Hoops HD

NEWS AND NOTES

-HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  (We hope).  Due to travel plans, I’ve written up today’s and tomorrow’s games in the same post.

-Wisconsin bounced back from their loss against Maryland and picked up a decisive win over rival Minnesota yesterday.

-Colorado picked up what was probably their biggest win of the year to date with a win at USC after maintaining a lead throughout the entire game.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES: FRIDAY, JAN 1ST

-LIBERTY AT LIPSCOMB (Atlantic Sun).  Liberty has a few decent wins and may find themselves on the bubble if they’re able to blow through the ASun, but anything short of that and they’ll need the automatic bid.  Also play Saturday

-WESTERN KENTUCKY AT CHARLOTTE (Conference USA).  WKU is good enough to be inside the bubble on Selection Sunday, but they’ll need to run away from C-USA, which is easier said than done with having to win back to back road games.  Charlotte has a win over Davidson, so WKU better not overlook them.  Also play Saturday

-GEORGIA STATE AT COASTAL CAROLINA (Sun Belt).  Both teams are 6-1, but Georgia State is clearly the more tested team.  If they can blow through the Sun Belt they have a good chance of ending up inside the bubble.

-KENT STATE AT AKRON (MAC).  Both teams are off to modest 3-1 starts and have shown some promise this year.

-WRIGHT STATE AT OAKLAND (Horizon League).  Oakland is probably better than their 2-9 record given some of the teams they’ve played, but Wright State appears to be the class of the league and should be able to run away from the conference.

-MARSHALL AT LOUISIANA TECH (Conference USA).  Both of these teams have looked good so far, especially Marshall, and it will be interesting to see what they do against each other in the CUSA opener.  Also play Saturday

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES: SATURDAY, JAN 2ND

-TEXAS AT KANSAS (Big 12).  Both teams are in the top ten.  Texas has looked like a protected seed and Kansas has looked like a #1 seed.  This would be a huge resume building win, and for that matter a #1 seed caliber win, for whoever pulls it off.

-CREIGHTON AT PROVIDENCE (Big East).  This would be a nice road win for a Creighton team that already has a pretty good resume.  Providence could really increase the value of their resume if with a win today as well.

-MISSOURI AT ARKANSAS (SEC).  Missouri is looking to bounce back from the pasting they received from Tennessee in their last game.  Arkansas in unbeaten, but also mostly untested, so this is a chance for us to learn something about them.

-LOUISVILLE AT BOSTON COLLEGE (ACC).  This should be a winnable road game for the Cardinals, which would get them to 7-1 on the year.

-BAYLOR AT IOWA STATE (Big 12).  Iowa State is usually a tough place to play, but not this year.  The Bears are a better team and Hilton Magic just won’t be the same without a packed house.

-IOWA AT RUTGERS (Big Ten).  Rutgers has battled injuries, but is still managing to beat teams.  Beating Iowa will be a somewhat taller order, though.  Both teams are top 15 teams and both could end up as protected seeds, so this is a resume building game.

-VIRGINIA TECH AT VIRGINIA (ACC).  It’s a rivalry game between two teams who’s resumes have room for improvement, especially Virginia’s.  So, quite a bit at stake.

-EAST CAROLINA AT TULANE (American).  I don’t think East Carolina will be there at the end, but this is a winnable road game, which would get them to 8-1 on the year.

-CLEMSON AT MIAMI FL (ACC).  Miami has dealt with injuries, but they are really good when they are healthy.  Clemson is coming off another nice win against Florida State and continues to build a really good resume.  They should be back in the top 25 next week if they can win this one today.

-LSU AT FLORIDA (SEC).  I think both of these teams are good, but both also have a lot of work to do, so this is a big opportunity for both teams, who should both have some sense of urgency coming into this game.

-TCU AT KANSAS STATE (Big 12).  TCU has looked good at times, but it is very important that they hold serve in games like this.  This is the kind of road game tournament teams need to be able to win.

