Hoops HD

NEWS AND NOTES:

-We will be recording our Under the Radar Video Podcast tonight, and there is much to discuss, so be sure you tune in!

-Top ranked Duke went down on the road at Ohio State, which in and of itself isn’t a total surprise because Ohio State is good (obviously) and they are certainly good enough to beat just about anyone at home (obviously), but what was kind of surprising was how Duke appeared to be in complete control of this game early on in the second half, and then just totally fell apart.  Ohio State outscored the Blue Devils 41-23 in the second half to come back and win 71-66.

-Purdue had no issues with Florida State, and in about five days will likely be the new #1 team (for whatever that’s worth).

-Furman needed double overtime to get by High Point.  I’ve been big on this Furman team all year, and while they did win, and did so on the road, they didn’t exactly do it handily.

-Syracuse needed two overtimes to get by Indiana.  They appeared to have it locked up at the end of regulation and did the ‘foul-up-3’ strategy…but it didn’t work.  Indiana got the offensive rebound after missing the second freethrow and went back to the line with a chance to tie it…and did.  But, the Orange did pull it out and it was one they really needed.  While Indiana didn’t get the win, they did at least show that they can play with teams in games that aren’t easy to win.  To date their best win of the year is a home win against Saint John’s, but after last night there is reason to believe that better wins are likely coming.

-Minnesota is unbeaten after winning at Pitt!!  By 1!!  I’m…not sure we should be excited about that, though.

-Saint Louis is now 7-1 after getting a road win at Boise State.  That’s not exactly the hardest game in the world to win, but it’s also quite far from the easiest game to win.  The Billikens have our attention!

-The lights went out in Las Crusas, and apparently so did the streaming feed, so if you weren’t there you didn’t see it.  New Mexico picked up a nice road win against rival New Mexico State 101-94.  I really liked this New Mexico State team coming into the year, and I still think they can be a good UTR team, but based on the start that they’re off to, it’s looking like one of their wins will need to be that last conference tournament game.

-Wake Forest knocked off Northwestern in a game between two teams that racked up big records against (for the most part) weak schedules.

-And San Jose State continues their turnaround toward excellence!!  Tim Miles has them at 3-3 and unbeaten at home after knocking off South Dakota last night!!

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-CENTENARY (nonD1) AT UL MONROE (***Spotlight Game***).  CENTENARY!!!!!!!  The only team to (currently) have a Hoops HD Award named after them, is back in action tonight against a D1 opponent!!!!!!!  LET’S GO GENTS!!!!!!

-SOUTH CAROLINA AT COASTAL CAROLINA.  I like how South Carolina has played this season.  This is their first true road game, and it appears to be a winnable one.  This would get them to 6-1 on the year.

-CINCINNATI AT MIAMI OH.  Cincinnati has had a schizophrenic start to the season where they’ve beaten teams like Illinois, but lost to teams like Monmouth at home.  Miami OH wasn’t a team we were expecting much out of this season (even by UTR standards), but they come into this one 5-1 and have a chance to get a notable win against a regional opponent.  This game suddenly has a storyline to it that we wouldn’t have imagined at the start of the season.

-RICHMOND AT WOFFORD.  Richmond is off to a very disappointing 3-4 start and being able to describe them as a likely NCAA Tournament team is becoming harder and harder.  They need to win this one tonight, and it’s hardly a gimme.  Wofford is 5-2 on the year and unbeaten at home.

-RHODE ISLAND AT HARVARD.  This game is interesting if nothing else.  Both teams are 5-2 and while I wouldn’t guarantee that either of them will make a lot of noise in their conferences, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility either.

-SOUTHERN ILLINOIS AT EVANSVILLE (Missouri Valley).  Southern Illinois has already used up some of the few strikes that they have, but I still think they have a good team and can make a lot of noise in the Missouri Valley.

-IONA AT MARIST (Metro Atlantic).  This is not the easiest road game to win, but Iona already has a win against Alabama and I think they’ll be inside the bubble if they blow through this league.

