NEWS AND NOTES:
-For John Stalica’s latest weekly Bracket Projections and write up – CLICK HERE
-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-It was an uneventful and chalky night as far as games go. If you wanted to take a night off, last night was the night to do it.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-FLORIDA ATLANTIC VS ILLINOIS (Jimmy V Classic). Florida Atlantic has already racked up some really nice wins, but this could end up being their biggest win so far if they’re able to pull it off. The same is true for Illinois. Both teams are ranked in the top 20, both have a shot at becoming protected seeds, and this would be a big resume building win for whoever pulls it off.
-GEORGE MASON AT TENNESSEE. Tennessee has played a killer schedule so far, and their 4-3 record is a reflection of all the top ten teams they’ve played and not how much they have struggled. George Mason comes in at 7-1, but this is by far their biggest test of the year. A win would really catapult them into the spotlight.
-PROVIDENCE AT OKLAHOMA (Big East-Big 12 Battle). Providence is off to a very good and somewhat surprising 7-1 start and is coming off a feel-good win against rivals Rhode Island. Today is by far their biggest test of the year, and would be their most impressive win to date if they can knock off an Oklahoma team that has cracked the rankings. Having said that, this is one of the tougher games Oklahoma has played up to this point as well even though they are at home. They better not overlook the Friars.
-WISCONSIN AT MICHIGAN STATE (Big Ten). Wisconsin is coming off a great win against Marquette, and Michigan State has struggled somewhat this season and a win today could really get them back on track. This is only the second true road game for Wisky. They lost the first at Providence, so a win today would add something to their resume that they don’t yet have.
-BRADLEY AT AKRON. This is a really good under the radar match-up between a Bradley team that got off to a fantastic start, but is coming off two straight losses and looking to rebound. Akron is just 4-3 and has lost some tough games that they could have won, but I still think they are in position to have a really good year, and a win today would be big for the Zips as well. Both teams have limited opportunities at big wins in conference, so this is the kind of match-up you like to see between two really good UTR teams.
-DREXEL AT PRINCETON. Drexel is coming off a big win against Villanova, and Princeton is looking to get to 9-0 on the year.
-VILLANOVA AT KANSAS STATE (Big East-Big 12 Battle). Nova has won all six of their games that weren’t Big 5 games this season and is probably trying to wash the bad taste of their last two losses out of their mouths. Winning on the road against a good Kansas State team won’t be easy. Both teams have a really good chance of making the tournament and this is a resume building opportunity for them both.
-LOUISIANA TECH AT STEPHEN F AUSTIN. Neither team will likely end up inside the bubble, but this is still a really good UTR game and we could see both these teams in the fields via the auto-bid come March.
-GEORGIA TECH AT GEORGIA. We’ve seen that Georgia Tech can beat good teams at home as they’ve knocked off both Mississippi State and Duke in their last two games. The question now is can they beat an average team on the road? Oh yeah, and this is also a rivalry game.
-INDIANA STATE AT NORTHERN ILLINOIS. This is another high quality Under the Radar match-up. Indiana State is 7-1 on the year, and is coming off a fantastic win at Bradley. Northern Illinois is a respectable 5-2 and is coming off a loss to Northwestern. This is just Northern Illinois’s third home game and they managed wins in the first two.
-CORNELL AT SYRACUSE. Cornell comes in at 7-1 and they’ve really battled with Syracuse in some recent games in the past. Syracuse is coming off a blowout loss at Virginia, which was their third of the season, but all of their losses have been against highly ranked teams so none of them were really all that damaging.
-NORTH CAROLINA VS UCONN (Jimmy V Classic). UConn is playing their second top ten opponent in a row, and as good as North Carolina is this is a much more manageable game being that it is in New York and not Allan Fiedlhouse, and as good as I think the Tarheels are, they’re not quite as good as Kansas. Still, the Tarheels are really good. Both teams have been tested, and both have past their tests. Both are showing all the signs of ending up as protected seeds, and this will be massive quality win for whoever pulls it off.
-SETON HALL AT BAYLOR (Big East-Big 12 Battle). Baylor is at home and they clearly look to be the superior team. Seton Hall is a respectable 5-2, but this is their first true road game. If they could pull it off the quality of their resume will go through the roof, but that’s far easier said than done.
