Norfolk State (10-7, 1-0) at Delaware State (7-8, 0-1) – 7:30 PM ET (ESPN+)
Weather permitting, tonight’s UTR Game of the Day heads to Dover, Delaware for a MEAC matchup between the Norfolk State Spartans and the Delaware State Hornets. After a stretch where NSU went 7-7 against D1 competition in the nonconference portion of their schedule, the Spartans eased into their conference schedule with an 81-59 win at home against Maryland-Eastern Shore. Brian Moore Jr. led the Spartans with 22 points in the victory.
Delaware State has gradually climbed up from a Centenary Award winner as the worst D1 team to a team that could be a contender in the MEAC this season. They had a 4-game winning streak in December with victories against Loyola-Maryland, NJIT, Grambling and Alabama State. However, they lost their conference opener in The Burr against Howard by a 100-94 shootout. Robert Smith had 27 points to lead the Hornets in that contest.
NOTE: This broadcast was recorded at 9pm, est on Sunday, January 5th and the seedlist was built before any of the games that day were played, so none of Sunday’s results were considered.
Jon Teitel has built his first seedlist of the year! Chad and the panel reveal it line by line and debate, discuss, and assess, and sometimes strongly argue about each team as they go. Find out who they have on the #1 lines so far, who is safely in, who still has work to do, and who on the bubble just made it in and just missed it.
Below is a final copy of The Bracket, but don’t look at it until you’ve watched the show!!
And, for all you radio lovers, below is an audio only version of the show…
On New Year’s Eve the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame announced its Class of 2024 including 2-time NCAA champ Dave Meyers, #1 overall pick in the 1956 NBA Draft Sihugo Green, and 1957 NCAA champ Lennie Rosenbluth. Lennie set an ACC career scoring record with 2045 PTS, his 26.9 career PPG remains #1 in Tar Heel history, and in 1957 he was named Helms Foundation College Basketball Player of the Year as the most outstanding player in the nation. Lennie passed away in 2022 but earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with his former teammate Tom Kearns about their magical 1957 undefeated season.
(Lennie Rosenbluth is in the middle, and Tom Kearns is on the far right)
Lennie was born/raised in the Bronx and attended Staunton Military Academy in Virginia: what made him choose North Carolina for college? He went to a public high school in the Bronx (James Monroe High School) and did not get much playing time, but UNC coach Frank McGuire knew about Lennie for a long time thanks to a scout named Harry Gotkin. Harry’s nephew Dave later played basketball at NC State for Coach Everett Case.
He only played a handful of games in high school due to not making the cut as a freshman/sophomore/junior and a coach’s strike during his senior year: how was he able to make such a smooth transition to the college game despite his relative lack of experience? He was a prolific scorer who just got it done. He had a great touch and knew how to get in position to get his shot up. Staunton was well known at the time so I am sure that he did wonderful things during his 1 year there, which is how he became a well-known entity.
In 1957 he led the nation with 285 FTM: how crucial to his success was his ability to get to the FT line and then make them once he got there? He had the whole package and was extraordinary. He hated to practice but he turned it on as soon as the game tipped off: it was an interesting contrast.
In the 1957 NCAA tourney your team had a 4-PT 3-OT win over Michigan State in the semifinals and a 1-PT 3-OT win over Kansas in the title game the very next day to finish the season 32-0: what did it mean to him/you to win the title in such dramatic fashion? Johnny Green was at the foul line for Michigan State in the final seconds of double-OT in our semifinal game when 1 of their guards walked up to me and said, “30 and 1”. Johnny missed the FT, then Pete Brennan drove down the court and made a jump shot for us to send it to triple-OT! I remember in the 2nd OT against Kansas neither team scored a single point, but our forte was to control the game. You also must be lucky: there were several games early on that we could have lost but never did, and both games in the Final 4 could have gone either way. After we won the title there were no showers at the Municipal Auditorium, so we had to go back to the hotel to shower, then put on our jackets/ties before meeting North Carolina governor Luther Hodges.
