Grand Canyon (6-3, 5-3 D1) at Louisiana Tech (9-2, 7-2 D1) – 7:30 PM ET (ESPN+)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day will be one of the best matchups you’ll see all year among Under the Radar teams – the Grand Canyon Antelopes travel to Ruston, Louisiana to face the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs in the WAC/Conference USA Challenge. The Lopes had a 4-game winning streak snapped on Saturday with a loss against Georgia in Atlanta; it was a missed opportunity for a team whose best win to date is a road win at Stanford. GCU usually attempts at least 25 free throws a game; they “only” shot 15-for-17 in the loss to Georgia.
Louisiana Tech has a record inflated with 2 non-D1 wins (which will also become 3 when Rust travels to Ruston on Saturday); their most notable wins so far may be against UMass and Richmond. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, both teams will likely finish in the bottom half of the A-10 – therefore, this is their biggest opportunity for a signature nonconference win before Conference USA play begins. Kaden Cooper had 25 points in the Bulldogs’ last game – a 77-63 home win against Georgia Southern.
OTHER NEWS, NOTES, AND HIGHLIGHTED GAMES (From the Puppet):
-Arkansas State could not have had a worse follow up to their big win at Memphis! (at least for the first half). They trailed UAB, on the road, by 25 at the half and trailed by as much as 28 in the game. But, after that, they could not have had more than an amazing comeback! They somehow came all the way back, forced overtime, and then controlled the overtime for a 98-89 win, which is their second true road win and it gets them to 9-3 overall.
-San Francisco handed Loyola Chicago their first loss of the season as the two squared off in Milwaukee. It’s a nice 76-66 win for the Dons.
-UC San Diego is yet another Big West team to keep an eye on. They blew Idaho off the court 80-56. Not that Idaho is an impressive win, but UCSD is now 9-2 on the year with one of those losses being a very close game at San Diego State, and they now have two true road wins. That’s an impressive overall body of work!
TONIGHT’S GAMES:
-Wofford @ Charleston – A win for Charleston gets them to a respecable 8-2
-Air Force @ Northern Colorado (Front Range) – We at Hoops HD LOVE the Front Range!!
-Oral Roberts @ Texas Tech
-South Alabama @ TCU – a win for South Alabama gets them to 8-3 on the year and gives them their 3rd true road win