-EVANSVILLE AT BYU. This is, perhaps, a buy game, and Evansville likely is overmatched, but they are also off to a surprising 7-1 start and have been one of the bigger early surprises in all of college basketball. Still, BYU is ranked in the top 15, they’ve earned the ranking, and they should get it done at home tonight.
-SAN DIEGO STATE AT GRAND CANYON. I’m looking forward to this one. San Diego State comes in at 7-1. but a lot of their wins have been underwhelming, including their last game where they had to come from behind late to win at UC San Diego. GCU, on the other hand, is very tough to beat at home, and this is a MASSIVE showcase game for them. They’re 6-1 on the year and will start to have a nice looking resume of their own if they can pull off this win. You’re gonna want to tune into this one just for the atmosphere alone!!
-NORTH TEXAS AT BOISE STATE. Both teams have work to do, but this is a good early season game between two teams that could conceivably make a run at the bubble. I think Boise State has underperformed a little bit early on, but could still have a big year.
-INDIANA AT MICHIGAN (Big Ten). Indiana comes in at 6-1, but this is their first true road game. It’s also a conference game, so it’s an important game for their resume. Michigan has shown signs of being good at times, but not recently. They’ve lost four of their last five and need a win to get them back on track.
-OKLAHOMA STATE AT SOUTHERN ILLINOIS. The Salukis blasted Saint Louis over the weekend, are 5-2 overall, are unbeaten at home, and have another winnable game tonight.
-KENT STATE AT SOUTH DAKOTA STATE. South Dakota State has been somewhat disappointing early on considering how good I thought they’d be this year. They’re just 4-4, but the potential is still there. They are good enough to start stringing together wins they can turn their season around.
OTHER NOTABLE GAMES/BUY GAMES:
-Delaware @ Xavier – Delaware should do well once they get into the CAA, but they’re a littel overmatched today
-Mississippi Valley State @ Liberty
-Western Carolina @ High Point – another really good UTR match-up. A win for WCU will get them to 7-1 on the year, as well as get them their 4th road win of the season
-Navy @ George Washington – a winnable home game for GW that will get them to 7-2
-Merrimack @ Florida
-NC Central @ Virginia
-Kansas City @ Kansas
-Mount Saint Mary’s @ Ole Miss
-Weber State @ Utah Valley (Bee Hive) – big mythical conference game here! Weber can improve to 5-2 overall and 2-0 in true road games with a win.
-Buffalo @ Butler – Butler is off to a pretty impressive 6-2 start and has looked pretty good this season
-Arkansas Pine Bluff @ Gonzaga
-Southern Utah @ Utah (Bee Hive)
-Cleveland State @ Saint Mary’s – SMC is just 3-5 and has to start winning games
-Montana State @ Washington
Bracketology – Staff Bracket (Monday, December 4th)
This week it is our colleague John Stalica’s turn to do his initial Staff Bracket for the 2023-24 season. This is not a prediction of who the Selection Committee would pick (as Jon Teitel will begin making those predictions in January), but rather who John feels would be selected as of this checkpoint. Below is the bracket:
First Four Out: Nevada, Auburn, Iowa State, New Mexico
Worth a Look: Michigan State, George Mason, Pittsburgh, Duquesne, Georgia Tech
COMMENTS FROM JOHN:
After many programs took on their first loss of the season, Arizona moves up to the #1 overall seed through games played through Sunday. Purdue remains a #1 seed despite a loss at Northwestern, but still gets credit for wins in the Maui Invitational (i.e. Marquette, Gonzaga and Tennessee).
Colorado State and BYU are looking like they’ll compete for not only protected seeds, but protected seeds where they’ll be competing for a seed in the West Region. Keep in mind that BYU can only be placed in either the West or the East Regionals because of the inability of BYU to play on Sunday.
The big UTR winners that are above the cut line right now are Indiana State (at-large) and Appalachian State as the last team above the First Four. Drake would be considered the auto-bid winner of the Missouri Valley for purposes of this exercise.
I have teams like Nevada and Michigan State out for the time being simply because they don’t have any Tier 1 or Tier 2 wins yet on their profiles (at least according to the daily JNG rating). Apparently, being undefeated doesn’t matter anymore. Right, Florida State football team?