News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Wednesday, Nov 25th

Posted on November 25, 2020 by David Griggs

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HAPPY COLLEGE BASKETBALL SEASON EVERYBODY!!!!!

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-EAST TENNESSEE STATE vs ABILENE CHRISTIAN (Gulf Coast Showcase).  Highlighted because it’s the game that officially kicks off the college basketball season!!

-OLD DOMINION AT MARYLAND.  It’s  buy game, but Old Dominion might have enough of a pulse to make this one semi-interesting

-MEMPHIS VS SAINT MARY’S (Sioux Falls, SD).  This is one of the more intriguing games of the day.  The preseason rankings seem to think that they are both fringe bubble teams at the moment, so this is the kind of win that will likely look good on a resume.  It’s also a chance for us to learn something about both of them.

-NORTH DAKOTA STATE VS NEVADA (Golden Window Classic).  This is a pretty decent game for both of these teams to open the season with.  Both appear to be in a rebuilding phase, but a good quick start to the season can certainly speed up that process.

-TOLEDO VS BRADLEY (Xavier Invitational).  Two quality UTR Teams

-BOWLING GREEN AT MICHIGAN.  This is one of the more compelling games of the day.  Bowling Green appears to have one of their best teams in decades and is the preseason favorite to win the MAC.  They can make a huge national splash and go viral for a day if they can pull off the upset road win at Michigan, who begins the season ranked in the top 25.

-OKLAHOMA STATE AT UT ARLINGTON.  Under normal circumstances this would be an intriguing road game for the Cowboys.  It would still be a semi decent win to start off the season with.

-WESTERN KENTUCKY VS NORTHERN IOWA (Sioux Falls).  These are two of the best UTR teams this year, and both have a shot at making the NCAA Tournament without having to win the conference tournament.  Obviously winning this game would be a huge step toward making that happen.  This one should be fun!

-LIBERTY VS PURDUE (Melbourne FL).  Liberty lost a lot from last year’s team, but this Purdue team is still potentially vulnerable and while they should win they better not sleepwalk through this one.

-VILLANOVA VS BOSTON COLLEGE (Mohegan Sun).  BC looks to be improved this year, but not so much improved that they’re as good as a Villanova team that is a legit Final Four and National Title contender.

-COLORADO STATE VS CALIFORNIA (Corvallis, OR).  We think Colorado State is a potential dark horse in the Mountain West, so it’ll be interesting to see what they can do against a Cal team that’s trying to rebuild itself.

-DALLAS CHRISTIAN (nondiv1) AT TARLETON.  Welcome to Div1 Tarelton!!!  (sort of)

-CHARLESTON SOUTHERN AT NC STATE.  I know this is a buy game, but Charleston Southern is a potentially dangerous team that returns a lot of talent from last year and has a very talented player in Phlandrous Fleming.  NC State should win, but they don’t want to take this game for granted.

-CLEMSON VS MISSISSIPPI STATE (Melbourn, FL).  Mississippi State is in a complete rebuild mode with an overhauled roster and the expectations for them this year are low, but as we’ve seen in the past these early season games and tournaments are chances for teams to get catapulted onto the national scene.  Clemson is trying to scrape together some quality wins of their own before heading into conference play.

-GEORGIA STATE AT GEORGIA TECH.  This is a bit of a Hoops HD special given how many of us (not including myself) think that Georgia Tech is a potential NCAA Tournament team this year.  While I think they will be better, I don’t agree that they are quite yet a tournament team.  I DO think Georgia State is, though!!  This is a really good early season game for both teams that I really wish we could have a full arena for.

-UCLA AT SAN DIEGO STATE.  Another fantastic opening day match up between two likely NCAA Tournament teams!!  Also another game that I really wish could be played in front of a full arena.

 

