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
-Houston, who I have been touting as a Final Four caliber team since September, has not looked it so far. Losing to Auburn wasn’t concerning, and losing to Alabama really wasn’t either even though I was rather certain they’d get at least one of those two. Losing to San Diego State?? That’s one they REALLY should have won! The Aztecs knocked off the Cougars 73-70 in an overtime thriller at the Players Era Festival, which means that all Houston really has on their resume right now (despite multiple opportunities( is a semi-decent win against a semi-decent Notre Dame team.
-Oregon, who came into this event with lower expectations than some of the other teams, ended up winning it. They knocked off Alabama 83-81 yesterday to remain unbeaten, take home some hardware, and put another high caliber win on their resume. In 24 hours the Ducks will likely go from being unranked to being ranked very very high.
-Rutgers put together another impressive performance against a strong Texas A&M team, but it was also yet another impressive performance in a losing effort. TAMU ended up with the 81-77 win. I still think this event was good for Rutgers, and I still think here is far more to be optimistic about than pessimistic, but as of now they have the loss at Kennesaw State and no real solid wins yet.
-Creighton was able to end their 3 game losing streak with a hard fought 80-76 win against Notre Dame. They needed this one. As for Notre Dame, they kind of needed it too. They left the Players Era Festival without a single win, and they fell to Elon just before the event started. They have a really tough game against Georgia coming up, so their struggles may continue.
-Seton Hall is a tire fire! They lost at home to Monmouth yesterday 63-51. It was Monmouth’s first win of the season, and Seton Hall’s THIRD home buy game loss. In case you don’t follow Under the Radar and are wondering if Monmouth is any good in relation to the rest of their conference…THEY ARE NOT!!
-Miami FL continues to prove that I was grossly incorrect when I picked them as a sleeper team prior to the start of the season. They fell to Charleston Southern at home yesterday 83-79. In case you don’t follow Under the Radar and are wondering if Charleston Southern is any good in relation to the rest of their conference…THEY ARE NOT!!
-Stanford, who just a week ago was unbeaten, and coming off a nice road win at Santa Clara, and looked like they may have something, is now looking like they have very little. They lost at home to Cal Poly yesterday 97-90. In case you don’t follow Under the Radar and are wondering if Cal Poly is any good in relation to their conference…well…they’re actually not bad! They aren’t likely to be conference frontrunners, but they have played very well in some road buy games prior to yesterday. Still, it’s a game that Stanford should have won.
-UC Irvine, who plays in the Big West with Cal Poly, ain’t bad either!! They are actually really good!! They knocked off Towson yesterday 67-60 to sweep the Western Slam and remain unbeaten on the season.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-After having full slates for the last nine or ten days, today is rather light in terms of notable games. Everyone can take a breath and recover from both their food comas and their hoops comas today.
-NORTH FLORIDA AT NERASKA. Nebraska is out to an impressive 5-1 start and has a nice road win against Creighton on their resume. They shouldn’t have too much trouble today with North Florida, but the Ospreys did have those early road wins at South Carolina and Georgia Tech, so the Huskers don’t want to just completely overlook them.
-Alcorn State @ Maryland -Buffalo @ Penn State -Arkansas Pine Bluff @ Kansas State -Cal Baptist @ UCF -South Carolina State @ Xavier -Hofstra vs Arkansas State (Baha Mar Hoops) – this is a solid UTR matchup -Mercyhurst @ San Francisco
We FINALLY got a hot pregame meal: green beans/pasta/steak bites/mini-donuts! The Saturday afternoon after Thanksgiving + a non-power conference opponent = everybody is out shopping or watching college football. Georgetown coach Ed Cooley had a 25-PT win last Tuesday over Wagner, but has not won consecutive games by 20+ PTS since beating Manhattan/UAlbany in December 2022…as coach at Providence. Let’s tip it off (with no band/students/cheerleaders):
UAlbany was missing 2 of its top-4 scorers due to injury (Byron Joshua/DeMarr Langford Jr.) but JR G Kheni Briggs helped his team hang around for the 1st 10 minutes via a STL/layup, long jumper, and a corner 3. After that it was all Georgetown all day long. FR big man Thomas Sorber was unstoppable inside with a ton of layups and finished the day with his 3rd double-double in his 1st 7 career games. SR wing Micah Peavy was making shots from all over the court, including an old-fashioned 3-PT play as well as a 3 from behind the arc, and even added a beautiful block at the rim for the cherry on top of his 17-PT 1st half. I thought 6’7” Caleb Williams was having a great half of his own…until I realized that both he and his 6’6” teammate Curtis Williams Jr. had each scored 4 PTS: #toomanywilliams! The Hoyas were up 49-35 at halftime and did not let up in the 2nd stanza despite Great Dane Justin Neely making just enough great baskets to keep it from getting completely out of hand. Hoyas G Malik Mack used his lanky lefty stroke to finish with 16 PTS/6-8 FG, while Peavy’s corner 3 made it 86-46 with 10 minutes left as Georgetown cruised to a 100-68 victory.
