NEWS AND NOTES
-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day between Appalachian State and South Alabama – CLICK HERE
-Utah, who hadn’t really looked good at all this season, looked really good last night. They led Kentucky for pretty much the entire game, and even held on to a double digit lead for most of the second half, as they pulled off the 69-66 upset over the Wildcats. It’s Kentucky’s second loss of the year, and outside of the win against Michigan State they really don’t have much in the way of quality wins, but most people forget that Kentucky never seems to really doesn’t fire up their engines until after Christmas anyway. I still think that we are gonna see Kentucky high in the rankings and way up the seedlist by the end of the year. As for Utah, this is the kind of game that finally adds some meat to their resume.
-As expected, Gonzaga had no trouble at home against an injured North Carolina team that has been struggling. They won 94-81, but the game was probably more lopsided than what that score indicates.
-Cincinnati played their best game of the year and picked up a really nice home win against a Tennessee team that really struggled to hit shots. The Bearcats actually looked like an NCAA Tournament team for the first time all season, so maybe they can start to turn things around.
-East Tennessee State totally blew LSU off of their home court. They are a team that is good enough to be inside the bubble. The problem for them is a very small margin for error due to not being able to play in more games like the one they played last night. Still, I think they can land inside the bubble if they dominate the SoCon.
-Richmond had to sweat, but they did knock off their former Colonial rivals to pick up another road win and improve to 10-1 on the season.
-Saint Mary’s absolutely destroyed Arizona State. It was 96-56. It was 51-19 at the half. It was…INSANE both how good they played and how much Arizona State struggled.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-WOFFORD AT DUKE. Wofford just got a surprising win against North Carolina, but going eight miles down the road and surprising Duke would be on a whole other level.
-MARYLAND AT SETON HALL. This would be Maryland’s biggest road win of the year. The reason? Because it would be their FIRST road win of the year. Seton Hall has had a few good moments, but their last game wasn’t one of them. They were blown off of Planet Earth against Rutgers. The Hall is also short handed, which will make things even tougher tonight.
-UETP AT HOUSTON. This one should actually be kind of fun. UTEP has just one loss on the year, but is still largely untested, especially on the road. If they can pick up this win then it would certainly make their resume look a lot better. Houston has struggled some this year and is looking to rebound from a loss to Oklahoma State. I still think that the Cougars have potential, but they really haven’t shown it yet.
-NC STATE AT AUBURN. NC State picked up a pretty nice road win against UNC Greensboro the other night, but have a much tougher test tonight against a very good Auburn team. If NC State wins this, then I think it shows they are not just a tournament team, but a top 25 team.
-Prairie View A&M @ Colorado