Grambling (6-4) at Liberty (7-4) – 7:00 PM ET (ESPN+)
Lynchburg, Virginia is the place to be tonight for our UTR Game of the Day between the Grambling Tigers and the hometown Liberty Flames. Grambling began their D1 season with a bang with a win against Colorado in the Pac-12/SWAC Legacy Series, and they have subsequently shown that result was not a fluke, either. They also had a 3-game winning streak that included a win at Vanderbilt, although that streak came to an end with a loss at Virginia Tech. One-time Saint Louis player Carte’are Gordon leads the Tigers with 13.6 points a game and 7.6 rebounds a game.
While Liberty has put together a decent record, their only real wins of note so far have come against Bradley (in the Cancun Challenge) and against Bryant in Springfield, Massachusetts. No one could blame Liberty for losses against Alabama and Northwestern, but they missed out on what could have been quality wins against Southern Miss and at Oral Roberts. Darius McGee comes into tonight’s game averaging 21.5 points a game for Liberty.
OTHER NEWS, NOTES, AND GAMES (From the Puppet):
-Both Baylor and Texas had to sweat a little bit against some inferior competition, but both managed to hold serve and pick up the wins.
-USC knocked off Auburn 74-71, and is now back in the national spotlight. Since losing their season opener to FGCU, they’re 9-2 with the only losses being close games to ranked teams, and they now have an impressive win against Auburn to add to their resume. As for Auburn, they’ve now lost two of their last three after an 8-0 start.
-Georgia knocked off Notre Dame 77-62 and was pretty much in control for the whole game. The Bulldogs are now 8-3 and are at least worth paying attention to as we wind down OOC play.
-New Mexico is now 11-0 as they beat Iona at home 82-74 to win this year’s edition of the Pitino Shootout. They never really blew this game open, but it did feel like they were in control the entire way and every time Iona would go on a run or build up some momentum New Mexico would answer.
-Saint Mary’s, who had been playing really well, fell at home to Colorado State 62-60 in a bit of a surprise game. It was a much needed win for a Colorado State team that had been a little disappointing, and a bit of a setback for SMC who appeared to have some momentum built up after winning three straight and playing really well against Houston just before that.
-Glenville State (nonD1) @ Marshall
-Charleston @ Coastal Carolina – Charleston can get to 12-1 on the season and pick up their 3rd true road win
-Weber State @ Utah State (Bee Hive) – Utah State looking to remain unbeaten on the season
-UT Arlington @ San Francisco