Hoops HD

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NEWS AND NOTES:

-Marquette got a huge home win last night against Illinois 67-66.  The Illini weren’t quite at full strength and struggled with turning the ball over, but it’s still a big early season win for Marquette that gives both their resume and their confidence a huge boost.

-Liberty stayed with LSU for about 30 minutes and actually held a lead for much of the game, but LSU got control and pulled away down the stretch to stay unbeaten.  This isn’t a season defining win for LSU by any means, but Liberty is a good team and it’s at least a solid win for the Tigers.

-Furman and Belmont was close all throughout, but in the latter stages of the second half Furman appeared to be in control.  With less than 10 seconds to play Furman appeared to be in control, but they fouled a 3pt shooter, he drained all 3 freethrows to tie the game, and Furman could not convert on their last possession.  Belmont took that momentum into overtime and pulled out a really nice win.  As for Furman, it was a missed opportunity, but I wouldn’t exactly call this a damaging loss.  Belmont is good, they may not lose at home all season, and Furman also has a road win at Louisville on their resume.

-Buffalo picked up their first road win at North Texas in a game that they had to come from behind and win.  North Texas probably isn’t quite as good as they were a year ago, but it’s still a nice win for the Bulls against a team that will likely lose very few games at home this year.

-We thought Kansas City would be improved this year and we didn’t think Mizzou would be any good at all, but to see Kansas City totally dump-truck Mizzou was still a big surprise.  The final score was 80-66, but for much of the second half the lead was around 20 for the Roos.

-Providence got a really big early season road win at Wisconsin 63-58.  The game was not a blowout by any means, but Providence lead through most of it and was seemingly always in control.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-UMASS LOWELL AT OKLAHOMA STATE.  UMass Lowell is coming off a surprising win at Dayton that got our attention.  If they can some how follow that up with a win in this one, then they will REALLY have our attention.

-CREIGHTON AT NEBRASKA (Gavitt Tipoff Games).  It’s a rivalry game, and it’s an early season win that both teams could really use right now.  We aren’t forecasting either team to be there in March, but this game will give the winner some early season momentum.

-GEORGIA STATE AT RICHMOND.  We really like this Richmond team, but they have already suffered an early loss and are looking to rebound.  Georgia State is coming in 2-0 and looking for what should be a big resume building road win.

-HOFSTRA AT IONA.  This is an under the radar game worth keeping an eye on.  Hofstra put up a hell of a fight in their opener at Houston and followed that up with a road win at Duquesne.  Iona is 2-0 and appears to be one of the better teams in the MAAC who won’t be easy to beat at home.

-SAINT LOUIS AT MEMPHIS.  When SLU lost so many key players to injuries before the start of the season, it was kind of easy to blow them off, but they have looked good in their first two games.  Even though neither opponent was all that strong, they still blew through them.  Memphis has tons of talent, but the question is whether or not that talent can come together.  This is the first real test for either team, and it should be a good one.

-VIRGINIA AT HOUSTON.  Virginia has high expectations this year, but they are still looking to bounce back from an opening loss to Navy.  Houston also has high expectations, and while they’ve avoided an early loss so far, they’ve also struggled.  Both teams should improve as the season goes on, and this is a good early test for both of them tonight with a chance to get a nice resume building win.

-CHICAGO STATE AT LOYOLA CHICAGO.  Both teams are unbeaten!!  Both teams have won two games against D1 opponents!!  So, if we didn’t highlight this one, Chad Sherwood would have let me hear about it!  In all seriousness, Chicago State has a chance to win their biggest game in my lifetime tonight.  I don’t think that’s an overstatement.

-NORTH CAROLINA AT CHARLESTON.  An early season road game that UNC shouldn’t have too much trouble with, but they did struggle with Brown their last time out and Charleston is 3-0 on the season under new head coach Pat Kelsey.

-SETON HALL AT MICHIGAN (Gavitt Tipoff Games).  Both teams come in unbeaten, and for the most part untested, although Michigan did beat a pretty good Buffalo team in their opener.  Michigan is way up in the rankings and appears to have the superior team, but it’s a chance for Seton Hall to make a major statement early on, and perhaps pick up what would probably turn out to be one of their most impressive wins of the season.

-NEVADA AT SANTA CLARA.  Nevada is in a bit of a rebuild mode, and Santa Clara is a potential dark horse.  They already have a win against Stanford and a win tonight gets them to 3-0.

-BYU AT OREGON.  A really fun early season match-up between a BYU team that we think is a solid NCAA team, and an Oregon team that we think is a solid protected seed.  Both teams are 2-0, and both have already had a reasonably good test with BYU beating San Diego State and Oregon toppling SMU.

