NEWS AND NOTES:
-VCU at Memphis lived up to the hype. I had questions about both these teams coming in (especially Memphis), but I think both are solid tournament caliber teams. We’ll see what their profiles look like at the end of the year, but as far as what they look like on the court, both look good. VCU jumped out to an early lead, but it was close throughout. Memphis fought back and took the lead in the final seconds and VCU missed what would have been a game-winning shot. Memphis got the win, improved to 2-0, and probably has the two best collective wins of any team this year so far. Their other was against Iowa State. VCU falls to 1-1 and this one stings a little bit because they have limited opportunities to pick up these kinds of wins, but I still think they’ll be fine come March.
-San Diego State, who we believe to be in a rebuilding mode, is now 2-0 after winning 77-66 at Colorado.
-High Point got more of a battle than what I was expecting from Washington State, but held on to win 83-70 and stay perfect on the season.
-Dayton fell behind early to Northern Illinois. They fought back in the second half, but couldn’t pull away. Northern Illinois had three key players foul out, and Dayton still couldn’t pull away. Northern Illinois forced overtime, then won in overtime 81-76. NORTHERN ILLINOIS!! AT DAYTON!!! I said at the beginning of the year I would not be fooled by Dayton again and did not pick them to win the A10 or make the NCAA Tournament, but I never thought they’d lose at home to NORTHERN ILLINOIS!!! Now, to be completely fair to the Huskies, they have a lot of players no one had really seen play at the D1 level and may be a lot better than we expected. They certainly looked good and played with a lot of confidence last night. But this was a STUNNING result in that a team that was picked to finish pretty much at the bottom of the MAC went on the road and beat a team many were picking to make the NCAA Tournament.
-Nebraska got a nice 68-57 win against Providence in a game that turned out pretty much exactly the same way most of us were expecting.
-Santa Clara got a battle from Sacramento State, but held on to win 83-77. Sac State may make a little more noise in the Big Sky than what we were expecting.
-Last, and definitely least (but most interesting), Bethesda lost to Southern Utah by 94pts and Pepperdine by 73pts. In the same day.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-ARKANSAS VS VIRGINIA (Washington, DC). This is the first real test for both these teams and it’s a chance to pick up a big early season win that will look good on the team sheet. Both are high in the rankings and can contend for protected seeds.
-SAINT MARY’S VS NEVADA (Lake Tahoe Classic). Both teams have shown signs of being good early on, neither has a loss, and this should be a resume building opportunity for both of them. We are still trying to learn how good they both are and we should learn something tonight.
-USC VS WICHITA STATE (Lake Tahoe Classic). I like both of these teams. Wichita State looks to be very much improved this year and tonight they’ve got a chance to make a splash onto the national scene and add a huge win to their resume. USC is ranked, good, and expected to land easily in the top half of the bracket.
OTHER NOTABLE GAMES:
–Harvard @ Chicago (nonD1) – interesting only because Harvard is going on the road to play this game. It won’t count on the teamsheet as a true road win. At least I don’t think it will.
-Green Bay @ Saint Thomas – neither team is likely to be anywhere near the bubble, but it’s a solid UTR matchup
-Butler @ Boise State – neither team has a loss, but neither has really been tested either, or are they expected to do well. But as of today neither has given us a reason to not pay attention yet.
-Western Kentucky @ Tennessee Tech – WKU can stay unbeaten and pick up their first true road win of the year
-Richmond @ Temple – both teams unbeaten
-Norfolk State @ William & Mary – both teams unbeaten
-Pittsburgh @ Penn State – both teams are unbeaten, but I’m expecting both to finish about a hundred miles from the bubble. But today, neither team has a loss and today is the day we are writing this up.
-Houston vs California (Lake Tahoe Classic) – this appears to be a huge mismatch in favor of Houston. Cal hasn’t lost yet and they can really make an unexpected splash on the national scene if they can somehow pull this out, but it isn’t likely
-UT Arlington @ Hawaii – both teams are unbeaten
BUY GAMES:
-Iona @ Saint John’s
-SEMO @ South Carolina – both teams unbeaten
