News, Notes, and Highlighted Games – Friday, Nov 18th

NEWS AND NOTES:

For John Stalica’s UTR Games of the Day (from abroad!) – CLICK HERE

-Murray State didn’t look all that impressive in their season opener against Saint Louis, but they haven’t lost since then and yesterday they knocked off Texas A&M 88-79 for a HUGE OOC win.  They were good last year, but are virtually an entirely different team this year.  Nevertheless, they showed yesterday they can play with (and beat) top 25 teams.

-Penn State jumped way ahead of Furman and had a 20+ pt lead, but Furman chipped away at it, played good defense, rebounded well, and had it down to 3 with a chance to tie the game in the final seconds, but had two shots rattle out.  Penn State held on 73-68.  This is a win that could have REALLY helped boost Furman’s resume.  It wouldn’t have just been the singular win against Penn State, but the chance to land on the winner’s side of the bracket and have yet more opportunities at quality wins.  For UTR teams, these early season games can be HUGELY important and pivotal even though it is just the second win of the season.

-After a rough loss at home to Towson, UMass bounced back and beat Colorado 66-63 down in Myrtle Beach.  Colorado is perhaps one of the nation’s most schizophrenic teams so far.  Losses to UMass and Grambling, and a win over Tennessee.  Boy are we going to have fun evaluating that come March!

-South Carolina isn’t all that good, but Colorado State just absolutely blew their doors off 85-53 and showed all the signs of being a top 40ish caliber team.

-Keep an eye on Towson.  They played with their food for most of the game against UNC Greensboro yesterday, but finally woke up, came back, and got the 56-53 win on the road to improve to 4-0.

-Charleston wasn’t a UTR team that we were all that big on coming into the year, but they really played well in a loss at North Carolina, and yesterday they totally blew Davidson (who came in unbeaten) to the moon  89-66.  They move on in the Charleston Classic, and have more chances to pick up early notable wins.

-Hofstra remains unbeaten after picking up their second road win by knocking off San Jose State 85-76 in a game they had to come from behind to win.  None of their wins are exactly quad 1 wins, but none are exactly home buy games either.

-And finally, what Arizona State did to Michigan in the championship game of the Legends Classic may not even be legal in some states.  It was a complete and total 87-62 beat down.  Michigan State has had to sweat out a rather poor Eastern Michigan team, and then got blown to pieces by an Arizona State team that, prior to this game, hadn’t looked that good at all (and had even lost at Texas Southern).  So, the Wolverines will likely be exiting the top 25 and they’ll have some work to do.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-COLORADO VS TEXAS A&M (Myrtle Beach Invitational, Conway SC).  This is probably the match-up many of us were expecting to see, but not in the round we thought we’d see it in.  TAMU fell to Murray State for their first loss of the year, and Colorado followed up their big win against Tennessee (which followed up their big loss to Grambling) with a somewhat surprising loss to UMass.  One thing that absolutely does not matter is the side of the bracket that it’s on.  It’s a neutral floor game, and it counts the same as if they had both won yesterday.

-UMASS VS MURRAY STATE (Myrtle Beach Invitational, Conway SC).  Both teams pulled off wins that were somewhat surprising to get here, especially after they had dropped some games early.  As we always say, these early season MTEs are great opportunities for teams to pick up notable wins and to build their NCAA Tournament resumes.

-PENN STATE VS VIRGINIA TECH (Charleston Classic, Charleston SC).   Both teams survived late charges from their opponents yesterday as Penn State held off Furman, and Virginia Tech held off Old Dominion.  Neither team has lost this season, both have some momentum built up, and this is a chance for them to add a notable OOC win to their resume.

-FURMAN VS OLD DOMINION (Charleston Classic, Charleston SC).  Furman fell behind by more than 20 against Penn State, but really got on the glass and clawed their way back into it yesterday, and had two good looks to force overtime, but just couldn’t get it done.  Old Dominion isn’t the high caliber opponent that they were hoping to face in order to build their resume, but it is a chance to at least pick up a neutral floor win.

-TEMPLE VS RUTGERS (Hall of Fame Showcase, Uncasville CT).  Rutgers is unbeaten, but largely untested, but that should change today.  I think.  Maybe.  Temple has been a very schizophrenic team early on with a loss to Wagner, a win against Villanova, and a loss to Vanderbilt.  Who knows which version of them will show up for this one.

