Under The Radar – Monday, November 11 (and Other Highlighted Games)

Posted on November 11, 2019 by John Stalica

Florida Gulf Coast (0-2) at Dartmouth (1-0) – 7:00 PM (NESN+)

Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to the Granite State and home of Keggy the Keg – Florida Gulf Coast travels up to Dartmouth for a Veterans Day game. The Big Green had a 68-63 victory at Buffalo on Saturday that snapped a 26-game home winning streak for Buffalo. It was also the first time Dartmouth won their road opener since 1987 – Chris Knight led the Big Green with 18 points and 11 rebounds.

FGCU is also making a quick turnaround after losing their home opener against UMBC in come-from-ahead fashion on Saturday – the Eagles had a 10-point lead with 5 minutes to play before collapsing in the final minutes en route to a 65-61 loss. Zack Scott has averaged 17 points a game in FGCU’s first two games; Caleb Catto has also averaged 15.5 points a game for the Eagles.

 

OTHER HIGHLIGHTED GAMES, NEWS, AND NOTES

-The biggest surprise yesterday was Florida State’s road win at Florida.  They pretty much lead tip to buzzer.  It wasn’t a blowout, but you never got the sense that FSU was not in control of that game.  FSU followed up their opening loss to Pitt with a true road win against a current top ten team.  Not a bad bounce back!

Everything else was pretty chalky.  Boston C0llege did get a road win at South Florida to stay unbeaten on the season, Arizona sprinted away from Illinois in the latter part of that game, Vermont picked up their second true road win, and in the UTR world South Dakota picked up a really nice win out at Hawaii.

 

-DEPAUL AT IOWA (Gavitt Tipoff Games).  We weren’t expecting much out of DePaul this year, but although they haven’t been tested they do come into this one 3-0.  If they could get a road win it could give them some very rare early season momentum.

-DRAKE AT CINCINNATI.  buy game

-KENT STATE AT TOWSON – both teams 1-0

-SAMFORD AT BELMONT.  This is a home opener for a Belmont team that we think is good, but that desperately needs to rebound

-UL MONROE AT TEXAS A&M.  Buy game.  Both teams unbeaten

-TAMUCC AT VANDERBILT.  Buy game

-FLORIDA ATLANTIC AT ALABAMA.  Buy game.  Bama is looking to rebound from their opening loss to Penn and pick up the first win of the Nate Oates era.

-ALABAMA A&M AT UAB.  Buy game.  UAB can improve to 2-0.

-WINTHROP AT SAINT MARY’S.  Buy game.

-YALE AT SAN FRANCISCO.  A somewhat intriguing game between two 2-0 teams, both of whom could be better than their preseason prognostications.

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Under The Radar Game of the Day – Sunday, November 10

Posted on November 10, 2019 by John Stalica

For today’s News, Notes and Highlighted Games – CLICK HERE

For Jon Teitel’s coverage of yesterday’s Georgetown-Central Arkansas matinee – CLICK HERE

UT-San Antonio (0-3, 0-3 D1) vs. Delaware (3-0, 2-0 D1) – approx. 3:30 PM (FloHoops)

Today’s UTR Game of the Day takes place in the Sunshine Slam in Kissimmee, Florida – this is the last game of a 4-team round-robin event that also includes Southern Illinois and Oakland. Delaware won their games against the Salukis and Golden Grizzlies by a combined 5 points and have already clinched first place in this event by virtue of those wins. Nate Darling did not play in Delaware’s non-D1 opener, but he promptly averaged 20 points a game in the Blue Hens’ 2 victories this weekend.

The Roadrunners, on the other hand, have had a rougher start to the season thus far. While a season-opening loss at Oklahoma can be easily forgiven, they have had a bad trip to Florida with double-digit losses to SIU and Oakland already under their belts. Still, UTSA remains a potential darkhorse candidate to make noise in C-USA this season. Jhivaan Jackson has averaged over 25 points a game in his first three games for the Roadrunners.

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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Sunday, Nov 10th

Posted on November 10, 2019 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES

-Texas, who just missed the NCAA Tournament a year ago, picked up a huge road win at Purdue yesterday.  It’s as big for the image of the program as it is for their current resume.  After missing The Dance last year they are probably feeling some pressure to produce this year.

