Hoops HD

NEWS AND NOTES

-It was a busy Saturday.  If Missouri wasn’t on your radar before yesterday, they better be on it now.  They knocked off Illinois 81-78 in the annual Braggin’ Rights game, and remain unbeaten on the year.  With wins over Oregon, Liberty, Wichita State, and now Illinois, their resume is as good as anyone’s.  Cuonzo Martin is an early candidate for National Coach of the Year!  The officiating in this game was awful, but the play was good!

-Tennessee improved to 2-0 after winning a seesaw battle against Cincinnati.  Two things to say about this game are that the Vols still look like they’re shaking some rust off after being shut down, and despite the loss Cincinnati is looking better and better every time they play.

-Florida State beat rival Florida 83-71 to remain unbeaten, but that hardly seems important considering that Keyontae Johnson collapsed early on in the game as the teams were going into a media timeout.  It was a very unsettling scene as he just suddenly dropped and face planted in the middle of the floor.  He was taken to the hospital and his condition is listed as stable.  The players on both teams were understandably shaken.  It was just this past summer when former Florida State player Michael Ojo collapsed and died on the court during a practice with his professional team in Serbia, so to see a player collapse the way that Keyontate Johnson did was very frightening for everyone.  The game did continue.  It is worth noting that both teams wanted to continue to play so it wasn’t a situation where it was forced upon them.  Florida State did win, but that hardly seems important.  I’m just glad that Keyontae Johnson’s condition is stable and I hope that he is able to diagnose and treat whatever it was that caused him to collapse.

-Miami FL suffered their first loss of the season, and it was a bit of a shocker.  It was a home buy game to Florida Gulf Coast, who when you look at them is suddenly 3-1 on the year and right along with Liberty is looking like a really good team out of the Atlantic Sun.

-Kentucky fell behind by 22 to Notre Dame and was able to overcome 21 of those points, but could not get all the way over the top.  They missed what would have been a game winning shot at the buzzer and the Irish held on to win.  Kentucky is now 1-4 and still looks like they have quite a bit to figure out if they’re going to even make the NCAA Tournament.

-Syracuse blew out Boston College.  Syracuse is now 4-1 on the season with the only loss being close and on the road against Rutgers.  I think it is safe to say that we underestimated Syracuse.  The overall resume may not be there yet, but they look like an NCAA Tournament team.

-Memphis could not get it done against an Auburn team that has looked pitiful all seaosn long.  Perhaps we overestimated Memphis.

-Oklahoma State got a scare at Wichita State, but did pick up the road win and remains unbeaten on the year.  They are appealing their postseason ban.  We will see how it goes.

-South Dakota State, an under the radar team that we thought could land inside the bubble, got blasted by in-state rival South Dakota.  The final score was 91-78, but the game really wasn’t as close as that.  The Yotes actually had a 20pt lead late in the second half.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES 

-UMASS AT NORTHEASTERN.  A rematch from earlier in the week as UMass tries to improve to 2-0 and pick up a road win.

-RHODE ISLAND AT WESTERN KENTUCKY.  Rhody is off to a modest 3-3 start and needs to put meet on their resume between now and the end if they want to be inside the bubble.  WKU is a UTR team that’s had some big wins already and appears to be good enough to land inside the bubble as well.  In short, this is a resume building opportunity for two teams that need to continue to build their resumes.

-RICHMOND AT WEST VIRGINIA.  A lot of the sparkle of Richmond’s win at Kentucky has faded, but if they can somehow manage to pull off a win at WVU today the resume will certainly get its sparkle back!  WVU is high in the rankings and has looked like a protected seed so far.

-LOYOLA CHICAGO AT UIC.  Loyola Chicago is a team that we think will be a Missouri Valley frontrunner, but they haven’t had that many opportunities to play yet.  UIC is off to a good 3-1 start and is looking to keep that going against their crosstown foes.

-PENN STATE AT MICHIGAN (Big Ten).  Penn State is coming off a very impressive win over Virginia Tech, and has another good one over VCU as well, so they’ve been a bit of a surprise this year and look to keep it rolling against a 5-0 Michigan team who is good, but who also hasn’t really been tested yet.

-OHIO U AT MARSHALL.  A really good game today that probably won’t get the attention it deserves. Both are really solid UTR teams who we could end up seeing in the NCAA Tournament.

-WINTHROP AT SOUTH CAROLINA STATE.  This is another winnable road game for Winthrop, which would improve them to 4-0.

-SAN FRANCISCO AT CALIFORNIA.  San Francisco is looking to build on their 5-2 record, which includes a big win against Virginia.  This is a winnable road game for them against another Bay Area foe!

-ARIZONA STATE AT GRAND CANYON.  This one should be fun.  The two schools are neighbors.  Arizona State is in the Top 25 and GCU comes in undefeated and looking for some recognition of their own.

-MERCER AT GEORGIA SOUTHERN.  A win gets Mercer to 6-0 and gives them their second road win of the season.