In the postgame press conference I asked UAlbany coach Dwayne Killings how his team was able to get a fantastic 14 STL despite missing 2 of his top defenders. He selflessly gave the credit to his coaching staff for knowing when to anticipate what the Hoyas were going to do. He said they could sniff things out a bit, but did not have the size to compete inside (which is why his team had a 58-22 disadvantage in points in the paint):
I wondered how Coach Cooley’s team was able to shoot over 40% from long-distance after entering today at 28.7 3P%. He confirmed that they have been practicing their 3-PT shooting a lot, and that the key is to get uncontested shots with your feet set (aka “10-toes threes”). That is what most kids practice, so unless you can knock down 25-foot step-backs like Steph Curry/Damian Lillard, you should keep it simple:
That is a wrap for now, but check back in 48 hours when UMBC visits DC.
-For all of the brackets, schedules, and results of the In-Season Tournaments – CLICK HERE
-Purdue knocked off Ole Miss 80-78 in a thriller to win the Rady Children’s Invitational. Both teams are good now, and both will also likely improve even more as the season continues. Some were a little skeptical of Purdue after at times they merely looked like a top 20 team instead of a top 5 team, but this really is a nice win for the Boilers.
-Wichita State, who we were praising going into yesterday’s game against Florida, did absolutely nothing that praiseworthy in said game. The Gators blew their doors off 88-51 in the ESPN Events Invitational.
-West Virginia, who we had no expectations for whatsoever coming into the season, and who seemed to live down to those expectations when they were blown out by Pitt, had an absolutely incredible showing in the Battle 4 Atlantis. They beat Gonzaga, barely lost to Louisville in overtime, and yesterday finished things off with a win over Arizona. The Mountaineers are for real!! Arizona, on the other hand, may not be. If they are, they haven’t shown it yet. They now fall to 3-4 on the season, and while their schedule has been tough, it is a little concerning that they’ve lost all four of their big opportunities.
-The Championship Game of the Battle 4 Atlantis featured two other teams that have completely outperformed preseason expectations. Oklahoma held off Louisville 69-64. Kasean Pryor had to leave the game with an injury, which certainly impacted Louisville, but the Cardinals still had a chance to win in the final minute. Oklahoma made some big defensive plays and escaped with the win and the hardware. Oklahoma is now 7-0 and they’ve now picked up some really big wins, so their resume is looking great!
-Butler, who was one of my sleeper teams coming into the season, now appears to be awake!!! They had a very nice 87-77 win yesterday over Mississippi State in the Arizona Tip-Off. It was the first loss of the season for Mississippi State, and Butler seems to have bounced back after sleepwalking through some of their earlier games.
-Pittsburgh, who we’ve mentioned before as a team that has impressed us, picked up a VERY big win yesterday at Ohio State. It was a 91-90 overtime thriller, and seeing as how it was a true road game against an Ohio State team that has already proven itself with some big wins of their own, it is by far Pitt’s biggest win of the year up until now.
-Arizona State continues to look better and better as the season goes on. They handed a very good Saint Mary’s team their first loss of the season in the Acrisure Classic Championship game.
-Utah State remains unbeaten after a really nice 61-57 win against a strong North Texas team. Definitely keep an eye on the Aggies as they (again) look to be one of the stronger teams in the MWC this year.
