News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Thursday, Jan 5th

Posted on January 4, 2024 by David Griggs

NEWS, NOTES, AND LINKS:

-For the first HOOPS HD BRACKET RUNDOWN Video Podcast of the season – CLICK HERE

-For our latest UNDER THE RADAR Video Podcast – CLICK HERE

-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE

-Miami FL could not miss in the second half of their game against Clemson, who is a pretty good defensive team. They scored 60 second half points and shot a crazy 75%ish percent from the floor to pick up one of their bigger wins of the year 95-82. Clemson still looks incredibly solid and still may be good enough to end up with a protected seed. The loss didn’t hurt them, but had they pulled this out the win would have been very impressive.

-Seton Hall got another big win as they knocked off Providence on the road 61-57. It was the first home loss of the year for the Friars, and chances are they won’t lose that many more, so this is big for Seton Hall. The Pirates have now won four out of their last five and beaten Missouri, UConn, and Providence in that stretch.

-Dayton won on the road at Davidson 72-59 and didn’t even need to break a sweat doing it. This is a really good Dayton team that doesn’t seem to have very many people’s attention. They’re 11-2 on the year, and while Davidson isn’t exactly a tournament caliber team, they’re at least a decent team and they were unbeaten at home. If a team can handily beat a decent team with a good home record, then that’s a sign that team is good.

-Villanova had a lead for most of the game against Xavier, but Xavier battled and kept it close. The Musketeers actually had a chance to win the game at the buzzer after two missed Villanova freethrows, but the last second shot wouldn’t go down and Nova survived 66-65. Believe it or not, this was Nova’s most impressive win on paper in the city of Philadelphia this year!!

-NC State got a win at Notre Dame, but barely. They were behind for the entire game, but somehow escaped with a 54-52 win to get. to 10-3 overall against D1, remain unbeaten in ACC play, and pick up their second true road win.

-Nebraska beat Indiana rather handily 86-70. Indiana is kind of a ‘meh’ team, but Nebraska is still a team we need to start paying attention to. They are 12-2 and are at least handily winning the kinds of games that good teams usually win handily.

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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-PENN STATE AT MICHIGAN STATE (Big Ten). Michigan State is starting to look a lot better, but they need to continue to string together wins in order to get their resume to look like they want it to. They should be able to hold serve tonight.

-MEMPHIS AT TULSA (American). Memphis has now won six straight and beaten some pretty strong teams in that stretch. They will likely be tested on the road today against a Tulsa team that’s a respectable 9-3 on the year, unbeaten at home, and looking for a signature win themselves.

-OREGON AT WASHINGTON (Pac 12). It’s a rivalry game between two teams that have looked good, but that still need big wins in order to boost their profiles. Washington is coming off two straight tough losses and needs this win not just for what it means on paper, but to build back up some energy and momentum. Oregon has won six of their last seven, but this one will be tougher than any of the games they played during that stretch.

-MINNESOTA AT MICHIGAN (Big Ten). The basketball version of the Little Brown Jug, and amazingly enough a win for Minnesota will get them to 11-3 on the year.

-COLORADO AT ARIZONA (Pac 12). Colorado has been fun to watch and is probably one of the 25 best teams in the country, but having said that going on the road to face one of the 10 best teams in the country is a very tall order. Arizona is coming off a somewhat surprising loss to Stanford and a big win at home would be a good way to bounce back.

-UTAH AT ARIZONA STATE (Pac 12). Utah looks to be a solid tournament team, and this is the kind of road game that a solid tournament team should be able to win.

OTHER NOTABLE GAMES:

-UNC Wilmington @ Drexel (CAA) – UNCW is potentially dangerous, and perhaps has a narrow path to the bubble if they can blow through the CAA
-James Madison @ Louisiana (Sun Belt) – JMU looks to remain unbeaten and tonight plays one of many remaining conference road games where they have a huge target on their backs
-Grand Canyon @ Southern Utah (WAC) – GCU can get to 13-1 on the year and stay unbeaten in WAC play
-Pepperdine @ Gonzaga (West Coast) – The Zags are now in a position to where they pretty much need to blow through the WCC

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Under the Radar Game of the Day – Thursday, January 4th

Posted on January 4, 2024 by John Stalica

Charleston (9-4) at Hofstra (7-6, 0-0) – 7:00 PM ET (FloSports)

Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to Long Island for the Coastal (nee Colonial) Athletic Association conference opener for both the Charleston Cougars and the Hofstra Pride. Hofstra had a 5-game winning streak in the nonconference portion of their schedule that was highlighted by wins against Wright State and Iona on the road. Tyler Thomas averages 22.2 points a game and 3.2 assists per game for the Pride.

