NEWS AND NOTES:
-For Jon Teitel’s All Access coverage of the Wooden Legacy – CLICK HERE
-Dayton has finished off what has to be the most improbable three week stretch in basketball history. They came into the ESPN Events Invitational having lost three home buy games (and two of them to teams that aren’t all that good even by UTR standards), and then they end up winning the event after handling Miami FL, beating Kansas at the buzzer, and beating a really good Belmont team in a close one. So, it’s hard to know what to make of this team just yet. There is a lot of season to go, and chances are by the end of it they’ll have a good resume where you say the early games were a fluke, or a not-good resume where you say the three wins are a fluke. But, this has to be one of the biggest and quickest turnarounds in the history of the sport.
-North Texas knocked off Drake in the same event yesterday. This was NOT a loss that Drake needed on their resume. North Texas is not bad. We know that. But if Drake wants to establish themselves as a tournament caliber team that belongs inside the bubble, they simply do not get that many strikes against teams that likely won’t end up inside the bubble.
-Colorado had to sweat out Stanford at home, but they got the 80-76 win in their (early) Pac 12 opener, and improve to 6-1 on the year.
-Fresno State lost their first game of the year at Cal. Of all the games to have their first loss in, this one was a bit of a surprise. We had been a little impressed with Fresno’s 5-0 start, and weren’t really expecting much out of Cal this season at all.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-IOWA AT VIRGINIA (Big Ten/ACC Challenge). Iowa is unbeaten and while Virginia has limped out of the starting gate, they are starting to get better and better as the season goes along, and should kick it into high gear and be a top 25 caliber team well before the end of the season. This is a chance for both teams to add to their resumes.
-TULSA AT ORAL ROBERTS. Oral Roberts lost a heartbreaker to Oklahoma State their last time out in a game they really could have used. Tulsa comes in at 4-2 and this is their first true road game, so we are still learning about them.
-NOTRE DAME AT ILLINOIS (Big Ten/ACC Challenge). Neither team is off to a bad start, but neither is off to a really good start either. This is a chance for both of them to pick up a notable win and make their first big statement of the season.
BUY GAMES
-Central Michigan @ Kentucky
-Point Park (nonD1) @ Buffalo
-Campbellsville (nonD1) @ Murray State
-Austin Peay @ TCU – Austin Peay does have a win at Dayton
-Mississippi Valley State @ Vanderbilt
-Sam Houston @ Texas
-Carroll College (nonD1) @ Utah State
-UT Arlington @ UC Santa Barbara
-Tarleton @ Gonzaga