NEWS AND NOTES:
-For the latest HOOPS HD REPORT Video Podcast – CLICK HERE
-For all of the In-Season Tournament Brackets and Schedules – CLICK HERE
-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-I’m sure someone like John Stalica, who has an encyclopedia level of knowledge for these types of things, can come up with other examples, but yesterday’s Maui Invitational may have been the greatest single day of games at any one in-season tournament event ever!
-Memphis came into yesterday with multiple decent wins, but none against anyone on the level of UConn. The Tigers had a 12 pt lead late in the game and appeared to be cruising when a series of turnovers and a run by UConn allowed the Huskies to come back and force overtime. Still, Memphis regrouped in OT (and UConn’s coaches kind of fell apart) and won in a 99-97 thriller in what may turn out to be one of their biggest wins of the year!
-Later that evening, Iowa State jumped all over Auburn and had an 18pt lead!! Auburn is a big time pressure defensive team, and they turned it up, made big plays, got back into it, and hit a shot in the final seconds to come away with the 83-81 win. Auburn now has a road win at Houston and a neutral win against Iowa State. That’s two top ten teams away from home, which I believe gives them the most impressive resume of any team to date.
-So Dayton v North Carolina couldn’t top both of those….but it did!! Dayton came out and played out of their minds and built up a 21 POINT LEAD early in the second half!!! It was just amazing to watch. It’s not really fair to say that Dayton blew it so much as it was that UNC just chipped away at it and got back into it. There were multiple times late in the game where Dayton needed to make a big play and did. Dayton actually hit what appeared to be a game-tying 3 with the shot clock turned off, but the edge of his shoe was on the edge of the line and after a lengthy review it was changed to a 2. The Tarheels finally got the lead with just under 2 minutes to go and held on for the 92-90 win.
-And also at some point, Michigan State did beat Colorado in a game that was decided by more than 2pts and did not feature a ridiculous 2nd half comeback.
-And today, we get more!! Dayton will face Iowa State, Auburn will face North Carolina, and Michigan State will take on Memphis!!!
Oh yeah, and UConn will take on Colorado. Ummm…yay?
-It was also a crazy day down in the Cayman Islands. Boise State and South Dakota State went back and forth with Boise State escaping 83-82. This would have been a HUGE win for South Dakota State assuming Boise goes on to be one of the better teams in the Mountain West, and may have put them in a position to where the Jackrabbits could have made a run at the bubble. As heartbreaking as it was, and as much of a missed opportunity as it was, South Dakota State is definitely a team to watch the rest of the way.
-The Broncos will face Boston College, who is off to a much better start than expected and who is also coming off an exciting overtime win in their game against Missouri State.
-North Texas is now 5-1 after a nice 58-55 win over Oregon State. Oregon State may struggle this year, but they did come in with just one loss, and that was to a pretty good Oregon team in a close game.
-Liberty is emerging as the top UTR team after improving to 7-1 yesterday with a 62-58 win over McNeese. The Flames’ only loss was in overtime to Florida Atlantic, and they now have wins over McNeese and Kansas State on their resume.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-SAN DIEGO STATE VS CREIGHTON (Players Era Festival). Both teams should have a bit of a sense of urgency coming into this one. Neither has a big win and both have looked a little sluggish. Creighton was just beaten rather handily by Nebraska and is looking to bounce back from that, and San Diego State has even struggled in some of their buy games. A win today would probably end up looking good on their resume as well as give whoever wins it a much needed jump start.
-UCONN VS COLORADO (Maui Invitational). UConn lost an overtime thriller against Memphis that they almost came back and won. They should be able to bounce back today against a Colorado team that’s perhaps better than we thought, but still not as good as the rest of this field.
-PENN STATE VS CLEMSON (Sunshine Slam). Both teams have good records against predominantly weak schedules. Penn State has won five buy games and beaten Virginia Tech, which is pretty much like a buy game, and Clemson did beat a good San Francisco team yesterday, but other than that their only wins had been home buy games. This is a chance for each team to sparkle up their resume a bit.
-OREGON VS TEXAS A&M (Players Era Festival). Oregon is coming off a nice win at rival Oregon State, but they’ll have a much tougher test today against TAMU. This event is a chance for them to add multiple quality wins to their resumes.