-UC Irvine also remains underrated after their 51-39 win over a very good Kent State team. It wasn’t exactly an offensive explosion, but it is a huge win on paper for the Eaters.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-CREIGHTON VS NOTRE DAME (Players Era Festival). Both of these teams are in a bit of a tailspin. The wheels seem to be falling off for Creighton. Finishing up this event with any sort of a win will probably be as important to their mental health at this point as it is to their resume. Notre Dame has now lost three straight as well and could also really use this win.
-TEXAS A&M VS RUTGERS (Players Era Invitational). Rutgers is coming off a hard fought loss to Alabama, which despite the loss may have been one of their more impressive showings of the year. TAMU edged out Creighton in their last game. Both teams have the chance to end on a high note and pick up a win that will almost assuredly be quad-1 or quad-2 on the team sheet.
-FURMAN AT KANSAS. I know it’s a buy game, and I know that chances are the final score will look like a buy game, but Furman comes in unbeaten and is one of the top UTR teams out there, and it will be interesting to see what they can do in this one. Kansas is arguably the toughest place in the country to win, so I know Furman is shooting at the moon. But, if they were to somehow hit the moon, they should be ranked in the top 25 and their resume will (at least for now) look like they deserve a protected seed.
-SAN DIEGO STATE VS HOUSTON (Players Era Invitational). San Diego State managed a very impressive win against Creighton their last time out, which is probably their best showing of the season. Houston, who I still think can make the Final Four, has yet to pick up a big time win this season yet. A win today would probably be their biggest to date.
-RICE VS ARKANSAS STATE (Baha Mar Hoops). This is an odd game to highlight, but I really like this Arkansas State team whose only loss so far was a very competitive road loss at Alabama. Rice is a very respectable 5-2 and if Arkansas State can pick up this win and then beat Hofstra tomorrow their resume is going to be looking really good heading into December.
-OREGON VS ALABAMA (Players Era Invitational). Oregon isn’t in the rankings today, but they almost assuredly will be on Monday regardless of the outcome of this game. Both teams have managed some nice wins in this events and both have the chance to pick up another really nice on tonight, as well as take home some hardware.
BUY GAMES (and other games of note):
-Southern @ Louisiana Tech – LA Tech is looking to remain unbeaten -Monmouth @ Seton Hall -Chicago State @ Wisconsin -Western Carolina @ Marquette -Pfiffer (nonD1) @ High Point -Charleston Southern @ Miami FL -Albany @ Georgetown -Temple @ La Salle (Big 5) – both teams have just two losses, but still have a lot of work to do -Tarlton State vs Hofstra (Baha Mar Hoops) – Hofstra can improve to 6-2 and put another win away from home on their resume -Eastern Washington @ Utah -Harvard @ Saint John’s -Georgia Southern @ Drake – a win for Drake gets them to 7-0 -UMES @ UConn – If UConn fails to snap their 3 game losing streak tonight they could REALLY be in trouble! -Jacksonville @ Georgia -UC Irvine vs Towson (Western Slam) – a win for UC Irvine gets them to 8-0 -Cal Poly @ Stanford
The following bracket takes into account all the games played BEFORE Nov 29th, and none on the day of.
I also want to be sure everyone knows what they are looking at. I am not trying to guess what the field will look like in March, nor am I selecting and seeding teams based on how good I think they actually. I am simply trying to put together a CHECKPOINT of CURRENT MERIT. For instance, I believe UConn (despite the rough weekend) to be a solid tournament team, and that Houston will end up as a protected seed. But based on what those teams have done so far, neither team is in the field.
-We’ve played half a football season! So, the bracket is starting to make some sort of sense in regards to the selections and seedings. Pretty much all of the current protected seeds have gone out and won big games away from home, which is what sets them apart from…say…Houston, who hasn’t won any games away from home and isn’t even in the field.
-Louisville and West Virginia have both had big weeks in the Battle 4 Atlantis where they picked up notable wins. It’s also hard to ignore teams like Boston College and Colorado, who we weren’t all that big on coming into the season, but who also picked up notable wins in their in-season tournaments.
-And, if you notice any blatant mistakes, it’s because I’m still in a food coma.
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