-Maryland, who had not won a true road game prior to yesterday, got a HUGE road win at Illinois 91-70. They didn’t just beat the Illini, but blew them off the court and totally dominated the second half. This was, without question, the biggest win of the year for the Terps and make make the difference of them being an NCAA Tournament team as opposed to an NIT team.
-Saint Mary’s absolutely dominated a San Francisco team that had been playing well, but after last night does not quite look like they’re gonna make it inside the bubble. The final score was 71-51, and for part of the second half the margin was a lot more than that.
-UC Irvine fell in overtime to UC Riverside 84-80. They trailed by 12 midway through the second half, but came back to tie it and the lead seesawed back and forth the rest of the way. UC Irvine is a really good team, but any game they lose is going to hurt because any loss they sustain will be against a team that’s nowhere near the NCAA Tournament field. I still think the committee will select them if they win out, but anything short of that and they’ll probably need to win the Big West Tournament.
-It was actually a pretty exciting and busy night for a lot of Under the Radar teams. Maine got a huge win at UMass Lowell in overtime, Samford came from behind to beat Chattanooga on the road and remain in 1st place in the SoCon, Arkansas State held off Appalachian State at home to remain within a game of South Alabama in the Sun Belt, Lipscomb fell at North Alabama in a game between two of the better teams in the ASun, and Northern Colorado went down in a very surprising upset at Idaho.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-VILLANOVA AT MARQUETTE (Big East). Nova had been playing better, but they’ve now lost 3 out of 4 and have a very tough assignment tonight which will likely drop them to 4 out of 5 losses and keep them outside the bubble. Marquette still looks to be on cruise control for a protected seed.
-MICHIGAN AT PURDUE (Big Ten). Both teams are in the rankings, both have some really good wins on their resumes, and both could end up as a protected seed if they play up to their ceiling the rest of the way. A win tonight for either team would likely end up as a quad-1 win.
-SAINT BONAVENTURE AT VCU (Atlantic 10). I’m beginning to think that VCU is the only team from the A10 that can land inside the bubble and make the NCAA Tournament without winning the conference tournament, and to do that they pretty much need to win out between now and the end of the season. Any loss between now and the end would be coming against a non-tournament caliber team.
-UCLA AT WASHINGTON (Big Ten). UCLA has pulled themselves out of whatever tailspin they were in, and can pick up their third straight win tonight. It’s never easy to win on the road, but this is one the Bruins should be able to get.
UNC-Wilmington (14-5, 4-2) at Charleston (15-4, 5-1) – 7:00 PM ET (FloHoops)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day figures to be a dandy as the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks travel down Highway 17 to take on the Charleston Cougars in a matchup of two of the top teams in the CAA. Conference play wasn’t initially kind to Wilmington after losing their conference opener to Towson at home, but the Seahawks have won four out of their last five games. On Monday, Bo Montgomery scored 24 points as UNC-W beat William & Mary 85-74 to knock the Tribe down to a 3-way tie for first place along with Charleston and Towson.
Charleston has currently won two straight games after a surprising loss at Monmouth 12 days ago along the Jersey Shore. The road does get tougher for Chris Mack’s crew over the next four games; Elon and William & Mary will also be looming as the Cougars get into the heart of conference play. Ante Brzovic averages 18.5 points a game and 8.4 rebounds a game for Charleston.
-Florida only had a lead for about 2 seconds in their game at South Carolina, but it was the right two seconds as they hit a game winning shot to escape 70-69 and avoid a loss to a South Carolina team that’s nowhere near the field right now.
-Texas A&M was behind for pretty much the entire second half at Ole Miss, but they were able to keep it close and hit a game winning 3 with about 15 seconds to go to pick up a massive 63-62 road win. This is probably TAMU’s most impressive win of the year considering it was a true road win against a deservedly highly ranked team that was unbeaten at home coming into last night.
-Kansas also had to come from behind to win at TCU, but managed to put the game out of reach down the stretch and win 74-61.
-Saint John’s came back from 16pts down against Xavier to force overtime, and then pulled away in overtime for the 79-71 win. The Johnnies remain in solid shape with some big challenges coming up, and Xavier remains on the outside looking in.
-Nebraska, who I’ve tried to be nice to all season, continues to show why they can’t have nice things. They lost at home to USC 78-73. It’s hard to argue that a team belongs in the NCAA Tournament when they can’t win home games against teams that are nowhere near the NCAA Tournament.
