News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Monday, Dec 18th

-We will be recording our Hoops HD Report Video Podcast tonight, so be sure and keep an eye out for that. We will also have our latest Bracket Projections posted a little later on today.

-Syracuse fell behind early against Oregon, then came back early, then went ahead, then went way ahead, and then stayed way ahead. They ended up blowing the Ducks off the floor 83-63 out in Sioux Falls and picked up their biggest win of the year, and probably their most impressive looking win on the court in a long time.

-Nebraska, who had seemingly bloated out their record by scheduling all their games from the pastry cart, went on the road to Kansas State and after keeping it close in the first half totally shut down the Wildcats in the second half for the 62-46 win. K State had just 12pts in the second half. Now suddenly Nebraska has a really solid road win to go along with all those home buy wins, and their resume instantly looks a lot better.

-Seton Hall was having what I would describe as a ‘meh’ season, but yesterday they went on the road to Missouri and picked up a somewhat surprising 93-87. This kind of changes the complexion of both Seton Hall’s and Missouri’s profiles.

-Nevada picked up a hard fought win out in Hawaii to improve to 10-1 on the year. There are not any super heavyweight knockouts on Nevada’s profile, but there are a few decent wins. They’ve won at Washington and at Hawaii now.

-Washington REALLY had to sweat out Seattle U last night. After trailing for much of the game, they needed a big play at the end of regulation to get it to overtime, and then in an OT period that saw a flurry of scoring for both teams they held on to win 100-99. It was a hugely exciting game, a heartbreaking loss for Seattle U, and a “road” win for Washington, which is their first of the year.

Tonight’s action…

-Oakland @ Michigan State – the Spartans are suddenly looking a lot better
-Bradley @ Duquesne – a win for the Dukes gets them to 8-2 on the year, which is much better than we are used to seeing from them
-Delaware State @ Wake Forest
-Maine @ UCF
-UT Martin @ Evansville