Hoops HD

For today’s UTR Game of the Day between North Dakota and Campbell – CLICK HERE

NEWS AND NOTES

-There was only one exempt tournament going on yesterday down in the Emerald Coast Classic, but both games were well worth the price of admission. First, Tennessee defeated VCU on a last-second shot to claim third place in the event. That was followed up by a championship game that went overtime before Florida State outlasted Purdue. It’s looking more and more like the Noles’ season opening loss at Pitt may just have been an aberration.

-Georgetown just cannot have nice things, it seems. They’ve struggled at home against Penn State and even some of their buy-game level opponents. While they looked better in New York with a win against Texas and a close loss against Duke, they were beaten at home against UNC-Greensboro in a game that may not even be an upset. The Spartans cashed in on a major opportunity and once again appear poised to be a potential NCAA noisemaker this season.

-Richmond continues to look like a pleasant surprise out of the A-10; they smashed Boston College at home yesterday. Not a bad way to rebound after getting drubbed by Auburn up at the Barclays Center.

-Cincy also looked a bit schizo against UNLV – the Bearcats trailed by 11 points early in the second half before coming back to take what appeared to be an insurmountable 10-point lead with a minute remaining in regulation. UC had a couple of bad breaks with replay (most egregious was a sequence in which a UNLV shooter was fouled in the act of shooting while his foot was on the three-point line, but UC opted not to ask for a review), but they were also able to overcome the Runnin’ Rebels in overtime. No rest for the weary Bearcats this week – they have a home game against Vermont followed by the Crosstown Shootout against Xavier.

-Texas seems to fall victim to at least one upset special at home during the Shaka Smart era, but a potential upset loss to McNeese was averted with a pair of free throws from Courtney Ramey in the final ten seconds of regulation to give the Horns a 2-point win.

-Saint Joe’s is looking more and more like they just had one good day up at UConn. Last night, they lost by double digits to the Red Flash of Saint Francis University (or STFU as one of our writers likes to call them).

-The SWAC had a rare 3-0 day yesterday against D-1 competition. Alabama State beat Chicago State in the Emerald Coast Classic, Texas Southern beat Lamar at home and Prairie View went on the road and beat UT-San Antonio.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-FAIRFIELD VS TEXAS A&M (Orlando Invitational, 7th Place). To say that Texas A&M is going through growing pains while trying to rebuild their program would be an understatement. At least we get Uncle Buzz for Sunday morning hoops!

-MARYLAND VS MARQUETTE (Orlando Invitational, Championship).  Marquette is a team that we had a lot of questions about.  Well, they’re 5-1 and if they can win this one against Maryland then I think it’s safe to say that a lot of our questions will have been answered.  Maryland hasn’t always looked like a top 5 team, but they’ve won all their games and can build on their resume if they can win this event.

-LONG BEACH STATE VS PENNSYLVANIA (Wooden Legacy, 3rd Place). This could potentially be a red-letter day for the Ivy League with both Penn and Harvard playing for third place in multi-team exempt tournaments.

-RHODE ISLAND AT WEST VIRGINIA.  West Virginia just picked up a couple of really good wins in the Cancun Challenge and have a winnable home game today against a decent Rhody team.

-VERMONT AT YALE.  Vermont may be good enough to land inside the bubble, but they are running out of strikes.  They basically need to avoid loss to all non-tournament caliber teams the rest of the way, which means they have to basically win out.  They’re good enough to do that, but it’s much easier said than done.

-TEMPLE VS DAVIDSON (Orlando Invitational, 5th Place).  Temple followed up their close loss against Maryland with a blowout win against Texas A&M and have looked really strong this season.  Davidson hasn’t really looked anywhere close to as good as we thought they’d be this season and needs a win in a game like this to help get things turned around.

-SOUTHERN ILLINOIS AT SAINT LOUIS.  SLU can improve to 7-1 on the year with a win.

-CHARLESTON VS UCF (Wooden Legacy, 5th Place). Charleston gets one more opportunity for a win against a power conference team this weekend, but they look more like a team just trying to get for conference play in the Colonial.

-PROVIDENCE VS PEPPERDINE (Wooden Legacy, 7th Place).  Providence has got to string together some wins to get their season turned around.  To say it’s off to a rough start would be an understatement.

