South Dakota State (7-2, 5-2 D1) at Montana (5-3, 3-3 D1) – 9:00 PM EST (ESPN+)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day goes to Missoula, Montana for a matchup between the South Dakota State Jackrabbits and the Montana Grizzlies. This is arguably the feature game of the Big Sky/Summit League Challenge. SDSU is coming off of a third place finish in the Cayman Islands Classic with wins against Duquesne and Missouri State as well as a loss to Boise State. Oscar Cluff is averaging a double-double (18.3 PPG, 11.8 RPG) for the Jackrabbits.
Montana is currently on a 3-game winning streak against D1 opponents with wins against Denver, Cal State-Northridge and Utah Tech. Their three losses came in buy games against Oregon, Tennessee and Utah State. Money Williams averages 13.8 points a game and is money (34.1%) from 3-point range.
HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will spend the upcoming months covering several Georgetown basketball home games, with (hopefully) a very special reward coming in March. He was in attendance Monday night at Capital 1 Arena and prepared this photo essay about the Hoyas’ matchup against UMBC. If you would like to check out his prior coverage, please go to:
I got another hot pregame meal: make-your-own burritos and chocolate chip cookie. Right before the national anthem there was a sweet moment of silence for former St. John’s coach Lou Carnesecca, who passed away last Friday at age 99:
Let’s tip it off (with plenty of band members/cheerleaders but very few students):
UMBC used an inside/outside combination to hang around for the 1st 20 minutes. G Marcus Banks made a 3 and a pair of jumpers, while F Josh Odunowo converted several layups and a nasty REB/put-back dunk. However, Georgetown kept attacking the paint with G Jayden Epps and big man Thomas Sorber nailing layup after layup as they headed into halftime with a 41-35 lead thanks in large part to a 13-3 turnover advantage. My biggest basketball celebrity sighting of the season came during halftime when FS1 analyst Kris Jenkins walked into the room. He asked me how I was doing and I said that while I was not making any championship-winning buzzer-beaters…I was doing okay:
In the 2nd half Epps stepped outside to make a pair of shots from behind the arc, while Sorber stayed inside and had 1 of the best shooting performances you will ever see: 6-7 FG/11-12 FT (while the entire Retrievers team only made 8-9 FTs). The Hoyas’ strength of schedule is…underwhelming, but after 3 straight seasons of 23+ losses they are currently 7-1 thanks to an 86-62 victory.
In the postgame press conference I asked UMBC coach Jim Ferry about his team’s poor 4-18 3-PT shooting (they entered the game 17th in the nation at 40.4 3P%). He gave a lot of credit to Georgetown’s defense, who was going after his guys and making them take some quicker shots:
I was going to ask Georgetown coach Ed Cooley (who got career win #350) about Sorber’s sensational shooting…but the media member who was called on before me did that so I just passed:
That is a wrap for now, and it will remain wrapped for a couple of weeks as the Hoyas hit the road for the 1st time all year(!), but check back in mid-December when Creighton visits DC for the conference opener.
-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-Washington State picked up a BIG win last night at Nevada 68-57 where they managed to hold a lead pretty much managed to hold a comfortable lead for the entire second half. This is a big win for Wazzu. Nevada isn’t likely to lose too many at home, and for them to control the game the way that they did says a lot about how good this Cougars team is right now.
-Rhode Island is now 8-0 after holding off Yale 84-78. Someone may want to let Rhody’s fans know that the are 8-0. The building was barely half full last night.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-CINCINNATI AT VILLANOVA. Despite Villanova being very down, this is probably Cincinnati’s biggest test of the year so far. Nova has won three of their last four with the noly loss being a very clsoe game against a respectable Maryland team, so a win in this one may finally start to turn things around for them.
-NORTHWESTERN AT IOWA (Big Ten). Both teams have respectable records, but both are also flimsy so far in terms of quality wins. It’s the conference opener, and it would be the biggest win of the season for either team up to this point. It would be especially nice for Northwestern since they are on the road.
