Under the Radar Game of the Day – Tuesday, December 9

Posted on December 9, 2014 by Chad

Check out this week’s Bracket Racket by clicking HERE!

Evansville at Belmont, 8:00 PM, live streaming at ovcsports.com

The UTR Game of the Day heads to Nashville, Tennessee tonight as the best team so far this season in the Ohio Valley Conference hosts one of the top teams in the Missouri Valley.  Belmont enters tonight’s game with a 7-1 record, including wins over Ohio U and Denver, and only a season opening loss at Wright State against them.  The Bruins’ wins include a sweep of the Battle of the Boulevard against Lipscomb.  Belmont has been led so far by far Craig Bradshaw, who is averaging 21.3 points per game, while Evan Bradds and Taylor Barnette are both averaging over 13 points per game.

Evansville enters tonight’s game with a record of 6-1, only having lost to Green Bay in the semifinals of the Gulf Coast Showcase.  However, none of the Purple Aces’ wins to date have been of note, and with no major conference teams on their nonconference schedule, every quality road win for this team will count.  Luckily, the MVC regular season will give them a few chances, with two games against both Wichita State and Northern Iowa (who broke into the top 25 this week as well).  The Aces have been led so far by D.J. Balentine’s 19.9 points per game and Egidiju Mockevicious, who is averaging almost a double-double at 13.1 points and 9.7 rebounds per game.  Needless to say, whichever team wins this game will certainly be able to hold it out as a very good win when the committee discusses them this March, whether it be for at-large consideration or seeding.

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Bracket Racket Video Podcast: Dec 8th

Posted on December 8, 2014 by David Griggs

This week, Chad and David look back at the Big Ten v ACC Challenge and the Big Twelve vs SEC Challenge.  We talk about the past week’s action, including some of the surprising results, and look ahead to all the big time games this week.

 

And for all your radio fans, an MP3 version of the show is available below

 

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Puppet Ramblings and Highlighted Games for Monday, Dec 8th

Posted on December 8, 2014 by David Griggs

PUPPET RAMBLINGS

-Check out or weekly Bracket Racket Podcast tonight.  We normally due it on Sunday, but due to “circumstances beyond our control” we were unable to record last night.  That’s what we say when the circumstances definitely WERE within our control, but that we just failed to control them.  The former sounds better than the latter.

-A new bracket should also be posted some time tonight.

-Gonzaga looked impressive at Arizona despite the loss.  A win would have meant one of the most impressive road wins that anyone is likely to manage this season.  A competitive loss doesn’t help their profile, but it does absolutely nothing to hurt it.  Despite the loss, I’m still actually more impressed with the Zags now than I was before.

-In case you missed it, our adopted team NJIT won what was arguably the biggest game in the history of their program when they went on the road and upset Michigan on Saturday.  It was one of the more surprising results and upsets that I’ve seen in a long time.

-I didn’t think this was possible just a few short weeks ago, but Saint John’s appears to be for real.  Their only loss was to a very good Gonzaga team, and they’ve managed wins against Minnesota and on the road against Syracuse.

-Kentucky had an underwhelming offensive performance, and as a result only managed to beat #6th ranked Texas by double digits.  That’s how good Kentucky is.  They can have an off night, and only win by double digits against a top ten team.

-The Big South has now managed wins against Clemson, Clemson again, Virginia Tech, Auburn and Ole Miss.  The league still doesn’t appear to have anyone that’s close to the bubble, but it’s a good showing for a conference that rarely does better than a #16 seed.

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-IPFW AT PURDUE.  It’s a buy game, but it’s an interesting one.  An in state match up between one of the best teams in the Summit League, and a Purdue team that is 6-2, but doesn’t have any huge wins yet.

-YALE AT FLORIDA.  Yale took down UConn over the weekend, and may be the most impressive team in the Ivy League right now.  If they can pull off another upset tonight, they’re not just inside the bubble.  They’re WAAY inside it.

-BOSTON U AT HARVARD.  Harvard has just one loss on the year and shouldn’t have too much trouble against their crosstown rival.

-UC SANTA BARBARA AT SMU.  Both teams have been somewhat disappointing so far, but both could still turn it around and have big years.

-SAVANNAH STATE AT MIAMI FL.  Buy game

-KENNESAY STATE AT BUTLER.  Buy game

-NORTH DAKOTA AT MINNESOTA.  Buy game.

-BROWN AT PROVIDENCE.  Buy game.

-INCARNATE WORD AT UTEP.  SEE HERE in Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day

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Under the Radar Game of the Day – Monday, December 8

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Chad

Incarnate Word at UTEP, 9:00 PM, No TV

Northern Iowa and Incarnate Word.  Amongst the “Under the Radar” conferences, these are the only two remaining undefeated teams.  UNI has been extremely impressive so far this season and is on the verge of breaking into the Top 25 nationally.  Incarnate Word, on the other hand, has received absolutely no attention so far this season.  Nor, quite honestly, have they deserved it.  The Cardinals, in their second of four transitional years to the D1 level, have won all five of their games to date.  Those wins do include a road win at Princeton, and four wins against non-Division I opponents, the maximum number of non-D1 games allowed in a season.

