Northern Iowa (9-1, 7-1 D1) at Grand Canyon (4-7, 4-6 D1) – 9:00 PM EST (ESPN3)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to the Valley of the Sun where the hometown Grand Canyon Antelopes will host the Northern Iowa Panthers. UNI is coming off of a signature win at Colorado on Tuesday night thanks to a steal and layup from Spencer Haldeman that put the Panthers up for good. UNI also split a pair of games in the Cancun Challenge – they had a loss against West Virginia and a win against South Carolina.
To say that Grand Canyon’s season has been a disappointment would be an understatement. The Lopes started with a non-D1 loss to Davenport and have struggled to find any consistency since that game. They also finished 7th place in the Paradise Jam thanks to early losses against Valpo and Fordham, but they were able to salvage at least one win against Illinois State. Alessandro Lever leads the Lopes with 14.7 points a game through their first 11 games.
OTHER NEWS, NOTES, AND GAMES
-Michigan fell on the road at Illinois yesterday. It is the third time a top five team lost to an unranked team in the span of about 26 hours. Illinois looked bad in their season opener, but they’ve looked fairly solid in the last week or two, and their resume just got a huge boost to it. I didn’t think they would be a tournament caliber team before the season started, but they seem to be looking like it now. As for Michigan….maybe they should consider playing all their home games in the Bahamas? They looked as good as a team could look in the Battle 4 Atlantis, but haven’t really been at that level since.
-IOWA AT IOWA STATE. I know most people understand this is a rivalry, but it is still probably far more intense than what most people outside of Iowa realize. Both teams are potential tournament teams, and this would be a really nice win on paper for whoever picks it up. But for a lot of fans just winning the rivalry and getting the bragging rights will be the biggest reward.
-Austin Peay @ West Virginia – buy game