NEWS AND NOTES:
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-Creighton is ranked in the top ten, and they knocked off Texas Tech yesterday 76-65 out in Maui without having to sweat all that much. They’ve certainly looked like the best team in the Big East. In fact, doing well in The Maui may be crucial to them building their resume because as for now there doesn’t look to be as many top 25 teams in the Big East as we’re usually used to seeing. Creighton has another HUGE game later on today (more on that below).
-San Diego State and Arizona also advanced in the Maui without too much trouble and will face each other today in a really exciting game. This is one of those games where you look at the two teams and wish they’d play each other more often. It should be a fun one tonight.
-In Under the Radar news (which many people probably missed) Toledo, who is a team we believe to be good enough to land inside the bubble and make the field without the auto-bid, did NOT look like it yesterday! They fell to Kansas City 83-71. This game may not look or seem all that important to the general/casual fan. It’s in a bit of a dumpy venue in front of a sparse crowd at the beach, and it’s an early season tournament. But if a team like Toledo wants to make the NCAA Tournament, games like this are HUGELY important! This one really hurt, and seeing as how they’re not in a conference that gives them multiple chances at big wins later on, losses like this can be hard to offset.
-Akron picked up a REALLY nice win against a talented Western Kentucky team, and basically blew them off the floor 72-53. Akron is another MAC team that I bet the committee already has their eyes on. For now, at least.
-I thought we’d see Wyoming in the top 25 this year, but now I’m wondering if we’ll even see them in the NIT. They are without their star player, and that will definitely be considered when looking at their losses, but the key word is “considered.” These losses won’t be “dismissed.” And honestly, if you can’t beat Boston College even without your best player, that just doesn’t look good. The Cowboys fell to BC 59-48 yesterday.
-Mississippi State is unbeaten after surviving against Marquette 58-55. If you like good shooting, this was not the game for you, but at the end of the day, on paper, it’s a win for Mississippi State. I’m not ready to declare them top 40ish good yet, but I’m definitely watching them now.
-Saint John’s is out to a bit of a quiet 5-0 start and knocked off a Temple team that’s been hot and cold this year, but has overall still at least been decent. The Johnnies have Syracuse tonight.
-Last but not least, UNLV. I know none of their wins have been true road wins, but they have won them all, and not all of them were home buy games against bad UTR teams. Dayton and Southern Illinois are decent teams. UNLV is also one of the few Mountain West teams outside of San Diego State that’s at least done SOMETHING this season. Having said that, when they finally play their first true road game on Dec 3rd, they need to win it in order to start to be taken seriously.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-CREIGHTON VS ARKANSAS (Maui Invitational, Maui HI). (***SPOTLIGHT GAME***). This is the third top ten match up in the last five days!! College basketball is great all season long! It just is! It’s also the biggest game that either team has played this season in regards to what winning it would mean to their resume. Both teams are potential protected seeds (obviously), and something teams must do to get protected seeds is beat other teams who are potential protected seeds. So, it should be fun tonight!!
-TOLEDO VS EAST CAROLINA (Gulf Coast Showcase, Estero FL). As mentioned early, it may seem silly that a game between two teams like this being played in a dumpy venue in a November tournament would be a highlighted game, but this is actually a very important game for a Toledo team that is really good, but has a very small margin for error to make a case to the committee that they belong inside the bubble. Their loss to Kansas City yesterday was a huge strike against them and they just don’t have that many more. They need to take care of an East Carolina team that is coming into this with a modest 3-1 record.
-LSU VS AKRON (Cayman Islands Classic), George Town Cayman Islands. Akr0n picked up a nice win against Western Kentucky yesterday, and has a chance to get another one against a (currently) unbeaten LSU team today. How do you get inside the bubble if you’re a good Under the Radar team? You win games like this.
-SAN FRANCISCO VS WICHITA STATE (Hall of Fame Classic, Kansas City MO). It was sort of easy to wright off Wichita State after they lost to Alcorn State, but they haven’t lost since then and actually picked up two decent wins against Richmond and Grand Canyon. San Francisco comes in undefeated, and this is actually a good test for both teams. Even though it’s still early, this game has a pivotal feel to it because the winner should at least have quite a bit of momentum built up.