-Earlier in the week Illinois needed overtime to get past Nicholls State.  We didn’t think Nicholls would even be one of the better teams in the Southland, so it really made us question Illinois.  Yesterday, Nicholls went in to Pitt, who had opened the season with a win against Florida State, and pulled out a win.  Now the question is….just how good is Nicholls?

-Nebraska, who was blown out by UC Riverside in their opening game, fell to 0-2 yesterday with a loss to Southern Utah.  Southern Utah was one of the worst teams in all of div1 just a few years ago, and while they are MUCH better this year, it’s still a sign that things are plummeting in Nebraska.

By the way, UC Riverside is now 2-0.  They beat Idaho at home 58-51.  Idaho is awful, and UC Riverside had a much easier time with Nebraska than they did with Idaho.

-Northwestern is another Big Ten team that’s off to a stinker start.  They fell at home to Merrimack yesterday, who was playing just their second ever game as a D-1 team.  In their first game, Merrimack lost rather handily to Maine.  It looks like Northwestern basketball is back to being Northwestern basketball.

-San Diego State got a really big road win against a BYU team that we were expecting to be a tournament caliber team.  I know it’s early, but a win like this really does make a statement early on about how good San Diego State may be this year.

-Oregon State, who I feel could be a dark horse in the Pac 12, got a nice win at home against a pretty good Iowa State team yesterday.  The Beavers have some early season momentum, which is worth noting because building up momentum at any point in the season just isn’t something that happens to them all that often. Furthermore, the only loss for the Pac-12 so far came in the Colorado-Arizona State nonconference tilt!

-Oklahoma picked up a nice neutral floor win against Minnesota yesterday.  The Sooners are looking pretty good and are out to a 2-0 start.

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-BOSTON COLLEGE AT SOUTH FLORIDA.  Both teams come into this 1-0.  South Florida was a team that we thought could be a darkhorse this year, but the injury bug has already hit them.  BC got a big win against Wake Forest in their first game and is looking to keep that momentum going.

-WYOMING AT SOUTH CAROLINA.  Not expecting a whole lot out of these teams in the long run, but they both come into this one 1-0.

-FLORIDA STATE AT FLORIDA.  It’s a rivalry game between two likely tournament teams.  Florida State lost to Pitt in their season opener, which was somewhat of a surprise.  They’ve got a really tall order today as they go on the road to face a Florida team that’s currently ranked #6th.  Even if FSU gets off to an 0-2 start, I think their overall prospects for the season are good.

-MAINE AT HARVARD.  Maine won their season opener against Merrimack, but has a much taller order today.  This looks to be a good Harvard team, but they’re coming off a somewhat surprising loss to Northeastern and are looking to bounce back.

-VERMONT AT BUCKNELL.  Vermont won their season opener at Saint Bonaventure and is looking to pick up their second road win of the season.

-SAINT JOSEPH’S AT OLD DOMINION.  Joe’s isn’t expected to do much this year, but they did look fairly decent in their season opener.  If they can get this one on the road then they’ll have some momentum built up.

-ILLINOIS AT ARIZONA.  Illinois picked up a nice win at Grand Canyon the other night, but they’ve got a much tougher challenge tonight against a very talented Arizona team.

-TOLEDO AT MARSHALL.  This is a semi-intriguing UTR game between two teams that are expected to do well in their leagues.

-OAKLAND VS SOUTHERN ILLINOIS (Sunshine Slam).  Both teams have a close loss to Delaware and a double digit lead against UTSA – winner of this game gets 2nd place in the Sunshine Slam in Kissimmee, Florida.

