NEWS AND NOTES
-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day, which features the Battle of Riverside!!! – CLICK HERE
-The game of the night last night between Louisville and Michigan, at least as far as rankings, was probably also the least watchable game of the night. Louisville’s defense was fantastic, but neither team was really on their game offensively and it just turned into a low scoring rock fight in a game that didn’t really have any flow. Nevertheless, Louisville did pick up a really big win, and did so decisively.
-The other clash of the titans game wasn’t exactly a nail biter either. Duke went into Michigan State and won handily in a very impressive showing. Whatever the Blue Devils weren’t doing against Stephen F Austin, they were doing in bunches last night. Duke now has a neutral floor win against Kansas, and a true decisive road win at Michigan State. That more than offsets the home loss to SFA.
-Indiana looked impressive against Florida State last night, especially when you considered how good the Noles looked in their exempt tournament against Tennessee and Purdue. I’m sold on Indiana being a really good team at home, but until they go on the road, which they haven’t done yet, I don’t know if I’m all in on them as being a top 25 caliber team.
-Butler remains unbeaten by picking up another nice win against Ole Miss yesterday. It was the first true road win of the season for the Bulldogs.
-Cincinnati played their best game of the season with their win against Vermont last night. They led by as much as 20 at one point. Vermont is a decent team that’s got a few head scratching losses, so it isn’t too shocking that Cincinnati beat them. What’s noteworthy is that they finally looked like a tournament team.
-Charleston Southern. If you don’t follow Under the Radar you may not be sure how good they are by UTR standards. If you do follow Under the Radar, you know they are not all that good by UTR standards. They still went into Missouri and pulled off the upset last night. I think we can conclude that Mizzou just doesn’t have it this year.
-One of the more exciting games last night wasn’t over until after 1am. San Francisco and Arizona State seesawed back and forth the entire way. You got the feeling that had they played for another 40 minutes that neither team would have pulled away. Arizona State was ahead when time ran out, though, which should end up being a really nice road win for the Sun Devils.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-OHIO STATE AT NORTH CAROLINA (***Spotlight Game***). Both teams are in the top ten, and both have won big games. This is the first real test away from home for Ohio State though, so as good as they’ve looked so far, they’ll look infinitely better if they can pick up a road win of this caliber.
-PENN AT VILLANOVA (Big Five). Both teams come in at 5-2, and while Nova looks to be the better team Penn has probably actually beaten better teams up to this point. They are also the defending Big Five champs!
-EAST TENNESSEE STATE AT THE CITADEL (SoCon). Not the most traditional time for a conference opener, but ETSU can improve to 8-1 on the year, pick up a conference win, and pick up their third true road win tonight.
-SOUTH CAROLINA AT UMASS. Neither team has really blown us away, and there is a much better chance that both of these teams will be on the outside looking in come March, but as of now both are 5-3 and have even had a few moments of decent play this season.
-VIRGINIA AT PURDUE (Big Ten/ACC Challenge). Virginia comes into this game unbeaten and is able to absolutely smother teams on defense. Purdue comes into this game at just 4-3, but had a really strong showing in the Emerald Coast Classic with a win over VCU and a near win over a very good Florida State team, so they should have a fair amount of momentum built up coming into tonight. Not to mention they are at home.
-NOTRE DAME AT MARYLAND (Big Ten/ACC Challenge). Notre Dame has won six straight since losing their season opener at North Carolina, but none of those were games like the one they’ll have tonight, which is against a current top five team on the road. It’s another big test for the Irish. A loss won’t really hurt them, but a win would catapult them onto the national scene.
-BYU AT UTAH. This is one of the most bitter rivalries in the country. Utah has been kind of disappointing this season, and while BYU has looked good at times, it hasn’t been all the time. Still, it’s always fun when these two get together.
-GEORGETOWN AT OKLAHOMA STATE. This game had a lot more appeal about 48 hours ago before Georgetown had two of their key players leave the team. Oklahoma State is unbeaten, but isn’t getting a whole lot of respect yet. Still, they are a team to really watch for this season and will probably be in the rankings soon enough.
-TEXAS TECH AT DEPAUL. Texas Tech is a team that we had high expectations for this year, and they could still kick it into gear and have a huge season, but they haven’t shown it yet. They have a tough game against a DePaul team that has looked like an NCAA Tournament caliber team so far this season.
-BOISE STATE AT NEW MEXICO (Mountain West). We think there are three teams that are really worth keeping an eye on in the MWC this year, and New Mexico is one of them. Boise State probably isn’t a tournament team, but they are still much improved from a season ago.
-SAN DIEGO SATE AT COLORADO STATE (Mountain West). This San Diego State team is not in the rankings, but they’ve looked like they belong there so far. They’re unbeaten on the year, have wins at BYU, and neutral floor wins against Creighton and Iowa. They’ve got another very winnable road game in their conference opener tonight.
-WISCONSIN AT NC STATE (Big Ten/ACC Challenge). Neither team has looked all that impressive as of yet, and could use a win in a game like this to kind of get their motor started.
-WAKE FOREST AT PENN STATE (Big Ten/ACC Challenge). I’ve liked what I’ve seen out of this Penn State team, at least at times, and Wake Forest had a pretty good showing out in the Wooden Legacy, so this game is looking a little more intriguing than we thought it would a few weeks ago.
-LMU AT COLORADO. Colorado is unbeaten, has looked good all year, and will likely hold serve and stay that way tonight.
-SANTA CLARA AT NEVADA. This game is kind of hiding in the weeds, but it’s actually really intriguing. Santa Clara has just one loss on the year, and while Nevada is undergoing a huge rebuilding job and got off to an understandably slow start, they’ve won their last three and appear to maybe be finding their rhythm.
-CALIFORNIA AT SAN FRANCISCO. San Francisco dropped a close one to Arizona State last night in a game that went back and forth. They face a Cal team that hasn’t been setting the world on fire, but is much improved from a season ago.
-UTAH STATE AT SAN JOSE STATE (Mountain West). This is a winnable road game for Utah State, which would be their first true road win of the year.
BUY GAMES
-Florida A&M @ Tennessee
-Green Bay @ Xavier
-Iona @ UConn
-NC Central @ Georgia
-VMI @ Duquesne
-Kennesaw State @ UNC Greensboro
-Kansas City @ Iowa State
-Texas State @ Houston
-Texas Southern @ Gonzaga
-Jacksonville @ Marquette
-Eastern Washington @ Washington
-CSUN @ Portland – Portland can get to 7-1