-MEMPHIS AT GEORGIA.  This is a winnable road game for the Tigers.  They’ve been tested, but this is their first true road game of the season.

-LOUISVILLE AT MICHIGAN STATE (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  Louisville has rebounded since the loss to Furman and beat Maryland and Mississippi State to win their MTE.  They’ve got a very tough road test tonight against a Michigan State team that is probably better than their #22 ranking.

-NEBRASKA AT NC STATE (ACC/Big Ten Challenge).  Neither team has really lifted any weight that’s all that heavy yet, but both come in with good records and both have a chance at a notable (at least for now) win tonight.

-VIRGINIA TECH AT MARYLAND (ACC/Big Ten Challenge).  Both teams are off to decent starts, and both could use this win tonight to help put them on a good trajectory early on.

-EAST TENNESSEE STATE AT UAB.  While there is a good chance that neither of these teams finish inside the bubble, there is also a reasonable chance that at least one of them will.  So…this is a big game for both these teams, and it should be a good one.

-WASHINGTON STATE AT ARIZONA STATE (Pac 12).  Wazzu is off to a respectable 5-1 start, and winning their first conference game on the road seems very doable.

-FLORIDA AT OKLAHOMA.  Florida is high in the rankings, and Oklahoma is a likely tournament team.  It’s a really good resume building opportunity for both of them.

-UCF AT AUBURN.  UCF is a decent team that has the chances they need to establish themselves on their schedule.  Now, having said that, scheduling them is a lot easier than winning them, but if they can win this one tonight, they will certainly be squarely on our radar.

-WICHITA STATE AT OKLAHOMA STATE.  Wichita State has just one loss and is looking to add a notable win to their resume.

-NORTHERN IOWA AT BRADLEY (Missouri Valley).  Northern Iowa is off to a really disappointing start, but their one D1 win was against Saint Bonaventure, so they have shown that they can play at a high level.  They better start doing it consistently if they want to be inside the bubble come March.

-MISSOURI STATE AT ILLINOIS STATE (Missouri Valley).  Missouri State has a very small margin for error, but they do have a good and experienced team and if they can start stringing together wins they do have a path to land inside the bubble.

-OHIO U AT LSU.  This is a huge opportunity for an Ohio U team that we think is an NCAA Tournament caliber team.  They just need the wins on their resume to prove it, and they have a chance to pick up one of those tonight.

-TEXAS TECH AT PROVIDENCE.  Texas Tech is unbeaten, and Providence has just one loss and has passed some pretty big tests.  Like a lot of games tonight, it’s a chance for both these teams to pick up another early quality win.

-WISCONSIN AT GEORGIA TECH (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  This just isn’t the match-up that excites you the most.  It appears to be a big mismatch, and a very winnable road game for the Badgers.  Georgia Tech is 5-1, but hasn’t really been tested.  If they do win this, then it will completely change my opinion of them.

-MICHIGAN AT NORTH CAROLINA (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  Neither team is high in the rankings, and North Carolina isn’t in them at all, but both will probably be there by the end of the year.  It’s two teams with tons of potential that have struggled a little bit early, but have the chance to start to reverse that tonight.

-COLORADO AT UCLA (Pac 12).  Colorado is a possible tournament team, but I don’t think they’re good enough to knock off a #1 seed caliber team on the road.  Still, it’s a good opportunity.

-UTAH AT USC (Pac 12).  Utah has a good record, but doesn’t have a win of this caliber on their resume yet.  USC has looked really good early and will make quite a bit of noise in the Pac 12 this year.