-UAB VS GEORGIA (Sunshine Slam, Daytona Beach FL). UAB has a very high ceiling this year, but they’ve yet to pick up any real notable wins. Georgia is 4-1, but also without any notable wins. Georgia does not appear to be a tournament team. Probably not even close. If UAB IS a tournament team, they need to routinely beat non-tournament teams on neutral floors.
-CINCINNATI VS OHIO STATE (Maui Invitational, Maui HI). It’s an in-state rivalry five timezones away!! Although these two did recently play in a two game series, they have not played many times over the years. As for this particular match-up, Ohio State looks like a possible tournament caliber team that needs to win neutral floor games against non-tournament caliber teams, and Cincinnati looks like…well…a team that needs to improve just to make it to the NIT.
-AUBURN VS BRADLEY (Cancun Challenge, Cancun Mexico). Auburn clearly looks to be the superior team and should be able to hold serve in games like this if they want to end up as a protected seed. Bradley has just one loss, and could really make a splash on the national scene today, but chances are…they won’t.
-SYRACUSE VS SAINT JOHN’S (Empire Classic, Brooklyn NY). This is a great game in a great setting between two old Big East rivals and two regionally based teams! Saint John’s is unbeaten and may be a dark horse in the Big East that’s perhaps becoming less and less of a dark horse. Syracuse has some work to do in order to build up their resume, and they already have a pretty foul smelling loss to Colgate, but if they can win a game like this it goes a long way toward turning things around. At the very least it gives them some much needed momentum.
-NEVADA VS KANSAS STATE (Cayman Islands Classic). We weren’t expecting much out of either one of these teams, but they both come into this unbeaten, and Nevada knocked off what we think is a pretty good Tulane team to get here. K State hasn’t played anyone that’s particularly good yet, but they’ve at least looked good in the games that they’ve played. So…interesting one tonight!
-ARIZONA VS SAN DIEGO STATE (Maui Invitational). San Diego State looked really impressive against Ohio State last night, and showed that they are deserving of their top 20 ranking. Tonight, they have a chance to REALLY show they are deserving of it! Arizona is also unbeaten and also ranked in the top 20. It’s a huge early season resume building opportunity.
OTHER NOTABLE GAMES:
-Illinois State vs Western Kentucky (Cayman Islands Classic) – WKU did not look good yesterday and needs to bounce back today to avoid falling too far from the bubble
-Northern Illinois vs Sam Houston (Fort Meyers Tip-Off) – Sam Houston is unbeaten with some notable wins already
-Texas Tech vs Louisville (Maui Invitational) – Texas Tech has not looked good in their last few games. Louisville has looked infinitely worse
-Southern Miss vs Winthrop (Cancun Challenge) – Southern Miss is unbeaten with a couple of decent wins
-Kansas City vs Indiana State (Gulf Coast Showcase) – Indiana State is 4-0
-Tulane vs Rhode Island (Cayman Islands Classic) – Tulane needs to rebound from their first loss of the season, which quite frankly was a game they should have been good enough to win
-Vermont @ Yale – as hard as this is to believe, Yale is unbeaten on the year
-Drexel vs FGCU (Gulf Coast Showcase) – Neither team will likely end up on the bubble, but they’ve both shown some sparks of life early on
-Louisiana @ SMU – Louisiana is 4-0, but this is their first true road game
-Liberty vs Northwestern (Cancun Challenge) – semi interesting game here between an unbeaten Northwestern team and a Liberty team that we think will be the ASun frontrunners
-Oral Roberts @ Utah State – keeping an eye on this unbeaten Utah State team. Oral Roberts will do well in the Summit League, but winning on the road against Utah State is a very tall order
-Richmond vs Temple (Empire Classic) – both teams have potential this year, but both need to start stringing together wins soon
BUY GAMES:
-Bowling Green @ Notre Dame
-Coppin State @ Towson – (I know this technically is not a buy game, but practically it is)
-UC San Diego @ George Washington – GW can get to 4-1
-Stonehill @ Fordham – Fordham can get to 5-1
-Rider @ Rutgers
-Grambling @ Arizona State – If Grambling wins this we may not stop laughing for a week
