NEWS AND NOTES
-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-West Virginia had no trouble with Richmond. They ended up winning 87-71 and had a bigger lead than that for much of the game. Considering WVU’s only loss was a close game against Gonzaga, you start to wonder if they should be ranked in the top five or so.
-Arizona State survived a scare at Grand Canyon. The Lopes, who entered the game without a loss, missed what would have been a game winning shot at the buzzer and ASU held on for a 71-70 win. Grand Canyon may not be good enough or have the chances they need to land inside the bubble, but so far this season Bryce Drew’s team has looked like a very good UTR team.
-Western Kentucky picked up another notable win as they held off Rhode Island 68-65. They are starting to piece together they type of resume needed to land inside the bubble, but like all UTR teams their margin for error is small.
-Michigan picked up a big win against a Penn State team that had been looking really good. Despite the loss, I think Penn State has more to be optimistic about than pessimistic about.
-Marshall beat a very good Ohio U team rather handily yesterday 81-67. The game was on CUSA TV, so I know that not many people saw it, but for those that did you saw what is clearly a very good Marshall team. WKU is getting a lot of love out of CUSA, but Marshall has looked just as good as they have this season.
-San Francisco continues to be wildly inconsistent. They have a win agains Virginia, and several head scratching losses to go along with it, most recently yesterday against California who hit a game winning three point shot at the buzzer for a 72-70 win.
-Georgetown is going to win some games and make some noise in the Big East this year. They will almost assuredly not be the Stallings Award winners. They played very well against Villanova earlier this week, and knocked off Saint John’s in overtime yesterday.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-RUTGERS AT MARYLAND (Big Ten). Rutgers is unbeaten with a win against a Syracuse team that looks to be better than what we thought. Road wins were hard to come by last year for Rutgers, but now that they have more experience and that there are no fans, they should be able to pick up more this year than they did a year ago.
-MARQUETTE AT CREIGHTON (Big East). Creighton is off to a fantastic start with their only loss being by a single point at Kansas. Marquette is off to a pretty good start as well, but is coming a loss to UCLA. This would be a monster road win if they’re able to pull it off.
-NORTHERN COLORADO AT COLORADO (Front Range). Colorado is 2-1 and we think they may be good enough to sneak into the NCAA Tournament. Northern Colorado is 2-0 and we think they are a team that will be a Big Sky frontrunner. Oh yeah! And We at Hoops HD Love the Front Range!!!!
BUY GAMES (or games that might as well be)
-Sam Houston State @ LSU
-Northern Arizona @ Colorado State
-Central Arkansas @ Ole Miss