NEWS AND NOTES:
-For our most recent UNDER THE RADAR Video Podcast – CLICK HERE
-One of our favorite stories of the year had been East Texas A&M, who started their season off with a win at Oklahoma and followed that up with a win at Rice. Yesterday they played their home opener against Fairleigh Dickinson and it was a field trip game so the stands were packed with elementary school students. ETAMU had a lead for most of the game, but couldn’t pull away and ended up falling in overtime. It probably won’t impact the bubble, but it was one of the more exciting games of the day and given the storyline it was one of the more intriguing games of the day.
-Both Valparaiso and South Dakota State were coming off big wins, so this matchup was a high level Under the Radar game. The first half was a foul fest, but South Dakota State established an early lead and basically held it for the entire game. They ended up winning 81-69, and are off to a crazy-good start. North Dakota State, their rivals, was the team we picked to win the Summit, but the Jackrabbits have looked the best so far.
-Michigan was able to beat Marquette 84-70 in a game where they really didn’t even need to sweat. It was the first test for Marquette, and while they didn’t win it it’s far from their only chance at a big win.
-USC picked up their first road win by knocking off California 77-65. It’s a fairly solid win for the Trojans who are still unbeaten on the season.
-Saint Joseph’s picked up a solid 83-80 win over what we think is at least a decent South Florida team in the Veterans Classic. Saint Joe’s is now 3-0 and doing better than we expected so far.
-Santa Clara got a nice road win at North Texas, which is not an easy playce to win, to improve to 3-0 on the year. Santa Clara once again appears to have a really solid team and should be in play to land inside the bubble.
-Nevada did NOT pick up a road win. They fell 76-63 at UC Santa Barbara, which was a bit of a surprising result. I still think Nevada is good and this may say more about UCSB being good than it does about Nevada not being good.
-Two really shocking results from out west last night was Chicago State blowing out Cal Baptist 81-62. We didn’t think Cal Baptist would be super good, but I think we all thought Chicago State would once again struggle to finish in the top 8 of the NEC. This was just a crazy good road win for them and it’s their second road win of the year!
The other shocker was Seattle U (my preseason dark horse) getting absolutely murdered on their own home court by UTSA 86-59. UTSA is a team we were expecting to pretty much do absolutely nothing and perhaps finish last in the American, but they just blew Seattle off the floor last night.
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NOTABLE GAMES:
-OKLAHOMA STATE AT TEXAS A&M. This is the showcase game of the evening, and I’m not even sure how good of a game it’s going to be. Both teams are unbeaten, but this is their first real test. I’m not expecting a whole lot out of Oklahoma State, but if they go into College Station and come out with a win they will have my attention.
-Morgan State @ UMBC – Morgan State looking to stay perfect on the year and pick up their second road win
-Tennesseee Tech @ Indiana – Both teams are coming off solid wins. Indiana knocked off Syracuse and Tennessee Tech beat a pretty solid Western Kentucky team rather handily
-Richmond @ Southern Illinois – Richmond is off to a somewhat solid start. They haven’t played anybody all that strong, but they’ve looked impressive on the court and can pick up their first true road win tonight
-New Mexico State @ UTEP – Battle of I-10!!
BUY GAMES (or games that might as well be):
-Kansas City vs George Mason (Showdown in St. Pete)
-Mercyhurst @ Penn State
-Mercer @ West Virginia
-Southern Utah @ High Point – both teams 3-0, but High Point should cruise
-UMES @ Rhode Island – Rhody is unbeaten
-Southern @ Minnesota
-Montana State @ BYU