-SOUTH DAKOTA STATE VS MISSOURI STATE (Cayman Islands Classic). Both teams are coming off heartbreaking losses with South Dakota State losing by just 1 to Boise State, and MO State losing in overtime to Boston College. This was nearly the championship game. Both are solid UTR teams and both have limited opportunities at notable wins, so that’s what makes this one today so important.
-MEMPHIS VS MICHIGAN STATE (Maui Invitational). Memphis won a thriller yesterday and already has an outstanding looking resume. Today looks like it’s another winnable game, but Michigan State is pretty good too. Their only loss was to Kansas, and it was a game where they hung tough despite not playing their best game, and they handled Colorado yesterday.
-GRAND CANYON VS STANFORD (Acrisure Holiday Invitational). Stanford is unbeaten, but this is probably their biggest test of the year so far. Having said that, GCU has been somewhat disappointing. I still think they can have a monster year and play their way inside the bubble, but their remaining opportunities are few and far between, and if they want to be in a position to make the NCAA Tournament without needing the auto-bid then I get the sense that they almost need to win this one today.
-BOISE STATE VS BOSTON COLLEGE (Cayman Islands Classic). BC was not a team we were big on at all coming into the year, but they now have a solid record with some respectable wins on their resume. If they can somehow win this one, you have to start thinking of them as a possible tournament team. They will have certainly outperformed much of the ACC if they can knock off a really good Boise State team tonight.
-HOUSTON VS ALABAMA (Players Era Festival). Both teams are highly ranked and both are likely to end up as protected seeds. Alabama already has wins against a pretty good McNeese team as well as Illinois. Houston fell to Auburn in the first week of the season and is still looking for their first notable win. It should be a good one!
-IOWA STATE VS DAYTON (Maui Invitational). As stated above, both teams built big leads against highly ranked teams yesterday, and both let those leads slip away. I’m convinced that Dayton is for real, but they need to come out of this event with at least one big win to substantiate that. I’m not saying the game doesn’t matter for Iowa State, but Iowa State will face a gauntlet of highly ranked teams the rest of the way and have every chance in the world to build up their resume. But for Dayton, this event is pretty much it. They have a chance today, and if they win they’ll likely get a shot at UConn tomorrow, so there is still a lot on the table for the Flyers.
-KANSAS VS DUKE (Vegas Showdown). Both these teams have played a ridiculously hard schedule early on, both are better teams because of it, and both can pick up a win against a likely protected seed tonight. It should be fun! Duke is coming off a huge win at Arizona (which followed a loss to Kentucky), and Kansas has already knocked off North Carolina and Michigan State.
-RUTGERS VS NOTRE DAME (Players Era Festival). Both teams are coming off losses to UTR teams. Rutgers went on the road to Kennesaw State and lost, and Notre Dame is coming off a home loss to Elon. A win today would help them bounce back, and a good overall showing in this event would help them bounce so far back that it will be as if neither team was ever gone.
-AUBURN VS NORTH CAROLINA (Maui Invitational). Both teams had exciting come from behind wins yesterday. Both have already been tested in this young season, and both have established themselves as likely protected seeds. It’s an early season opportunity at a likely quad-1 win.
BUY GAMES (and other games of note):
-Fordham vs San Francisco (Sunshine Slam)
-Hampton vs High Point (Cayman Islands Classic) – High Point can get an additional win away from home and improve to 7-1
-Louisiana Tech vs Richmond (Gulf Coast Showcase) – LA Tech can stay unbeaten
-Wyoming vs Tulane (Cancun Challenge) – Wyoming can get to a very respectable 5-1 on the year with a win
-Western Kentucky @ Kentucky
-Western Carolina @ Florida State
-Wagner @ Georgetown
-Coppin State @ Saint Joseph’s
-USC Upstate @ Iowa
-LMU vs Belmont (Cancun Challenge) – Belmont can get to 5-1
-Mississippi Valley State @ Utah
-SMU vs Cal Baptist (Acrisure Holiday Invitational)
-Eastern Washington @ UC Santa Barbara – UCSB can get to 5-1 on the year
-Southern Utah @ UCLA – it’s a buy game, but both teams come in with just one loss
-Furman vs Seattle U (Vegas Showdown) – Furman can get to 7-0
-Fresno State vs Washington State (Acrisure Holiday Invitational) – Wazzu can get to 6-1