Charleston isn’t going to be an NCAA Tournament at-large contender like they were for last season, but the Cougars have had a few notable wins in their nonconference portion of their schedule. They beat Kent State on the road to begin a stretch where they would win 8 out of 9 games. They also beat Liberty on a neutral floor (at FAU) and also beat Saint Joseph’s at home. Ben Burnham averages 13.7 points a game and 4.8 rebounds a game for the Cougars.

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Hoops HD Bracket Rundown (Jan 3rd)

Posted on January 3, 2024 by David Griggs

PROGRAM NOTE: This show was recorded at 7:30pm est on Wednesday, January 3rd and did not take into account any of the games that were played that day, most notably Seton Hall’s win at Providence, or Nebraska vs Indiana, or anything else that would have impacted the bracket.

It is the first Bracket Rundown Video Podcast of the season! For this first edition, we built the entire seedlist and bracket out or Joby Fortson’s JNG RATINGS. We reveal each team line by line and discuss each of them as we go. We talk about which teams the JNG may be overvaluing at this point, as well as who all has the potential to improve.

Below is the finished bracket, but do not look at it until you’ve watched the show!!

And for all you radio lovers, below is an audio only version of the show…

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Hanging with the Hoyas: Part 6

Posted on January 3, 2024 by Jon Teitel

HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will spend the upcoming months covering several Georgetown basketball home games, with (hopefully) a very special reward coming in March. He was in attendance Tuesday night and prepared this photo essay about the Hoyas’ matchup against Creighton.

I was running late and felt worried that the pregame meal would be cold by the time I arrived but no problem: Potbelly’s sandwich/chips/cookie. Let’s tip it off in the conference home opener (even though most of the student body is still out of town due to winter break):

Another person who was not on the court was Georgetown’s leading scorer Jayden Epps, who was out with a right ankle injury and his foot in a boot, but fortunately he is just “day-to-day”:

His teammate Jay Heath picked up the scoring slack in the 1st half with a 3 from the top of the key, a tip-in that went high off the glass, and a runner in the lane:

Creighton G Trey Alexander is the hardest-working man in college basketball. He has averaged MORE than 40 MPG in his past 4 games (thanks to an OT loss to Villanova) but was still fresh enough to make a couple of layups and a shot from behind the arc in the 1st 20 minutes:

His teammate Baylor Scheierman also made a variety of short/long range shots to finish with 10 PTS before halftime and help give his team a 28-24 lead despite the Bluejays committing 11 turnovers:

Creighton coach Greg McDermott must have delivered 1 heck of a halftime speech because his team came out of the locker room on a tear and did not let up, outscoring the Hoyas 30-11 during the 1st 10 minutes thanks to 13-17 FG shooting and an 11-2 REB advantage. Scheierman made both and old-fashioned and a regular 3-PT play, while Alexander made almost everything (11-17 FG) en route to a season-high 25 PTS. Their 3rd Musketeer (SR C Ryan Kalkbrenner) had a quiet 1st half but converted a couple of alley-oops in the 2nd stanza to finish with 12 PTS/9 REB/4 BLK as he attempts to win his 3rd straight Big East DPOY award:

The lone bright spot for the Hoyas was FR G Rowan Brumbaugh. I was worried that he had hit the “freshman wall” after going scoreless on 0-5 FG during his last game vs. Marquette, but he bounced back in a big way with a trio of trifectas, a scoop shot off the glass, and a pullup jumper en route to a career-high 19 PTS:

Alas, it was not enough as Creighton cruised to a 77-60 win that was not as close as the score indicated. In the postgame press conference I asked Coach McDermott whether Alexander is 1 of those players who never gets tired or is just such a great athlete that he is capable of playing well even when he is tired. He said that if his players need a break then they will tell him, and if not then not, but he trusts them because “you only have so many miles you can put on your body in a week”:

Rather than focus on the negatives, I wondered whether Georgetown coach Ed Cooley had done any extra coaching to help Brumbaugh break out of his mini-slump. He gave the credit to his assistant coaches for breathing life and confidence into their young men, but while he believes that Rowan is a really good player he emphasized that the whole team needs to play better defense:

That is a wrap, I simply do not have the desire to watch DePaul-Georgetown on Saturday so check back next week when Seton Hall comes calling.

