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NEWS AND NOTES:

-Just this past Saturday Alabama won at Saint John’s. I said at the time that would likely be one of the more impressive singular wins any team manages this season given how good the Johnnies were and how they may not lose at home again for the rest of the year. Last night, we saw an even bigger singular win as Purdue went into Alabama and came out with a massive, almost assuredly upper-quad-1 level 87-80 win. It was just an intense game that was played at a high level between two teams that could end up in the Final Four.

-West Virginia blew out Pittsburgh in the Backyard Brawl 71-49. It was both an impressive showing by WVU and a disappointing one by Pitt.

-Kansas State was blowing out California in the first half, and appeared to be skating toward an easy win, but if you turned the game off you missed a furious Cal comeback. K State held on 99-96, but things certainly got way more interesting!

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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-HIGH POINT AT UAB. This may be High Point’s toughest remaining test of the year, and considering what UAB did earlier this week in their loss to Alabama State, it may not actually be that tough. This is a good High Point team that is lacking opportunities to build their resume. They may start to become a story as the season plays out. In looking at their schedule I’m not seeing a single remaining game where it doesn’t look like they’ll be favored.

-ILLINOIS STATE VS USC (Las Vegas, NV Intuit Dome, Inglewood, CA). Illinois State has gotten off to a somewhat slow start, but still looks to be among the better teams in the Missouri Valley. They are probably overmatched tonight, but if they could pull this off it will be a very nice early win for their resume. NOTE FROM CHAD: David Griggs has failed his geography lesson again. The Intuit Dome (Home of the LA Clippers) is nowhere near Las Vegas.

-NEW ORLEANS AT TULANE. A fun crosstown match up between two up and coming programs that seem positioned to have good years.

-UCF AT TEXAS A&M. TAMU got blasted in their last game at Oklahoma State and needs to bounce back tonight.

-XAVIER AT IOWA. Xavier doesn’t even look like a top 150 team so far, so this game may end up looking like more of a buy game than a match-up between two major conference teams. Iowa, whose players were mostly wearing Drake uniforms a year ago, has looked good so far and shouldn’t have too much trouble in this one.

-NORTHWESTERN AT DEPAUL. A fun crosstown matchup. Neither team is expected to do much this year, and DePaul already has a loss to Buffalo. Northwestern won their three buy games and is looking for their first road win, so that’s at least a decent start if they can pull it off.

-MICHIGAN AT TCU. Michigan is high in the rankings, but they needed overtime in Detroit to beat Wake Forest earlier this week. TCU is off to a sluggish start having already dropped a game to New Orleans, so neither team is playing at quite the level that we had expected yet, but the key word in that phrase is ‘YET.’

-GEORGIA TECH AT GEORGIA. It’s a rivalry game!! Both teams are unbeaten!! Having said that, both teams are also untested and Georgia Tech has had to sweat out some of their buy games so far.

-ABILENE CHRISTIAN AT STEPHEN F AUSTIN. Both teams are unbeaten, so this game is worth turning on. I’m actually starting to like this SFA team and think they’re an Under the Radar team that may be able to surprise some people this year.

-PROVIDENCE AT COLORADO. These are two major conference teams facing off!! And…well…I’ve got very little else to say.

-ARIZONA AT VS UCLA (Intuit Dome, Inglewood, CA). These are two long time Pac 12 rivals that have kept the series going and it should be a fun one tonight. Arizona already has a huge win this season against Florida and to get another one at UCLA would be the early makings of a #1 seed caliber profile. UCLA has only played buy games, and actually had to struggle to win a couple of them. Still, I don’t think they’ll be overlooking their opponents tonight. NOTE FROM CHAD: This game will be the second game of the doubleheader at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, CA, making it technically (though not realistically) a neutral court game.

-NORTH TEXAS AT SAINT MARY’S. North Texas pretty much blew it against Oregon State a couple nights ago committing a foul in the final seconds and then following that up with a technical foul which resulted in them losing the game, but for 39:56 they actually looked very good, and I think they are good, and tonight they have another chance at a notable road win. Having said that, winning at SMC is very hard to do.

-GONZAGA AT ARIZONA STATE. It’s never easy to win on the road, but this is perhaps a not-quite-as-difficult road game for the Zags. They are really good and Arizona State just doesn’t seem to be (although they are 2-0 after two home buy wins).

-WASHINGTON AT WASHINGTON STATE. It’s a rivalry, and I’m glad this series has continued since conference realignment, but this partcular edition of it appears to be a mismatch. Wazzu has struggled all year. They will likely struggle tonight. Those struggles will likely continue all season.