BUY GAMES

-Sacred Heart @ Rutgers
-Florida College (nondiv1) @ South Florida
-McNeese @ Nebraska
-Radford @ Virginia Tech
-Oakland  @ Xavier
-Virginia vs Towson(Mohegan Sun)
-NC A&T @ Illinois
-Illinois State @ Ohio State
-Fairfield @ Providence
-Drake @ Kansas State
-Lamar @ Houston
-Northwest U (nondiv1) @ Oregon State
-NC Central @ Iowa
-Tusculum (nondiv1) @ Furman
-UMBC @ Georgetown
-Delaware State @ Wake Forest
-Evansville @ Louisville
-Columbus State (nondiv1) @ Georgia
-Utah Valley @ Stanford
-Morehead State @ Kentucky
-Eastern Michigan @ Michigan State
-Charleston @ North Carolina
-Western Michigan @ Butler
-Coker (nondiv1) @ South Carolina
-Northwestern State @ Texas Tech
-Green Bay @ Minnesota
-Saint Francis U @ Pittsburgh
-High Point @ Davidson
-Idaho State @ Santa Clara
-Oral Roberts @ Missouri
-Saint Peter’s @ Saint John’s
-SIUE @ Saint Louis
-Mississippi Valley State @ Arkansas
-UTRGV @ Texas
-Sam Houston State @ SMU
-Tennessee Tech @ Indiana
-Jacksonville State @ Alabama
-South Dakota vs Colorado (Manhattan, KS)
-UTSA @ Oklahoma
-Houston Baptist @ TCU
-Central Connecticut @ UConn
-Westimnster (nondiv1) @ BYU
-Texas Southern @ Washington State
-CA Bapitst @ USC
-Montana State @ UNLV
-Eastern Illinois @ Wisconsin
-Arkansas Pine Bluff @ Marquette

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Under The Radar Game of the Day: Wednesday, November 25th

Posted on November 25, 2020 by John Stalica

East Tennessee State (0-0) vs. Abilene Christian (0-0), 11:30 AM EST*

The season debut is finally upon us after Covid-19 brought an abrupt end to the college basketball season back in March – today’s game is the first on the docket involving a pair of Division 1 basketball teams. The Bucs of East Tennessee State enter this season with a completely overhauled roster from last season after graduation and the departure of Steve Forbes (now the head coach at Wake Forest). Serrel Smith Jr. is a transfer from Kansas State who will be immediately eligible for ETSU; he averaged 5.3 points a game and 2.3 rebounds a game for K-State last season.

Abilene Christian is coming off of a season in which they finished 15-5 in the Southland Conference; they finished 4 games behind SFA for the regular season crown. Among their returning players, Joe Pleasant averaged over 11 points a game for the Wildcats last season and was a 3rd-team All-Southland player last season. Today’s game will be the first of three games both teams will play in the Gulf Coast Showcase in Estero, Florida.

*All times and game status subject to change at any time this season

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The Hoops HD Report: Nov 24th

Posted on November 24, 2020 by David Griggs

Welcome to the first Hoops HD Report of the season!!  It goes without saying that this is going to be a unique season (and not necessarily in a good way) and we start off by talking about how we think the different ways the season is going to play out and how teams are going to end up dealing with cancellations.  After that we look at the upcoming in-season tournaments, and some of the bigger games taking place this week.  Gonzaga has several big games, UCLA and San Diego State face off in what should be a fun one, South Dakota State, Western Kentucky, and Northern Iowa all have big games, and much more…

And for all you radio lovers, below is an audio only version of the show…

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Under the Radar: Preseason Show

Posted on November 23, 2020 by David Griggs

CLICK HERE for all of Hoops HD’s Continued and Extensive Preseason Content

Chad, Stalica, Rocco, and David run through all 21 UTR conferences and discuss who it is that they think will win each league, who the other teams to watch in each conference are, and which teams they think can play their way inside the bubble and make the NCAA Tournament without needing to win the conference tournament.  The SoCon has two really strong teams in Furman and UNC Greensboro, Northern Iowa looks really strong again out of the MVC, Western Kentucky will be another very good team if they can stay healthy, and New Mexico State could be dangerous as well.  We cover all that, and so much more…

And for all you radio lovers, below is an audio only version of the show…

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2020-21 Media Bracket

Posted on November 23, 2020 by John Stalica

With the release of the preseason AP and Coaches’ polls (along with Matt Norlander’s exhaustive rankings of all D-1 basketball teams), we can now unveil the preseason media bracket for this upcoming season:

As you may have noticed this year, the entirety of the NCAA Tournament for 2021 will be scheduled within the city of Indianapolis (with expected venues including Lucas Oil Stadium, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Hinkle Fieldhouse, the Indiana Farmers Coliseum and potential venues within 50 miles). Due to the coronavirus pandemic, another change in the bracket this year is that there will be 31 automatic qualifiers since the Ivy League will not participate in the tournament. There are 37 at-large teams listed above.

