERE
NEWS AND NOTES
-There was only one exempt tournament going on yesterday down in the Emerald Coast Classic, but both games were well worth the price of admission. First, Tennessee defeated VCU on a last-second shot to claim third place in the event. That was followed up by a championship game that went overtime before Florida State outlasted Purdue. It’s looking more and more like the Noles’ season opening loss at Pitt may just have been an aberration.
-Georgetown just cannot have nice things, it seems. They’ve struggled at home against Penn State and even some of their buy-game level opponents. While they looked better in New York with a win against Texas and a close loss against Duke, they were beaten at home against UNC-Greensboro in a game that may not even be an upset. The Spartans cashed in on a major opportunity and once again appear poised to be a potential NCAA noisemaker this season.
-Richmond continues to look like a pleasant surprise out of the A-10; they smashed Boston College at home yesterday. Not a bad way to rebound after getting drubbed by Auburn up at the Barclays Center.
-Cincy also looked a bit schizo against UNLV – the Bearcats trailed by 11 points early in the second half before coming back to take what appeared to be an insurmountable 10-point lead with a minute remaining in regulation. UC had a couple of bad breaks with replay (most egregious was a sequence in which a UNLV shooter was fouled in the act of shooting while his foot was on the three-point line, but UC opted not to ask for a review), but they were also able to overcome the Runnin’ Rebels in overtime. No rest for the weary Bearcats this week – they have a home game against Vermont followed by the Crosstown Shootout against Xavier.
-Texas seems to fall victim to at least one upset special at home during the Shaka Smart era, but a potential upset loss to McNeese was averted with a pair of free throws from Courtney Ramey in the final ten seconds of regulation to give the Horns a 2-point win.
-Saint Joe’s is looking more and more like they just had one good day up at UConn. Last night, they lost by double digits to the Red Flash of Saint Francis University (or STFU as one of our writers likes to call them).
-The SWAC had a rare 3-0 day yesterday against D-1 competition. Alabama State beat Chicago State in the Emerald Coast Classic, Texas Southern beat Lamar at home and Prairie View went on the road and beat UT-San Antonio.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-FAIRFIELD VS TEXAS A&M (Orlando Invitational, 7th Place). To say that Texas A&M is going through growing pains while trying to rebuild their program would be an understatement. At least we get Uncle Buzz for Sunday morning hoops!
-MARYLAND VS MARQUETTE (Orlando Invitational, Championship). Marquette is a team that we had a lot of questions about. Well, they’re 5-1 and if they can win this one against Maryland then I think it’s safe to say that a lot of our questions will have been answered. Maryland hasn’t always looked like a top 5 team, but they’ve won all their games and can build on their resume if they can win this event.
-LONG BEACH STATE VS PENNSYLVANIA (Wooden Legacy, 3rd Place). This could potentially be a red-letter day for the Ivy League with both Penn and Harvard playing for third place in multi-team exempt tournaments.
-RHODE ISLAND AT WEST VIRGINIA. West Virginia just picked up a couple of really good wins in the Cancun Challenge and have a winnable home game today against a decent Rhody team.
-VERMONT AT YALE. Vermont may be good enough to land inside the bubble, but they are running out of strikes. They basically need to avoid loss to all non-tournament caliber teams the rest of the way, which means they have to basically win out. They’re good enough to do that, but it’s much easier said than done.
-TEMPLE VS DAVIDSON (Orlando Invitational, 5th Place). Temple followed up their close loss against Maryland with a blowout win against Texas A&M and have looked really strong this season. Davidson hasn’t really looked anywhere close to as good as we thought they’d be this season and needs a win in a game like this to help get things turned around.
-SOUTHERN ILLINOIS AT SAINT LOUIS. SLU can improve to 7-1 on the year with a win.
-CHARLESTON VS UCF (Wooden Legacy, 5th Place). Charleston gets one more opportunity for a win against a power conference team this weekend, but they look more like a team just trying to get for conference play in the Colonial.
-PROVIDENCE VS PEPPERDINE (Wooden Legacy, 7th Place). Providence has got to string together some wins to get their season turned around. To say it’s off to a rough start would be an understatement.
-HARVARD VS USC (Orlando Invitational, 3rd Place). Harvard has been somewhat disappointing this year up to this point, but they did put up a good fight against Maryland and may be starting to turn things around. A win against USC today would be big for their resume as well as their mental health.
-LA SALLE AT VILLANOVA (Big Five). Nova hasn’t done anything all that impressive yet, but they should be able to hold serve against a La Salle team that’s off to a decent start, but at the same time hasn’t done anything all that impressive either.
-WAKE FOREST AT ARIZONA (Wooden Legacy, Championship). I wasn’t big on Wake this year at all, but they have won two games in the Wooden Legacy to get to the finals, and if they can some how knock off an Arizona team that’s been winning, but that’s also had to sweat out a lot of their wins, it will catapult them into national relevance.
BUY GAMES
-Maine @ UConn
-Southern @ Tulane
-UNC-Wilmington @ Stanford
-Portland State @ Oregon State
-Omaha @ Saint Mary’s