His 26.9 career PPG remains the highest all-time scoring average in UNC history: what was his secret for being such a great scorer? He just had the magic touch: the ball loved him and wanted to go in each time that he put it up. He knew how to maneuver around the basket: some guys are good defensive players but when they are on offense they cannot put it in the ocean. Everybody on our team knew where to go if we got in trouble: our #1 man!
He was a 2-time All-American and 1957 national POY/ACC Male Athlete of the Year: what did it mean to him to receive such outstanding honors? Those were great tributes to him and what he had done: he was a special guy.
In the 1957 NBA Draft he was selected 6th overall by Philadelphia (2 spots ahead of Hall of Famer Sam Jones): what did it mean to him to get drafted? #6 was probably a lot higher than he expected.
After a 2-year NBA career he ended up working as a high school American History teacher/basketball coach in Florida and later moved back to Chapel Hill: why did he have such a short pro career, and how much did he enjoy his post-NBA life? He was just not physically built for the pros because it was too much of a running game: he was a step or 2 below that and did not have any interest in building up his upper-body strength. He married a great woman named Pat and I thought they made a mistake by leaving North Carolina because he was such a big name there, but they later came back from Florida, and all is well that ends well.
His #10 jersey was the 1st ever retired by the Tar Heels, in 2002 he was named 1 of the 50 greatest players in ACC history, and last week he was elected to the College Basketball Hall of Fame: what was your reaction when you heard the good news? My reaction was, “What the hell took them so long?!” He is 1 of the greatest of all time in the ACC and should have been elected to the Hall of Fame a lot sooner. Thank God he is finally in there because that is what counts.
He passed away in 2022: when people look back on his career, how do you think that he should be remembered the most? As 1 of the all-time greatest players in UNC history.
We are only 10 weeks away from Selection Sunday as we begin to make our NCAA tourney predictions. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel correctly picked 67 of the 68 teams that made the 2024 tourney: 62 of his 67 were within 1 spot of their actual seed and 41 were right on the money. He will spend the upcoming months predicting which 68 teams will hear their names called on March 16th. See below for his list of who would make the cut if they picked the field today and if you agree or disagree then feel free to tweet us. To see how he stacks up with other websites (ranked 7th out of 179 bracket veterans over the past 5 years), check out: www.bracketmatrix.com
SEED: TEAM (CONFERENCE) 1: Auburn (SEC) 1: Tennessee (SEC) 1: Iowa State (Big 12) 1: Duke (ACC)
Murray State (7-7, 1-2) at Drake (12-1, 2-1) – 3:00 PM ET (ESPN2)
Today’s UTR Game of the Day heads to Des Moines, Iowa for a matchup between the Murray State Racers and the Drake Bulldogs. Drake opened up the 2025 calendar year on a sour note as their 12-game was snapped in a 74-70 road loss at Illinois-Chicago on Wednesday night. With Bradley off to a 4-0 start in league play and a Wednesday night matchup at Bradley looming for Drake, the Bulldogs cannot afford to have a letdown today at home.
Murray State is coming off of a tough stretch where they finished 7th in the Diamond Head Classic with losses against Nebraska and Charlotte, but they did salvage a win against Loyola-Chicago. When the Racers resumed league play, they lost a tough 74-68 contest at home against Illinois State. JaCobi Wood is averaging 14.1 points a game and 5.2 assists a game for Murray State.
-It’s not surprising that Tennessee beat Arkansas, or that they did it easily, but with the final score being 76-52, I wasn’t expecting it to be quite that easy.
-Iowa State also pretty much blew Baylor off the floor 74-55. Again, the result wasn’t all that surprising, but it’s worth pointing out just how impressive Iowa State looked.
-Duke blew SMU off the floor 89-62 to get a really nice road win. This was surprising. I thought SMU would be way amped up for this one and give the Blue Devils a game, but that just didn’t happen.
-Alabama blew out Oklahoma 107-79. Another game where the result wasn’t necessarily shocking, but for this to be as big of a blowout as it was was kind of unexpected.
-Kentucky had a big 106-100 win over Florida, which was the first loss of the year for the Gators. I don’t know if it even qualifies as a setback for Florida seeing as how Kentucky is ranked in the top ten and how it was a road game, but it was still a nice win for the Wildcats.
