-I did not find my top line to be that difficult. I feel Michigan, Duke, Arizona and with last Saturday’s road win at Purdue, Iowa State all earned 1 seeds.
-My last 4 teams in the field was a tough decision. I went with TCU, Wake Forest, Va Tech and VCU. Teams that I debated over were Villanova, Santa Clara, Texas A&M and Butler. Finding the last 8-10 at-large teams in December is always tricky. Most teams in the mix are power conference teams. Some of which played tough schedules and took some losses and other teams that didn’t challenge themselves and piled up wins. The conference season will sort out most of the teams on the cutline and show us which teams are contenders and who are the pretenders.
-In the end I placed Yale on the 12 line but I thought about an 11 seed and I truly believe Yale can find its way all the way to a 10 seed with a strong Ivy season. Look out for this well coached and talented bunch of Bull Dogs from New Haven.
-The Big East can not afford to stumble outside the conference any more for the next 3 weeks. This league could end up as a 2 bid conference with UConn and St. John’s if someone else doesn’t step up quickly. The Pirates of Seton Hall have been a pleasant surprise to most, let’s see if they can carry this momentum into conference play. Marquette and Creighton don’t seem to have the talent and depth they have had in the last few years. Big East fans, it’s not too early to sound the alarms, it’s time for a few members to step up and start putting tournament worthy resumes together.
Upcoming Games this weekend you do not want to miss:
Saturday, December 13th:
-Arkansas vs Texas Tech in Dallas -Memphis at Louisville -Nebraska at Illinois -Kansas at NC State -Arizona vs Alabama in Birmingham -UCLA vs Gonzaga from Seattle
Sunday, December 14th:
-St. Mary’s at Boise St. -N. Texas at South Alabama
-College Football’s regular season is over, it’s time to turn your focus to College Basketball and all the early conference games and a few more blockbuster out of conference matchups.
Enjoy the Games!
Posted inBracketology|Comments Off on Hoops HD Staff Bracket Projections (From David Dorman) – Friday, Dec 12th
-Iowa State looked to be a huge favorite against their in-state rivals considering how they’d demolished Purdue over the weekend, and how they were at home, and how they were ranked 4th nationally, but Iowa battled until the very end. This is a huge rivalry in terms of how bitter it is, and you could feel it yesterday. The Cyclones survived 66-62.
-TEXAS AT CONNECTICUT (Hartford CT). Connecticut clearly looks to be the superior team so far and while Texas isn’t bad, they haven’t really even come close to winning a game against an opponent of this caliber yet. A win for Texas would give their resume a huge boost, but that’s far easier said than done.
-Missouri State @ Xavier – Xavier still has a lot of work to do, but this would be their fifth straight win after nearly upsetting Georgia
-Nebraska remains unbeaten and certainly looked like a team that was deserving of their top 25 ranking after blowing out Wiscnosin 90-60. I don’t think Wisky is a tournament team. At least they haven’t shown any signs of it yet. But it’s still a big win for Nebraska, and the crowd was electric!
-Miami OH remains unbeaten after a 90-87 overtime win at UNC Asheville. Miami appeared to be in control early in the second half, but then UNCA came all the way back and got the lead, and it was actually Miami that had to force overtime and then escaped with a win.
-Western Kentucky, a team I was praising, deserves no praise after yesterday. They went on the road and lost rather handily to Marshall 77-61. I know it’s hard to win at Marshall, but that’s the point. It’s hard to land inside the bubble and in order to do it a team must win games that are hard to win.
New Mexico DID win a game that was hard to win! They pulled off a huge 81-78 road win at VCU, which is clearly their best win of the year and now has us all looking at the Lobos again. When they lost to rival New Mexico State we sort of shrugged them off, but they’ve only lost one other game, they blew away Santa Clara in their previous game, and they picked up a big road win last night.
-What NC State did to Liberty is illegal in some states. It was a level of assault that I would not wish on anyone. It was an 85-45 blowout. It was by far the best I’ve seen NC State look this year and it makes me wonder why I ever thought Liberty had a chance to land inside the bubble.
