Hoops HD

NEWS AND NOTES

-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day, which features the Battle of Riverside!!! – CLICK HERE

-The game of the night last night between Louisville and Michigan, at least as far as rankings, was probably also the least watchable game of the night.  Louisville’s defense was fantastic, but neither team was really on their game offensively and it just turned into a low scoring rock fight in a game that didn’t really have any flow.  Nevertheless, Louisville did pick up a really big win, and did so decisively.

-The other clash of the titans game wasn’t exactly a nail biter either.  Duke went into Michigan State and won handily in a very impressive showing.  Whatever the Blue Devils weren’t doing against Stephen F Austin, they were doing in bunches last night.  Duke now has a neutral floor win against Kansas, and a true decisive road win at Michigan State.  That more than offsets the home loss to SFA.

-Indiana looked impressive against Florida State last night, especially when you considered how good the Noles looked in their exempt tournament against Tennessee and Purdue.  I’m sold on Indiana being a really good team at home, but until they go on the road, which they haven’t done yet, I don’t know if I’m all in on them as being a top 25 caliber team.

-Butler remains unbeaten by picking up another nice win against Ole Miss yesterday.  It was the first true road win of the season for the Bulldogs.

-Cincinnati played their best game of the season with their win against Vermont last night.  They led by as much as 20 at one point.  Vermont is a decent team that’s got a few head scratching losses, so it isn’t too shocking that Cincinnati beat them. What’s noteworthy is that they finally looked like a tournament team.

-Charleston Southern.  If you don’t follow Under the Radar you may not be sure how good they are by UTR standards.  If you do follow Under the Radar, you know they are not all that good by UTR standards.  They still went into Missouri and pulled off the upset last night.  I think we can conclude that Mizzou just doesn’t have it this year.

-One of the more exciting games last night wasn’t over until after 1am.  San Francisco and Arizona State seesawed back and forth the entire way.  You got the feeling that had they played for another 40 minutes that neither team would have pulled away.  Arizona State was ahead when time ran out, though, which should end up being a really nice road win for the Sun Devils.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-OHIO STATE AT NORTH CAROLINA (***Spotlight Game***).  Both teams are in the top ten, and both have won big games.  This is the first real test away from home for Ohio State though, so as good as they’ve looked so far, they’ll look infinitely better if they can pick up a road win of this caliber.

-PENN AT VILLANOVA (Big Five).  Both teams come in at 5-2, and while Nova looks to be the better team Penn has probably actually beaten better teams up to this point.  They are also the defending Big Five champs!

-EAST TENNESSEE STATE AT THE CITADEL (SoCon).  Not the most traditional time for a conference opener, but ETSU can improve to 8-1 on the year, pick up a conference win, and pick up their third true road win tonight.

-SOUTH CAROLINA AT UMASS.  Neither team has really blown us away, and there is a much better chance that both of these teams will be on the outside looking in come March, but as of now both are 5-3 and have even had a few moments of decent play this season.

-VIRGINIA AT PURDUE (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  Virginia comes into this game unbeaten and is able to absolutely smother teams on defense.  Purdue comes into this game at just 4-3, but had a really strong showing in the Emerald Coast Classic with a win over VCU and a near win over a very good Florida State team, so they should have a fair amount of momentum built up coming into tonight.  Not to mention they are at home.

-NOTRE DAME AT MARYLAND (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  Notre Dame has won six straight since losing their season opener at North Carolina, but none of those were games like the one they’ll have tonight, which is against a current top five team on the road.  It’s another big test for the Irish.  A loss won’t really hurt them, but a win would catapult them onto the national scene.

-BYU AT UTAH.  This is one of the most bitter rivalries in the country.  Utah has been kind of disappointing this season, and while BYU has looked good at times, it hasn’t been all the time.  Still, it’s always fun when these two get together.

-GEORGETOWN AT OKLAHOMA STATE.  This game had a lot more appeal about 48 hours ago before Georgetown had two of their key players leave the team.  Oklahoma State is unbeaten, but isn’t getting a whole lot of respect yet.  Still, they are a team to really watch for this season and will probably be in the rankings soon enough.

-TEXAS TECH AT DEPAUL.  Texas Tech is a team that we had high expectations for this year, and they could still kick it into gear and have a huge season, but they haven’t shown it yet.  They have a tough game against a DePaul team that has looked like an NCAA Tournament caliber team so far this season.

-BOISE STATE AT NEW MEXICO (Mountain West).  We think there are three teams that are really worth keeping an eye on in the MWC this year, and New Mexico is one of them.  Boise State probably isn’t a tournament team, but they are still much improved from a season ago.

-SAN DIEGO SATE AT COLORADO STATE (Mountain West).  This San Diego State team is not in the rankings, but they’ve looked like they belong there so far.  They’re unbeaten on the year, have wins at BYU, and neutral floor wins against Creighton and Iowa.  They’ve got another very winnable road game in their conference opener tonight.

-WISCONSIN AT NC STATE (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  Neither team has looked all that impressive as of yet, and could use a win in a game like this to kind of get their motor started.

-WAKE FOREST AT PENN STATE (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  I’ve liked what I’ve seen out of this Penn State team, at least at times, and Wake Forest had a pretty good showing out in the Wooden Legacy, so this game is looking a little more intriguing than we thought it would a few weeks ago.

-LMU AT COLORADO.  Colorado is unbeaten, has looked good all year, and will likely hold serve and stay that way tonight.

-SANTA CLARA AT NEVADA.  This game is kind of hiding in the weeds, but it’s actually really intriguing.  Santa Clara has just one loss on the year, and while Nevada is undergoing a huge rebuilding job and got off to an understandably slow start, they’ve won their last three and appear to maybe be finding their rhythm.