Incarnate Word and Abilene Christian both began their move to the Division I level as members of the Southland Conference last season (though for Abilene it was actually a return to Division 1 after being a member shortly from 1971-1973).  UIW was surprisingly successful, posting a 9-5 record against Southland Conference competition.  As a first year transitional team, they were not required to play a full D1 schedule and in fact only played a single D1 non-conference game, which they lost.  However, a winning record of 9-6 against D1 teams was impressive, and the team certainly showed they are able to win games, posting a 12-0 record in their non-D1 games to end with 21 victories on the year.  Four more non-D1 wins, plus the Princeton victory, have the Cardinals heading into tonight’s game as one of only two Under the Radar undefeated teams.

UIW’s perfect record is in a lot of trouble tonight as they head to El Paso to take on Tim Foyd’s UTEP Miners.  While UTEP is only 4-3 on the season, none of their losses have been awful.  The Miners have split a pair of games with New Mexico State, defeated Xavier, and lost games to Washington and Colorado State (both of whom are undefeated entering play toay).  UTEP was the preseason co-favorite, with Louisiana Tech, to win Conference USA.  With a chance for a marquee win coming up at home on December 19 when the Miners host Arizona, they certainly could find themselves in the conversation for an at-large bid should they need one.  However, the Miners cannot afford any major slip-ups, and despite the 5-0 record, a home loss to Incarnate Word would be the type of loss they may not recover from.  It was just such a loss last year, at home to New Orleans in December, that really kept the Miners from ever even being in the at-large discussion despite a 23 win season.

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Highlighted Games for Sunday, Dec 7th

Posted on December 7, 2014 by David Griggs

-TOWSON AT GEORGETOWN.  Towson is off to a 7-1 start, which is better than we expected, but they really haven’t been tested yet.  A win for Georgetown will improve them to 5-2.

-COLORADO AT GEORGIA.  Colorado can improve to 6-1 with a win in this one.

-DELAWARE STATE AT DELAWARE.  Chad Sherwood’s Under the Radar Game of the Day.  CLICK HERE

-NORTHERN COLORADO AT COLORADO STATE (Front Range).  Colorado State is off to a fantastic start and will try to knock off their Front Range rivals to remain unbeaten.

-MILWAUKEE AT DEPAUL.  DePaul still only has one loss on the year.

-FGCU AT UMASS.  FGCU has just one loss, but they need some notable wins away from home if they want any shot at all of making the field.

-CHARLOTTE AT GEORGE WASHINGTON.  A win for GW gets them to 5-2.

EAST CAROLINA AT NORTH CAROLINA.  UNC is off to another one of their slower than expected starts, but they shouldn’t have too much trouble today.

-CALIFORNIA AT NEVADA.  Cal can improve to 7-1 and pick up a true road win.

-OLE MISS AT OREGON.  We still aren’t too sure how good either team is yet, but both come in with respective 5-2 records.

-ARKANSAS AT CLEMSON.  Arkansas got blasted in their last road game.  They’ve struggled away from home in past seasons and need to be able to win games like this if they want to end up inside the bubble.

-EASTERN KENTUCKY AT KENTUCKY.  It’s a buy game, but a rather interesting one.  It’s an in-state match up between what is perhaps the #1 team in the OVC and the #1 team in the entire nation.

-WEST VIRGINIA AT NORTHERN KENTUCKY.  This is almost a buy game in reverse.  It’s a good showcase for NKU to get a ranked team to play them at home.

-SAN DIEGO AT UCLA.  UCLA is strong this year and can improve to 7-2 with a win.

-CREIGHTON AT NEBRASKA.  Both teams have good records, but both still have a lot of work to do.  This is a rivalry game so expect an electric crowd.

-SAN DIEGO STATE AT WASHINGTON.  SDSU has looked really good this year, and they’ll travel to unbeaten Washington today.  This would be a great early season win for the Huskies if they can pull it off.

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Under the Radar Game of the Day – Sunday, December 7

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Chad

Delaware State at Delaware, 12:00 PM Eastern, live streaming at bluehens.com

The Battle of Delaware?  Battle of the First State?  First State Braggin’ Rights?  The last of these names is the closest thing the matchup between the only two Division I schools in the state of Delaware has to a name for their rivalry.  It definitely needs some work, so if you have an suggestions, feel free to toss them out in our forums and we will work diligently to get the name out there!

The Hornets of Delaware State enter the 15th meeting between these two schools with a record of 3-4, including a huge road win last week at Wake Forest*.  They followed that win up with a trip to Hawaii, where the team was probably more interested in sun and surf than in playing, as the Rainbow Warriors knocked them off by 15.  Kendall Gray did play well, however, posting a double-double for the third straight game.  He will have to play well again this afternoon if the Hornets want to get back in the winning column.

The Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens are winless in 6 games so far this season, including road losses to Liberty, Cal Poly and Bakersfield.  It is clear that this is not the same Delaware team that won 25 games overall and took the CAA regular season and conference tournament titles last year.  Cazmon Hayes has been leading the Blues Hens so far this year, having scored in double figures in all six games.  Delaware will need to get him some help if they want to win today.

*Delaware holds an 11-3 all-time lead in the series.

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