-ARKANSAS AT MIAMI FL. Miami FL (at least to me) has been a huge disappointment this season. Arkansas hasn’t exactly set the world on fire, but they’ve at least won the games that they were supposed to win. This is their first true road game of the seaosn, and would be their first win that wasn’t a home buy game if the Razorbacks are able to pull this off.
-NOTRE DAME AT GEORGIA. Georgia is off to a really good 7-1 start with the only loss coming against Marquette. Notre Dame is a little more sluggish at 4-4 and has lost four straight, including all three in the Players Era Festival. The Irish have another really tough test today, and a win would go a long way toward them being able to turn things around.
-CALIFORNIA AT MISSOURI. Both teams have good records, but neither has really beaten a good team yet. Mizzou has won six straight home buy games since losing to Memphis, and while Cal does have a nice win at USC, that’s all they’ve got so far.
-PRINCETON AT SAINT JOSEPH’S. Joe’s does have a really bad loss to Central Connecticut, but outside of that they’ve played well managing wins against Villanova and Texas Tech, and their only other loss came to a very good Texas team. They have shown some promise and can still have a big year. Princeton has been somewhat disappointing so far, but a win in a road game like this is the kind of thing that could turn their season around, and so far they are 2-0 in true road games.
-SYRACUSE AT TENNESSEE. Tennessee has looked as good as anyone in the country so far, and while Syracuse is perhaps looking a little better than we thought they would, they haven’t looked anywhere near as good as Tennessee has. The Vols should roll in this one.
-BRADLEY AT SOUTHERN ILLINOIS (Missouri Valley). Bradley can improve to 8-1 if they can pick this up in their conference opener tonight. Southern Illinois has struggled some this year, but this is just their second home game.
-BYU AT PROVIDENCE. BYU started their season off at the pastry cart, but they had a fairly impressive showing in their in-season tournament losing in OT to Ole Miss and then beating a respectable NC State team. It’s never easy to win on the road, but Providence has really struggled this year and is coming off three straight losses, so it’s certainly a road win that the Cougars are capable of picking up.
-MICHIGAN AT WISCONSIN (Big Ten). Michigan had a strong showing in their in-season tournament and blew Xavier out in the championship game. This is their first true road game, and it will be at one of the toughest places in the country to play. Wisky is a perfect 8-0 on the season and while Michigan is looking like a probable tournament team, winning at Wisky may be over their heads.
-WAKE FOREST AT TEXAS A&M. TAMU is coming off a solid showing in the Players Era Festival and should continue to improve as the season goes on. Wake is so-so, and the Aggies should be able to win this one at home tonight.
-OLE MISS AT LOUISVILLE. Louisville had a surprisingly strong showing in the Battle 4 Atlantis, but it came with some bad news as Kasean Pryor will miss the rest of the regular season after tearing his ACL. Still, the Cardinals have a strong team, and this will be a big time test for Ole Miss, who is playing in their first true road game. Ole Miss nearly beat Purdue last week, and that was their only loss of the season, so they can play, but they will be challenged today.
-HAWAII AT GRAND CANYON. Hawaii is a respectable 5-1, but this is their first road game, and GCU seems to be getting stronger as the season goes along. I still think the Lopes can run through the rest of their schedule and land inside the bubble, but they will likely get a test tonight from the Rainbow Warriors.
-FLORIDA STATE AT LSU. Both teams have good records, and LSU has a couple of really nice wins against Kansas State and UCF. The Tigers are probably being overlooked a little bit. They have a chance to add another notable win to their profile.
-KENTUCKY AT CLEMSON. This will be a very tough test for Kentucky. Having said that, they’ve already passed a pretty tough test when they beat Duke, but this is their first true road game and it comes against a Clemson team that has looked pretty good so far, and who can put themselves in the spotlight with a win tonight.
