NEWS AND NOTES:
-At one point last evening we estimated that there were 142 D1 games all going on at the same time. I’m pretty sure that is a record.
-Most highly ranked teams played at home yesterday and blew out their opponents. Having said that…
Gonzaga was one of those highly ranked teams that played at home (or at least in their home city) and blew out their opponent. But the team they blew out was Baylor, who was also a highly ranked team. I’m not too surprised that the Zags won. We did believe them to be the better team and they were in a home-ish environment. But the fact that they just blew Baylor into the sun 101-63 is beyond surprising. It was easily the most impressive showing of any team yesterday.
-Texas A&M, a team who we were highly praising during the preseason, went on the road to UCF and fell 64-61. It was a road game, but we believed TAMU to be a top 15ish team and that UCF was…well…not. Now it’s time to start paying a little bit of attention to UCF. They may be able to make some noise in the Big 12, or at the very least be good enough to play with some of those teams when they’re at home.
-Ohio State got a really nice 80-72 win against what we think is a really good Texas team out in Las Vegas. We weren’t expecting too much out of the Buckeyes, but now that they’ve started off with a win against a ranked team on a neutral floor, they certainly have our attention.
-Saint Louis was a team we were very big on coming into the season and thought they would be a team that would end up inside the bubble. They still could, but they weren’t able to beat Santa Clara in the Field of 68 Showcase yesterday. The Broncos picked up a very impressive 85-78 win that not many of us were expecting, and now they are a team that has our attention right out of the gate.
-James Madison, who had an outstanding season last year, started things off yesterday with an 88-78 win over an Ohio U team that we (or, at least ME) was expecting to be very good. It wasn’t as big as last year’s season opening win at Michigan State, but it was impressive how JMU was pretty much in control the entire time.
-Vermont got a HUGE 67-62 win at UAB in what may end up being one of the more important results of the day. UAB is a team that we felt was really strong coming into the season, but were concerned about the overall strenght of their schedule and whether it was good enough to get them inside the bubble. Vermont was an Under the Radar team that we were super big on, and now that they’ve gone out on the road and gotten what was perhaps the most impressive true road win any team managed yesterday, we’re now even higher on the Catamounts.
-McNeese State, another Under the Radar team that we were really big on and thought could make a push to land inside the bubble, did not get off to the start they needed to yesterday. They fell 80-73 to South Dakota State in the Field of 68 Showcase, and even though it was just the first game of the season it is still a rather big blow because their margin for error is so small.
-Seeveral Big East teams really struggled last night. Butler, Providence, and Xavier all won, but all had to sweat a lot more than expected against teams that we were expecting them to blow out. Butler edged out Missouri State 72-65, Providence barely got by Central Connecticut 59-55, and Xavier had to come from behind in the second half to beat Texas Southenr 79-68. Seton Hall also barely edged out Saint Peter’s 57-53, and DePaul’s game against Southern Indiana came down to the last possession, but the Blue Demons held on to win 80-78. I suppose that last one wasn’t too surprising. No one is really expecting DePaul to be any good this year.
-Princeton got a huge scare from Iona, but barely held on to win 81-80. Princeton was a team that I had pegged as a likely top 40 team. They still could be. It was just one game. But, they didn’t look like a top 40 team yesterday.
-Wichita State went on the road and got a nice win against what should at least be a talented Western Kentucky team. Wichita State has been somewhat absent from the spotlight in recent years, but this was a nice start to the season for them yesterday.
-Lastly, I want to give a shout out to Chicago State. They didn’t win against Loyola Chicago, but they competed at an impressively high level against a team that’s expected to do very well in the Atlantic 10 in their 79-72 loss. Them, along with Central Connecticut, played in a way that shows they are likely good enough to make quite a bit of noise in the NEC. We were debating resurrecting the Team of the People this year and elevating Chicago State to that highly esteemed status.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-EVANSVILLE AT NORTH TEXAS – Featured HERE in John Stalica’s Under the Radar Game of the Day
BUY GAMES:
-Bethune Cookman @ Texas Tech
-New Orleans @ Kansas State
-Idaho State @ Arizona State
-Central Arkansas @ BYU
-UC Davis @ Washington