News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Monday, Nov 27th

NEWS AND NOTES:

-We will be recording The Hoops HD Video Podcast tonight, and it should be a busy show as we recap all of the tournaments from last week. We will also have this week’s bracket posted a little later on today, so be on the lookout for that.

-Texas A&M came from behind to beat Iowa State 73-69 in the ESPN Events Invitational and improves to 6-1 on the season. Iowa State falls to 5-2, but I really like how they played in this event and think they’re poised to have a good year from here on out. Once again, Iowa State had little expectations coming into the year, but may actually have the makings of a tournament team.

-Florida Atlantic blew Virginia Tech into the sun 84-50 in the ESPN Events Invitaitonal. I’d say FAU is back to looking like a top ten caliber team.

-Mike Rhoades at Penn State faced off against his old VCU team in the ESPN Events Invitational. It was a setting worthy of an early season tournament. They were playing at Disney World at 11am in front of a sparse crowd. VCU picked up the 86-74 win and both teams are now 4-3 with a lot of work to do.

-Yale went to Rhode Island and blew what appeared to be a commanding double digit lead and ended up losing 76-72. This is the kind of game that Yale needed to win if they wanted to argue that they belonged inside the bubble. It was a tough game, but it was certainly a winnable game for a tournament-caliber team.

-Harvard was another Ivy League team that had a shot at a notable and winnable road game, but fell to Indiana 89-76. Most of Indiana’s wins prior to this have been close games against weaker teams, so it was probably the best the Hoosiers have looked all year. (Note from Stalica – technically this was a neutral-court game in Indianapolis and the NET will treat it as such, even though it was for all intents and purposes a de facto home game for Indiana.)

-Butler ended up with a pretty impressive 70-56 win over a Boise State team a lot of us liked. To be fair, Boise has been somewhat disappointing this season, but also to be fair, Butler has been a lot better than expected.

-UIC vs UNC Greensboro in the Baha Mar Hoops final was a wild game with a crazy finish. UIC hit a go ahead jumper with about 7 seconds left to take a 57-56 lead. We then had a video review for what seemed like forever to determine whether or not he got the shot off in time before the shotclock expired (thanks to Chad Sherwood for clarifing that for me. I was watching with the sound off). After that, UNCG went the length of the floor, lost the ball, got it back, and got fouled in the final seconds. They hit both freethrows for the 58-57 win, they won the event, and improve to 5-1 on the year with a pretty impressive looking resume. As for UIC, they did lose the game, but they have also been one of the more surprising UTR teams this year. I thought they’d be a doormat in the Missouri Valley, but they’ve had some nice wins and almost beat a really good UNC Greensboro team yesterday.

.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-NORTHERN ILLINOIS AT NORTHWESTERN. This is a buy game, but Northern Illinois has been surprisingly good this year with a 5-1 overall record and two true road wins so far. Granted, they haven’t beaten anyone on Northwestern’s level, and were beaten handily by Marquette in the opener, but they should be able to give the Wildcats a better than expected game.

-UC SANTA BARBARA AT FRESNO STATE. UCSB is a good UTR team (or so we think) that’s off to ab it of a slow start, and Fresno State is a potential sleeper in the Mountain West, so the match-up is compelling.

-UTAH AT SAINT MARY’S. Saint Mary’s has dropped two games that you would expect a team of their caliber to be able to win, and is a little light on notable resume-building wins so far despite having multiple opportunities early. They should be able to get this one at home, but they better not overlook the Utes.

-Oakland @ Xavier – buy game
-New Hampshire @ UConn – buy game
-Saint Peter’s @ Rutgers – Rutgers has won four straight since losing the opener to Princeton
-Western Illinois @ Wisconsin
-Houston Christian @ TCU – TCU is 5-0, but all five wins have been home buy games
-Point Loma Nazarene (nonD1) @ San Diego State – where did the Aztecs dig this team up from?
-Eastern Washington @ Washington State (Top Range) – Wazzu can get to 5-1 on the year