BUY GAMES (and others worth mentioning):

-Central Michigan @ Xavier
-Villanova @ Penn (Big Five)
-Wagner @ Seton Hall – Wagner is back after a shutdown, and while it’s only their third game they looked good in the first two, so Seton Hall better not overlook them
-Dartmouth @ Vermont – two UTR teams that are off to good starts
-Princeton @ Hofstra – Princeton has looked good early on
-UT Martin @ Middle Tennessee – a win for Middle Tennessee gets them to 7-1
-William & Mary @ Navy
-La Salle @ Temple
-Brown @ UMass Lowell – two UTR teams that have looked good against some good power teams so far
-Alabama State @ Dayton
-Coppin State @ Saint Bonaventure
-Ball State @ Western Illinois – WIU can get to 6-2 with a win
-Texas Southern @ Louisiana Tech
-Central Arkansas @ Arkansas
-Arkansas Pine Bluff @ Iowa State
-Albany @ Kansas State
-Indiana State @ Loyola Chicago (Missouri Valley)
-BYU @ Utah Valley – a Beehive road game for BYU!!  Utah Valley is a very respectable 6-1
-Little Rock @ Colorado State
-UC Riverside @ Oregon – UCR has looked good early, and Oregon has struggled some, but the Ducks are still the superior team.
-San Diego @ Fresno State

NEWS AND NOTES:

CLICK HERE for the latest HOOPS HD REPORT where we look back on a busy week of MTEs

-Tarleton went into Gonzaga and made them sweat a whole lot more than what anyone was expecting.  Tarleton, who is a transitional team that has just one win on the season, gave an outstanding effort.  The Zags won 64-55, but I ended up watching most of this game, and coming into the day I didn’t think I’d watch any of it.

-Iowa had a big win at Virginia to stay unbeaten.  It was the first road win of the year for the Hawkeyes, and probably their most impressive win to date.  They controlled the half, but UVA fought back and had a chance to win the game on the final possession, but came up empty and Iowa held on 75-74.

-UC Santa Barbara, and under the radar team that we were all pretty big on, lost rather inexplicably to UT Arlington, who had just one win on the season going in to last night’s game.  UTA pretty much led tip to buzzer.  So…we are now a little less big on the Gouchos.

-Illinois did’t have too much trouble knocking off Notre Dame 82-72 and improving to 5-2 on the season.  Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly must have been really upset after the game.  He seems to have taken the loss kind of hard!  I mean…SHEESH!!

-Keep an eye on Wyoming.  I know they haven’t done anything to make a huge splash on the national scene, but they are 6-0 on the year and picked up their third true road win last night as they knocked off Cal State Fullerton.

-Boston College beat South Florida.  They should be playing Penn State in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.  The fact that they are not JUST RUINS THE WHOLE THING!!!!!

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-DAVIDSON AT CHARLOTTE.  This is always a fun rivalry.  I don’t think either team will be inside the bubble come March, but both are off to at least semi-respectable starts.

-INDIANA AT SYRACUSE (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  Indiana is unbeaten, but is also for the most part untested.  Lots of teams would be unbeaten against the schedule they’ve played so far.  If they can win this game tonight, then they’ll have my attention.  Syracuse could use a big win as well.  They come in at 3-3, and you get the sense they need a win in a game like this in order to feel like their season is on track.

-MINNESOTA AT PITTSBURGH (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  Minney is unbeaten and untested.  One could argue that playing at Pitt doesn’t qualify as a test, but it is at least a road game for the Gophers.

-FLORIDA STATE AT PURDUE (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  Purdue is ranked #2 in the country, and based on what they’ve done so far this season the ranking is certainly deserved.  Florida State is a team that I’m big on even though they’ haven’t exploded onto the national scene yet.  A win on the road in a game like this would certainly put them there, but even without the win it’s a chance to see what they can do against a really good team in a true road game.

-SAINT LOUIS AT BOISE STATE.  SLU is 6-1.  Many wrote them off due to losing some key players to injuries, but 6-1 ain’t bad, and if they can get this road win then you need to start paying attention to them again.

-NEW MEXICO AT NEW MEXICO STATE.  We really like this New Mexico State team and think they’ve got a shot at finishing inside the bubble, but their margin for error is small.  They can’t afford to lose home games like this, and considering that they’re playing their rival, this one would hurt off paper as sell as on paper if they don’t get it done.

