Let me start with this. It is November 11th. It is 11/11. It is Nigel Tufnel Day!! CLICK HERE TO CELEBRATE!!
For the latest Hoops HD Report, where we recap the busy first couple of days of the season and preview all of the upcoming MTEs – CLICK HERE
NEWS AND NOTES
-Yesterday I mentioned that when 184 games are going on in one day, it’s really hard to keep up with everything. And…I missed something. I forgot to mention Miami OH’s win at Georgia Tech on Tuesday night. Thanks to all of those who pointed out the omission. If there is one thing I can say about our readers/viewers, it’s that they are an informed group! When we screw up (which does occasionally happen), they usually let us know! When things like that happen, it’s almost always Chad Sherwood’s fault!! Georgia Tech won the ACC Tournament last year, and while many aren’t penciling them in to the NCAA Tournament yet, it’s still a great win for the Redhawks.
-As for yesterday, it was a much slower day. The key game of the night was Buffalo at Michigan. Michigan sprinted out to an early 20+ lead in the first half. Buffalo showed a lot of guts and got it as close as 6, but couldn’t come all the way back and Michigan ended up winning without having to sweat too much. This is a really good Buffalo team. They’re not good enough to routinely beat teams in the top ten, especially after spotting them 20+ points, but it wouldn’t shock me at all to see them put together the kind of season that lands them inside the bubble.
-Rutgers made the NCAA last season for the first time in over 600 years, or something like that. (I actually think it was around 30, but it had been awhile). We knew that they’d be in a bit of a rebuild-mode this year. But…I don’t think we were expecting them to have to sweat out teams that were picked to finish last in the leagues like the Patriot League. Lehigh has had some good teams in the past, but from all accounts they didn’t seem to have one this year. Nevertheless, Rutgers needed overtime to beat them. Now, this could also mean that Lehigh is A LOT better than what many of us thought, but I also think it means that Rutgers isn’t quite as good as they were last year.
-Most of the games last night involving the teams on our radar were home buy games. Long Beach State at Idaho was one of the few entertaining games, and an exciting night for Idaho as they opened their new arena, but I don’t think we’ll be talking about either team come March.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-VERMONT AT NORTHERN IOWA. We really liked both these teams coming into the season, but Northern Iowa already has one surprising (and likely very damaging) loss on their resume as they dropped their opener to Nicholls State. This is a weird thing to say just 72 hours into the season, but there is a huge sense of urgency for Northern Iowa coming into this game. When you’re an Under the Radar team, you don’t get very many strikes, and they’ve already got one. Vermont looks to be really strong this year themselves. This would be a big road win for them if they can pull it off, and perhaps then it would be time to start looking at their NCAA Tournament chances.
-GEORGE WASHINGTON AT MARYLAND. Both teams come in 1-0 so we’ll give it it’s proper spotlight, but chances are this will be a mauling.
BUY GAMES
-Sacred Heart @ Providence – both teams 1-0
-McNeese @ TCU
-UC Riverside @ Arizona State – we like UCR, but they are likely overmatched tonight
-Kennesaw State @ Creighton
-Northern Arizona @ Washington – we’re not ignoring Washington yet, but…we’re close to that point
-Prairie View A&M @ San Francisco