-LITTLE ROCK AT ILLINOIS STATE.  Both teams 1-0

BUY GAMES

-Niagara @ Rutgers
-Youngstown State @ Louisville – both teams 1-0
-UMES @ Liberty
-Colgate @ Clemson – may be competitive.  Colgate is one of the better teams in the Patriot League
-UMass Lowell @ Ohio State
-Detroit Mercy @ NC State
-James Madison @ Virginia – both teams 1-0
-Binghamton @ Michigan State
-UC Santa Barbara @ UCLA – both teams 1-0

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Still Hanging with the Hoyas: Part 1

Posted on November 9, 2019 by Jon Teitel

HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will spend the upcoming months covering several Georgetown basketball home games, with a very special reward coming in March. He begins the series with the Hoyas’ matchup earlier today against Central Arkansas:

The morning got off to a slow start after I found myself stuck in line behind the Hoya Band as we all tried to enter the arena at the same time but eventually a nice security officer let myself and some of the other media folks cut the line. The pregame media room meals last season were above-average but today’s was a little underwhelming: half of a lukewarm egg and cheese bagel, some tasty potatoes, decent pasta salad, and some pastries to satisfy my sweet tooth. While standing in the food line I got to meet play-by-play man Scott Graham, a fellow Penn alum who used to work with my college roommate Andrew when they both covered Quaker games on the radio. The crowd was a little sparse on an unseasonably cold afternoon during a holiday weekend in November:

2 of the storylines that I was keeping an eye on were Central Arkansas becoming the 2nd team in the country to play 3 games this week (trailing only DePaul) and Georgetown 7-footer Omer Yurtseven’s 1st college game vs. a fellow 7-footer since his ACC regular season finale on 3/3/18 during his NC State days (when 1 of his Louisville opponents was Anas Mahmoud):

The best athlete sighting of the day was Jerome Williams who was sitting in the front row with his wife/3 kids. The “Junk Yard Dog” is a hometown kid who made it big: born in DC, high school in the Maryland suburbs, college at Georgetown, followed by a 10-year NBA career with the Pistons/Raptors/Bulls/Knicks. Foreshadowing: both Jerome and his cell phone will make another appearance in our story toward the very end:

A quick pregame huddle and away we go:

The Bears only won 14 games last year with a very young squad and even though they are a year older they still only have 1 senior on the roster in Aaron Weidenaar. Their defensive rebounding needs a little work: they allowed 4 straight offensive REB on the very 1st possession of the game while Coach Russ Pennell screamed his displeasure from the sideline. After surviving that initial obstacle they had a great balanced scoring effort in the 1st half: SO Eddy Kayouloud made a few layups, JR DeAndre Jones drained back-to-back 3s, and JR 7-footer Hayden Koval (who often hung out on the perimeter) matched his PG Jones with 2 long-range shots of his own:

The instant offense off the bench was provided by FR Jaxson Baker with 3 quick makes from behind the arc: it was easy for me to cheer for him as we both went to the same high school in Phoenix (although I was a couple of decades ahead of him!). Unfortunately, it was not enough because Georgetown scored 54 in the 1st half thanks to some outside shooting by Jamorko Pickett/Jagan Mosely and a dominant effort by Yurtseven inside. The big man made put-back after dunk after hook shot and recorded a double-double after only 10 minutes of on-court action to help his team to a double-digit halftime lead:

Even at a college basketball game you could see that the city is still enjoying its post-World Series hangover:

Sadly, the t-shirt gun was not firing out Nats’ t-shirts into the crowd:

Despite the fact that Koval and Yurtseven are both 7’ tall they possess vastly different skill sets. The former continued to make shots from behind the arc (4-5 on the day) and finished with 21 PTS/4 REB in almost 39 minutes, while the latter continued to do damage near the basket and finished with 1 of the most efficient stat lines you will ever see (17 PTS/15 REB in under 20 minutes!). The Hoyas’ 3-PT shooting turned ice-cold in the 2nd half (2-11), which led to Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing telling his team to try something else:

Fortunately it was not an issue due to his team’s all-around offensive effort. While Yurtseven was certainly the star it was not just a 1-man show: each of his other 10 teammates who stepped onto the court scored 4+ PTS. The Mr. Perfection Award goes to Mosely: in addition to taking multiple charges he made all 3 of his shots from 1-PT land, both of his shots from 2-PT land, and both of his shots from 3-PT land en route to a 13-PT night for the dependable senior:

Georgetown was outscored after halftime but still cruised to an 89-78 win thanks to a whopping 38 bench PTS. In the postgame press conference I tried to ask Coach Pennell how he felt about his school record for career AST on the brink of being broken by his PG: before I even finished he interrupted me to say that Jones was going to be benched for the rest of the season!