-CALIFORNIA AT SAN FRANCISCO.  San Francisco dropped a close one to Arizona State last night in a game that went back and forth.  They face a Cal team that hasn’t been setting the world on fire, but is much improved from a season ago.

-UTAH STATE AT SAN JOSE STATE (Mountain West).  This is a winnable road game for Utah State, which would be their first true road win of the year.

BUY GAMES

-Florida A&M @ Tennessee
-Green Bay @ Xavier
-Iona @ UConn
-NC Central @ Georgia
-VMI @ Duquesne
-Kennesaw State @ UNC Greensboro
-Kansas City @ Iowa State
-Texas State @ Houston
-Texas Southern @ Gonzaga
-Jacksonville @ Marquette
-Eastern Washington @ Washington
-CSUN @ Portland – Portland can get to 7-1

CLICK HERE for the latest Hoops HD Report Video Podcast

NEWS AND NOTES

-For John Stalica’s latest Bracket Projections, which factors in all games played prior to yesterday – CLICK HERE

-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day, which features the Battle of the Boulevard – CLICK HERE

-Minnesota, who we thought was much better than their 3-4 record indicated, kind of proved that yesterday when they totally blew out Clemson

-Nothing else of note really happened.  Literally nothing.  If you wanted a night off from college hoops, last night was the perfect night.  Not so much tonight…

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-MICHIGAN AT LOUISVILLE (***Spotlight Game***) (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  Prior to the start of the season, I was wishing they had gotten Louisville a better opponent than an unranked Michigan team.  Well, Michigan is obviously unranked no more, and this is now probably the best match-up in the whole Big Ten/ACC Challenge.  Louisville has won all their games, but this is their first real test against a solid top 25 caliber team.  In fact this is a real test against a solid top 5 team.  Michigan has been tested and has passed with flying colors with decisive wins against Gonzaga and North Carolina.  If they can pick up this win, it would be their third win against a top ten team way from home in less than a week.  I’m sure that has happened at some point, but I don’t recall when that was.

-BUTLER AT OLE MISS.  Butler is off to an impressive 7-0 start with some pretty decent wins on their resume, but this is their first true road game and it comes against an Ole Miss team that we think is good enough to challenge for a spot in the tournament, but needs to win games like this in order to get there.  This is a really good test for both teams.

-WESTERN KENTUCKY AT WRIGHT STATE.  It isn’t all that likely that either team will land inside the bubble, but it’s still an intriguing match-up between the likely Horizon League frontrunner and the likely Conference USA frontrunner.

-RICHMOND AT HAMPTON.  Richmond has just one loss on the season, and that was to a really strong Auburn team.  This is their first true road game of the year, though, and although they probably won’t get a ton of credit if they win it, it’s still a road win on their resume.

-DARTMOUTH AT GEORGIA STATE.  Another good UTR game that features a Dartmouth team that’s been a big surprise out of the Ivy League this year.  A win gets them to 6-2 and gives them their third true road win of the season.

-IOWA AT SYRACUSE (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  At this early stage I’d say both these teams are on the outside looking in when it comes to the bubble.  There is a ton of time remaining, but both need to start stringing together some wins, and both could really use a win tonight.

-VERMONT AT CINCINNATI.  This is a good Vermont team, but they haven’t played like it in the last two games.  This was one that we kind of had circled as being a winnable road game that could impress the committee, but with losses to Rider and Yale it may not be enough to land them inside the bubble.  Cincinnati hasn’t been all that impressive either.  They’ve been winning, but they’ve had to sweat out a lot of subpar teams up to this point.

-BUFFALO AT VANDERBILT.  I’m not at all sold on Vandy despite their 5-2 record, but I am starting to warm up to Buffalo, who has won five out of six since losing their season opener.  If they can pick up this win on the road, then they may be slowly inching their way back into relevance.

-FLORIDA STATE AT INDIANA (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  Florida State has won seven straight, including two big wins down in the Emerald Coast classic.  Indiana is 7-0, but they haven’t played anywhere near the schedule that Florida State has.  This is a big game because it’s IU’s first real test, and it’s also a tough road test for a Florida State team that has been playing really well.

-UTEP AT NEW MEXICO STATE.  UTEP won the first game between these two earlier this year, and has looked pretty good overall with a 5-0 record, but three of those came against non-div1 teams, and this is their first road game of the year, so we’ll learn something about them tonight.  New Mexico State is still battling injuries.

-ILLINOIS STATE AT TCU.  It may be a buy game, but this one could be interesting.  Illinois State is just 3-4, but at times they’ve looked a lot better than what that record indicates.  TCU is 5-1 on the year, but has really just been feeding off of cupcakes and lost their only real test of the season against Clemson.  They need to hold serve in this one.

-RUTGERS AT PITTSBURGH (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  Both teams have good records, and Pitt has the win against Florida State, but outside of that both are lacking notable wins.  This is a test for both teams, particularly Rutgers who is playing in their first true road game.

-DUKE AT MICHIGAN STATE (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  Both teams were ranked in the top five at the start of the season, and while both have had some early setbacks, both are still really good and could even still end up as #1 seeds.  It goes without saying.  This would be a huge win on either team’s resume.

-ARIZONA STATE AT SAN FRANCISCO.  This is a tough road test for Arizona State against a San Francisco team that’s 7-1 on the year, but doesn’t really have a signature win yet.

BUY GAMES (and equivalency buy games) 

-Saint Peter’s @ Saint John’s
-Houston Baptist @ Dayton
-Jacksonville State @ George Mason
-Detroit Mercy @ Kent State
-UMES @ Baylor
-UAB @ Texas
-Austin Peay @ Arkansas
-Northwestern State @ SMU
-Oral Roberts @ Creighton
-Bradley @ Memphis
-New Orleans @ LSU