Under The Radar Game of the Day – Friday, December 16th

Delaware (6-4) at Princeton (8-3) – 7:00 PM ET (ESPN+)

Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day heads to historic Jadwin Gym where the Princeton Tigers will host area rival Delaware. The Blue Hens come in to tonight’s game with a 3-game winning streak that includes wins against Davidson, Siena and in-state rival Delaware State. However, the Blue Hens are already 0-2 against the Ivy League; they have losses against Penn and Cornell on their ledger. Jameer Nelson Jr. has averaged just under 20 points a game for Delaware this season.

Princeton did get off to a slow start this season with close losses against Hofstra and Navy, but then went on an 8-game winning streak that included wins against Army and Northeastern in the London Basketball Classic during Thanksgiving weekend. That winning streak was put to an end with their loss against Iona on a neutral court in Union, New Jersey. Tosan Evboamwan leads the Tigers with 13.3 points a game and 6.7 rebounds a game.

 

OTHER NEWS AND NOTES:

-Last night was a pretty chalky night.  Santa Clara did hold on to beat UC Irvine and had control of the game late.  Seattle U also fell at Oregon State 73-58.

-Big East play gets underway tonight as Xavier travels to Georgetown and Creighton heads to Marquette.  Xavier is looking for their second true road win of the season and can get to 9-3 overall with a win, and Creighton is trying to snap a losing streak, but it won’t be easy against a Marquette team that has played really well at home this year.

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Under The Radar Game of the Day (And other News, Notes, and Games) – Thursday, December 15th

For last night’s legendary Hoops HD Under The Radar podcast – CLICK HERE

Southeastern Louisiana (5-5, 0-0) at Nicholls (4-5, 0-0) – 8:00 PM ET (ESPN+)

Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day goes to Thibodoux, Louisiana for the Southland Conference opener for both the Lions of Southeastern Louisiana and the Colonels of Nicholls. SELA has a bit of a deceptive record with 3 non-D1 wins, but they do have a win at Wyoming and a neutral-court win against Campbell in the win column. Only against Xavier did the Lions look overmatched thus far in the season. Boogie Anderson has averaged 11.8 points a game for SELA in their first 10 games of the season.

The Colonels of Nicholls have won back-to-back regular season titles in the Southland, although they have not appeared in the NCAA Tournament since 1998. Nicholls also has 3 non-D1 wins that are included in their 4-5 record, although they do have a decent win against San Diego that was part of the Las Vegas Holiday Classic in the 3rd place game. Latrell Jones averages 15.8 points a game and 5.0 rebounds a game for the Colonels.

 

OTHER NEWS, NOTES, AND GAMES (From the Puppet):

-UCLA went on the road to face a Maryland team that is really good, and who’s fans were really psyched, and by the first media timeout they were totally in control of the game and they absolutely blew the Terps off the floor.  The final score was 87-60.  That was not indicative of just how dominant UCLA was.  It was probably the single most impressive performance of the year considering the strength of the opponent, the location of the game, and the margin of victory.

-Charleston, Auburn, and Mississippi State all had to sweat a little bit, but all ended up with wins.

-Wake Forest had to do more than just sweat.  They were behind with less than 2 seconds to play to Appalachian State and didn’t have the ball.  Generally in that situation the game is over, but somehow Wake forced a turnover, got the ball back, and on the inbounds play got a shot up that went in.  Wake won 67-66.  Barely.

-UCF picked up their first true road win of they year as they pretty much controlled the whole game and knocked off Ole Miss 72-61.  UCF is for real this year!  This gets them to 8-2 on the year.

-Last, but certainly not the least notable, Louisville picked up their first win of the year as they pretty much controlled the entire game against Western Kentucky and ended up winning 94-83.  WKU was a team that we thought could land inside the bubble, and a loss like this absolutely torpedoes their chances.  While Louisville did look good last night, they hadn’t looked like a top 300 team at any point this season, and this loss is going to hurt the Toppers.

-UC IRVINE AT SANTA CLARA.  UC Irvine has looked really good at times this season and can add another notable win to their resume if they’re able to knock off a pretty good Santa Clara team, that’s 6-1 at home on the year so far.  These are the kinds of games the Eaters need to win if they want any shot at all of gettin the committee’s attention.

