NEWS AND NOTES:
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-It was a busy night last night, but for the most part it was a chalky one as well. Purdue, UConn (at Florida), Tennessee, Indiana, Saint John’s, West Virginia, Notre Dame, Drake, Providence, Seton Hall, Arizona State (at SMU), Saint Mary’s, UNLV, San Francisco, and USC all won games that they were expected to win.
-Michigan State had a really nice 67-58 win at Penn State. Michigan State is now 6-4 on the year, but they’ve played an absolutely brutal schedule and their overall resume looks really good. Winning at Penn State isn’t easy, but it still wasn’t anywhere close to some of the tough games Michigan State has already played.
-Florida Atlantic absolutely blew FGCU out of the gym last night 85-83. FGCU had made some noise with their season opening win at USC, but has essentially just held serve since then. FAU, on the other hand, is now 7-1 on the year with three true road wins, including one at Florida, so they are starting to make quite a bit of noise. CUSA is going to be interesting this year.
-The game of the night, and perhaps the craziest game of the year, was Cornell at Miami FL. The halftime score was 66-52 Miami, and the Canes actually built up a 21pt lead in the second half, but the pace of the game stayed uptempo, and Cornell started to come back, and actually had a shot at the buzzer to win the game, but it was blocked. Still, it was a VERY impressive showing, and it was a style of play that we rarely see out of the Ivy League, which will make that conference a lot more fun to watch this year.
-Texas Tech got a surprising challenge from Nicholls, but held on to win 78-71.
-Virginia Tech received no challenge whatsoever from Dayton. They blew the Flyers off the court 77-49. Dayton was in the preseason top 25, but has been impacted by injuries, but even with those injuries they still seem to be underperforming.
-Utah Valley beat BYU for the second year in a row. Yesterday they actually blew it open late for the 75-60 win. Not to take anything away from Utah Valley, but at just 5-5 and with some really underwhelming showings, BYU doesn’t look to be anywhere close to an NIT team this year, much less an NCAA Tournament team.
-Pittsburgh, who had been playing well, went into Vanderbilt last night with a chance at what looked to be another winnable road game, but came up just short 75-74. Pitt is still very much improved and has some decent wins on their resume, and while this one would have been nice, they will still get plenty of chances between now and the end.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-RUTGERS AT OHIO STATE (Big Ten). Rutgers is coming off a nice win against Indiana, but this is probably a bigger test and a tougher game since it is on the road. It is just their second true road game of the year, and they played well at Miami earlier this season. Ohio State is in the rankings with some decent wins and while it’s early they’re showing all the signs of being a solid tournament team.
-UMASS LOWELL AT UMASS. This one is going to be fun!! UMass Lowell is off to a 9-4 start and has already won four home games, but this is by far their toughest test of the year so far. UMass is a very respectable 7-1 and plays with quite a bit of intensity. There should be a buzz around this game as it’s a regional match-up between two teams that haven’t been good recently, but appear to be good this year.
-MARSHALL AT DUQUESNE. Marshall has won seven straight since losing their season opener and has looked really good in that stretch. Duquesne is also out to a very surprising 7-1 start with the only loss being at Kentucky. Neither team has been super tested yet, but they’ll test each other tonight.
-IOWA STATE AT IOWA. I’m REALLY looking forward to this one!! Both teams have looked like Tournament teams early on, and this is a SUPER heated rivalry. It’s a resume building opportunity that is mixed in with a ton of bragging rights!
-MICHIGAN AT MINNESOTA (Big Ten). Michigan has somewhat underperformed so far this year and they’ll be tested again tonight. They need to be able to win games like this if they want to demonstrate that they are a solid tournament team.
-COLORADO STATE AT COLORADO (Front Range). Both teams have shown signs of solid play this year, but both have also been inconsistent all season long. This is also a big rivalry game, and both teams kind of need this on their resume at the moment to try and sustain some stability.
Jacksonville State @ Utah – buy game