-MERCER AT FURMAN (SoCon).  These appear to be the two best teams in the SoCon.  Both have an outside shot at landing inside the bubble, but they’ll need to blow through the conference to do it.  Mercer lost their last time out, so they’ll be looking to rebound from that.

-DAVIDSON AT VCU (Atlantic Ten).  Davidson has looked really good at times this season, but not enough of the time for me to declare them a likely tournament team (at least not yet).  VCU has looked good and will get to 9-2 if they can win this one today.

-GEORGIA STATE AT COASTAL CAROLINA (Sun Belt).  Both teams have just one loss, but Georgia State has clearly been tested more and they might be able to make some noise this March.  This is probably the first real test for Coastal so it’ll be interesting to see what they can do.

-WEST VIRGINIA AT OKLAHOMA (Big 12).  Oklahoma is probably NCAA Tournament good, and West Virginia is probably protected seed good.  A win for either team would certainly help their resumes.

-OKLAHOMA STATE AT TEXAS TECH (Big 12).  As good as Texas Tech has looked they don’t really have any big time wins yet.  This would increase the value of their resume if they’re able to pull it off.  It’d be a huge statement win for Oklahoma State as well, and would help their NCAA Tournament chances (pending the results of their waiver).

-UTAH AT USC (Pac 12).  I like what I’ve seen out of this USC team so far and think they deserve a little more love than what they’re getting.  This should be a winnable home game against a decent Utah team.

-NOTRE DAME AT NORTH CAROLINA (ACC).  North Carolina once again looks to be on the outside looking in and needs to win this game to keep from falling further down a steeper slope.

-COLORADO STATE AT SAN DIEGO STATE (Mountain West).  San Diego State has looked really strong this year, and while they’re currently not in the rankings they probably should be.  Colorado State has looked good as well, but this is their first really big test, so this one is definitely worth watching.

-BUTLER AT SETON HALL (Big East).  Seton Hall just throttled Xavier on the road and really looks to be playing well right now having won six of their last seven.  They should keep that streak going today.

-SAINT BONAVENTURE AT RICHMOND (Atlantic Ten).  We think the Bonnies are good, but they haven’t played enough games yet.  We like this Richmond team, but while their resume is decent it still needs some work.  In short, this is important for both teams.

-BELMONT AT UT MARTIN (Ohio Valley).  If anyone from the OVC has any chance at all of landing inside the bubble, it’s Belmont.  A win gets them to 10-1 on the season, but even with that they’ll likely need to run the table in conference.

-ALABAMA AT TENNESSEE (SEC).  Alabama is probably good enough to make the NCAA Tournament, but they’re really swinging over their heads tonight.  Tennessee has looked good enough to potentially contend for a #1 seed.  A win tonight will get them to 8-0 on the year.

-PURDUE AT ILLINOIS (Big Ten).  Big things were expected from Illinois this year, and while they’ve lost three games and haven’t delivered quite as much as some were expecting yet, the key word to that is YET.  They could still have a big year.  Purdue has tournament hopes of their own, and a win tonight would be a big plus for them.

-KENTUCKY AT MISSISSIPPI STATE (SEC).  Mississippi State is a modest 6-3, but they’ve still got a lot of work to do to make it inside the bubble.  Kentucky probably has even more work to do.  They are running out of time to get things turned around.

-WICHITA STATE AT OLE MISS.  Both teams appear to be on the outside looking in, but both are still in the race.  A win today would certainly help.

-ARIZONA STATE AT WASHINGTON (Pac 12).  Arizona State is finally able to get back onto the court.  A win today doesn’t really help them as much as a loss would break their legs.

-UCF AT SOUTH FLORIDA (American).  This UCF team has been on a bit of a roll and they should be able to keep it up with another road win tonight against a conference rival.

-MARQUETTE AT GEORGETOWN (Big East).  Marquette has been up and down this year, but their ups have been such high ups (wins over Wisconsin and Creighton) that I still think their resume is shaping up to be good enough.  Having said that, they don’t want a loss like this on there, nor do they want to fall to 5-6.