-Nebraska picked a really nice 66-58 win over UCLA. Nebraska has now won six straight since getting blown out by Michigan State and their resume is starting to look stronger and stronger. UCLA has now lost two out of three, but given the overall strenght of their resume they’re still in good shape.
-Arizona got a nice 72-67 road win against Cincinnati. Arizona actually had a 19 point lead in the second half and appeared to be on cruise control, but Cincinnati battled back and actually tied the game in the final few minutes, but couldn’t quite come all the way back. Arizona has had some tough losses prior to yesterday, and really kind of needed this one.
-North Carolina barely escaped against a so-so Notre Dame team, but did hold on to win 74-73 and dodge a bit of a bullet.
-Dayton, who had looked so good earlier in the year, was completely blown off the floor by George Washington 82-62. They trailed for most of the game, and while there was a stretch during the second half where it appeared they were coming back, GW just dominated. I’m now rethinking my comments about how Dayton would likely blow through the Atlantic 10 and end up as a protected seed. They didn’t look anything like a protected seed yesterday.
-San Diego State picked up a really nice 76-68 road win against Boise State. I said coming into this that this game had a pivotal feel for both teams. It now feels as if San Diego State is looking like a very solid tournament team that can get into the field on the first ballot, and Boise State seems more like an NIT team at the moment.
-Furman, who had just one loss coming into yesterday, was beaten rather handily by UNC Greensboro 84-67. It is a bit of a setback for Furman, who looked like they may be positioning themselves to land inside the bubble had they been able to blow through the SoCon. It’s not easy to win at Greensboro, but that’s just it. Landing inside the bubble requires winning games that aren’t easy to win.
-Vanderbilt is now 13-1 after a really nice road win against LSU. With the strength at the top of the SEC, most people have kind of forgotten that there are some really good teams all throughout the conference. Vandy isn’t ranked in the top ten, but they are still really good and are having a great year.
-Washington State is now a very respectable 13-3 after a really solid 91-82 win over San Francisco yesterday. Wazzu is looking more and more like a team that will make it to the NCAA Tournament.
-Texas Tech looked really good at Utah yesterday. They went on the road and just completely blew out the Utes 93-65.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-INDIANA AT PENN STATE (Big Ten). Both teams are coming off wins and both seemed positioned to land inside the bubble, but both teams still have a lot of work to do to stay on that path. Another conference win would certainly help out either team.
-PROVIDENCE AT UCONN (Big East). UConn is a solid protected seed and Providence does not appear to be anywhere near the bubble right now, so the Huskies should be able to hold serve in this one.
-NORTHWESTERN AT PURDUE (Big Ten). Northwestern is coming off what has to be one of the more frustrating losses that any team has suffered this year after some questionable officiating at the end of their game against Penn State. It’s their second conference road loss this season against a solid opponent that happened in the final seconds. It doesn’t get any easier today as Purdue is in the rankings and is showing every sign that they’ll likely land in the top half of the bracket.
-MURRAY STATE AT DRAKE (Missouri Valley). Drake needs to bounce back from their somewhat surprising loss at UIC earlier this week.
-KANSAS AT UCF (Big 12). This will be a road test for the Jayhawks as UCF is a very strong 10-2 with some pretty good wins and Kansas is still looking for their first true road win of the season. The Jayhawks also need to bounce back from their surprising loss to WVU earlier this week.
-MARYLAND AT OREGON (Big Ten). Maryland is a solid team, but they’re coming off a loss to Washington and still haven’t managed a true road win this season. Oregon is looking to bounce back from a home loss to Illinois in a game where they were just blown off the floor. Speaking of Illinois…
-ILLINOIS AT WASHINGTON (Big Ten). Illinois is coming off that highly impressive blowout win at Oregon, and while they’ll be tested again on the road today, it’s hard to not like their chances after they looked so good the other night. Washington is a modest 10-4 and needs to start stringing together wins if they want to land inside the bubble.
-NORTH TEXAS AT MEMPHIS (American). I think Memphis has looked like a protected seed so far, and will end up getting one if they can hold serve for the rest of the season. North Texas is a good team, and a road win like this would be huge for their resume, but chances are they’re just too overmatched in this one.