-HARVARD VS USC (Orlando Invitational, 3rd Place).  Harvard has been somewhat disappointing this year up to this point, but they did put up a good fight against Maryland and may be starting to turn things around.  A win against USC today would be big for their resume as well as their mental health.

-LA SALLE AT VILLANOVA (Big Five).  Nova hasn’t done anything all that impressive yet, but they should be able to hold serve against a La Salle team that’s off to a decent start, but at the same time hasn’t done anything all that impressive either.

-WAKE FOREST AT ARIZONA (Wooden Legacy, Championship).  I wasn’t big on Wake this year at all, but they have won two games in the Wooden Legacy to get to the finals, and if they can some how knock off an Arizona team that’s been winning, but that’s also had to sweat out a lot of their wins, it will catapult them into national relevance.

BUY GAMES

-Maine @ UConn
-Southern @ Tulane
-UNC-Wilmington @ Stanford
-Portland State @ Oregon State
-Omaha @ Saint Mary’s

NEWS AND NOTES

-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day, which is a really good one between SFA and Arkansas State – CLICK HERE

-North Carolina held on to beat Oregon in the third place game of the Battle 4 Atlantis.  The fact that it was a third place game doesn’t mean anything.  All the committee cares about was that it was a win over a highly ranked Oregon team (if they maintain that ranking until March) on a neutral floor.

-Michigan won the Battle 4 Atlantis by manhandling Gonzaga, and winning their second game against a top ten team by double digits in two days.  Michigan is unranked, but that is certainly about to change.  I don’t think the Wolverines will jump all the way up to #1 because that’s just not how voters do things, but speaking in terms of merit they’ve probably got the best tournament resume in the country right now.

-Texas Tech looked sluggish.  Again.  They fell to a Creighton team 83-76 in the consolation game of the Las Vegas Invitational, and are still looking for their first non-buy game win.

-Saint Mary’s held on to knock off 15th ranked Utah State at home, which puts SMC in pretty good shape.  It was a home win, but they’ll still get some credit for it since Utah State will likely win a lot of road games this year.  Having said that, they haven’t won any yet.

-Down in the Emerald Coast Classic, Purdue knocked off VCU and Florida State knocked off Tennessee.  We kept saying that we thought Purdue and Tennessee were two good teams that hadn’t quite hit their stride yet.  Well, beating a ranked team on a neutral court generally constitutes hitting your stride.  The two will face each other later today, and VCU and Tennessee will face each other in what is suddenly a very opportunistic 3rd place game since both are ranked, which means both get the chance to pick up a high quality neutral floor win.

-DePaul won at Minnesota.  DePaul is now 8-0 on the season with three true road wins.  No one else in the Big East has a resume like that yet.

-Utah held on to beat UC Davis.  At home.  By 4.  I’m starting to think this Utah team really isn’t any good.

-San Diego State came from behind and dominated the second half to beat Iowa, win the Las Vegas Invitational, and remain unbeaten on the season.  This is looking like a solid NCAA Tournament team that probably also belongs in the rankings.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-SOUTH DAKOTA AT NORTHERN ARIZONA.  A decent UTR game as South Dakota has the chance to improve to 7-1 and pick up their third true road win of the season.

-UNC GREENSBORO AT GEORGETOWN.  It’s a buy game, but we are really big on this UNCG team and think they can land inside the bubble if they’re able to knock off some tournament caliber teams prior to conference play.  This is one of those opportunities for them, but it won’t come easy.  Georgetown is 4-2, but has shown a ton of improvement as the season has gone along and probably won’t overlook UNCG.

-BOSTON COLLEGE AT RICHMOND.  The Spiders are off to an impressive 5-1 start and should remain on a pace to make the NCAA Tournament if they can hold serve at home in games like this.

-EAST TENNESSEE STATE AT LITTLE ROCK.  ETSU is looking to improve to 7-1 on the season and pick up their second true road win.  Their only loss so far has come at Kansas.

-TENNESSEE VS VCU (Emerald Coast Classic).  This is a third place game, but it’s a really good match-up between two ranked teams and will be considered a high caliber neutral floor win for whichever team is able to pull it off.

-SFA AT ARKANSAS STATE.  This is a really interesting UTR game.  SFA is coming off their huge win at Duke, and they’ve got another tough test today against an Arkansas State team that has just one loss and has been one of the more impressive teams out of the Sun Belt so far.