This also meant that every team that got at least one vote in either poll was able to be included in the field (via both at-large and automatic qualification). Saint Mary’s and Georgia Tech were the last two teams in the field; they would ordinarily have been left out had the Ivy League winner been included and had Auburn not self-imposed a postseason ban for this season. This also resulted in more of a true S-Curve since the need for true geographical regions and subregions is not there this year. BYU would still be placed in a Thursday-Saturday grouping.

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Big Ten Media Day Recap and Response

Posted on November 23, 2020 by David Griggs

CLICK HERE for all of Hoops HD’s Continued and Extensive Preseason Content

MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:

  1. Illionis
  2. Iowa
  3. Wisconsin
  4. Michigan State
  5. Rutgers
  6. Michigan
  7. Ohio State
  8. Indiana
  9. Purdue
  10. Maryland
  11. Minnesota
  12. Penn State
  13. Nebraska
  14. Northwestern

 

MEDIA DAY ALL CONFERENCE 1ST TEAM:

-Luka Garza – Iowa (preseason player of the year)
-Ayo Dosunmu – Illinois
-Trayce Jackson-Davis – Indiana
-Kofi Cockburn – Illinois
-Nate Reuvers – Wisconsin
-Franz Wagner – Michigan

 

NOTES FROM DAVID:

-Illinois is getting all kinds of preseason love, and it makes sense to a point.  They were much improved last year, they have four starters back and it looks like that improvement will continue, and the are well coached, deep, and balanced.  As much as I like them, I don’t know if I like them so much that I think they’ll win the Big Ten, but I do think that they are a legit protected seed caliber team this year.

-Iowa is another team that returns a ton of talent from a team that was pretty damn good a year ago, including Luka Garza who is one of the best players in the country.  Fran McCaffery may have the best team at Iowa that he has ever had, and a first place finish in the Big Ten as well as a deep NCAA Tournament run are not out of the question.

-If I had a vote, Wisconsin would be my pick.  Head coach Greg Gard has been prone to a few slow starts in recent years, but this team lost just one game in February/March last year, and with so much talent coming back they are one of the best teams in the country and someone that we may see as high as the #1 line.  They will do a great job controlling the tempo, but play tough defense, and are hard to defend on offense.  They have so many weapons, and will be a ton of fun to watch.

-Michigan State looks to replace two of their better players from a year ago, but this is a program that never struggles to reload on talent, and they have enough in the fold to once again compete for a protected seed and be a force in the conference.  They can score on offense, play very tough and physical defense, and have a fair amount of depth.

-Rutgers had a bit of a breakout season last year, but I think they will have a full blown breakout season this year.  They struggled on the road in terms of getting wins, but they were seemingly competitive in every road loss, and experience plays a big role in being able to win on the road.  Now that they are more experienced, I expect a lot of those results to flip this year, and that Rutgers will not just make the field, but will be solidly inside the bubble and inside the Top 25 for much of the year.

-Michigan had their ups and downs last year, but their ups were good enough to indicate that what they have coming back this year (along with the new pieces that they are adding) that this is likely a solid NCAA Tournament caliber team.  Juwan Howard showed quite a bit of promise as a first  year head coach last year.

-Ohio State is a team that I like a little more than the media.  I know they lost quite a bit from last year, but it’s not like they’re completely devoid of talent.  Head coach Chris Holtmann also has a history of surpassing preseason expectations that goes all the way back to his days at Gardner Webb, so you don’t want to overlook the Buckeyes.

-There is reason for Indiana to hope.  Four starters are back from a 20 win team a year ago, and while they haven’t been consistent, they have had some pretty impressive moments over the years.  The problem is that Archie Miller is running out of time to produce the way IU fans expect him to, and that means not just making the NCAA Tournament, but going deep into it.  They have three really solid looking freshmen to add to the experience that they have coming back, so the ingredients for success are definitely there.

-Matt Painter and Purdue took a big step back last year after nearly making the Final Four.  I think they’ll be better this year with a good chance of making the NCAA Tournament, but I don’t see them being a national power like they were a few years back.

-Maryland is a little lower than where we are used to seeing them, which is kind of a surprise.  This is a team that tied for first place last year, and while they did lose some key pieces they do have some experience coming back that would lead you to believe that they could at least contend for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

-Minnesota is in a bit of a rebuilding mode, but some at Hoops HD like them as a potential dark horse.  I must admit that I am not one of them.

-Penn State has had a rough and rocky offseason after having such a good season a year ago.  I think they are faced with a long and hard rebuilding project.

-Northwestern and Nebraska also have a long, hard climb to get back to being relevant in the conference.

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