BUY GAMES AND OTHER GAMES OF NOTE:

-Lehigh @ Rutgers
-Indiana State @ Duke
-Eastern Illinois @ Kentucky
-Louisana @ McNeese – regional match-up between two solid UTR teams
-Fordham @ Iona – Iona can stay unbeaten
-Furman @ Northern Iowa – UNI can get to 3-0. Furman has talent but has disappointed so far
-Cal State Bakersfield @ Ole Miss
-Milwaukee @ Texas Tech
-Samford @ Arkansas
-UMES @ Creighton
-Colgate @ Illinois
-NC Central @ North Carolina
-Tarlton State @ Baylor

UNDER THE RADAR NEWS AND NOTES:

-To watch and/or listen to our latest UNDER THE RADAR Video Podcast – CLICK HERE

-We will begin with an Under the Radar note. Longwood from the Big South is a team worth paying attention to. They held a double digit lead for most of the game against James Madison last night in their 82-72 win. The show was recorded before the game went final, so we give them much of a mention or even consider them for the UTR Top Ten this week, but they do have our attention.

-We will continue with a second UTR note – UT Martin now has wins at UNLV and at Bradley. The Bradley win also happened as we were recording the show, so little mention was given to them and they were also not considered for the UTR Top Ten, but they do have our attention.

-Maybe we should just start recording Under the Radar at Midnight!!

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OTHER NEWS AND NOTES:

-North Texas played a great game for about 39:56 at Oregon State. Then they committed a foul with about 3 seconds to go while up 2. Oregon State hit both freethrows to tie the game 64-64. With one final shot at winning, North Texas called timeout to draw up a play. The problem was they were out of them. Two technicals later Oregon State ended up winning 66-64. As for North Texas, I know this was a kick in the teeth and a major missed opportunity at a notable road win, but they did demonstrate that they can play solid basketball on the road, and I think they’ll make some noise in the American. They are good enough to bounce back from this.

-Virginia Tech blew Saint Joseph’s doors off 94-59. I know it’s not surprising at all that they beat Saint Joe’s, but VA Tech is now 3-0, only one of those wins was a home buy game, and they blew Saint Joe’s out the way you would expect a tournament caliber team to do it.

-Missouri had no problems with Minnesota and easly got the 83-60 win.

-Southern Illinois played a solid game at Nevada in a great game that went back and forth. They had a lead late, but couldn’t hold on and the game went to overtime. Then Southern Illinois just went ice cold from the line and missed (I think) six straight freethrows. Nevada escaped 86-81, and Southern Illinois missed out on what would have been a very solid road win.

-Last, but not least, it was 49-23 at the half of Hawaii vs Mississippi Valley State. It was also almost 1am. I did not watch the second half. Hawaii won 88-56.

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HIGLIGHTED GAMES:

-PITTSBURGH AT WEST VIRGINIA. The Backyard Brawl!!! Another great college sports rivalry!! The Steel Workers vs The Coal Miners!! On the court, neither team has a loss yet, but neither team has really been tested either. This one almost always delivers, so it will be worth tuning in to.

-PURDUE AT ALABAMA. Both teams are ranked in the top ten, so there’s that. Alabama has already shown they can win against tough teams as they recently won at Saint John’s. Purdue did play a big exhibition game at Kentucky, but this is their first real test of the regular season. Both are good. Both are likely protected seeds come March. This will be a huge profile win for whichever team can pull it off.

-CALIFORNIAT AT KANSAS STATE. Both teams are unbeaten, but this is also the first non-home buy game for each of them. K State is expected by some of us to make some noise in the Big 12 this year and we should learn at least a little something about them tonight.

OTHER GAMES OF NOTE:

-Central Michigan vs South Alabama (Showdown in Saint Pete) – South Alabama can imrove to 4-0 on the season
-San Jose State @ Michigan State
-Monmouth @ Seton Hall – Seton Hall can get to 4-0
-Loyola Chicago @ Wichita State – Wichita can get to 3-0
-Florida International @ LSU

NEWS AND NOTES:

-We will be recording this week’s Under the Radar Video Podcast tonight, so keep an eye out for that.

-Louisvlle vs Kentucky was a high energy, high intensity affair where Louisville pretty much had a lead from tip to buzzer and got up by as much as 20 in the second half. Kentucky kept hitting shots and got as close as 4, but Louisville held on for the 96-88 win. This is a nice win on paper, but I think it was a bigger win for Louisville psychologically than anything else. It wasn’t that long ago when they were crippled by NCAA sanctions and had two consecutive seasons where they won just 4 games, and then 8 games. To be back to the point to where they are now, and to get a big win over a big rival, is a big moment for that program even though it is only November. And…why did they play this game so early this year?

-One of the biggest surprises of the night, at least to me, was Wake Forest’s overtime loss to Michigan in Detroit. Wake did not win the game, but they were right in there and had chances to win both at the end of regulation and in OT. I didn’t think much of the Deacs in the preseason, but to come that close to pulling off that kind of a win, especially when they struggled offensively for certain stretches, was an impressive showing.