BUY GAMES AND OTHERS WORTH MENTIONING:

-USC @ FGCU – Interesting road game for the Trojans as Andy Enfield returns to Dunk City where he had his fantastic Sweet Sixteen run.
-Miami FL @ Florida Atlantic – Another interesting road game.  Perhaps a chance to pad the road wins on their resume?
-Howard @ Villanova – both teams unbeaten
-Wright State @ Purdue
-Gardner Webb @ Duke
-Mount Saint Mary’s @ Kentucky
-Colgate @ Cornell – worth keeping an eye on.  Cornell has won two road games and Colgate gave NC State all they wanted over the weekend
-Winthrop @ Middle Tennessee – both teams 2-0
-James Madison @ Eastern Kentucky – both teams unbeaten
-Alabama A&M @ Cincinnati
-Johnson & Wales (nonD1) @ Brown
-NJIT @ Rutgers
-Jacksonville @ UCF – both teams unbeaten
-South Alabama @ Alabama
-Murray State @ Illinois State – Murray can get to 3-0
-Alabama State @ Iowa State
-Tarleton @ Wichita State
-New Orleans @ Northwestern
-Central Connecticut @ NC State
-High Point @ Notre Dame
-American @ Georgetown – one of these teams is unbeaten and it’s not Georgetown
-NC Central @ Iowa
-North Dakota State @ Arizona – NDSU will do well in the Summit League, but they’re probably overmatched tonight

NEWS AND NOTES:

-Gonzaga jumped out to an early lead against Texas, and while The Longhorns did make an occasional run, it was never out of the Zag’s control.  It was a very impressive 86-74 win, and Gonzaga once again looks to be the clear #1 team, at least for now.

-Maryland got a bit of a scare from what is shaping up to be a really good Vermont team, but pulled away in the final minutes for a 68-57 win.  The win would have been huge for Vermont, but they’ve already managed what should turn out to be a good road win at Northern Iowa, and they’ve got a few more opportunities to rack up big OOC wins, so they have the chance to put together a really good NCAA Tournament resume.

There were more upsets yesterday!  At least in terms of Under the Radar teams winning on the road…

-Darmouth basically held a lead against Georgetown the entire way and ended up with a 69-60 win.  It is going to be a very long year for the Hoyas.

-UMass Lowell, who we thought would finish in the middle of the America East, went on the road and got a win at Dayton 59-58.  They certainly have our attention now.

-Wagner went into VCU and pulled out a surprising 58-44 win.  It’s been a bit of a rough start for the Atlantic Ten with UMass getting blown out by Yale, and with VCU and Dayton losing home buy games.

Duquesne also lost at home to Hofstra and Fordham fell to Manhattan, but neither of those results are particularly surprising.

-NC State avoided a near loss to Colgate, but held on to win 77-74 in a game that came down to the final couple of possessions

-USC blew it open early against Temple, but somehow the Owls came back and made it a game.  USC still held on to win 76-71, but it’s tough to say if Temple is better than we thought, or if USC just totally blew it once they had control.  Perhaps it’s a combination of both.

-UCF is off to a 2-0 start after picking up a notable road win against in-state foe Miami FL.

-Ohio U got a nice road win at Cleveland State to remain unbeaten.  Cleveland State is now 0-2, but we still think they are a good team that will make quite a bit of noise as they get a little further into their schedule.

-Shout out to Saint Thomas who picked up their first D1 win as a D1 team!  They knocked off Saint Francis Brooklyn on the road 91-73

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-YALE AT SETON HALL.  Neither team has lost, and Yale has a blowout win over UMass.  They are probably overmatched today, but it could still be a fun game.

-FLORIDA STATE AT FLORIDA.  It’s a rivalry game between two likely NCAA Tournament teams.  We actually think both teams are a little underrated and undervalued right now.  This is a chance for both of them to likely pick up a resume boosting win as well as a bragging rights win.

-MINNESOTA VS PRINCETON (Asheville Championship).  Both teams come into this one unbeaten, and are coming off of wins that were somewhat surprising from the first game in this event.  We weren’t all that excited about either team coming in to the season, but one of them will leave here today 3-0 with some (at least) semi-decent wins away from home on their resume.

OTHER GAMES WORTH MENTIONING:

-EAST TENNESSEE STATE AT TENNESSEE.  This is a buy game, and it may end up looking that way by the time it’s over, but since ETSU looks like they may be able to finish near the top of the SoCon it is worth keeping somewhat of an eye on.

-SOUTH DAKOTA AT DRAKE.  Both teams come into this one after having won their opener, and Drake Is a really good team that we think can finish inside the bubble.  They may get a bit of a test from the Yotes today, though.

-SOUTH DAKOTA STATE AT STEPHEN F AUSTIN.  South Dakota State is coming off a loss to Alabama where they played really well.  It’s early, but they are one of the UTR teams that we think could make a push to land inside the bubble.  If they’re an NCAA Tournament caliber team, then this is the kind of road game that they need to be able  to win.

-WESTERN KENTUCKY VS SOUTH CAROLINA (Asheville Championship).  Both teams are coming off losses In the first round of this event that were somewhat surprising.  WKU fell to Minnesota and South Carolina lost to Princeton.  This is more of a sense of urgency game early on than it is a chance for either of them to pick up a quality win.

-MORGAN STATE AT GEORGE MASON – Both teams come in at 2-0

BUY GAMES:

-Arkansas Baptist (nonD1) @ Little Rock – Little Rock can get to 3-0
-Rhodes College (nonD1) @ UAB – UAB can get to 3-0
-TAMUCC @ Texas A&M – both teams unbeaten
-Fairfield @ Boston College – BC can get to 3-0
-Canisius @ Saint Bonaventure – Bonnies can get to 2-0
-La Sierra (nonD1) @ UC Riverside
-Drexel @ Syracuse – both teams 1-0
-Peru State (nonD1) @ Colorado State
-Texas State @ Vanderbilt