Hoops HD

NEWS AND NOTES:

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-Iowa State knocked off Colorado for the 2nd time this year. They had previously played in the Maui Invitational before Iowa State’s 79-69 road win yesterday. While it was a home loss, it still wasn’t a bad showing for the Buffs. Iowa State is almost assuredly a protected seed, and perhaps even a #1 seed, and Colorado was in the game most of the way.

-Houston won their conference opener on the road at Oklahoma State 60-47 in a game that felt like a rock fight. It’s not an overly impressive win for the Cougars, but it was perhaps their most meaningful of the season up to this point.

-Cincinnati, who seems to be in a situation where all of their remaining games will be harder to win than all of their previous games, was unable to win at Kansas State yesterday. This is not a good sign considering it was arguably their most winnable remaining road game. Cincinnati is still well positioned, and if they can perform in conference they’ll land on the right side of the bubble, but it’s also fair to be questioning how good they actually are right now.

-Princeton, who basically needs to run the table to get inside the bubble, needed a last second shot to beat Akron yesterday. They dodged a bullet, but was able to pick up the 76-75 win against the Zips.

-Rutgers clobbered Columbia 91-64, which isn’t the biggest win on paper, but Columbia was a very respectable 11-1 coming into the game, and Rutgers finally at least looked like a top 40ish type of team on the court.

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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-WEST VIRGINIA AT KANSAS (Big 12). West Virginia has a really solid profile and is 9-2 overall. They probably aren’t quite good enough to where I would expect them to win a true road game against a top ten team, but Kansas better not just overlook them.

-UTAH AT BAYLOR (Big 12). Utah is a respectable 8-3, but all of their wins have come at home and this is their first true road game of the year, so a win today would easily be their biggest of the season so far.

-UCF AT TEXAS TECH (Big 12). Both of these teams come in at 9-2 and both have shown some signs of life, but both still have work to do between now and the end and a win today in the conference opener would be big for either of these teams.

-VCU AT SAINT BONAVENTURE (Atlantic 10). Both have racked up big records against weak schedules, and both could really use this win today to strengthen their overall profiles. Saint Bonaventure is a respectable 12-1, but with no real notable wins. This is the kind of game they need to be able to win if they want to land inside the bubble.

-RHODE ISLAND AT DUQUESNE (Atlantic 1o). Rhode Island is 11-1, but like most other teams in the A10 they played a weak schedule and have a very small margin for error. They also don’t have a true road win yet, so they kind of need this one today (and a lot more on top of that).

-ARIZONA STATE AT BYU (Big 12). Both teams are a very respectable 9-2, but BYU is a little light so far on high caliber wins. A win tonight in their conference opener would certainly give them a boost. Arizona State has probably exceeded expectations so far this year and looks like a probable tournament team, but they still don’t have a true road win, so to get this one in their conference opener tonight would certainly strengthen their resume.

-UAB AT NORTH TEXAS (American). North Texas is a good team who has a shot at making the NCAA Tournament, but their margin for error is small. They probably need to not lose to anyone other than Memphis the rest of the way, and perhaps win one of their games against Memphis on top of that.

-GEORGE WASHINGTON AT RICHMOND (Atlantic 10). Like several A10 teams, GW has an impressive record against an unimpressive schedule. They have a razor thin margin for error in regards to making the NCAA Tournament and every game will have a high stakes feel to it.

-SAINT JOHN’S AT CREIGHTON (Big East). Saint John’s has looked impressive this year and is 11-2 overall, whereas Creighton has somewhat underperformed this year and has had to deal with injuries and is a somewhat underwhelming 8-5. Still, the Blue Jays can be dangerous and they have beaten some good teams, and the Johnnies have only played one true road game so far.

-MARQUETTE AT PROVIDENCE (Big East). It’s never easy to win on the road, but Marquette is a good team that’s capable of winning games like this.

-UTAH STATE AT NEVADA (Mountain West). Utah State is coming off a massive road win against San Diego State, and while they’ll be challenged tonight, it’s still the kind of game they’ve shown they can win. Utah State looks like they’ll safely land inside the bubble and we will likely see them in the top 25 before the end of the year.

