NEWS AND NOTES:
-For Jon Teitel’s Interview with Mark Montieth about Scott Kyles – CLICK HERE
-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-Providence continues to look more and more like a solid NCAA Tournament team. Butler isn’t exactly setting the world on fire this year, but for Providence to go on the road and totally blow them off the floor was something. The final score was 72-52 and the game wasn’t really even that close.
-Rice picked up a really nice win at Western Kentucky 81-78 and is now 10-3 on the year. They’re still a long way from the bubble, but the top of CUSA is good enough to where if they can pick up a few more wins like this one they may find themselves on the board.
-Iowa absolutely stinks all of a sudden. They have gone from looking like a top 25 team to looking like they don’t even belong in D1. After losing to Eastern Illinois at home, they were blown off the floor by Nebraska 66-50 last night.
-Michigan appeared to be pulling themselves together, but after losing 63-61 at home to Central Michigan last night and falling to 7-5 overall, they’ve looked like an NIT team or worse more than they’ve looked like an NCAA Tournament team so far.
-UAB and Southern Miss both needed to sweat, but both held on for the wins. UAB beat UTEP in double overtime 79-73 and Southern Miss held off Troy 64-60. Both teams are in a position to make a run at the bubble, but they can’t slip up in games like these and both had close calls last night.
-Santa Clara got a really solid win in their conference opener against a San Francisco team that had been playing really well. They’re now 13-3 on the year with a smattering of decent wins after their 79-67 win.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-NORTH CAROLINA AT PITTSBURGH (ACC). North Carolina has won four straight and picked up a nice win against Michigan in their last game, but they’re currently 0-2 in true road games, so getting this one against a Pitt team that’s actually halfway decent would be one of their more important wins of the year so far.
-MIAMI FL AT NOTRE DAME (ACC). Miami FL continues to string together wins, build a strong resume, and climb the rankings. Notre Dame, for the most part, continues to disappoint. This should be a winnable conference road game for the Canes.
-NC STATE AT CLEMSON (ACC). Both teams have good records, but neither has any high caliber wins yet so both have work to do. A win today for either team would help out their resume.
-USC AT WASHINGTON (Pac 12). USC is starting to play better, but this will be a tough road test for them. It’s just their second road game of the year and while they should win, it won’t be a cakewalk.
OTHER NOTABLE GAMES/BUY GAMES:
-Buffalo @ Michigan State
-Western Michigan @ Wisconsin
-Coppin State @ Rutgers
-UCLA @ Washington State (Pac 12) – UCLA is playing as well as anyone in the country right now