-George Washington lost at home to Delaware 70-58 in one of the more pathetic showings of the season. I thought GW might be a tournament team coming into the year. Last night they looked like they may be CBI bound. \.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-IOWA AT IOWA STATE. This is a rivalry that is not for the weak at heart!! Iowa State is coming off one of the most impressive single game performances I can ever remember as they blew out top ranked Purdue on the road. Iowa is coming in with just one loss, but they were beaten handily on the road at Michigan State in that one loss, and Iowa State appears to be just as good, or even better, than the Spartans. Still, with this being a rivalry, sometimes you don’t know what’s going to happen.
-Saint Joseph’s @ Syracuse – The Orange have had times where they’ve looked like a tournament team and they’re sitting at a modest 5-3 on the year after coming off a big win against Tennessee. They should be able to hold serve at home in this one
-Western Carolina @ Virginia Tech -Alabama State @ Missouri
This week’s featured conference is the Big Sky who just had a dominant showing in their challenge against the Summit League and Northern Colorado in particular is looking really strong. Montana State, despite a rough start to the season, is also showing signs of being able to compete once Big Sky play starts.
We then run through the other 21 UTR conferences and discuss Quinnipiac’s good start out of the MAAC, how strong the Big West is shaping up to be, how conference play is underway in the Southland and how competitive that league is looking, and the fantastic starts that Yale, Buffalo, Miami OH, and McNeese are off to. 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…
-Michigan continues to blow good teams completely out of the gym. By midway through the first half last they had complete control of Villanova and the rest of the game wasn’t even worth watching. The final score was 89-61.
-Clemson v BYU in the Jimmy V Classic was just an amazing game! Clemson scored the last 20+ points of the first half and appeared to be on cruise control. Then BYU came back, tied it, and got the lead late. It was then Clemson that scored on three key possessions late in the game to tie it and appeared to be sending it to OT before BYU hit a shot at the buzzer to win 67-64. WOW!! For Clemson, it was a missed opportunity to pick up what would have been their biggest win of the year so far. BYU is a possible protected seed and to beat them on a neutral floor would have give the Tigers a lot of weight.
-UConn and Florida was also a tight game in the second half of the Jimmy V Classic with UConn holding on for a 77-73 win. This is yet another big win on the season for the Huskies. Florida falls to a modest 5-4, but they’ve played a tough schedule, they appear to be getting better, and by the end of the year their resume and team will both likely to be solid.
-Illinois got a solid win on the road against a pretty formidable Ohio State team 88-80. The Illini are now 8-2 on the year with a solid conference road win. That’s pretty good!
-McNeese, after suffering a surprising loss to Incarnate Word last week, got a big road win at Rhode Island yesterday 66-64. It was Rhody’s first home loss of the year and they were a team that was at least showing signs of being able to make a run at the bubble. I think McNeese, at leaston the court, is a top 40 team in the country. The question is will their resume indicate that at the end of the year? The committee only seems to care what’s on a team’s resume, and oftentimes an Under the Radar team is much better than their resume indicates because of the opportunities (or lack thereof) that they had during the season, or because they had one or two bad games like what McNeese had against Incarnate Word and were just never able to offset it.
-Buffalo handed UMBC their first home loss and has improved to 9-1 on the year. It was an exciting 83-79 game where Buffalo was actually behind for a lot of it. The Bulls have started to play tougher opponents, and they still keep winning.
-Howard knocked off NC A&T 73-69 at Cameron Indoor Stadium last night. This is the second win of the year at Cameron for Howard!! There are top level teams in the ACC that don’t have two wins at Cameron over the last five years!! Howard has done it within a span of a couple weeks!!
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-NEW MEXICO AT VCU. Both teams have the potential to be good this year, but neither team has anything on their resume yet that would jump out at the committee. Both teams could really use this one. New Mexico has yet to win a road game and while VCU does have a decent win against Virginia Tech, that’s all they’ve got at this point.
-LIBERTY AT NC STATE. LIberty is a solid 6-2, but even with that solid record they’ve been a little more disappointing than what we were expecting. Before the season started this was the game we had circled as their chance to really make a statement. While NC State has also landed a little below expectations so far, the key part of that is “so far.” It’s still a team with a high ceiling that’s likely to win a lot of games, and getting a win on their floor will go a long way for Liberty if they’re able to pull it off.
