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Northern Kentucky (14-6, 6-2) at Wright State (17-4, 7-1) – 9:00 PM EST (ESPNU)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to Fairborn, Ohio for a matchup of the heavyweights of the Horizon League – the Norse of Northern Kentucky will travel up I-75 to meet the Wright State Raiders. NKU got off to an uncharacteristically bad 1-2 start in league play with a home loss to Green Bay and a road loss at Detroit, but they have won 5 in a row since coming from behind to win at Oakland three weeks ago. They played their best ball last week with blowout wins against Youngstown State and Cleveland State; in their first game Tyler Sharpe entered the school’s 1000-point club with a 33-point performance against the Penguins.
Loudon Love (15.1 PPG, 9.9 RPG) missed five games in December for Wright State – one of those games was a surprising 84-77 overtime loss to Indiana State. Since that game, the Raiders have won ten of eleven games, including a 7-1 start to league play. The loss was a surprising one – UIC beat Wright State 76-72 two weeks ago after getting blown out against NKU in their previous game.
OTHER NEWS NOTES AND GAMES (From David)
-Indiana picked up a big win against a Michigan State team that had been playing really well. It was a home win for the Hoosiers, but they should still get quite a bit of credit for it given that even on the road the Spartans are a good team.
-Oregon and USC was a rock fight in the first half, an exciting finish in the second half, and an overtime win for the Ducks. It’s not a damaging loss at all for USC, but oh wow it would have been a fantastic road win that probably lands them in the top half of the bracket.
-Minnesota picked up their first road win of the season as they knocked off Ohio State, which is something they desperately needed. Speaking of desperate, Ohio State is now just 1-6 in their last seven games.
-Liberty lost a close on at North Florida last night, which in my mind ends their chances for an at-large bid. I know Liberty can still win 30 games before the NCAA Tournament, but I just don’t think the committee will select a team with so few top 200 wins (let alone so few top 100 or top 50 wins) even if they’ve won as many as 30 games. All that really proves is that you can dominate teams outside the top 200, and any NIT team should be able to do that. As a reference point, New Mexico State won 29 last year, and did it against a MUCH tougher schedule, and while they got in via the automatic bid, they were still seeded below the First Four teams. If last year’s New Mexico State team wasn’t inside the bubble, I don’t think this year’s Liberty team will be either even if they win out. So, one of their wins better be that last conference tournament game.
-WISCONSIN AT PURDUE (Big Ten). Purdue is incredibly schizophrenic, but still has some big wins on their resume and still has a path to the NCAA Tournament despite being 10-9. They just need to start consistently winning. Wisky was off and on early in the year, but appears to be playing really well now and can pick up another good road win tonight.
-YALE AT BROWN (Ivy League). It’s an outside shot at best, but I’ve got my eye on this Yale team. If they can dominate this league, and by that I mean lose one or fewer regular season games, they could end up on the bubble. They’re on the road tonight against the Ocean State Tournament Champions!!
-MARQUETTE AT BUTLER (Big East). Butler has lost a few recently, but is still in great shape and still on pace to end up as a protected seed. Marquette has been playing a lot better, and this is the type of road win that would give their resume another huge boost if they can pull it off.