NEWS AND NOTES:
-Just this past Saturday Alabama won at Saint John’s. I said at the time that would likely be one of the more impressive singular wins any team manages this season given how good the Johnnies were and how they may not lose at home again for the rest of the year. Last night, we saw an even bigger singular win as Purdue went into Alabama and came out with a massive, almost assuredly upper-quad-1 level 87-80 win. It was just an intense game that was played at a high level between two teams that could end up in the Final Four.
-West Virginia blew out Pittsburgh in the Backyard Brawl 71-49. It was both an impressive showing by WVU and a disappointing one by Pitt.
-Kansas State was blowing out California in the first half, and appeared to be skating toward an easy win, but if you turned the game off you missed a furious Cal comeback. K State held on 99-96, but things certainly got way more interesting!
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-HIGH POINT AT UAB. This may be High Point’s toughest remaining test of the year, and considering what UAB did earlier this week in their loss to Alabama State, it may not actually be that tough. This is a good High Point team that is lacking opportunities to build their resume. They may start to become a story as the season plays out. In looking at their schedule I’m not seeing a single remaining game where it doesn’t look like they’ll be favored.
-ILLINOIS STATE VS USC (Las Vegas, NV Intuit Dome, Inglewood, CA). Illinois State has gotten off to a somewhat slow start, but still looks to be among the better teams in the Missouri Valley. They are probably overmatched tonight, but if they could pull this off it will be a very nice early win for their resume. NOTE FROM CHAD: David Griggs has failed his geography lesson again. The Intuit Dome (Home of the LA Clippers) is nowhere near Las Vegas.
-NEW ORLEANS AT TULANE. A fun crosstown match up between two up and coming programs that seem positioned to have good years.
-UCF AT TEXAS A&M. TAMU got blasted in their last game at Oklahoma State and needs to bounce back tonight.
-XAVIER AT IOWA. Xavier doesn’t even look like a top 150 team so far, so this game may end up looking like more of a buy game than a match-up between two major conference teams. Iowa, whose players were mostly wearing Drake uniforms a year ago, has looked good so far and shouldn’t have too much trouble in this one.
-NORTHWESTERN AT DEPAUL. A fun crosstown matchup. Neither team is expected to do much this year, and DePaul already has a loss to Buffalo. Northwestern won their three buy games and is looking for their first road win, so that’s at least a decent start if they can pull it off.
-MICHIGAN AT TCU. Michigan is high in the rankings, but they needed overtime in Detroit to beat Wake Forest earlier this week. TCU is off to a sluggish start having already dropped a game to New Orleans, so neither team is playing at quite the level that we had expected yet, but the key word in that phrase is ‘YET.’
-GEORGIA TECH AT GEORGIA. It’s a rivalry game!! Both teams are unbeaten!! Having said that, both teams are also untested and Georgia Tech has had to sweat out some of their buy games so far.
-ABILENE CHRISTIAN AT STEPHEN F AUSTIN. Both teams are unbeaten, so this game is worth turning on. I’m actually starting to like this SFA team and think they’re an Under the Radar team that may be able to surprise some people this year.
-PROVIDENCE AT COLORADO. These are two major conference teams facing off!! And…well…I’ve got very little else to say.
-ARIZONA AT VS UCLA (Intuit Dome, Inglewood, CA). These are two long time Pac 12 rivals that have kept the series going and it should be a fun one tonight. Arizona already has a huge win this season against Florida and to get another one at UCLA would be the early makings of a #1 seed caliber profile. UCLA has only played buy games, and actually had to struggle to win a couple of them. Still, I don’t think they’ll be overlooking their opponents tonight. NOTE FROM CHAD: This game will be the second game of the doubleheader at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, CA, making it technically (though not realistically) a neutral court game.
-NORTH TEXAS AT SAINT MARY’S. North Texas pretty much blew it against Oregon State a couple nights ago committing a foul in the final seconds and then following that up with a technical foul which resulted in them losing the game, but for 39:56 they actually looked very good, and I think they are good, and tonight they have another chance at a notable road win. Having said that, winning at SMC is very hard to do.
-GONZAGA AT ARIZONA STATE. It’s never easy to win on the road, but this is perhaps a not-quite-as-difficult road game for the Zags. They are really good and Arizona State just doesn’t seem to be (although they are 2-0 after two home buy wins).
-WASHINGTON AT WASHINGTON STATE. It’s a rivalry, and I’m glad this series has continued since conference realignment, but this partcular edition of it appears to be a mismatch. Wazzu has struggled all year. They will likely struggle tonight. Those struggles will likely continue all season.
BUY GAMES AND OTHER GAMES OF NOTE:
-Lehigh @ Rutgers
-Indiana State @ Duke
-Eastern Illinois @ Kentucky
-Louisana @ McNeese – regional match-up between two solid UTR teams
-Fordham @ Iona – Iona can stay unbeaten
-Furman @ Northern Iowa – UNI can get to 3-0. Furman has talent but has disappointed so far
-Cal State Bakersfield @ Ole Miss
-Milwaukee @ Texas Tech
-Samford @ Arkansas
-UMES @ Creighton
-Colgate @ Illinois
-NC Central @ North Carolina
-Tarlton State @ Baylor