-INDIANA AT XAVIER (Gavitt Tipoff Games).  This is the first real test of the season for either team.  Xavier hasn’t exactly blown away some of the teams they’ve played in home buy games, so even though they’re at home this is definitely a game that Indiana is capable of winning.

-COLGATE AT DUQUESNE.  Colgate is coming off a decisive win at Syracuse, and is suddenly looking like a very dangerous team.  Duquesne is a modest 2-1 with the only loss being at Kentucky, so they appear to be better than expected.  I’m intrigued by this one.

-VIRGINIA VS BAYLOR (Main Event, Las Vegas NV).  This is Virginia’s first game since the tragic shooting deaths of three members of the football team, and it’s a tall order against a Baylor team that’s ranked in the top five.  Both teams are in the rankings, both are playing for protected seeds, and this is a chance for one of them to pick up a really big early season win.

-UCF AT OKLAHOMA STATE.  I still think Oklahoma State is a dark horse, and they face a UCF team that could make some noise in the American this year.

-SOUTHERN MISS AT LIBERTY.  Southern Miss is 3-0 with a win at Vanderbilt (although the other two wins were against nonD1 teams).  So, they sort of have our attention.  They’ll have much more of our attention if they can win on the road against a good Liberty team that’s looking to bounce back after a decisive loss to Alabama.

-FLORIDA AT FLORIDA STATE.  Florida State is still looking for their first win.  In fact, it’s even worse than that.  All their losses have been home buy games.  Florida hasn’t exactly set the world on fire, but they’ve at least taken care of business in their home buy games.  This is a rivalry game, so maybe this will finally snap FSU out of whatever funk they’ve been in.  I’m not holding my breath, though.

-VILLANOVA AT MICHIGAN STATE.  Villanova has lost to Temple, and really didn’t look good at all in their last game against a Delaware State team that’s just all kinds of awful.  Michigan State, on the other hand, has simply looked amazing so far this season.  With them being at home this one could get ugly for Nova.

-GRAMBLING AT GRAND CANYON.  Yes!  We are highlighting this!!  It has a storyline that we never would have imagined at the start of the season! Grambling is unbeaten with a win against Colorado.  Grand Canyon is a VERY tough place to play, though, so while it’s been a good run for Grambling so far it’s going to take a huge effort to keep it going.

-ILLINOIS VS UCLA (Main Event, Las Vegas NV).  Both are top 20 teams, and this is a showcase game to add what will probably be a high quality win to their resume.  Teams get protected seeds by playing in and winning games like this one.

OTHER NOTABLE GAMES:

-Rider vs Stetson (MAAC/ASun Dublin Challenge, Dublin Ireland) – Stetson has two road wins, and while this is a neutral floor game, it is certainly a long way from home.
-Buffalo vs Drake (Paradise Jam, Saint Thomas Virgin Islands) – Drake needs to do well in this event in order to build up their resume
-La Salle vs Wake Forest (Jamaica Classic) – Neither team is expected to do much, but both come in with respectable records and both have a chance to build on that if they can do well in this event
-Howard vs Wyoming (Paradise Jam).  Wyoming is coming off a surprising loss and needs to do well in this event
-Georgetown vs LMU (Jamaica Classic)
-Campbell @ Appalachian State – App State is 3-0
-Vermont @ Iona – two really good UTR teams that are among the favorites to win their leagues
-Boston College vs George Mason (Paradise Jam)
-DePaul vs Santa Clara (Bahamas Championship) – DePaul is unbeaten, but should get a bit of a test tonight
-High Point @ UNLV – both teams unbeaten and UNLV has a really nice win against Dayton (albeit at home)

BUY GAMES:

-Delaware @ Duke
-Penn @ West Virginia
-Lipscomb @ Notre Dame
-Bellarmine @ Clemson
-UT Martin @ Ole Miss
-Southern Utah @ Kansas
-Texas Southern @ Auburn
-Purdue Fort Wayne @ Northwestern
-South Alabama @ Oklahoma
-UNC Wilmington @ Connecticut
-Jacksonville State @ Alabama
-Mount Saint Mary’s @ USC