-WISCONSIN AT NEBRASKA (Big Ten). This is a big game for several reasons. Nebraska is still perfect on the season, but they yet haven’t faced any teams that clearly look like tournament teams. Wisconsin has gone into a tailspin and needs to pull themselves out of it and a conference road win like this would be a good way to do that.
OTHER NOTABLE GAMES:
-Miami OH @ UNC Asheville – Miami’s schedule has been week and this is probably their toughest test of the year so far. A win keeps them perfect on the season
-Minnesota @ Purdue (Big Ten) – The Boilers are looking to bounce back after being beaten soundly in their last game.
-Western Kentucky @ Marshall – this is a good WKU team. This would be a solid road win for them and get them to 7-2 on the year
-UT Martin @ Southern Illinois – UT Martin is having a solid year at 7-2 and can pick up their 3rd true road win tonight. It won’t be easy. Southern Illinois is definitely formidable and they’re perfect at home so far
-Duquesne @ Boise State – Boise has been playing much better and they need to hold serve in this one
BUY GAMES:
-Norfolk State @ Baylor – Norfolk is probably the best team in the MEAC, but they’re way overmatched today -UAlbany @ Yale -Idaho @ Notre Dame -Colgate @ Saint Bonaventure -Delaware @ George Washington -Jackson State @ Houston -Arkansas Pine Bluff @ Tulsa -Lamar @ San Diego State -Hawaii Hilo (nonD1) @ Hawaii
-BROWN AT PROVIDENCE (Ocean State Tournament Championship!!!!). It is internationally beloved!! It is passionately followed around the world!! IT IS THE OCEAN STATE TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP!!!! Brown knocked off Bryant and Providence knocked off Rhode Island!! Tonight they face each other for all the glory!!!!!! North Carolina and Duke have very rich histories!! UCLA had a tremendous dynasty under Johnn Wooden!! But none of those programs ever managed to win the Ocean State Tournament!!!!
-VILLANOVA AT MICHIGAN – Villanova has won seven straight since losing their opener to BYU in a game where they played really well. Tonight’s game is a test that’s on a whole other level. They’re playing a true road game against a team that is arguably the best in the country.
-CLEMSON VS BYU (Jimmy V Classic). Clemson is a solid 7-2 and BYU is an outstanding 7-1. This should be a fun matchup watching Clemson’s tough defense go up against a team like BYU, and if the Tigers could somehow pull off the win it would give their resume a huge boost.
-MCNEESE AT RHODE ISLAND. McNeese is one of the top UTR programs who is coming off a somewhat surprising loss to Incarnate Word and looking to bounce back. Rhode Island is also looking to bounce back from a loss to their rivals Providence. In short, these are two good teams who could really use this win.
-ILLINOIS AT OHIO STATE (Big Ten). I haven’t paid that much attention to Ohio State and it was rather easy to dismiss them after they lost to Pittsburgh, but they did just get a nice road win at Northwestern to improve to 7-1. They will really be tested tonight against an Illinois team that’s good, but who could also really use a conference road win like this on their profile.
-FLORIDA VS CONNECTICUT (Jimmy V Classic). Florida has gotten off to a bit of a slow start at 5-3, but the ceiling for them is still very high and if they were to pick up a win like this it would completely change the perception of the team. UConn is 8-1 and has some really strong wins already. This would be another one if they’re able to pull it off.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-Buffalo @ UMBC – these are two solid UTR teams. Buffalo is coming off their first loss of the year to a solid Saint Bonaventure team and will be challenged again today by UMBC who is unbeaten at home.
-Columbia @ Stony Brook – Columbia is a surprising 9-1 on the year and Stony Brook is unbeaten at home
-Penn State @ Indiana (Big Ten) – Penn State has a bloated record against a weak schedule and Indiana appears to be slumping some. Both teams could use this win today
-USC @ San Diego – USC should be able to hold serve and pick up their second true road win of the year
BUY GAMES/CRAP GAMES:
-UMES @ Virginia -NC Central @ Kentucky -Little Rock @ West Virginia -Morgan State @ Depaul -South Dakota @ Wyoming -Dartmouth @ Colorado State -Northern Arizona @ Arizona State -Dominican (nonD1) @ California