-Georgia appeared to be steamrolling over an Arkansas team that appeared to be getting steamrolled, but Arkansas kicked it into gear in the last ten minutes of the game, came back from double digits, and ended up winning 68-65. This is the first SEC win for Arkansas, so they still have a lot of work to do. As for Georgia, it’s their second straight close loss and this one kind of hurts since it came to a team that is nowhere near the NCAA Tournament field.
-We keep saying that Air Force is hard to play against, and they are. Most teams find a way to beat them, but most teams struggle in doing so. Last night San Diego State needed overtime and barely escaped 77-76. AFA is just 3-16 on the year and 0-8 in MWC play, but they are still a potential landmine given their unique style of play that most teams just aren’t used to.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-WICHITA STATE AT MEMPHIS (American). Memphis has a tendency to sleepwalk through some of these conference games that they should be blowing through, but the expectation is that they will hold serve in this one.
-MARYLAND AT ILLINOIS (Big Ten). Illinois is coming off a tough road loss at Michigan State where they almost pulled out a huge win. They should be able to bounce back tonight against a Maryland team that’s good, but not ‘able-to-beat-a-top-20-team-on-the-road’ level good.
-SAN FRANCISCO AT SAINT MARY’S (West Coast). San Francisco is a very solid 16-5, and is just one big win away from being on the bubble and on the committee’s radar. A win at Saint Mary’s, who is safely inside the bubble right now, would qualify as a big win, so this one is an important game that should be a lot of fun to watch.
-UC SANTA BARBARA AT UC SAN DIEGO (Big West). UCSD is perhaps out of strikes. They need to win out to have any shot at all at landing inside the bubble.
-UC IRVINE AT UC RIVERSIDE (Big West). Right now I’d say that I think UC Irvine is one of the 40 best teams in the country, and that they belong inside the bubble and in the NCAA Tournament even if they don’t win the Big West Tournament, and that their resume is strong enough to indicate that. Having said that, they absolutely need to keep winning!
This week’s feature conference is the Sun Belt, where we’ve seen Arkansas State have a big year so far with some big OOC wins, but South Alabama has also come on strong and is sitting at the top of the standings. The other unique thing about this league is how much parity exists within it. As of now, just one game separates 4th place from 12th place, and given the crazy conference tournament format that should make for a compelling rest of the season.
After that we run through the other 21 OOC conferences and discuss what a surprise Maine has been this year and their big game coming up against UMass Lowell tomorrow, the overall strength of the Big South and how UNC Asheville is in 1st place, UC Irvine looks like they have a path to landing inside the bubble if they can continue to dominate the Big West, Drake and Bradley are having really big years in the Missouri Valley, and McNeese is starting to come on strong out of the Southland. We discuss all that, and more! And, as we do every week, we close with this week’s UTR Top Ten.
And for all you radio lovers, below is an audio only version of the show…
Longwood (14-6, 3-2) at Radford (13-7, 3-2) – 7:00 PM ET (ESPN+)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day heads to Radford, Virginia as the host Highlanders meet the Longwood Lancers in a Big South showdown. Radford had been tied with UNC-Asheville for the conference lead on the heels of a 3-game winning streak, but they fell a game behind after a surprising loss against Charleston Southern in their last outing. Jarvis Moss averages 13.7 points a game for Radford.
Longwood rebounded from a dismal performance against Winthrop (in the famed Winwood Cup) by beating High Point 82-80 at home to knock out the Panthers from first place as well. With 3 wins in their last four games (including a win against Asheville), Longwood is shaping up as a contender for the Big South title this year. Elijah Tucker led Longwood with 16 points in the aforementioned win against High Point.
-Iowa State must’ve been angry after their loss at West Virginia. They absolutely clobbered UCF 108-83 and they still look very much like a #1 seed caliber team.
-Alabama dominated Vanderbilt 103-87 and is also looking very much like a #1 seed caliber team.
-Tennessee bounced back from their road loss at Vanderbilt and easily beat Mississippi State 68-56, and for most of the game the score was a lot more lopsided than what the final ended up being.
-Ohio State managed a BIIG upset win at Purdue!! Ohio State’s resume is flimsy, but they now have wins against Kentucky on a neutral floor and Purdue on the road, which are two of the better wins that any team has. Furthermore, it was a high water moment for Ohio State athletics!! It had been a long time since that school had been in the spotlight for this kind of an athletic feat!!!
