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NEWS AND NOTES:
-Marquette got a huge home win last night against Illinois 67-66. The Illini weren’t quite at full strength and struggled with turning the ball over, but it’s still a big early season win for Marquette that gives both their resume and their confidence a huge boost.
-Liberty stayed with LSU for about 30 minutes and actually held a lead for much of the game, but LSU got control and pulled away down the stretch to stay unbeaten. This isn’t a season defining win for LSU by any means, but Liberty is a good team and it’s at least a solid win for the Tigers.
-Furman and Belmont was close all throughout, but in the latter stages of the second half Furman appeared to be in control. With less than 10 seconds to play Furman appeared to be in control, but they fouled a 3pt shooter, he drained all 3 freethrows to tie the game, and Furman could not convert on their last possession. Belmont took that momentum into overtime and pulled out a really nice win. As for Furman, it was a missed opportunity, but I wouldn’t exactly call this a damaging loss. Belmont is good, they may not lose at home all season, and Furman also has a road win at Louisville on their resume.
-Buffalo picked up their first road win at North Texas in a game that they had to come from behind and win. North Texas probably isn’t quite as good as they were a year ago, but it’s still a nice win for the Bulls against a team that will likely lose very few games at home this year.
-We thought Kansas City would be improved this year and we didn’t think Mizzou would be any good at all, but to see Kansas City totally dump-truck Mizzou was still a big surprise. The final score was 80-66, but for much of the second half the lead was around 20 for the Roos.
-Providence got a really big early season road win at Wisconsin 63-58. The game was not a blowout by any means, but Providence lead through most of it and was seemingly always in control.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-UMASS LOWELL AT OKLAHOMA STATE. UMass Lowell is coming off a surprising win at Dayton that got our attention. If they can some how follow that up with a win in this one, then they will REALLY have our attention.
-CREIGHTON AT NEBRASKA (Gavitt Tipoff Games). It’s a rivalry game, and it’s an early season win that both teams could really use right now. We aren’t forecasting either team to be there in March, but this game will give the winner some early season momentum.
-GEORGIA STATE AT RICHMOND. We really like this Richmond team, but they have already suffered an early loss and are looking to rebound. Georgia State is coming in 2-0 and looking for what should be a big resume building road win.
-HOFSTRA AT IONA. This is an under the radar game worth keeping an eye on. Hofstra put up a hell of a fight in their opener at Houston and followed that up with a road win at Duquesne. Iona is 2-0 and appears to be one of the better teams in the MAAC who won’t be easy to beat at home.
-SAINT LOUIS AT MEMPHIS. When SLU lost so many key players to injuries before the start of the season, it was kind of easy to blow them off, but they have looked good in their first two games. Even though neither opponent was all that strong, they still blew through them. Memphis has tons of talent, but the question is whether or not that talent can come together. This is the first real test for either team, and it should be a good one.
-VIRGINIA AT HOUSTON. Virginia has high expectations this year, but they are still looking to bounce back from an opening loss to Navy. Houston also has high expectations, and while they’ve avoided an early loss so far, they’ve also struggled. Both teams should improve as the season goes on, and this is a good early test for both of them tonight with a chance to get a nice resume building win.
-CHICAGO STATE AT LOYOLA CHICAGO. Both teams are unbeaten!! Both teams have won two games against D1 opponents!! So, if we didn’t highlight this one, Chad Sherwood would have let me hear about it! In all seriousness, Chicago State has a chance to win their biggest game in my lifetime tonight. I don’t think that’s an overstatement.
-NORTH CAROLINA AT CHARLESTON. An early season road game that UNC shouldn’t have too much trouble with, but they did struggle with Brown their last time out and Charleston is 3-0 on the season under new head coach Pat Kelsey.
-SETON HALL AT MICHIGAN (Gavitt Tipoff Games). Both teams come in unbeaten, and for the most part untested, although Michigan did beat a pretty good Buffalo team in their opener. Michigan is way up in the rankings and appears to have the superior team, but it’s a chance for Seton Hall to make a major statement early on, and perhaps pick up what would probably turn out to be one of their most impressive wins of the season.
-NEVADA AT SANTA CLARA. Nevada is in a bit of a rebuild mode, and Santa Clara is a potential dark horse. They already have a win against Stanford and a win tonight gets them to 3-0.
-BYU AT OREGON. A really fun early season match-up between a BYU team that we think is a solid NCAA team, and an Oregon team that we think is a solid protected seed. Both teams are 2-0, and both have already had a reasonably good test with BYU beating San Diego State and Oregon toppling SMU.
BUY GAMES AND OTHERS WORTH MENTIONING:
-USC @ FGCU – Interesting road game for the Trojans as Andy Enfield returns to Dunk City where he had his fantastic Sweet Sixteen run.
-Miami FL @ Florida Atlantic – Another interesting road game. Perhaps a chance to pad the road wins on their resume?
-Howard @ Villanova – both teams unbeaten
-Wright State @ Purdue
-Gardner Webb @ Duke
-Mount Saint Mary’s @ Kentucky
-Colgate @ Cornell – worth keeping an eye on. Cornell has won two road games and Colgate gave NC State all they wanted over the weekend
-Winthrop @ Middle Tennessee – both teams 2-0
-James Madison @ Eastern Kentucky – both teams unbeaten
-Alabama A&M @ Cincinnati
-Johnson & Wales (nonD1) @ Brown
-NJIT @ Rutgers
-Jacksonville @ UCF – both teams unbeaten
-South Alabama @ Alabama
-Murray State @ Illinois State – Murray can get to 3-0
-Alabama State @ Iowa State
-Tarleton @ Wichita State
-New Orleans @ Northwestern
-Central Connecticut @ NC State
-High Point @ Notre Dame
-American @ Georgetown – one of these teams is unbeaten and it’s not Georgetown
-NC Central @ Iowa
-North Dakota State @ Arizona – NDSU will do well in the Summit League, but they’re probably overmatched tonight