-SEATTLE AT OREGON STATE.  Seattle is a very impressive 7-1 on the year with the only loss being at Washington.  Oregon State isn’t great, but they’ve shown at times that they are capable of playing well and they are 4-1 at home, so this would be a really nice win for Seattle who appears to have their best team in recent memory.

-Lehigh @ Wisconsin
-Westmintster (nonD1) @ Utah State

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Under The Radar – December 14th

Tonight’s featured conference (after a comedically poor on-air start by the panel) is the Colonial, which has four really strong teams in College of Charleston, Towson (despite a recent loss to Navy), UNC Wilmington, and Hofstra who still has a lot of potential.  Charleston is inching closer and closer to the Top 25, and we may see more than just one team from this conference in the NCAA Tournament come March.

From there we run through the other 21 Under the Radar conferences and talk about UMass Lowell’s good start in the America East, and how Vermont and Bryant could also give them a run, Conference USA has multiple strong teams in UAB, North Texas, Western Kentucky, and FAU, Kent State continues to look really impressive out of the MAC, Iona is starting to make quite a bit of noise out of the MAAC, we like the season Northwestern State and Southern Miss are having, and think Seattle U and Sam Houston will be an interesting battle in the WAC.  We discuss all that, 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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Under The Radar Game of the Day (and other News, Notes, and Games) – Wednesday, December 14th

Stetson (5-3) at Charleston (10-1) – 7:00 PM ET (FloHoops)

Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day returns to Charleston where the hometown Cougars host the surprising Stetson Hatters. To recap, Stetson began their season with wins at Florida State and at South Florida, although they were not able to claim a trifecta after losing at Florida shortly thereafter. The Hatters also split a pair of games in Dublin, Ireland; they beat Rider but lost to Niagara in the A-Sun/MAAC Dublin Basketball Challenge. Luke Brown averages 11.8 points a game for Stetson through their first 8 games.

Charleston enters tonight’s game on a 9-game winning streak; their season has been highlighted by wins against Davidson, Colorado State and Virginia Tech to claim the championship of the Charleston Classic. Prior to a home win against non-D1 North Greenville, the Cougars won back-to-back road games against Citadel and Presbyterian. Dalton Bolon averages just over 12 points a game for Charleston.

 

OTHER NEWS NOTES AND GAMES (From the Puppet):

-I’ve been critical of Memphis all year.  I’ve been critical of Memphis for the last several years.  I know they didn’t win last night, but after beating Auburn over the weekend, and taking Alabama to the wire ON THE ROAD I am now a firm believer in Memphis!  Alabama won 91-88, but there are probably less than five teams in the entire country that would even have a one-in-four chance of beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa.  I don’t want to say it was a moral victory, but I will absolutely say it is an indication of just how good this Memphis team is capable of being.

-UMass Lowell didnt’ get the win at Rhode Island, and fell to 11-2 on the season after losing 77-75 in overtime.  It was a game many of us were expecting Lowell to win.  Still, it’s been a good season for the River Hawks.

-Other than those two games it was a pretty chalky night.  As for tonight…

-JACKSON STATE AT MISSISSIPPI STATE.  A different sport, but we at Hoops HD are all very sad at the passing of Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach.  We know this will be an emotional night for them as they try to remain unbeaten.

-UCF AT OLE MISS.  These are two teams that have shown some signs of life, but still have some work to do in order to prove themselves.  Tonight is a good opportunity for both teams as both come in at 7-2.

-UCLA AT MARYLAND.  This is what I like to call a ‘Protected Seed Caliber Game.’  If a team wants to get a protected seed, this is the kind of game they ned to be able to win.  It’s a VERY tough road challenge for UCLA, but they’ve been tested this season already.  As has Maryland.  This one should be fun!

-NEW MEXICO STATE AT SAINT MARY’S.  Saint Mary’s will likely be tested a little bit tonight, but they should be able to hold serve and pick up the win.

