Lipscomb (7-4, 6-4 D1) at Middle Tennessee (8-3, 6-3 D1) – 7:30 PM ET (ESPN+)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day heads down I-24 from Nashville to nearby Murfreesboro for a matchup between the Lipscomb Bisons and the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders. Lipscomb comes into tonight having won 4 straight games (5 overall) against D1 opponents; the most notable game in the bunch was an 80-62 victory at Chattanooga. Jacob Ognacevic is averaging 17.6 points a game and 7.3 rebounds for the Bisons.
The Blue Raiders have won two of their last three games against D1 competition; their best win was a 76-69 victory against a floundering UAB team. MTSU’s only three losses this year are all against teams from the Missouri Valley – Bradley, Belmont and Murray State. Essam Mostafa averages 13.3 points a game and 8.7 boards a game for the Blue Raiders.
-Bradley held off San Francisco in a 66-64 thriller to improve to 9-2 and pick up what is probably their biggest win of the year. Bradley still has a lot of work to do, and their margin for error is small, but I do think they have a path to the NCAA Tournament along with Drake. They’ll have to basically blow through the MVC in order to get there, but they’re good enough to do it and the opportunity is there.
-Alabama really had to sweat at North Dakota. They pulled off the 97-90 win on the road, but it was close all throughout and for much of the first half they were actually behind.
-Xavier was on fire from 3pt land yesterday and was right with UConn on the road, but ended up falling in overtime 94-89. Considering all of the injuries and setbacks Xavier has gone through it is hard to not be impressed with the effort. While they didn’t get the win, it does show that maybe they’re capable of stringing together some wins in the Big East and are not quite totally out of it yet.
-Oklahoma remains unbeaten after pulling out an 87-86 thriller over Michigan. Michigan had a lead for much of the game, and for most of the second half, but it was close all throughout. The Sooners are one of about…oh…a dozen teams in the SEC that look like they belong in the top 25.
-Memphis got a battle from Virginia on the road, but escaped 64-62 to pick up their third true road win of the season. The Tigers have built up quite a profile, and have managed to beat teams that are not always easy to play against or beat. Virginia is still a very good defensive team and can be a very frustrating opponent, but the Tigers figured it out.
-Georgetown absolutely blew Creighton out 81-57. The Hoyas have a lot of energy built up, they continue to get better as the season improves, and will be a force within the Big East this year.
-Washington State, who had been cruising and looking really good, did not look that good yesterday. They fell to rivals Washington 89-73. While Washington is a respectable 8-3 on the year now, they hadn’t looked as good as Wazzu coming into last night’s game.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-UC IRVINE AT BELMONT. This is an interesting road game for what is a very good UC Irvine team and it’s an important one if they want to finish the season inside the bubble. If you’ve been following Under the Radar, you know that we feel this is a team that can make the NCAA Tournament. Belmont is 9-2 on the season, and 5-1 at home. They’ll likely win a lot of home games, so the committee should take note of this game if UC Irvine is able to pull it off.
-Buffalo @ Georgia – Georgia can get to 10-1 with a win -New Orleans @ Texas -Merrimack @ Saint Mary’s
Tonight’s feature conference is the Horizon League, and the team that Chad and David focus in on the closest is the Green Bay Phoenix and their spectacular home loss to Michigan Tech! The Doug Gottlieb era is not off to the best of starts.
After that, we run through the other 21 UTR conferences and discuss the overall strength of the Big West, and how we may see two teams earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament in UC Irvine and UC San Diego. UCSD just won at Utah State, who had previously been undefeated, so their profile is looking really strong. Liberty and Louisiana Tech both look strong in Conference USA, Arkansas State has had some really big wins and is well positioned in the Sun Belt, and Bradley is looking strong in the Missouri Valley along with Drake, who remains undefeated. We discuss all that, and more! And, as we do every week, we close with this week’s UTR Top Ten.
And for all you radio lovers, below is an audio only version of the show…
Central Connecticut State (6-4, 5-4 D1) at Fairfield (5-5, 3-5 D1) – 7:00 PM ET (ESPN+)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day will be the feature game in the state of Connecticut tonight as the Blue Devils of CCSU make the short drive from New Britain to take on the Fairfield Stags in a Connecticut Six matchup. While CCSU still hasn’t played a game in the Northeast Conference yet, they are 2-1 against teams from the Atlantic 10 with wins against Saint Joseph’s and UMass-Amherst; they did snap a 4-game winning streak with a loss at Rhode Island in their last outing. Jordan Jones (12.5 PPG, 3.6 APG, 2.4 steals per game) will be a player to watch for the Blue Devils.
Fairfield recently enjoyed a modest 3-game winning streak with home wins against Vermont, Fairleigh Dickinson and Rider. In the game against Rider, Peyton Smith hit a game-winning shot with 1.6 seconds left to give the Stags the win. More recently, Fairfield lost a 101-94 shootout at Mount St. Mary’s to end the aforementioned 3-game winning streak.
-Dayton and UNLV (if I counted correctly) had five lead changes in the final two minutes, and two in the final 30 seconds, where UNLV had a shot at the buzzer that would have given them the huge upset win on the road, but couldn’t get it to go down. The Flyers barely held on to win an absolute thriller 66-65. The loss may have knocked the Flyers out of the rankings next week, so it was big that they held serve.