-UCLA, who had been in a tailspin, had a big 85-83 home win against Wisconsin yesterday. This was their second straight win after dropping four straight prior to that, so the Bruins appear to be back on track. Or, at the very least, not quite as far off track.
-UConn needed overtime to sweat out an 80-78 win against…(checks notes)…Butler?? Yes, Butler! And the Bulldogs actually had a chance to win at the buzzer, but a three-pointer missed and UConn escaped. Not exactly a decisive win against a solid team, but a win nonetheless.
-Missouri, who I was praising on our last two podcasts, of course weny on the road to Texas and fell 61-53.
-West Virginia, who we had all been praising for a week, of course lost at home 65-57 to an Arizona State team that appeared to be in a complete tailspin prior to last night.
-Louisville went to SMU and absolutely blew up the building. It was a 98-73 blowout road win. I know SMU isn’t all that good, and perhaps people are reacting a little too much to this, but there is no doubt about Louisville being a top 25 caliber team, and this follows two seasons where they were among the worst in all of D1. So, it is a pretty cool story.
-Wake Forest held on to beat North Carolina 67-66. North Carolina hit a 3 as time expired, but the game was in hand before that. The last 30 second of this game took over 12 minutes to play, and that is just absurd. It was replay after replay after replay when it really wasn’t necessary, and it was taking way longer than it should to make a decision. 12 minutes for 30 seconds of play is going to make people get up and leave. No one wants to watch nothing, and for 11 mins and 30 seconds of that 12 minute stretch that is exactly what was happening.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-UTAH AT HOUSTON (Big 12). Houston picked up their 10th straight win after barely surviving at UCF, and they should be able to keep that streak going tonight against a Utah team that’s not near the bubble.
-FLORIDA AT SOUTH CAROLINA (SEC). It’s not easy to win on the road, but this should still be a winnable road game for the Gators against a South Carolina team that’s still winless in SEC play.
-KANSAS AT TCU (Big 12). Again, it’s never easy to win on the road, but this should be a winnable road game for the Jayhawks.
-XAVIER AT SAINT JOHN’S (Big East). This is a big game for both teams. Xavier was having a sluggish season, but just picked up a huge win at Marquette which completely turned htings around for them, and they now seem to have a path to land inside the bubble. Saint John’s has a really good record, but right now they don’t have any real key wins at the top of their profile, so you get the sense that they almost need to avoid losing this one at home.
-SYRACUSE AT CLEMSON (ACC). This is a straight up “Hold-Serve” game for Clemson. They should be able to win home games against non-tournament teams.
-INDIANA AT NORTHWESTERN (Big Ten). At best both teams are on the bubble right now, and perhaps they aren’t even positioned that well. Both really need this win and a bunch of other wins between now and the end if they want to make the field.
-VALPARAISO AT DRAKE (Missouri Valley). At 16-2 overall, I still think Drake has a path to landing inside the bubble if they can keep blowing through the MVC.
-TEMPLE AT NORTH TEXAS (American). North Texas is a legit good team, but they have virtually zero margin for error if they want to land on the committee’s board and be considered for an at-large bid. They basically can’t lose to anyone other than Memphis, and they may even need to manage to beat Memphis.
-TEXAS A&M AT OLE MISS (SEC). Both teams are solidly in the rankings, both have managed big wins this season, and both are within reach of earning a protected seed. That makes this game a big resume-building opportunity.
-KANSAS STATE AT BAYLOR (Big 12). Baylor is in the field, but there is certainly room for them to improve and move up the seedlist. They need to hold serve at home tonight to avoid having their resume take a hit.
-NEVADA AT UTAH STATE (Mountain West). Despite a recent surprise loss Utah State is still in really good shape and will remain in the top half of our brackets so long as they keep holding serve and stringing together wins.
-USC AT NEBRASKA (Big Ten). It feels like Nebraska is on the bubble right now, so every game has a sense of urgency to it. They can’t afford to lose a home game to a team that’s nowhere near the field right now.
-GEORGIA AT ARKASNAS (SEC). Georgia is a solid team who has lost two straight, but both were to top ten teams and they came very close to upsetting Auburn in their last game. This should be a winnable road game for them, which is a big deal because it would only be their second true road win of the season. Arkansas is a talented team, but they’ve done very little with that talent and are still winless in the SEC.
-AIR FORCE AT SAN DIEGO STATE (Mountain West). AFA can be a tricky team to play against, but San Diego State should be able to take care of them at home and remain securely inside our bracket.