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Under the Radar Video Podcast (Jan 3rd)

Posted on January 3, 2024 by David Griggs

This week’s feature conference is the Big West, which appears to have quite a bit of depth and balance. Cal State Northridge isn’t just one of the bigger Under the Radar surprises, but one of the bigger surprises in all of college hoops. UC Santa Barbara has been somewhat disappointing, but is still loaded with talent, UC Irvine has proven to be dangerous, and Long Beach State should be in the mix as well.

From there we run through the other 21 UTR conferences and discuss how strong Princeton has looked out of the Ivy League, how Weber State is likely the team to beat in the Big Sky and could be a dangerous opponent in the Round of 64, how despite some unlucky and heartbreaking losses Louisiana Tech is still a dangerous team, Grand Canyon looks to be good enough to land inside the bubble and maybe even crack the top 25 before the end of the year, and much more. And, as we do every week, we close with this week’s UTR Top Ten

And for all you radio lovers, below is an audio only version of the show…

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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Wednesday, Jan 3rd

Posted on January 3, 2024 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES:

-For our latest HOOPS HD REPORT Video Podcast – CLICK HERE

-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE

-North Carolina showed that they deserve their high ranking as they went in and won at Pitt without really having to sweat down the stretch. I’ve been very critical of this Tarheels team for the past…ohh..four years or so and was constantly arguing that I thought they were being overvalued. Not this year. This team is DAMN good!

-I’ve been saying that while Butler currently does not have a tournament caliber resume, I still thought they were good enough to build one by the end of the year. After seeing the latter part of their game against Saint John’s yesterday, where they lost 86-70 and where Thad Matta was told to leave early via being ejected, I’m now thinking they’re not quite that good after all.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-SETON HALL AT PROVIDENCE (Big East). Seton Hall had won back to back games against Missouri and UConn and appeared to have a full head of steam going in the right direction, but in their last game they were blown out by a Xavier team that’s been average at best. They’ve got another big test tonight on the road. Providence is in the rankings, their profile is solid, and they are very tough to beat at home.

-GEORGE MASON AT LA SALLE (Atlantic 10). George Mason has an almost razor-thin margin for error, but with an 11-2 record there is probably room for them inside the bubble if they can blow through the A10.

-GEORGIA TECH AT FLORIDA STATE (ACC). GA Tech has enough on their resume for me to say that there is a path for them to land inside the bubble, but they still have a lot of work to do. This is the kind of road game that they need to be able to win.

-EVANSVILLE AT INDIANA STATE (Missouri Valley). Both teams are off to a great start, and Indiana State is good enough to land inside the bubble if they can hold serve throughout league play. They don’t have a huge margin for error, though, and they may be challenged tonight.

-RUTGERS AT OHIO STATE (Big Ten). Ohio State is having a good year and should land inside the bubble so long as they continue to hold serve. Rutgers needs some big wins like this away from home in order to get within range of the bubble.

-DAYTON AT DAVIDSON (Atlantic 10). Dayton’s profile appears to be the strongest out of all the A10 teams, but having said that they’ve only played in two true road games and won one of them, so this is a bit of a test as well as an opportunity to add road wins to their resume.

-CLEMSON AT MIAMI FL (ACC). Clemson is a team that is having an amazing year with just one loss so far and some really good wins. They’ve perhaps looked like the best team out of the entire ACC. Miami FL is sort of a quiet 10-2, which is kind of crazy to think a Final Four team could start off 10-2 and still be below the national sightline, but they sort of are. This is a very interesting game and resume building opportunity for both teams.

-NC STATE AT NOTRE DAME (ACC). This is a winnable road game for an NC State team that’s got a solid 10-3 record, but still has some work to do. Notre Dame is an unspectacular team, but they did just blow out Virginia, so NC State does not want to overlook them.

-INDIANA AT NEBRASKA (Big Ten). Both teams have good records, and Nebraska has some good wins, but both teams still have some work to do. Still, the Huskers have shown they can play like a tournament caliber team, especially at home, so they are definitely worth keeping an eye on.

OTHER NOTABLE GAMES:

-Louisville @ Virginia (ACC) – Virginia has not been themselves this year and cannot afford to slip up at home in a game like this
-Fordham @ George Washington (Atlantic 10) – a win for GW gets them to 12-2
-Saint Joseph’s @ Rhode Island (Atlantic 10) – Saint Joe’s can get inside the bubble, but they don’t have many strikes between now and the end of the season
-Western Carolina @ The Citadel (SoCon) -a win for WCU gets them to 12-2
-Chattanooga @ Samford (SoCon) – a win for Samford gets them to 12-2
-Xavier @ Villanova (Big East) – this should be a game where Nova has no problems holding serve
-Fresno State @ San Diego State (Mountain West) – conference opener for San Diego State

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