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NEWS AND NOTES:
-In a game that I am ashamed of myself for not mentioning yesterday, Maryland Eastern Shore defeated Binghamton 63-52 in the Queen City Classic at the Koessler Athletic Center at Canisius College! Very few people were there! Among the people who were not there were announcers! But there was a video stream of the game and it was glorious!!
-Providence handed Penn State their first loss 77-65. It was Penn State’s first real test and they did not pass it.
-San Francisco is now 5-1 on the year after picking up a 77-65 win at Minnesota. It’s the first win away from home for the Dons, but they have held serve since the loss to Memphis and they need to do well in their upcoming in-season tournament to start building up their resume.
-Northern Colorado picked up a nice overtime win in Portland against what appears to be a pretty good Portland team. Northern Colorado is now 4-1 on the year and is looking like one of the stronger teams in the Big Sky.
-Northern Iowa picked up their first true road win of the year and remains unbeaten on the season, and it was a good one as they needed overtime to get by UC Irvine 70-69. This was just a really good game to watch, and it’s probably somewhat important. It shows that Northern Iowa can beat good teams on the road, and I also thought that it showed that despite the slow start for the Eaters, they are getting better.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-CLEMSON VS GEORGIA (Charleston Classic). The rivalry resumes! Just not in its normal setting. Georgia barely survived Xavier on Friday night, and Clemson got here after a close win against West Virginia. It’s an opportunity to collect another notable early season win away from home and to take home a piece of hardware.
-VIRGINIA VS BUTLER (Greenbrier Tip-Off). Virginia got here after beating Northwestern in an exciting game and Butler got past South Carolina. Both teams have good overall records, but a win today would make each team’s resume look a lot better early on. Not much was expected of Butler this year, but their only loss so far was a close game at SMU, so a win today would be a great start to their season.
-WEST VIRGINIA VS XAVIER (Charleston Classic). Xavier has had a pitiful start to the season, but they’re coming off what was clearly their best game of the year when they nearly upset Georgia and a win today would look really good on their resume and perhaps change the tone and expecations for the rest of the year. West Virginia was knocked off by Clemson and is trying to pick up their first win away from home.
-MCNEESE VS GEORGE WASHINGTON (Cayman Islands Classic). GW is still unbeaten on the year and will be in solid shape for landing inside the bubble if they can sweep through this event. McNeese isn’t quite as good as they were a year ago, but they are still one of the better Under the Radar teams and this event is a chance for them to build up their resume and their metrics. Another reason this is big is because both these teams have limited opportunities at notable wins throughout the year.
-UTAH STATE VS DAVIDSON (Charleston Classic). Both teams are unbeaten, which is a bit of a surprise for Davidson, and both could use wins in games like this to help build up their resumes. They both have a few mentionable wins, but this would probably be the biggest win for either team up to this point.
OTHER NOTABLE GAMES:
-Norfolk State @ @Wyoming – Norfolk State is the MEAC favorites and they’re off to a pretty good 4-1 start, and Wyoming looks like they may be better than expected and could make some noise in the MWC.
-UT Martin vs Southern Miss – UT Martin barely avoided the upset to Prairie View yesterday, but held on to win 69-68. A win today gets them to 5-1 overall with four of those wins coming away from home
-South Carolina vs Northwestern (Greenbrier Tip-Off) – Not much was expected from either team coming into the year, but both have solid 4-1 records, both battled against pretty good teams on Friday in this event, and both could really benefit from a notable early season win away from home
-Yale vs Charleston (Paradise Jam) – this should be a winnable game for Yale, and while it’s not the top 50 level opponent that could really help their resume, it would be another win away from home and perhaps set them up against a stronger team in the championship game
-Murray State vs Middle Tennessee (Cayman Islands Classic) – a pretty good regional match-up between two solid Under the Radar teams! It’s just that the matchup is occurring outside the region and in the Cayman Islands
-Akron vs Evansville (Paradise Jam) – Akron just handed Iona their first loss of the year and will move on to the finals with a win today
BUY GAMES AND GAMES THAT MIGHT AS WELL BE:
-Arkansas Pine Bluff @ Miami OH
-Delaware State @ Miami FL
-Alcorn State @ Oklahoma
-West Georgia @ Georgia Tech
-Howard @ Duke
-Quinnipiac @ Pittsburgh
-Bryant @ UConn
