NEWS AND NOTES:
-Northern Colorado followed up their surprise home loss to Denver with a big road win at Colorado 86-81. It is the 5th true road win of the season for NOCO and their biggest overall win by far. As for Colorado, it is a bit of a setback for a team that was showing signs of being able to play its way inside the bubble.
-Richmond fell at home to Charleston Southern 77-72. Richmond was my dark horse team this season, and while they did get off to a promising start this season, yesterday was a very unpromising result.
-Saint Mary’s got a battle from LMU, but held on to win 78-73 in a game that featured a pretty wild last minute of play.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-MCEEESE AT MICHIGAN. McNeese is one of the top Under the Radar teams. Michigan is one of the top teams period, if not THE top team. It’s a buy game and Michigan should win. Seeing as how they’ve been blowing out top 25 caliber teams in the last month or so Michigan may blow them out. Having said that, this is McNeese’s shot at the national stage and a shot at collecting a major signature win. They may have a better shot at winning the lottery, but at least they get to play the game.
-YALE AT ALABAMA. Another example of one of the top UTR teams going on the road and playing one of the top overall teams. Alabama likes to shoot the three, so if Yale can close out on them beyond the arc, they may be able to make this one interesting. If Yale were to pull the upset, it’s the kind of win that can land them inside the bubble. But, it’s a very tall order.
OTHER NOTABLE GAMES:
-Kent State @ Purdue – Kent State is one of the better teams in the MAC, but they are likely way overmatched tonight
-Marist @ Quinnipiac (MAAC) – neither team is anywhere near the bubble, but these look to be two of the better teams in the conference and the result in this one tonight could have a big impact on the final outcome
-Towson @ William & Mary (CAA) – these are two of the better teams in the CAA and it should be both a fun and important matchup
-Belmont @ Indiana State (Missouri Valley) – nearly every road game in the Valley is tough, but Belmont is a tough team. They have a chance at making a run at the bubble, but they need to blow through this league to do it and that means winning all the tough road games
-California Baptist @ Utah Valley (WAC) – this is the first of three games between these two this year as the league is playing a triple-round-robin. They also appear to be the two strongest teams in the conference.
-Utah @ Washington – both teams are on the outside looking in and both have work to do. Having said that, both have shown promise. Now, having said THAT, both teams really need this one tonight
BUY GAMES:
-NC Central @ Penn State
-Southern @ Illinois
-Arlington Baptist (nonD1) @ Baylor
-UMass Lowell @ Iowa
-Dartmouth @ Florida
-Cornell @ Michigan State
-New Haven @ Vanderbilt
-Long Island @ Georgia
-Houston Christian @ Iowa State
-Middle Tennessee @ Houston
-James Madison @ Arkansas
-Southern Miss @ LSU
-Prairie View @ Texas A&M
-Mississippi Valley State @ Oklahoma
-Bethune Cookman @ Oklahoma State
-Jackson State @ TCU
-South Dakota State @ Arizona
-Queens @ Auburn
Hoops HD Staff Bracket – Friday, December 26
As the holiday weekend starts to wind down, it is our colleague John Stalica’s turn to put together the weekly Hoops HD staff bracket this week. This is NOT what Jon Teitel and Rocco Miller do as part of their exercise to guess what the Selection Committee does; rather this is what we feel the bracket should look like at this point in the season. Without further ado:
First Four Out: Indiana, Ohio State, Kansas State, Creighton
Others considered: Washington, Wisconsin, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma
– I think there is little doubt that Michigan is currently the top overall seed given their body of work and margin of victory; Arizona does have the singular best win with a victory at fellow 1-seed UConn.
– Teams like Vanderbilt and Nebraska get some benefit of the doubt with undefeated records going into conference play, but they don’t have the same level of quality wins as others in the top 2 lines. That said, Vandy did destroy Wake on the road and are more than capable of doing similar damage when SEC play rolls around.
– Ordinarily I should have Michigan in the Midwest Region, but the placement of Arizona and Iowa State as the top two seeds makes this impossible to pull off thanks to BYU. BYU can’t be in the West region because of Arizona and I doubt the Selection Committee would drop the Cougars from their natural 3-seed down to the 5-line for such an accomodation. I wonder what Chad would have done in this circumstance.
– I know I’m probably being a Big East homer having 5 teams from the league in the current bracket, but this again is where things stand through today. The margin of error is small for Villanova and Seton Hall and even smaller for Butler and St. John’s. However, as bad as the bubble is, I wouldn’t write off Creighton either. They are dismantling teams ever since the holiday break began.
– Frankly, Kansas State isn’t completely dead in the water either. The road win at Creighton is looming larger and they also have wins against Tulsa and California in their back pocket as well. They also have a neutral court win against Mississippi State, but the Bulldogs might be at the bottom of the SEC this season.
– I had VCU as my last team in the field thanks to a victory against Virginia Tech; they have almost no margin for error in the A-10 though. They’re going to have to put up a very strong conference record to stay in the at-large hunt.
COMMENTS FROM STAFF:
COMMENTS FROM DAVID GRIGGS:
-As much as I’ve beaten up on Kansas State, and while I initially did a spittake when I saw how close Stalica had them to his field, he actually does have a point. I don’t know how this happened, but their profile actually isn’t awful. The Big 12 will give them the chances they need to play their way inside the bubble if they’re good enough. Having said that, I still think that the “good enough” part of that will prove to be a big problem.
-I’m actually with Stalica on Butler! I think they have a good enough team to rack up the record they need to in Big East play to make the field.
-As is the case with most bracket projections, when I look at the teams on the 12 line, and then compare them to the teams on the 9 line, I’d much rather play the teams on the 9 line.