-MICHIGAN STATE AT NEBRASKA (Big Ten).  Sparty has really looked rough in their last few games.  They kinda need this one to get some of their confidence back and to stop the bleeding a little bit.

-DUKE AT FLORIDA STATE (ACC).  Both teams are ranked, but both also have a lot of question marks and both are in need of some good wins on their resume.

-COLORADO AT UCLA (Pac 12).  I really like both these teams and think we could see both of them dancing, but both still have work to do.

-BYU AT SAN DIEGO (West Coast).  BYU had some really big OOC wins and appear to be in good shape.  They shouldn’t have too much picking up this conference road win tonight.

-BOISE STATE AT SAN JOSE STATE (Mountain West).  I like this Boise State team and think they’ll make the NCAA Tournament.  Tonight’s win will probably feel like a buy game even though they’re on the road.

-SAN FRANCISCO AT GONZAGA (West Coast).  San Francisco has a big win against Virginia this year, but they’ve also struggled against some teams that you would have expected them to beat easily.  Gonzaga has been beating everyone easily and is clearly the best team in the country.

-STANFORD AT OREGON (Pac 12).  A lot was expected of Stanford this year and while they haven’t delivered any massive wins yet, I still think they’re good enough to make it to the dance.  A win tonight would certainly help, but it’s much easier said than done.

-ARIZONA AT WASHINGTON STATE (Pac 12).  Arizona comes in at 7-1, but that doesn’t seem to matter much since they gave themselves a postseason ban.  Wazzu is unbeaten, but has played a pitiful schedule and had to sweat out some wins against pitiful teams.  If they can win this one they’ll have our attention, though.

NEWS AND NOTES

-For our latest Under the Radar Video Podcast – CLICK HERE

-The showcase game of the night ended up being a blowout as Tennessee completely dump-trucked previously unbeaten Missouri.  It was Tennessee’s biggest win of the season on paper, and perhaps their most impressive overall showing on the court.  They looked like a team that could get a #1 seed last night.

-Furman handed Chattanooga their first loss of the season in the SoCon opener for both teams.  Furman couldn’t quite capitalize on a few chances to get big OOC wins and put together a really strong tournament resume, but they are still a really good team that can make some noise in March.

-Winthrop really had to sweat, but they held on to beat Campbell and remain unbeaten on the season.  The two will square off again today.

-Seton Hall went into Xavier and absolutely blew them out of the building.  It was kind of a surprising result given how good Xavier had looked all year long, and while Seton Hall never looked bad, they never looked like the kind of team that would blow Xavier off their own floor either.  Seton Hall is now suddenly 4-1 in Big East play.

-Dayton suffered a home loss to La Salle, which is extremely damaging to any NCAA Tournament hopes.  The Flyers could have done without that

-Richmond rebounded from a rather surprising loss to Hofstra by picking up a nice road win at Davidson in a game that was close and back and forth all throughout.

-Georgia suffered their first loss of the season as they fell to Mississippi State at home in a game where they pretty much trailed the entire way.

-North Carolina isn’t as bad as they were a year ago, but they’re not as good as many were expecting them to be.  They lost to Georgia Tech yesterday to fall to 5-4 on the year, and are now 0-2 in ACC play.  Right now I’d say they don’t even look like a tournament team.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-CAMPBELL AT WINTHROP (Big South).  It was a bit of a battle when these two met yesterday and it could be again today.  Winthrop is looking to stay unbeaten and keep their hopes of landing inside the NCAA Tournament bubble alive.

-MINNESOTA AT WISCONSIN (Big Ten).  Wisconsin is coming off a rather surprising home loss to Maryland and looking to rebound.  Minnesota is unbeaten on the year and has recently picked up some really big wins, but they’ve done it all at home.  A win today on the road against a rival who is highly ranked would pretty much completely round out their resume.  At least for now.

-UTAH AT UCLA (Pac 12).  Utah is 4-1, but hasn’t beaten anyone that isn’t totally lousy yet.  UCLA looks to have a good team and should get this win.  It’s the first time that they’ve played since losing to Ohio State, so it’s a bit of a bounce back game.

