Charleston (3-3) vs. Liberty (6-1, 5-1 D1) – 6:00 PM ET (FloHoops)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day is the second game of a 3-game series called the Field of 68 Tip-Off being played at FAU. It is a 3-game round-robin series that will rotate among Charleston, Liberty and FAU. In the first game of the series that was played last night, the Owls of FAU doused the Liberty Flames by an 83-58 score. It was the only black mark in what has thus far been a great start to the season for Liberty; they did win the Myrtle Beach Invitational prior to Thanksgiving. Kyle Rode is averaging 14.9 points a game and 3 assists a game for Liberty.
Charleston struggled early in the season with a 3-game losing streak; they lost against Duquesne on a neutral court in Annapolis and had 2 losses in the Myrtle Beach Invitational against Vermont and Wyoming. More recently, the Cougars had a solid outing with an 84-78 win at Kent State – Reyne Smith led Charleston with 21 points.
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OTHER NEWS, NOTES, AND GAMES:
-John Stalica already covered FAU’s blowout win over Liberty. It was a pretty chalky night other than that. Butler did get a really nice overtime win at home over Texas Tech. This is a team that has really improved from a year ago and is looking like they can make a little bit of noise in the Big East this year. I don’t know if they’re quite good enough to be an NCAA Tournament team yet, but they are noticeably better this season.
-UNC Wilmington fell apart in the second half at East Carolina and ended up losing 74-66. These are the kinds of road games that teams need to be able to hold on and win if they want to land inside the bubble.
-Utah handed Hawaii their first loss of the season. It wasn’t a blowout, but at no point was Utah really sweating either. They finished with the 76-66 win. Speaking of sweating…
-UCLA absolutely sweated bullets against a UC Riverside team that, quite frankly, isn’t expected to do that well in the Big West. UCR shot the ball really well from outside, and actually had a double-digit lead with about 8 minutes to go. UCLA fought back, and hit a game winning shot in the final seconds to avoid a near upset and escape 66-65
-KANSAS AT CONNECTICUT (Spotlight Game). Both teams are ranked in the top five, both are potential Final Four teams, and both look like they may be good enough to end up as #1 seeds. It’s more of a litmus test and a showcase game than it is a must-win game. It’s fairly obvious that whoever loses this game will still be in really good shape as far as their season and seed, but as far as ending up a #1 seed this is one of those games that can impact that.
-HOUSTON AT XAVIER. This is a bit of a road test for the Cougars. They come in unbeaten, and while they have a smattering of decent wins in the Charleston Classic, this game tonight is their first true road game, and it’ arguably coming against their toughest opponent. Having said that, Xavier is coming off a home loss to Oakland, so they’ve got a lot of work to do if they want to play their way into position to make the NCAAs.
-MARYLAND AT INDIANA (Big Ten). Indiana has a good record, but they haven’t really looked like that good of a team yet, and for that matter neither has Maryland, so both teams could really use this one tonight.
-GEORGE WASHINGTON AT SOUTH CAROLINA. These are two teams that are off to better than expected starts. GW is 6-1 and South Carolina is still undefeated. This is the first true road game of the year for GW, so we should learn something about them tonight.
-SAINT JOHN’S AT WEST VIRGINIA (Big East-Big 12 Challenge). Neither team has shown out yet, and neither has really looked all that impressive yet.
-IOWA STATE AT DEPAUL (Big East- Big 12 Challenge). DePaul has looked, well, like DePaul this season whereas Iowa State is off to a decent 5-2 start. This is their first true road game, but it’s one they should be able to win.
-PURDUE AT NORTHWESTERN (Big Ten). I really like this Northwestern team and think they’re goin to make it back to the NCAA Tournament. They’re a little overmatched tonight, though. Purdue is ranked #1, deserves to be ranked #1, and probably is legit #1. Even though it’s a home game and the atmosphere should be incredible, this is still a very tall order for the Wildcats.
-BOISE STATE AT SAINT MARY’S. It is debatable as to which team has been more disappointing up to this point. Both can certainly still turn it around and have big years, but neither has really shown it yet. This game is a lot less appealing than we thought it would be back before the season started.
-William Pace (nonD1) @ UNC Greensboro
-Fresno State @ BYU – the Cougars can improve to 7-0 and continue to climb the rankings
-San Diego State @ UC San Diego – UCSD is 4-0 at home and San Diego State is still looking for their first road win