-UNLV AT CINCINNATI.  Cincinnati hasn’t really gelled yet, and while they’ve been winning games, they’ve been unimpressive showings against unimpressive teams.  I do think they’ll snap out of it sooner or later.  I just don’t know if it will be sooner or later.  They face a UNLV team at home that has struggled all year, so this is another winnable game for them.

-FLORIDA STATE VS PURDUE (Emerald Coast Classic).  Both teams have gotten off to slowish starts this season, but both picked up huge wins against ranked teams yesterday and appear to be hitting their stride.  This is yet another chance for both of them to pick up a resume building win away from home.

-TULSA AT VANDERBILT.  I don’t expect either team to be anywhere near the bubble come March, but as of now both teams are 5-1 so this game is worth keeping an eye on.  We will continue to highlight them until they give us a reason not to.

-SACRAMENTO STATE AT COLORADO.  This is a buy game, and the end result may look very unexciting, but both teams are unbeaten.  Sacramento State is out to a somewhat surprising 4-0 start.  If they can some how win today, then it would be a VERRY surprising start.

BUY GAMES (and equivalent games)

-Lipscomb @ Xavier
-Wagner @ Saint John’s
-McNeese @ Texas
-Montana Tech (nondiv1) @ BYU
-South Dakota State @ Indiana
-Stetson @ Kent State
-Northern Kentucky @ Arkansas – This one could be interesting since Arkansas is unbeaten and NKU is expected to be a Horizon League frontrunner
-Cal State Fullerton @ Santa Clara (Cable Car Classic)

NEWS AND NOTES

For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day between Merrimack and Akron – CLICK HERE

-Gonzaga had their first real test of the season against Oregon yesterday down in the Battle 4 Atlantis, and they won a thrilling overtime game that seesawed back and forth the whole way.  Before the season started we said that we thought Gonzaga was good, but that they probably wouldn’t contend for a #1 seed.  Well, I know it’s early, but if they beat Michigan today, then they’ll be unbeaten with two really big wins away from home, and on an early pace to end up as a #1.  Speaking of Michigan..

-The Wolverines seem to always start off the season unranked, but then e always win big games and get ranked by December.  Yesterday they absolutely clobbered North Carolina.  The Tarheels put together a late run to make the score look respectable, but at no point in the second half did Michigan appear to be in any danger of losing the game.  It was a very impressive performance from a Michigan team that despite the roster overhaul and coaching change appears to be good again.

-Texas Tech did not look good yesterday.  They appeared sluggish against a decent but not great Iowa team.  I’m still big on this Texas Tech team, but they’ve got a ways to go to get to being as good as I think they can be.

-Arizona beat Pepperdine in a game that was much more thrilling than many of us expected.  I believe there were 25 lead changes, two of which came in the final seconds of the game, before Arizona held on to win 93-91 and avoid what would have been a really big upset.  It was a great effort by Pepperdine, and you hope they can bounce back from it and win their remaining two games in the Wooden Classic.

-San Diego State SMASHED Creighton!  They are unbeaten, and appear to be crazy good this year.  They face Iowa tonight in what looks to be another winnable game for them.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-MARYLAND VS HARVARD (Orlando Invitational).  Maryland got a scare from Temple in their first game, but held on to win.  They face a Harvard team today that has struggled on this season, but that we still think has a high level of potential.

-OREGON VS NORTH CAROLINA (Battle 4 Atlantis).  This ain’t bad for a third place game!  Both teams are highly ranked, both are probable protected seeds, and the fact that it’s a third place game doesn’t lessen its importance at all or change what it will look like to the committee.  North Carolina was beaten rather handily by Michigan yesterday whereas Oregon lost an overtime thriller to Gonzaga.  This would be a high caliber win on a neutral floor for whichever team is able to pull it off.

-TEMPLE VS TEXAS A&M (Orlando Invitational).  Temple put up a hell of a fight against a very good Maryland team yesterday, but came up short.  This is a winnable game for them today against a TAMU team that’s in complete rebuilding mode,

-UMASS AT RUTGERS.  Neither team has done a whole lot other than win buy games, but both have good records and this is a chance for them to add a better win to their resumes.

-GONZAGA VS MICHIGAN (Battle 4 Atlantis).  Michigan is playing like a top ten team even though they aren’t ranked.  They beat North Carolina rather handily yesterday, who had to come back just to make the score look respectable.  Gonzaga passed their first real test of the season with an overtime win against Oregon.  This should be a fun one.