-NORTHWESTERN AT WAKE FOREST (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  I’m not sold on either team yet, and may not be at any point, but both come in with good records.

-CLEMSON AT RUTGERS (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  Rutgers has been very disappointing this year.  Clemson isn’t really proven yet, but they may be DIS-proven if they can’t get this one on the road.

-DUKE AT OHIO STATE (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  I can’t help but think this Ohio State team is better than what they’ve gotten credit for so far.  They certainly have the chance to demonstrate that tonight.  It won’t be easy, though, even at home.  This is a Duke team that is ranked #1, and that is not over-ranked.

BUY GAMES (and others worth mentioning):

-Presbyterian @ Tennessee – Presby is off to a good start, but they’re overmatched tonight
-UMES @ UCONN
-Chattanooga @ Tennessee Tech – Chattanooga can get to 6-1 on the season and pick up their third road win
-Furman @ High Point – Furman has the big win against Louisville
-New Orleans @ Texas A&M
-Bellarmine @ West Virginia
-Northwestern State @ Houston
-Jackson State @ Marquette
-Hawaii @ Santa Clara – this is still a decent Santa Clara team
-Prairie View A&M @ South Dakota State
-North Dakota State @ Creighton
-Long Beach State @ San Diego State

NEWS AND NOTES:

-For Jon Teitel’s All Access coverage of the Wooden Legacy – CLICK HERE

-Dayton has finished off what has to be the most improbable three week stretch in basketball history.  They came into the ESPN Events Invitational having lost three home buy games (and two of them to teams that aren’t all that good even by UTR standards), and then they end up winning the event after handling Miami FL, beating Kansas at the buzzer, and beating a really good Belmont team in a close one.  So, it’s hard to know what to make of this team just yet.  There is a lot of season to go, and chances are by the end of it they’ll have a good resume where you say the early games were a fluke, or a not-good resume where you say the three wins are a fluke.  But, this has to be one of the biggest and quickest turnarounds in the history of the sport.

-North Texas knocked off Drake in the same event yesterday.  This was NOT a loss that Drake needed on their resume.  North Texas is not bad.  We know that.  But if Drake wants to establish themselves as a tournament caliber team that belongs inside the bubble, they simply do not get that many strikes against teams that likely won’t end up inside the bubble.

-Colorado had to sweat out Stanford at home, but they got the 80-76 win in their (early) Pac 12 opener, and improve to 6-1 on the year.

-Fresno State lost their first game of the year at Cal.  Of all the games to have their first loss in, this one was a bit of a surprise.  We had been a little impressed with Fresno’s 5-0 start, and weren’t really expecting much out of Cal this season at all.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-IOWA AT VIRGINIA (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  Iowa is unbeaten and while Virginia has limped out of the starting gate, they are starting to get better and better as the season goes along, and should kick it into high gear and be a top 25 caliber team well before the end of the season.  This is a chance for both teams to add to their resumes.

-TULSA AT ORAL ROBERTS.  Oral Roberts lost a heartbreaker to Oklahoma State their last time out in a game they really could have used.  Tulsa comes in at 4-2 and this is their first true road game, so we are still learning about them.

-NOTRE DAME AT ILLINOIS (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  Neither team is off to a bad start, but neither is off to a really good start either.  This is a chance for both of them to pick up a notable win and make their first big statement of the season.

BUY GAMES

-Central Michigan @ Kentucky
-Point Park (nonD1)  @ Buffalo
-Campbellsville (nonD1) @ Murray State
-Austin Peay @ TCU – Austin Peay does have a win at Dayton
-Mississippi Valley State @ Vanderbilt
-Sam Houston @ Texas
-Carroll College (nonD1) @ Utah State
-UT Arlington @ UC Santa Barbara
-Tarleton @ Gonzaga