For our weekly and belated UTR Podcast recorded last night – CLICK HERE
For Jon Teitel’s coverage of the GW-Harvard game – CLICK HERE
Canisius (5-5, 0-0) at Siena (3-5, 0-0) – 6:00 PM EST (ESPN3)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to Albany, New York for the MAAC opener between the Canisius Golden Griffins and the hometown Siena Saints. After winning four straight games towards the end of November, Canisius has stumbled of late with losses in three of their last four games. All of those losses were on the road – which may not bode well for the Griffs tonight. Malik Johnson is averaging 14.4 points a game and 5.3 assists a game.
Both Siena and Canisius have wins against St. Bonaventure and Bucknell thus far, although the Saints have played a tougher schedule that also includes losses at Xavier, Harvard and Yale so far. The win at home against Bucknell also broke a four-game losing streak that included losses at Colgate and Cal Poly. Elijah Burns has averaged 16 points a game and 6.3 rebounds a game through the first eight games for the Saints.
We will also be taking our Holiday Break from this column after today – our next UTR game will be on Friday this week. That said, be on the lookout for our regular Hoops HD Report podcast later tonight and enjoy your holidays!
OTHER NEWS NOTES AND GAMES
-Virginia fell at home to South Carolina. Although they were ranked in the top ten, when you look at Virginia’s profile it is suddenly lacking, at least by top ten/protected seed standards. I think they’ll end up kicking it into gear after Christmas, but they have had their struggles so far.
-Xavier picked up a really nice road win at TCU. It was probably their best win of the year when you consider that it was a true road game, and how good they looked yesterday. It was the first time all season they’d looked like a tournament caliber team.
-Duquesne is no longer unbeaten. They fell to UAB in the Saint Pete’s Shootout by a score of 77-68.
-The second round of the Diamond Head Classic is today. Houston and Washington both won yesterday and are still on pace to meet in the championship game Wednesday. Washington will get a bit of a test from a pretty good Hawaii team tonight, so that one will be worth staying up to watch. The final round of the tournament will be on Christmas Day.
-GEORGIA STATE AT SMU. SMU has an impressive 8-2 record, but as of now they don’t have much meat on their resume and need to make sure they hold serve tonight.
-SAN FRANCISCO AT FRESNO STATE. It’s a winnable road game for the Dons, and if they can continue to string together wins they could end up hovering somewhere around the bubble come March.
-GRAMBLING AT DAYTON – buy game