-DEPAUL AT MINNESOTA.  If DePaul wins, they’ll be 8-0 on the season with three straight road wins.  Not many teams in the Big East have done that well so far.  Minney has lost a lot of close games, and are better than their 3-3 record indicates.

-USC VS MARQUETTE (Orlando Invitational).  Both teams won their first games in this event, but neither team looked all that good.  Both are showing signs that they may struggle this season, which kind of makes this an important game to not only get a decent neutral floor win on the resume, but to help build up momentum.

-PROVIDENCE VS CHARLESTON (Wooden Legacy).  Providence is off to a very rough start and seem to be heading down a spiral.  They need to string together some wins just to pull themselves out of it.

-LOUISVILLE VS WESTERN KENTUCKY (Game is in Nashville).  Louisville is set to go to #1 next week if they can hang on and beat a talented but not always solid WKU team this week.  WKU won two games down in the Paradise Jam, but this is by fair their toughest test if the year.  If they can pick up the win, then it would certainly be a huge statement and at least open a path for them to land inside the bubble.

-SETON HALL VS IOWA STATE (Battle 4 Atlantis).  This is the fifth place game.  Both teams lost to strong teams in their first game, beat weaker teams in their second game, and are now trying to leave the event with a decent win to put on their resumes.

-FLORIDA STATE VS TENNESSEE (Emerald Coast Classic).  Tennessee is off to an incredible start, and has the chance to add to it if they can pick this one up against Florida State.  FSU has won five straight since losing their season opener at Pitt, and is a likely tournament team, which makes this a potential resume builder for both teams.

-PENN STATE VS SYRACUSE (NIT Season Tip-Off).  Syracuse has looked sluggish this year and could use this early season win to kind of snap them out of it.  Penn State has looked good even though they’re coming off a loss to Ole Miss, and can remain in good shape if they can pick up this neutral floor win against what should turn out to be a respectable Syracuse team.

-MISSOURI STATE AT LSU.  Missouri State has looked good at times, but not all the time.  Still, they should be one of the frontrunners in the Missouri Valley and this is a chance for them to pick up a really nice road win.  It’s easier said than done, though.  LSU is good.

-IOWA VS SAN DIEGO STATE (Las Vegas Invitational).  San Diego State is unbeaten and they absolutely creamed Creighton last night.  They looked to be good enough to challenge Utah State in the Mountain West and land safely inside the bubble come March.  This is a chance for them to pick up another notable win away from home.

-VCU VS PURDUE (Emerald Coast Classic).  VCU is looking to remain unbeaten, as well as add another notable win to their resume.  Purdue is still trying to find themselves a little bit, and picking up some wins in this event, particularly the one today, would certainly help.

-OLE MISS VS OKLAHOMA STATE (NIT Season Tip-Off).  No one was all that excited about either team coming into the season, but Okie State is unbeaten and Ole Miss’s only loss is by 1pt to Memphis, so both have played well and have a lot of momentum build up coming into this one.

-TEXAS TECH VS CREIGHTON (Las Vegas Invitational).  Texas Tech was the national runner up a year ago, but they haven’t looked all that good this year and are still looking for their first win that didn’t come in a buy game.  Creighton got absolutely smashed yesterday by San Diego State and is just looking to bounce back.

-PENN VS ARIZONA (Wooden Legacy).  Both teams won close games yesterday to get here.  Penn has made some noise early on, and although Arizona looks to be the better team they don’t have anything all that outstanding on their resume yet and they had to sweat out their last two games.

-UTAH STATE AT SAINT MARY’S.  This is a big road test for a Utah State team that’s ranked 15th, but that many people still have questions about.  It’s a test for a Saint Mary’s team that is looking to get back into the rankings as well.  This one should be a fun one.  It’s definitely an important game between two likely tournament caliber teams that need games like this to make a statement to the committee.

BUY GAMES

-Kentucky Christian (nondiv1) @ Liberty
-SEMO @ Santa Clara (Cable Care Classic) – Santa Clara can improve to 7-1
-Winthrop @ Duke – Duke is looking to rebound, and Winthrop already has a win at Saint Mary’s
-UAB @ Kentucky – UAB has a winning record all-time vs Kentucky!  (3-2)
-UMES @ Delaware
-Abilene Christian @ SMU
-Morgan State @ Ohio State
-Marshall @ Florida
-UC Davis @ Utah