Hoops HD Daily Rundown – Monday, Jan 6th

NEWS AND NOTES:

For the first HOOPS HD BRACKET RUNDOWN of the regular season where we reveal this week’s Bracket Projection line by line and discuss it as we go – CLICK HERE

For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE

-In yesterday’s write up I stated something about how UCF was having a good year and should be able to give Kansas a game at home. Well, they lost. And it was by more than just a little bit. Kansas beat them 99-48.

-Oregon had to sweat out Maryland, but was able to bounce back from the blowout home loss to Illinois and pick up the 83-79 conference win.

-UConn had a lot more trouble with Providence than I thought they would, and actually had to come back in the second half, but they managed to escape with an 87-84 win.

-Indiana, who I have been super critical of this year, did pick up a nice road win at Penn State, and when you look at the Hoosier’s resume, it doesn’t look like a team that belongs in the top 15 like they were ranked at the start of the season, but it doesn’t look that bad either. They are looking like a solid NCAA Tournament team.

-Drake has dropped their second straight game as they fell at home to Murray State 66-59. After coming within a whisker of being ranked in the Top 25, they’ve dropped two straight conference games, are probably no longer the frontrunners in the Missouri Valley, and may run the risk of dropping out of this week’s UTR Top Ten.

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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-WISCONSIN AT RUTGERS (Big Ten). Rutgers really needs this win. They’re only 8-6, but given the talent they have they can still turn things around and build a strong resume if they can start to string together wins. Wisconsin comes in at 11-3 overall and a conference road win like this would make their resume look a little better too.

-TCU AT HOUSTON (Big 12). Houston didn’t rack up a lot of high caliber quad 1 wins during the OOC portion of the season, but they’re still extremely talented and I think they are good enough to win the Big 12. They should be able to hold serve at home in this one.

-OHIO STATE AT MINNESOTA (Big Ten). Ohio State has some really good wins, but their resume has some holes in it as well. This is the kind of true road game that they should be able to win.