-SAINT JOHN’S AT GEORGETOWN (Big East).  Georgetown put up a big fight against Villanova earlier this week and although they appear to be better than expected they probably aren’t going to end up inside the bubble.  The Johnnies are off to a decent 5-2 start but still need to add some meet to the resume.

-STANFORD AT USC (Pac 12).  Both of these teams have looked like tournament teams so far, so this should be a fun conference match-up.  USC is, once again, better than the preseason projections and Stanford is looking for another statement win to improve their profile.

BUY GAMES (or games that might as well be)

-Oakland @ Michigan State
-North Alabama @ Indiana
-Northern Illinois @ Iowa
-Mississippi Valley State @ Vanderbilt
-Cleveland State @ Ohio State
-Portland State @ Washington State

NEWS AND NOTES

-Iowa State stayed with Iowa for about 16 minutes, but the Hawkeyes blew out their rivals in impressive fashion and remain unbeaten on the year.

-Georgetown may not be the worst team in all of basketball after all.  They actually controlled the first half against Villanova and stayed with them for the entire game.  Nova didn’t really put it away until the final few minutes of the game.

-Tre Mitchell and UMass finally got to take the court.  He ended up with 31pts in his debut as UMass cruised passed Northeastern 94-79

-UCLA got a nice home win against Marquette.  Despite finishing so strong last year, and despite being 5-1 this year, UCLA still seems to be flying under the radar a little bit.  This team is good!  Their only loss was to San Diego State, and in case you haven’t noticed, they’re really good too.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-KANSAS VS MISSOURI (Cancelled).  (From Chad….This game was cancelled prior to the start of the season.  After an eight year pause the Border War Rivalry had been set to resume tonight prior to COVID-19 wreaking havoc the way that it did.  David rambled, FOR 46 PAGES!!!, about how the game needed to be played anyway.  It was a desperate rambling from a deeply disturbed and confused individual, so I have decided to spare  our readers and have deleted it)

-FLORIDA AT FLORIDA STATE.  It’s a rivalry game between two unbeaten teams that will likely be in the tournament and who I think will both finish the season in the rankings.  If it could have fans, it would be perfect!!

-NOTRE DAME AT KENTUCKY.  Both of these teams will have a huge sense of urgency coming into this game.  Neither really have anything in the way of wins other than a single buy game win, and while not much was expected out of Notre Dame, a lot was expected out of Kentucky.

-CINCINNATI AT TENNESSEE.  Cincinnati has played well in their last two games and is coming off a nice win against Furman.  Tennessee is playing just their second game of the year and trying to start putting the meet on their resume.

-SYRACUSE AT BOSTON COLLEGE (ACC).  Syracuse is off to a 3-1 start and although they’ve only won buy games, they did play well at Rutgers their last time out.  BC has just one win, but have been competitive in most of their losses.  This is another game that has a sense of urgency for both teams.

-LA SALLE AT DREXEL (Sort of Big Five).  Drexel can improve to 4-1 on the year.  They appear capable of making quite a bit of noise in the Colonial.

-TCU AT TEXAS A&M (Big 12).  I don’t either of these teams will be there at the end, but TCU has shown some promise and to date TAMU hasn’t lost a game yet, so it’s worth keeping an eye on.

-MISSISSIPPI STATE VS DAYTON (Atlanta, GA).  It’s looking like a rough rebuilding year for Mississippi State, but they do come into this at 3-2.  Dayton is 2-1 and is working through some rebuilding woes of their own, but I still think the Flyers will be there at the end.

-OKLAHOMA STATE AT WICHITA STATE.  Oklahoma State is unbeaten, has already won some big games, and has another winnable road game today.  Now if they can just get a waiver from the NCAA they’ll be in great shape!

-WINTHROP AT SOUTH CAROLINA UPSTATE.  Winthrop is looking to pick up a road win and stay unbeaten.

-UAB AT EAST TENNESSEE STATE.  UAB is unbeaten, but also untested.  They likely won’t be tested much today either as ETSU is in total rebuild mode, but it would be the first road win for the Blazers.

-UC SANTA BARABARA AT LMU.  UCSB is a team that we think will win the Big West, but hasn’t had many chances to get out on the court yet.  LMU is a team that has shown some signs of life, so it shouldn’t be a cakewalk for the Gauchos.

-OLD DOMINION AT VCU.  This is a bitter rivalry that goes back to when both teams were in the Colonial (now neither one of them is) and it’s usually a really fun game.  VCU has somewhat exceeded expectations so far and they are looking to continue a solid start to the season with a win over the team they really don’t like.

-MEMPHIS VS AUBURN (Atlanta, GA).  Memphis has strung together a few wins after a 1-2 start and should be able to add a road win to that string against Auburn today.

-UTAH AT BYU.  I don’t know if this is the most bitter rivalry in college basketball, but it’s probably in at least the top four.  It’s pretty intense.  It will be different without fans this year.  BYU has struggled a little bit and is coming off a home loss to Boise State, so a win like this will help them both on and off paper.  Not much was expected from Utah this year, but they do come into this one at 2-0 and if they’re able to win this one then they will certainly get our attention.