-MICHIGAN AT MARYLAND (Big Ten).  Michigan is unbeaten, but this will be just their second road game of the season, and their biggest road test so far.  Maryland is coming off a huge win against Wisconsin so they should have a ton of momentum, but they’ve still got a lot of work to do.  A win tonight would be another huge step forward for them, though

-ARIZONA AT WASHINGTON (Pac 12).  This is Arizona’s first game since self-imposing a postseason ban.  I guess it really doesn’t have any postseason implications after all.  Moving on…

-BOISE STATE AT SAN JOSE STATE (Mountain West).  It’s a conference road game for Boise State, but it shouldn’t be any more competitive than most buy games for the Broncos.  They should get this win easily.

-CALIFORNIA AT OREGON (Pac 12).  Cal appears to be a little better than we originally thought they’d be, but probably not good enough to go on the road and knock off an Oregon team that’s a probable protected seed caliber team.

-COLORADO AT USC (Pac 12).  This is a resume building opportunity for two teams that appear to be NCAA Tournament caliber teams, but still have some work to do.  A conference win in a game like this would certainly look good for either team.

BUY GAMES (or games that might as well be)

-Catawba (nondiv1) @ Wake Forest

NEWS AND NOTES

-The biggest surprise of the night was Houston falling at Tulsa for their first loss of teh year.  Tulsa came into the game at just 4-3 and hadn’t shown any signs of being a top 50 team, let alone a top 5 team.  Houston also kind of jumped out to an early lead, but Tulsa battled back and kept battling and kept keeping it close all the way through.  Houston, after trailing for most of the final few minutes, got a lead with less than 10 seconds to go, but then committed a foul in the final second.  Tulsa sank both freethrows and won the game.  Houston is still very good and will still likely end up as a protected seed, but this was a bit of a setback.

-Iowa slowly pulled away from Northwestern as the second half progressed and picked up a big win, which will help wash the taste out of their mouths after losing to Minnesota on Christmas Day.

-Clemson picked up another good win as they knocked off Florida State at home.  The Tigers are a fantastic defensive team that has just one loss on the season.  They’re not in the top 25, but they have been and likely will be again next week.

-Mercer, who had looked really impressive out of the SoCon, fell at home to Wofford 78-65 in a result that was rather surprising.  Like all other UTR teams, Mercer was in a situation to where they needed to pretty much dominate the league in order to land inside the bubble, so any loss at any point would be damaging.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-VCU AT SAINT JOSEPH’S (Atlantic Ten).  VCU has a somewhat impressive 7-2 record but they’ll need to keep winning at that clip in A10 play if they want to end up inside the bubble.  Joe’s is still looking for their first win of the season.

-FURMAN AT CHATTANOOGA (SoCon).  Furman was the team that we all thought we might see inside the bubble prior to the start of the season, but it’s Chattanooga that comes into this game at 9-0.  They don’t have much in the way of big wins, though, so their margin for error is still kind of small in regards to not needing to win the conference tournament in order to make the NCAA Tournament.

-SMU AT TEMPLE (American).  SMU comes in unbeaten on the year and has looked pretty impressive.  This should be a winnable conference road game for the Mustangs.

-CAMPBELL AT WINTHROP (Big South).  Winthrop is unbeaten with some fairly nice wins, but they’ll still pretty much need to run the table in the Big South in order to be inside the bubble.

-FRESNO STATE AT COLORADO STATE (Mountain West).  We still think this Colorado State team might have some potential, but due to only playing a handful of OOC games they’ll really need to rack up a bunch of wins in the MWC in order to land inside the bubble.

-SAINT BONAVENTURE AT RHRODE ISLAND (Atlantic Ten).  Rhody has struggled this year and are just 3-5, but they are still capable of making some noise in the A10.  Saint Bonaventure is just 2-0, but looked good in the two games they played and appears to have a high ceiling.  Their margin for error is very slim, though, due having played so few OOC games up until now.