-Clemson and South Carolina was another crazy one. Every time it looked like South Carolina was about to get control late in the game, Clemson would come back. They hit a crazy 3 at the buzzer that banked in to force overtime, and they almost did it again in the overtime, but South Carolina ultimately held on 91-88. Clemson didn’t absolutely need this one, but it would have been nice. They were coming off a loss, South Carolina likely isn’t going to end up inside the bubble, and it was a winnable road game against a big rival.
-Drake remains unbeaten after beating Kansas State in overtime 73-70. K State had a good look to win it at the end of regulation, and another that would have forced a second overtime, but Drake, who also played a great game in front of a very pro K State crowd, came out with a big win. It’s hard to believe that many of Drake’s key players weren’t playing D1 basketball a year ago. What a fantastic story!
-Florida got up big on North Carolina, then North Carolina came back and got a lead, then Florida somehow recovered and held on for an exciting 90-84 win. The Gators remain unbeaten and North Carolina falls to 6-5. UNC has played some really good teams really close, so I still think that once they get into ACC play they look to be better than pretty much everyone else other than Duke and will be just fine, but I can also understand the grumblings of how they’re only 6-5.
-Saint John’s blasted DePaul 89-61. It was a night where DePaul looked very much like DePaul, and Saint John’s looked a lot like Saint John’s.
-Saint Bonaventure is a team that almost no one is talking about, but they are now 11-1 on the season with four true road wins. I know winning at Siena is hardly praiseworthy, but they won handily and have looked good all season long.
-UC San Diego got a BIG win at Utah State 75-73 in another game that was exciting right down to the end. UCSD is now 10-2 on the season, and 3-1 in true road games. One of their losses was at San Diego State on opening night in a game that came down to the final few seconds. I’m starting to think the committee better be watching them along with UC Irvine out in the Big West. Utah State may not be a top ten team, but very rarely do they lose at home, so that was a MASSIVE win for UCSD!!
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-CREIGHTON AT GEORGETOWN (Big East). Georgtetown is coming off a nice road win against Syracuse, and if they can somehow win this one at home they’ll have more momentum built up than they’ve had at any time in recent memory. Creighton, despite injuries, was very competitive on the road at Alabama in their last game, and getting a conference road win like this one would be big for them.
-XAVIER AT UCONN (Big East). Xavier seems to be going down another spiral with injuries, whereas UConn seems to be climbing the rankings and looking like one of the better teams in the Big East (again) and a protected-seed-caliber team (again).
-MEMPHIS AT VIRGINIA. Memphis is in the rankings and has already shown they can win big games away from home. Virginia feels like they need to string together some wins just to reach the bubble and be in the conversation. They are at home in this one, and that should give them an advantage, but Memphis is road tested.
-SAN FRANCISCO AT BRADLEY. Much of the attention is now on Drake, but Bradley is a very impressive 8-2 on the year and gets a shot at a really good San Francisco team today that’s. coming off a big win against Loyola Chicago. Both these teams are good, but both have limited opportunities at signature wins, so tonight is big.
-BUTLER AT MARQUETTE (Big East). Butler has had moments where they’ve looked like a tournament team, but only moments. A win tonight would suddenly change the entire complexion of their season and profile, but it will be much easier said than done. Marquette is a legit top ten team that’s coming off a tough loss and will look to bounce back at home in their conference opener.
-OKLAHOMA VS MICHIGAN (game in Charlotte NC). I’ve been very impressed with both these teams. Oklahoma is unbeaten and Michigan, while 8-2, has managed some really big wins early in the season. This is a resume-building opportunity between two teams that seem to be cruising toward the top half of the bracket.
-VCU AT NEW MEXICO. Both these teams have good records, and both have shown they have the potential to have big years in conference play and make a run at the NCAA Tournament, but both still have work to do and both could really use this win tonight.
-WASHINGTON STATE AT WASHINGTON. I’ve been really impressed with Wazzu this year and think they deserve a lot more credit than what most have given them credit for. Washington is a respectable 7-3, and this would be a big one for the Huskies both on and off paper if they can somehow pull it off against their rivals.
BUY GAMES (and other games of note):
-Montreat (nonD1) @ Furman -Toledo @ Houston -The Citadel @ Vanderbilt -Tarlton State @ Oklahoma State -Canisius @ Loyola Chicago -Alabama vs North Dakota (game in Grand Forks ND) -Nicholls @ Gonzaga -Samford @ Arizona – Arizona has got to start stringing together wins -Cal State Northridge @ USC
Tennessee Tech (4-6, 0-0) at Western Illinois (6-5, 0-0) – 8:30 PM ET (ESPN+)
It’s a little odd to feature a random OVC matchup as the Game of tbe Day, but this figures to be one of the more wide open races we’ve seen in recent years. Murray State and Belmont are long gone as the two titans of the conference, and Morehead State’s brief reign at the top appears to have left when Preston Spradlin became the head coach at James Madison.
That said, Tennessee Tech is finishing a 4-game roadtrip tonight. They have 3 straight losses at Vanderbilt, North Alabama and first-year transitional team West Georgia. Western Illinois hasn’t had a win against a D1 opponent for 3 weeks now; their last win was a 64-63 game against South Alabama on the road. It’s the resistible force against the movable object!
