News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Tuesday, Dec 1

NEWS AND NOTES

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-North Carolina got off to a disturbingly bad start against UNLV and fell behind 13-0.  They proceeded to totally roll them after that and won the game going away 78-51.  UNC looked a lot like the UNC we are used to seeing and not the UNC we saw a year ago.

-Stanford was also very impressive yesterday in their win against what we think is a good Alabama team.  Alabama could have played a lot better and I think we’ll definitely see them play better games this year, but Stanford looked fantastic.  It will be fun watching them face UNC today.

-Texas got a scare from Davidson, but held on to win 78-76 and advance to the winning side of the bracket where they’ll face…

-Indiana!  They blew providence off the court in one of the more unexpected results of the season so far.  It’s not that the Hoosiers won, but it’s been a long time since we’ve seen them play as well as they did yesterday against a Providence team that most of us are expecting to be really good this year.

-Saint John’s held on to beat Boston College and stay unbeaten at 3-0.  This game saw a five minute officials timeout to try and determine how many timeouts Saint John’s had remaining.  That’s a first!

-The Pacific vs Nevada game was delayed 30 minutes yesterday because Pacific thought the game was supposed to start later than when it was scheduled.  That’s a first!  Nevada got the win and remains unbeaten at 3-0.

-Mercer is an Under the Radar team to pay attention to.  They beat Georgia State without too much trouble yesterday to improve to 3-0 on the season.  Georgia State and Georgia Tech are a nice slate of early season wins for any team!

-Xavier once again struggled with a UTR team.  They needed overtime to get past Eastern Kentucky yesterday.  This is the third game in a row where they’ve come down to basically the last possession against an Under the Radar team, but a win is a win.

-Minnesota beat LMU.  Again.  The two met just a few days ago.  They remain unbeaten at 3-0 with two of those wins being games against LMU.

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-TEXAS VS INDIANA (Maui Invitational).  Texas squeaked out a win against Davidson, and Indiana blasted what we think is a pretty good Providence team yesterday, so we’ve got an intriguing early season match-up today.  If Indiana can win this one, they will have a strong claim to a top 25 spot and be in good shape early on.

-USC VS BYU (Mohegan Sun).  Both teams come into this one without a loss, but this is probably the biggest test so for for them as well.  We think this BYU team could be a tournament team, so it will be interesting to see what they can do today.

-NORTH CAROLINA VS STANFORD (Maui Invitational).  Stanford had no trouble with Alabama yesterday, and North Carolina had even less trouble with UNLV.  If both play as well as they did yesterday we should be in for an early season treat today.

-WESTERN KENTUCKY AT LOUISVILLE.  WKU is coming off a really good showing in the Bad Boy Mowers Classic, and Louisville comes into this one undefeated with a good win against Seton Hall under their belts.  Louisville has dominated this series, but they could be in for a bigger battle from WKU than what they’re used to today.

-OKLAHOMA STATE AT MARQUETTE.  This is an early test for both teams.  Oklahoma State is currently ineligible for the postseason and we weren’t expecting them to do much this year anyway, but they’ve shown some promise early.  Both teams are 2-0, but this is probably their biggest test to date.

-DAVIDSON VS PROVIDENCE (Maui Invitational).  Both teams are looking to bounce back from a loss yesterday.  This would be a good early season win for whichever team manages to pick it up.  We think both of them have quite a bit of potential.

-MICHIGAN STATE AT DUKE (Champions Classic).  Both teams are in the top ten and both are probable protected seeds, so it goes without saying that this would be a huge quality win for whoever manages to pull this one out.  Duke struggled in their first game against Coppin State, but I wouldn’t read too much into that.

-KENTUCKY VS KANSAS (Champions Classic).  Both teams have been a little sluggish out of the gate with Kansas getting beaten by Gonzaga and Kentucky recently losing to Richmond.  Both will likely be much better at the end of the year than what they are now, but it’s still a good (and important) early season game for both teams.

-UNLV VS ALABAMA (Maui Invitational).  It’s early, but this game still has a sense of urgency to it.  Both of them could really use a notable early season win right now.

BUY GAMES

-Oakland @ Purdue
-Prairie View A&M @ UNC Greensboro
-Saint Francis U @ Virginia
-UC Riverside @ Washington (Las Vegas)
-Green Bay @ Wisconsin
-Omaha @ Creighton
-Hartford vs Villanova (Mohegan Sun)
-Navy @ Georgetown
-Eastern Illinois @ Dayton
-Nicholls @ Saint Mary’s

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