Under The Radar Game of the Day (and the Hoops HD Daily Rundown)- Monday, February 27th

-For our CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK VIDEO NOTEBOOK – DAY 0 – CLICK HERE

Montana State (21-9, 14-3) at Eastern Washington (22-8, 16-1) – 9:00 PM ET (ESPN+)

Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to Cheney, Washington for a potential preview of the Big Sky Championship Game to be played next week; the Montana State Bobcats visit the Eagles of Eastern Washington. EWU missed their shot at perfection in conference play with a weekend loss at Idaho State; this now means that Oral Roberts will be the only team in the country to finish perfect in conference play during the regular season. Steele Venters leads the Eagles with 14.9 points a game.

Montana State enters tonight assured of 2nd place in the upcoming Big Sky Tournament. In the first matchup played at home, the Bobcats had a narrow 70-67 loss against Eastern Washington. As of right now, MSU has won 9 out of their last 10 games; the only slip-up was a 73-63 loss at Weber State. RaeQuan Battle averages 17.1 points a game for the Bobcats.

HOOPS HD DAILY RUNDOWN (from The Puppet):

-After nearly picking up a big road win at Illinois a few days ago, Northwestern was beaten rather handily on the road at Maryland 75-59.  Both teams are safely in the field, and while I personally don’t like Maryland’s profile as much as most people because of how poorly they’ve played away from home, they have been outstanding on their home court this year.

-Illinois, who is still solidly in the field, had a bit of a setback yesterday when they lost 72-60 to an Ohio State team that’s been absolutely atrocious since Christmas.

-Michigan picked up a nice(ish) win against Wisconsin at home 87-79.  These two teams are heading in complete opposite directions.  Wisconsin appeared to be safely in the field but has now fallen outside the bubble, whereas Michigan has strung together a few nice wins and can perhaps land inside the bubble if they keep it up.

-Rutgers was getting blown off the floor at Penn State early in the second half, but came all the way back to win on the road 59-56.  This game was a microcosm of Penn State’s season.  It started off really good, but in the last 1/3rd of it they just fell completely apart.

SURVIVAL BOARD UPDATE: Florida A&M will be eliminated from being able to qualify for the SWAC Tournament with either a loss tonight (home vs Southern) or wins by both Texas Southern (at Alcorn State) and Bethune-Cookman (home vs Grambling).

-NORTH CAROLINA AT FLORIDA STATE (ACC).  Both teams are coming off big wins.  UNC beat Virginia at home, which is a win they desperately needed for their NCAA Tournament chances, and Florida State is coming off a surprising road upset at Miami FL.  UNC is still squarely on the bubble and needs this one as well.

-BAYLOR AT OKLAHOMA STATE (Big 12).  Baylor appears to have a protected seed all but sewn up.  It’s just a matter of where on the seedlist they end up.  Oklahoma State has lost four straight and has fallen back onto the bubble.  They could really use this one tonight because they need a few more big wins to secure them a spot in the field.

-WEST VIRGINIA AT IOWA STATE (Big 12).  West Virginia is coming off a near upset win at Kansas, which would have been huge for their NCAA Tournament chances.  They’ve got another shot at a big win tonight, but it won’t be easy.  Having said that, Iowa State has lost five of their last six and while they are still safely in the field they are sliding down the seedlist.  A win could help them get things turned back around.

-NEVADA AT WYOMING (Mountain West).  Nevada is hovering around the bubble, so every game for them is a big game.  This is one that they should be able to win on the road, but at the same time they can’t totally sleepwalk through.