-VIRGINIA AT NOTRE DAME (ACC).  Virginia was blown to pieces by Gonzaga their last time out and this is actually a bit of an important bounce back game for them.  You get the sense that if they can pick up a conference road win, then all will be good.  If they lose and fall to 4-3 then their resume is going to look and feel a lot more flimsy.

-NEBRASKA AT OHIO STATE (Big Ten).  Ohio State has played reasonably well against a tough schedule in a tough conference.  This should be a game where they are able to hold serve.

-SETON HALL AT XAVIER (Big East).  This is Xavier’s first game since their first loss of the season, which was a close one to Creighton.  They’re a top 25 caliber team (even though they’re not currently ranked) and a win tonight will help sustain that.  Seton Hall could really boost the value of their resume if they’re able to pull this one off.

-TULANE AT UCF (American).  I like how UCF has been playing and believe they’ll be able to hold serve tonight and continue to build what looks to be the early makings of a tournament resume.

-DUQUESNE AT SAINT LOUIS (Atlantic Ten).  Duquesne looks to be improved this year, but they’ve played so few games that you just don’t know much about them yet.  A win tonight would certainly be a huge statement, but that’s far easier said than done.  SLU is 7-1 and appears to be the A10 frontrunner this year.

-LA SALLE AT DAYTON (Atlantic Ten).  Dayton has played a lot of close games, but they’ve won all but one of them and appear to have a very winnable game tonight.

-RICHMOND AT DAVIDSON (Atlantic Ten).  Richmond made a splash early with a win over Kentucky, but right now that is looking less and less impressive and after a somewhat surprising loss to Hofstra they could really use this one tonight.  Davidson needs to be taken seriously.  They may be the best team in the country that most people are ignoring.  At 5-3, they have a 2pt loss to Texas (who’s now ranked #8) and a 1pt loss to Providence.  They could end up making quite a bit of noise in the A10 and that may start tonight.

-MISSISSIPPI STATE AT GEORGIA (SEC).  Georgia is unbeaten, but also untested.  Mississippi State at home doesn’t qualify as a huge test, but it is a little bit tougher than a lot of what they’ve played so far.

-ARKANSAS AT AUBURN (SEC).  Arkansas, like Georgia, is unbeaten but hasn’t been tested all that much.  This one will be a little tougher tonight, though.

-MURRAY STATE AT BELMONT (Ohio Valley).  These two are once again the likely OVC frontrunners.  Belmont comes into this one at 8-1 and could end up on the bubble if they blow through the conference, which they are good enough to do.  This is always a fun game to watch because of the contrasting styles.

-NORTH CAROLINA AT GEORGIA TECH (ACC).  North Carolina has looked decent, but they have some work to do in regards to building up their profile.  Winning at Georgia Tech isn’t the easiest thing in the world, but it’s the kind of game that a top 25 caliber team needs to be able to win.

-PENN STATE AT INDIANA (Big Ten).  Both teams have the potential to be tournament teams, but both also have a lot of work to do, so tonight’s game is therefore a nice opportunity for both of them.

-TENNESSEE AT MISSOURI (SEC).  Both teams are highly ranked and right now have the kinds of resumes that indicate they are protected seeds.  Missouri has been a bit of a surprise and is looking to keep that going.  Tennessee was expected to be good and although their season got off to a bit of a late start they are still unbeaten and appear to have the rust worked out.  In short, this is an opportunity for a big resume win for both teams.

-DEPAUL AT UCONN (Big East).  DePaul lost a thriller to Providence in their last game, which indicates that they may be good this year, but one issue for them is that this will be just their third game of the season.  UConn has also looked good, but also hasn’t played many games and needs this one.

-FLORIDA AT VANDERBILT (SEC).  Florida is back in action after having several games cancelled and appears to have a winnable conference road game, but while Vandy hasn’t looked great this year they have looked a little better than expected.

BUY GAMES (or games that might as well be)

-Alcorn State @ Baylor
-Prairie View A&M @ TCU
-Sacramento State @ Saint Mary’s – Sacramento State actually comes into this 3-0