For today’s News, Notes and Highlighted Games of a full slate – CLICK HERE
For installment #7 of Jon Teitel’s coverage of the Georgetown Hoyas – CLICK HERE
Charlotte (10-5, 4-0) at Western Kentucky (11-6, 4-1) – 5:00 PM EST (ESPN3)
Today’s UTR Game of the Day could go to a number of places (Lipscomb/Liberty, Hartford/Vermont, ETSU/Western Carolina are a few examples), but we choose to highlight Conference USA and the race for the regular season championship between Charlotte and Western Kentucky. The 49ers are a pleasant surprise with their 4-0 start in league play; their streak started with home wins against UAB, Middle Tennessee and Old Dominion before starting their current 3-game road trip with a win at Marshall earlier this week. Head Coach Ron Sanchez (former associate head coach under Tony Bennett at Virginia) has brought a big defensive improvement to the Queen City; they allowed 12 fewer points a game collectively in his first season than the previous 2016-17 season. This season, the 49ers have improved another 7 points – allowing just over 61 points a game thus far.
Life without Charles Bassey did get off to a bumpy start for the Hilltoppers of Western Kentucky, but they are only a half game back of Charlotte in the conference standings. They are a perfect 3-0 at home with wins against North Texas, Rice and Old Dominion and split their first road trip with a loss at UAB and a win against Middle Tennessee. Taevion Hollingsworth has averaged 14.0 points a game for the Tops this season in 17 games. Something will have to give today – while we mentioned that Charlotte has a stingy defense, WKU averages 77 points a game themselves.