-WASHINGTON AT UCLA (Pac 12 Big Ten). It’s the conference opener for both these teams. It’s not just the season opener, but it is the Big Ten Conference Opener for both programs! UCLA comes in at 6-1, but it’s not all that impressive because since they lost to New Mexico all they’ve done is win home buy games. Washington did just win the Acrisure Invitational and beat Colorado State and Santa Clara to do it, but this is probably their toughest test of the year so far.
BUY GAMES (and other games of note):
-Eastern Illinois @ Butler -Tusculum (nonD1) @ Charleston -UNC Wilmington @ East Carolina – neither team is expected to get near the bubble, but as of now both have respectable records -Santa Clara @ McNeese – McNeese needs to bounce back from their loss to Liberty -High Point @ UNC Greensboro – High Point is an impressive 8-1, but this is their first true road game -Western Michigan @ Dayton -South Carolina @ Boston College – BC had a nice run through the Cayman Islands Classic, but then followed that up with a loss to Dartmouth -Sam Houston @ Indiana -Alabama State @ SMU -Eastern Michigan @ Loyola Chicago – Loyola Chicago can get to 7-0 on the year. -Georgia Tech @ Oklahoma – the Sooners shouldn’t have too much trouble remaining unbeaten. -San Diego @ Arizona State -Utah Tech @ Boise State -UTSA @ Saint Mary’s -Utah Valley @ Stanford
Bradley (7-1, 0-0) at Southern Illinois (3-5, 0-0) – 8:00 PM ET (ESPN+)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day features the Missouri Valley Conference opener between the Bradley Braves and the host Southern Illinois Salukis. Bradley’s season has been highlighted with a championship in the Myrtle Beach Invitational with wins against Texas State, Wright State and Middle Tennessee State. Duke Deen is averaging 14.3 points a game and 4.9 assists a game for the Braves.
While Southern Illinois does have a losing record, they have played a much more difficult schedule with road losses at Charleston, Oklahoma State and Florida on their ledger. They also had a rocky appearance in the Gulf Coast Showcase with losses to Louisiana Tech and Eastern Kentucky; their only win was against non-D1 Florida Tech. Kennard Davis leads the Salukis with 15.3 points a game.
We’ve got a full panel tonight to recap one of the busiest weeks of the college basketball season! Auburn is off to a great start after winning the Maui, but Memphis, Iowa State, North Carolina, and even Dayton had strong showings in that event, whereas UConn ended up finishing in last place. Oklahoma, Louisville, and West Virginia picked up big wins in the Battle 4 Atlantis, and Kansas held on to the #1 spot after beating Duke. The NET was also released today, and we take a look at that as we run through all of the major conferences. The SEC is collectively off to an incredible start, and the Big East (outside of Marquette) has been disappointing and has some very big games coming up this week. We discuss all that, and more!
And for all you radio lovers, below is an audio only version of the show…
-We will be recording The Hoops HD Report and recapping what is always the busiest week of the regular season.
As for yesterday and tonight, thinks weren’t/aren’t so busy.
-Xavier had to hold on for dear life against South Carolina State and barely escaped 71-68. The one thing the Musketeers did well was hit freethrows down the stretch. That was the ONE THING they did well. This performance follows a blowout loss to Michigan, so there is reason to be skeptical about X right now.
-Middle Tennessee is off to a decent 6-2 start after their win at UAB. Their margin for error in terms of landing inside the bubble is small, but they’ve got a few decent opportunities at building up their resume. UAB, who was a preseason favorite of ours, has kind of crashed and burned so far.
TONIGHT’S ACTION:
-WASHINGTON STATE AT NEVADA. Wazzu is off to a decent 6-2 start, but this is their first true road game, and it’s not an easy one against a Nevada team that’s 6-1 and has a handful of decent wins already.
-UMBC @ Georgetown – Georgetown can get to 7-1 -Yale @ Rhode Island – Rhody can get to 8-0 -Jackson State @ Saint Louis -Pacific @ Col0rado