OTHER GAMES OF NOTE:

-Brown @ Kentucky
-La Salle @ Dayton (Atlantic 10)
-Seton Hall @ Xavier (Big East) – Xavier has lost three straight tough ones and needs to start stringing together wins to get back toward the bubble
-Norfolk State @ Tennessee – this feels like a 1 vs 16 game in the Round of 64
-Virginia Tech @ Duke (ACC)
-New Mexico @ Fresno State (Mountain West) – New Mexico can improve to 11-3 and 3-0 in conference play
-Boise State @ Wyoming (Mountain West) – Boise State needs to string together wins and a lot of those wins need to be on the road

NEWS AND NOTES:

-For the most part it was a pretty chalky day yesterday. Alabama, Florida, Oregon, Oklahoma, Purdue, Illinois, Ohio State, Texas, Penn State, and Northwestern all won games you would expect them to win without too much trouble.

-Georgia had to sweat South Carolina State a lot more than what many of us were expecting, but they did manage to hold on and win 79-72. South Carolina State also came very close to upsetting Xavier earlier in the year, so they’ll be a team to keep an eye on once MEAC play gets underway. Speaking of the MEAC…

-Norfolk State picked up a really nice road win at High Point yesterday 77-74. It was High Point’s first home loss of the year, and it may turn out to be their only home loss. Norfolk State will almost assuredly need the auto-bid to get into the NCAA Tournament, but they have looked good OOC so far (as has South Carolina State) and we could see them a little further up the seedlist than where we normally see the MEAC AQ team.

-Drake rolled past Belmont 65-46. It was never even a game. It may not be their most impressive win of the season on paper, but Belmont is still a pretty good team and for Drake to beat them that handily is certainly a statement. They remain unbeaten, and I guess we’ll have to wait until this afternoon to see if this was enough to put them in the top 25.

-Michigan absolutely dump-trucked Western Kentucky 112-64. This was a WKU team that had been playing fairly well coming into this game, so it is kind of impressive that Michigan beat them so badly.

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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-AKRON AT PRINCETON. Princeton had the big win against Rutgers their last time out and while they were a little disappointing in some of their OOC games they are still 9-4 overall. If they can blow through the rest of their schedule (which I know is a big ‘if’) they will likely at least be on the bubble at the end.

-COLUMBIA AT RUTGERS. Columbia has been one of the more intriguing stories in college basketball. They’re 11-1 on the season with 3 true road wins, but this will hands down be their toughest test so far. Rutgers is super talented, but also super young. At 7-5 overall they have underperformed, but the Big Ten will provide them with the opportunities they need to get big wins and land in the NCAA Tournament despite the slow start. Having said that, the sooner they start stringing together wins, the better.

-CINCINNATI AT KANSAS STATE (Big 12). This is not an easy road game for Cincinnati, but it is perhaps one of the more winnable road games that they’ll have the rest of the way. They are 10-1 overall and their last two wins were fairly solid, but their overall OOC schedule was not that difficult, and playing in the Big 12 will be…well…exceedingly difficult.

-HOUSTON AT OKLAHOMA STATE (Big 12). I still really like this Houston team and think they are good enough to make it to the Final Four, but they didn’t build up much of an OOC resume (at least by protected seed standards) and need to start stringing together wins in conference play. Not only is this Houston’s conference opener, it’s their first true road game of the season.

-TCU AT ARIZONA (Big 12). Arizona is just 6-5, but they’ve played a very tough OOC schedule. Having said that, they need to hold serve at home and win the winnable games like this one to keep themselves within reach of the NCAA field.

-IOWA STATE AT COLORADO (Big 12). This is one of the more intriguing games of the day. Iowa State is ranked 3rd in the nation, and they go on the road in their conference opener to play a Colorado team that’s 9-2 overall with some really big wins and who has a shot at another huge showcase win tonight.

BUY GAMES (and other notable games):

-Western Michigan @ Michigan State
-Monmouth @ Auburn
-New Hampshire @ Iowa
-Presbyterian @ South Carolina
-Alabama State @ Missouri
-Oakland @ Arkansas
-Bryant @ Grand Canyon
-New Orleans @ Vanderbilt
-Bethune Cookman @ Mississippi State
-Southern @ Nebraska
-LMU @ Washington State (West Coast) – Wazzu should get the win and improve to 12-3
-Portland @ Oregon State (West Coast) – a win for Oregon State gets them to 11-3 on the year
-Gonzaga @ Pepperdine (West Coast) – Gonzaga is coming off a tough loss to UCLA, but should be able to bounce back tonight in their conference opener
-UC Irvine @ Cal Baptist (Big West) – I still really like this UC Irvine team and think they have a path (albeit a narrow one) to landing inside the bubble. They need to hold serve in games like this
-Santa Clara @ San Francisco (West Coast) – a Bay Area rivalry. Santa Clara has shown some signs of life, but San Francisco has shown more. A win gets them to 12-3