After I laughed out loud (it was funny!), he gave Jones his props for having a fantastic career despite just starting his JR year this week. He also said that Jones got kicked in the calf during the game (which is why he only played 17 minutes) but hopes that he can return for their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Tuesday because he is “the straw that stirs the drink”:

After Coach Ewing sat down at the podium I inquired whether Yurtseven had already exceeded his own expectations only 2 games into the season. Ewing smiled and admitted that he expects great things from his SR C:

He praised his size/athleticism/ability but frankly stated that “his effort needs to be a lot better”. My seat on the baseline gave me a perfect view of the 7’ player giving his undivided attention to his 7’ coach during 1 of their TV timeouts:

The best part of the press conference was when Williams crashed it and sat in the front row: not due to his shiny new Georgetown backpack, but rather the moment when his cell phone started going off…with a ring-tone that made the sound of a barking dog!:

That’s all for now, check back in the weeks ahead for Part 2.

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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Saturday, Nov 9th

Posted on November 9, 2019 by David Griggs

For today’s UTR Game of the Day between Austin Peay and Western Kentucky – CLICK HERE

NEWS AND NOTES

To say that Memphis was in the news last night would be a bit of an understatement. Just hours before their victory against Illinois-Chicago, the NCAA ruled star freshman James Wiseman ineligible because they deemed that Penny Hardaway was a booster prior to being named head coach at Memphis and had provided moving expenses for Wiseman and his family to move to Memphis.

Within moments, a judge in Shelby County temporarily halted the ruling and allowed Wiseman to suit up and play for Memphis for the time being. The NCAA warned Memphis that any games from this point on are in danger of being vacated as long as Wiseman continues to play for the Tigers.

If not for the Memphis saga, our lead story from last night would be Merrimack getting their first D-1 victory with a win at Northwestern last night. The Warriors had a 17-4 run late in the game to turn a 5-point deficit into an 8-point lead with under a minute remaining and won the game at the foul line.

Washington also got a significant victory against Baylor in the Armed Forces Classic in Anchorage last night. Isaiah Stewart hit a shot with 30 seconds remaining to put the Huskies ahead for good and gave themselves and the Pac-12 a big win that was noticeably lacking last season.

Utah did things to Mississippi Valley State that would be illegal in the other 55 states, districts and territories in this country. Well, maybe not in Louisiana – Grambling also did the same things to Ecclesia College. We will go out on a limb and guess that no conference has ever had one team win by 90+ points in one game and another team lose by 90+ points in a separate game on the same night.

Northeastern also scored a mild upset at home against Harvard – they have now opened their season with 2 victories in the basketball version of the Bean Pot.

Vermont got a double-double from Anthony Lamb to put themselves over the edge with a win at St. Bonaventure, and Dartmouth got a big win on the road and put an emphatic end to Buffalo’s 26-game home winning streak.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-WRIGHT STATE AT MIAMI OH (Mythical Miami Valley Conference).  An interesting UTR game between a Wright State team that’s expected to be a fruntrunner in the Horizon League, and a Miami OH team that we think can make some noise in the MAC.

-LIPSCOMB AT MIDDLE TENNESSEE.  A crosstown UTR rivalry with both teams coming into this game after winning their opener.  Lipscomb has a lot of pieces to replace, but they should once again be one of the better teams in the A-Sun.

-SAN DIEGO STATE AT BYU.  This is an old conference rivalry renewed. Both teams have been a little down in recent years, but both have quite a bit of potential for this year.  This is a really good early season game because it’s a resume builder for whoever pulls it off.

-KANSAS STATE AT UNLV.  UNLV is in rebuild mode and they’ve got a ways to go before everything is entirely rebuilt.  K State also has a lot to replace from a team that finished in first place in the Big 12 last year.  This would be a nice early season road win for them if they’re able to pull it off.

-IOWA STATE AT OREGON STATE.  Both teams come into this 1-0, but neither were really tested in their first game.  I think Oregon State is a potential sleeper team and they’ve got a chance to show that today if they can knock off what looks like a good Iowa State team at home.