-ILLINOIS AT MISSOURI.  It’s the bragging rights game!!  And for the first time in a long time both teams appear to be good!!  Mizzou is unbeaten with some big wins!  Illinois’s only loss is to Baylor and they’re coming off a huge win at Duke!  It was so demoralizing that Duke cancelled the rest of their out of conference games!!  Who has ever done that to Duke…EVER!!??  Okay, all kidding aside.  It’s a rivalry game between two good teams and it means a lot both on and off paper.

-OREGON AT WASHINGTON (Pac 12).  This is another big rivalry game, but unlike the previously mentioned game, only one of these teams are good.  It’s the conference opener and Oregon is looking for their first true road win of the season.

-CLEMSON VS ALABAMA (Atlanta, GA).  Clemson is unbeaten and becoming one of the surprise teams in college basketball.  If they can pick up this win then it should start earning them some top 25 consideration.  It won’t be easy, though.  While Alabama did have an early blemish, they still the ingredients to be a really good team and we’ll probably see them dancing this March.

-SOUTH DAKTA STATE VS SOUTH DAKOTA (Dakota Showcase).  South Dakota State is looking for their fifth straight win and a sweep of the Dakota Showcase.  They are good enough to be inside the bubble at the end of the season.  They just gotta keep winning against UTR teams.

BUY GAMES (or games that might as well be)

-FGCU @ Miami FL
-NC Central @ North Carolina
-TAMUCC @ Texas Tech
-North Georgia (nondiv1) @ Chattanooga
-Saint Francis U @ Saint Bonaventure – season opener for Bona
-Flagler (nondiv1) @ Furman
-Arkansas Pine Bluff @ Tulane
-Evansville @ Saint Louis
-Colorado State-Pueblo @ Colorado State – season opener for Colorado State
-UNC Wilmington @ Ole Miss
-Florida A&M @ Oklahoma
-UTEP @ Arizona – I bet UTEP scores fewer points tonight than Arizona State’s football team did last night
-Samford @ Georgia
-Indiana State @ Purdue
-Central Arkansas @ Arkansas

NEWS AND NOTES

-San Diego State remains unbeaten after blowing it open against nationally ranked Arizona in the second half.  San Diego State does move the needle nationally, but probably not as much as they should.  Dating back to last year the Aztecs has won 33 of their last 34 div1 regular season games, and while they haven’t played a ton of top 25 teams, they have played five of them and beaten them all.  That’s a pretty damn good run!  In looking at the rest of their schedule, I don’t see a single game that they won’t be favored to win.

-South Dakota State had to sweat out their winless rivals from North Dakota State, but held on to the win.  This is important.  South Dakota State is a team that’s good enough to finish inside the bubble, but a loss last night could have sunk those chances.  If we see them make the NCAA Tournament, just remember that it may not have happened had they not held on to win last night.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-NORTHEASTERN AT UMASS.  It’s the first game of the season for both teams!  We hope!  Neither team is expected to do much, but we at Hoops HD feel that both are better than what the preseason polls indicated and that both could make some noise this year once they’re able to start playing.

-SAINT JOHN’S AT SETON HALL (Big East).  We are expecting more out of Seton Hall than what they’ve shown us so far, but I still think that they’ll end up having a really big year.  The Johnnies have just one loss on the season, but they haven’t been in too many games that will test them the way this one will.

-SOUTH DAKOTA STATE VS NORTH DAKOTA (Dakota Showcase).  Again, these teams are both members of the same conference but this is not a conference game.  South Dakota State is good enough to finish inside the bubble if they continue to take care of business.

-NEBRASKA AT CREIGHTON.  Creighton is looking to bounce back after a tough loss to Kansas in a game where they played fantastic but came up just short.  Beating Nebraska handily at home, which they should be able to do, should cheer them up!

-VILLANOVA AT GEORGETOWN (Big East).  It’s the Big East opener for both teams.  Nova is good enough to win it all!  Georgetown is bad enough to struggle to win the Patriot League (although they did play well against West Virginia).

-IOWA STATE AT IOWA.  This appears to be a big mismatch, but this series has had its share of surprises.  This is a BITTER rivalry, and although not having fans may take away from some of the energy it will still likely be a game with a lot of intensity.

-NEVADA AT GRAND CANYON.  I don’t think we will see either team inside the bubble come March, but both are off to decent starts and could end up having a better year than what most were predicting.  It’s definitely worth keeping an eye on this one tonight.

-MARQUETTE AT UCLA.  Both teams are 4-1.  UCLA has shown some early rust but they’ll be in good shape if they can pick up this win tonight.  Marquette already has a big win against rival Wisconsin, and will have a strong case for the top 25 if they can win this one tonight on the road.

-SAN JOSE STATE AT SAINT MARY’S.  A win will get SMC to 6-1 on the year, which is a pretty good start.

BUY GAMES

-North Texas @ West Virginia
-Omaha @ Kansas
-Georgia Southern @ Davidson