-Florida State, another team I was expecting almost nothing out of this year, almost pulled off a huge road upset over rival Florida. The Gators held on 78-76, but the Noles battled and were in a position to get the win. Similar to Wake, it demonstrates that they have a lot of potential and were perhaps undervalued in the preseason.

-Texas Tech went on the road to Illinois for their first big road test,and came up short 81-77. It’s a nice win for Illinois despite being at home, and as for Texas Tech the loss is hardly damaging. They were my preseason pick to win it all and I’m sticking by it. They’ll have plenty of chances for big wins throughout the season, and now they’ve gotten the feel of playing against a highly ranked team in a true road game.

-Creighton also faced a highly ranked team in a true road game in Gonzaga, and the Zags just completely blew it open in the second half and ran away with it 90-63. I don’t think Creighton is necessarily in trouble long term. I just think Gonzaga is really tough to beat at home, which is something we already knew.

-DAVIDSON WON THE HORNETS NEST!!!!! THE TROPHY IS COMING BACK TO…well…DAVIDSON!!!! They picked up their first true road win of the season 62-55 and improved to 3-0 on the year.

-Cincinnati basically led Dayton from tip to buzzer and held on for a 74-62 win. While the Bearcats didn’t blow them out, they didn’t really sweat them out either.

-Ole Miss held off Memphis at home 83-77. The loss ultimately won’t hurt Memphis that much, but these early season games are important for the Tigers since they have so few chances at the kinds of wins that would jump out at the committee once conference play starts.

-Last but not least (well, it actually is least) Central Connecticut went on the road and beat Boston College 60-59!! Our friend @HurleyMania is still celebrating!!

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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-SAINT JOSEPH’S AT VIRGINIA TECH. This game probably isn’t all that exciting, but both teams come in unbeaten and VA Tech does have a notable win against Providence, so this one is at least worth tuning in to tonight, and VA Tech may surpirse us this year!

-SIENA AT SAINT BONAVENTURE (Big Four). This gets highlighted simply because both teams are 2-0 and because we love mythical conferences and regional rivalries!! Plus, the Bonnies did get at least a semi-notable win in their opener against Bradley, and can improve to 2-0 in the mythical Big Four tonight!! *NOTE FROM CHAD: While Siena and St. Bonaventure are both from upstate New York, I am fairly certain that Albany is not a suburb of Buffalo and Siena is not part of the Big Four (Canisius, Niagara, Buffalo and the Bonnies). Griggs not only loves mythical conferences, he apparently even loves adding new teams to them!

-MINNESOTA AT MISSOURI. Both teams are unbeaten, but both have only played home buy games, and the teams they’ve beaten have one a combined total of (checks notes) one D1 game (VMI over Southern Indiana). So, this is the first test for both teams.

-UT MARTIN AT BRADLEY. We are highlighting this one because Bradley is at least a decent team in the Missouri Valley this year, and UT Martin is coming in at 2-0 after already managing a road win at UNLV. If UT Martin could follow that up with a win tonight, then that’s a fantastic early start. We watch all the teams until they give us a reason not to, and UT Martin has certainly not done that yet.

-SOUTH DAKOTA STATE AT OREGON. It’s a buy game, but it’s one that’s worth watching. Oregon has been dealing with injuries and has struggled in their first two games, and South Dakota State is one of the better teams out of the Summit League.

-NORTH TEXAS AT OREGON STATE. Both teams are unbeaten and North Texas, despite all the turnover, looks to be strong again this year.

-SOUTHERN ILLINOIS AT NEVADA. Both teams are unbeaten, but this is perhaps the first semblance of a test for either one of them.

BUY GAMES AND OTHER CRAPPY (BUT MENTIONABLE) GAMES:

-Binghamton @ Georgetown
-North Florida @ Tennessee
-Elon @ Marshall – both teams 2-0
-Presbyterian @ South Caorlna
-Coppin State @ South Florida
-Saint Peter’s @ VCU
-Milwaukee @ Indiana
-American @ George Washington
-Oakland @ Houston
-Eastern Kentucky @ Vanderbilt
-Tulsa @ Oral Roberts – Tulsa should improve to 3-0 and pick up their first road win
-Little Rock @ Marquette
-Middle Tennessee @ Evansville – Middle Tennessee can get to 3-0 and pick up their first road win
-UNC Greensboro @ NC State
-Prairie View @ Oklahoma State
-Fairleigh Dickinson @ Texas
-Weber State @ Utah State (Bee Hive)
-UC San Diego @ Fresno State – UCSD should be able to stay unbeaten and pick up their first road win
-Cal Poly @ Colorado State
-Idaho @ San Diego – Idaho can get to 3-0 and pick up their second road win
-Portland State @ San Francisco
-Montana State @ Stanford – Stanford better be on upset alert