-Stetson @ Charletson – Charleston can improve to 11-1 and keep inching toward the Top 25
-DePaul @ Duquesne – likely a bit of a tough road game for the Blue Demons against a Duquesne team that isn’t good, but that doesn’t stink either
-Drexel @ Seton Hall – The Pirates need to hold serve at home
-South Carolina @ UAB – The Blazers need to hold serve at home
-Appalachian State @ Wake Forest – I’m still a bit of a believer in this Wake team, but they need to hold serve at home tonight
-Sam Houston @ UL Monroe – a winnable road game for Sam Houston, which would be their 3rd of the season and get them to 8-2 overall
-Georgia State @ Auburn
-Western Kentucky @ Louisville – WKU can get to 9-1 on the year and pick up their third true road win
-UC San Diego @ Nevada
-Long Beach State @ USC

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Under The Radar Game of the Day (and Other Highlighted Games) – Tuesday, December 13th

For our weekly Hoops HD Report podcast – CLICK HERE

For the latest JNG bracket projection – CLICK HERE

For Jon Teitel’s interview with former Eastern Illinois coach Rick Samuels – CLICK HERE

UMBC (7-4) at Loyola-Maryland (4-7) – 7:00 PM ET (ESPN+)

Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day heads to Charm City for the Baltimore City-County rivalry between the UMBC Retrievers and the host Loyola Greyhounds. Loyola got off to a decent 4-4 start, but are currently on a 3-game losing streak that includes losses against Coppin State, Hampton and Mount St. Mary’s. The Greyhounds were held to a season-low 34 points against The Mount in their last outing on Saturday; tonight will be the final game before final exams begin on Loyola’s campus tomorrow.

The Retrievers already have gone 2-0 against other Baltimore teams; this includes wins against Coppin State and Morgan State that are part of their current 4-game winning streak. Colton Lawrence has averaged over 15 points a game for UMBC thus far in their season. They will still have a pair of nonconference games against William & Mary and Maryland before beginning America East play.

 

OTHER NEWS, NOTES, AND GAMES (From the Puppet):

-Texas needed overtime to get by Rice, but managed to get the win despite all the off the court controversy that’s surrounding the program right now.

-Arizona State picked up their tenth straight win as they knocked off a Creighton team that’s fallen to 6-5.  The game seesawed back and forth with both teams going on big runs, but Arizona State held on 73-71.  Both these teams appear to be going in different directions right now.

-New Mexico remains unbeaten after picking up an exciting 67-64 win over a pretty good San Francisco team.

-FURMAN AT NC STATE.  If NC State wants to establish themselves as a tournament caliber team then they need to hold serve in games like this.  Furman is good and should make quite a bit of noise in the SoCon, but this is still the kind of game that a team that lands inside the bubble should routinely win.

-MARSHALL AT UNC GREENSBORO.  A win for Marshall gets them to 10-1 and gives them their 4th road win of the year.

-UMASS LOWELL AT RHODE ISLAND.  UMass Lowell is off to a really good start and this looks to be another winnable road game for them.  They’re coming off a big win at UMass, can get to 12-1 on the year, and pick up their sixth true road win of the season.

-PRINCETON VS IONA (Union, NJ).  These are both really good UTR teams that may have an outside shot at making a run at the bubble.

-SOUTHERN MISS AT LAMAR.  A win for Southern Miss gets them to 10-1 and gives them their third true road win.

-MEMPHIS AT ALABAMA.  Memphis is coming off a big win against Auburn, and Alabama is coming off a massive win at Houston, so both teams are coming in with tons of confidence and momentum.  Memphis could probably benefit from this more than Bama can, but it should turn out to be a huge win for whoever pulls it off.

-NC Central @ LSU
-Southern @ Xavier
-The Citadel @ North Carolina
-NC A&T @ Houston
-Eastern Washington @ Texas Tech
-TAMUCC @ Arizona
-New Orleans @ Boise State
-UTSA @ Utah
-Cal Poly @ Washington

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The Hoops HD Report – December 12th

We begin (unfortunately) discussing the news that broke today with Chris Beard at Texas.  He has been suspended without pay after being arrested for a domestic disturbance and his future is unknown.

From there we discuss Kansas’s blowout win at Missouri and how impressive they’ve looked this year, Purdue being atop the polls after Houston’s home loss to Alabama, Virginia and Connecticut also putting together strong cases that they should be ranked #1, how there are three unbeaten teams from the Mountain West in Utah State, UNLV, and New Mexico, all of whom have looked impressive so far, and much more…

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

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