-TEXAS AT PURDUE.  Texas barely missed the NCAA Tournament last year, and even though it’s early in the season this game still feels like it has a sense of urgency to it.  Both teams will have multiple chances at quality wins throughout the year, but this is a chance to get one early and sprint ahead to the front of the pack, so to speak.

-NORTHERN IOWA AT NORTHERN ILLINOIS.  I kind of like this UNI team, and this is a winnable road game that could get them off to a solid 2-0 start.

-VALPARAISO AT SAINT LOUIS.  Both teams won their opener, and while we don’t expect either one of them to be frontrunners in their conferences, this is still a game worth keeping an eye on.

-OKLAHOMA VS MINNESOTA (Sioux Falls SD).  This is a resume building opportunity for both teams seeing that it’s a chance to pick up an early OOC win away from home.  I still have more questions than answers about both of them, so this game should teach us something.

-RHODE ISLAND AT MARYLAND.  Rhody is trying to rebuild and get back to being a top 25 caliber team.  They appear to have a ways to go, but a road win like this could catapult them pretty far pretty fast.  Maryland is ranked in the top ten and looks to be good enough to compete for a protected seed.  Both teams won their opener, but neither were tested like they will be tonight.

-EAST TENNESSEE STATE AT UT MARTIN.  Both teams come in 1-0, and it’s a chance for ETSU, who we think will be a potential bubble team, to pick up a road win.

-LMU AT NEVADA.  This is a winnable road game for an LMU team that could turn out to be a dark horse this year.

-BOISE STATE AT OREGON.  Boise State won their first game and from all accounts seems to be much better than they were a year ago, but winning on the road against an Oregon team that will compete for a protected seed is a very tall order.

-GEORGIA STATE AT CHARLESTON – both teams 1-0

-DELAWARE VS SOUTHERN ILLINOIS (Sunshine Slam, Kissimmee FL) – both teams 1-0

-AUSTIN PEAY AT WESTERN KENTUCKY – both teams 1-0

-IDAHO AT UC RIVERSIDE – both teams 1-0 (amazingly)

-SOUTHERN MISS AT SOUTH ALABAMA – both teams 1-0

-TULSA AT UT ARLINGTON – both teams 1-0

-SOUTH DAKOTA STATE AT CAL STATE BAKERSFIELD – both teams unbeaten

BUY GAMES

-Robert Morris @ Notre Dame
-Central Arkansas @ Georgetown
-Nicholls @ Pittsburgh
-Morgan State @ Temple – both teams 1-0
-Portland State @ Indiana – both teams 1-0
-Southern Utah @ Nebraska – Nebraska could easily end up 0-2
-Stony Brook @ Seton Hall
-Texas Southern @ Wichita State
-Kansas City @ Oklahoma State – both teams 1-0
-Prairie View A&M @ UCF
-Central Connecticut @ Saint John’s
-Wagner @ Penn State
-NJIT @ Providence
-New Orleans @ Butler – both teams 1-0
-Indiana State @ Dayton
-Arkansas Pine Bluff @ Gonzaga
-Bethune Cookman @ Texas Tech
-Cal State Fullerton @ Stanford

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Under The Radar Game of the Day – Saturday, November 9

Posted on November 9, 2019 by John Stalica

Austin Peay (1-0, 0-0 D1) at Western Kentucky (1-0, 1-0 D1) – 4:00 PM EST (ESPN3)

Today’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to Bowling Green, Kentucky (home of the Corvette Museum) where the hometown Hilltoppers will host the Austin Peay Governors in a Saturday matinee involving two NCAA Tournament hopefuls. In their opener on Tuesday, WKU defeated Tennessee Tech 76-64 thanks to 16 points and 9 rebounds from Charles Bassey. Carson Williams also had 16 points for the Toppers.

Austin Peay opened their season with a non-D1 victory against Oakland City on Tuesday night with the Govs winning 110-67. Terry Taylor led APSU with 21 points; Jordyn Adams also had 20 points (both of whom played only 28 minutes). Taylor is also a finalist for the CollegeInsider.com’s Lou Henson Award winner as one of the nation’s top UTR players.

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