For today’s News, Notes and Highlighted Games from the Puppet – CLICK HERE
For Jon Teitel’s latest installment of Bracketology where he guesses the Selection Committee – CLICK HERE
Loyola-Chicago (14-6, 6-1) at Northern Iowa (16-3, 5-2) – 4:00 PM EST (ESPNU)
Today’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to Cedar Falls, Iowa for a 1-2 matchup in the Missouri Valley Conference between the hometown Northern Iowa Panthers and the Loyola Ramblers. Loyola got off to a very slow start this year at 3-4; three of those losses came at home against Coppin State and against South Florida and Colorado State in the Cayman Islands Classic (en route to a 7th place finish) before finally catching fire and winning 11 out of their next 13 games. The Ramblers are led by Cameron Krutwig’s 15.0 points a game and 8.1 rebounds a game.
Northern Iowa comes into today’s game as the #1 Under The Radar team as voted by the Hoops HD panel, although the votes came in prior to the Panthers’ 68-66 loss on Wednesday night at Southern Illinois. UNI fell behind by as many as 16 points in that game before mounting a comeback that fell just short against the Salukis. UNI already has a sweep of Bradley under their belts, and this will be their first matchup this season against Loyola. AJ Green averages 19.5 points a game for the Panthers this season; Trae Burhow also averages 14.4 points a game as well.