News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Wednesday, Dec 12th

Posted on December 12, 2018 by David Griggs

-Big 5!!!  Penn snapped a 15 year losing streak to Nova, and I think a 25 Big 5 game winning streak for Nova, with their 78-75 win yesterday.  Penn sprinted out to an early 14-2 lead, and while Nova came back they never really got control of the game.  To Penn’s credit, every time the momentum seemed to be going toward Nova, they would come up with a big play.  For the Quakers, it’s a huge feel good win, but it’s also an important win on paper.  They’re suddenly putting together quite a nice resume and may be hovering around the bubble, or even inside of it, if they can hold serve and blow through the Ivy League.

-Colorado had to overcome an early 17 point deficit at New Mexico, but came back and picked up the win.  The Buffs are now 8-1 on the year, and while we haven’t talked all that much about them, they are a Pac Twelve team that doesn’t appear to suck.

-LIPSCOMB AT LOUISVILLE.  This is a buy game, but it’s one of the more interesting buy games that you’ll see.  Lipscomb has already picked up road wins at TCU and SMU, and while Louisville is the better team and they are at home, Lipscomb should still be able to play really well.

-UMASS AT TEMPLE.  This is an old Atlantic Ten rivalry from when the A10 had its classic ten team lineup.  Temple has done fairly well so far this season and just needs to hold serve in games like this when they’re playing sub-tournament caliber teams at home.

-MURRAY STATE AT SOUTHERN ILLINOIS.  This is a really good UTR game between two possible (and perhaps even probable) NCAA Tournament caliber teams.  Murray State’s only loss on the year was at Alabama, and SIU has won 7 of their last 8 since dropping their first two to Kentucky and Buffalo.  Both teams need quality wins on their resume in order to jump out to the committee, so this game is rather important.

-LSU AT HOUSTON.  This is a big road test for an LSU team that is probably better than what their current resume indicates.  Houston is unbeaten, but they’re also facing what is probably their biggest test of the year even though they are at home.

-SAN DIEGO AT OREGON.  San Diego is off to a really good 8-2 start, whereas Oregon has somewhat underachieved this year.  The Ducks are at home and are undoubtedly favored to win this game, but they’re not so much better than San Diego that they can just overlook them.  If San Diego picks up this road win then we have to start talking about them as a possible at-large worthy team.

-Columbia @ Boston College
-LIU Brooklyn @ Stony Brook – A win gets Stony Brook to an impressive 8-2
-Chattanooga @ Georgia State – Georgia State has proclaimed themselves first place in the SEC, and can get to 7-3 overall tonight
-Northwestern State @ Texas Tech
-Coppin State @ UNC Greensboro
-Jacksonville State @ Wichita State
-Chicago State @ DePaul
-Portland State @ BYU

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Under The Radar Game of the Day: Savannah State at South Dakota State

Posted on December 11, 2018 by John Stalica

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

For last night’s weekly Hoops HD Report podcast – CLICK HERE

For the Puppet’s latest weekly NCAA Tournament bracket projection – CLICK HERE

Savannah State (3-7, 2-7 D1) at South Dakota State (8-3, 7-3 D1) – 8:00 PM EST (ESPN+)

Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to Brookings, South Dakota where the Jackrabbits of South Dakota State play host to the Team of the People – the Savannah State Tigers. The Tigers resume play after a 10-day layoff for exams – their last outing was a 97-60 loss at Gardner-Webb. Savannah’s last victory came against Alcorn State back in November in a neutral-court game played on Liberty’s campus. The Tigers continue to remain among the leaders nationally in game tempo; they score over 80 points a game (led by Jaquan Dotson’s 11.9 points a game) but give up a whopping 96 points a game in return.

The Jackrabbits come into tonight’s game following a 101-92 win at home against Southern University last Saturday. Their most noteworthy wins so far (which may not be saying much by recent SDSU standards) are against Grand Canyon and Colorado State. Losses at Florida Gulf Coast and on a neutral court against Tulane will sting, however. While Mike Daum is one of the nation’s best players with 25.2 points a game and 10.3 rebounds a game, don’t sleep on David Jenkins either – he averages 22 points a game for the Jackrabbits as well.

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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Tuesday, Dec 11th

Posted on December 11, 2018 by David Griggs

CLICK HERE for the latest Hoops HD Report Video Podcast

-You really should watch the Hoops HD Report, because there were no good or even slightly meaningful games yesterday.  I mean none.  This was the most quality college basketball related product available yesterday!

VILLANOVA AT PENN (Big Five).  Nova stumbled in the first few weeks of the season, but they’ve been on a roll since.  They can once again sweep the Big Five if they can win on the road against a Penn team that has played really well, but appears to be overmatched tonight.

-GEORGIA SOUTHERN AT UCF.  Georgia Southern is off to a really good start and has a chance to add a really nice win to their resume and elevate themselves even more.  We still think UCF will end up in the NCAA Tournament, but they still have some work to do and need to take care of business in games like this.

-NJIT AT FORDHAM.  Fordham has had some really bad losses, and I think that we’re so used to Fordham being bad that we’re looking at their two losses more than their seven wins.  They host an NJIT team that is off to one of their best starts ever.  This isn’t technically a UTR game because of Fordham, but it has a UTR feel to it simply because there is no spotlight on it, but this game probably intrigues me more tonight than just about any other game that’s being played tonight.

-SAVANNAH STATE AT SOUTH DAKOTA STATE.  THE TEAM OF THE PEOPLE IS BACK IN ACTION!!!!  If nothing else, this should be a very fun game to watch.  Both teams can score, and it should be a very fast paced affair with a lot of points.

-COLORADO AT NEW MEXICO.  It’s rare that you see a one loss power conference team that’s been as quiet as this Colorado team, but they’ve only lost one game, they have some decent wins on their resume, and they’ve got a good chance at picking up another true road game tonight, so maybe we should start paying attention to the Buffs.

-DENVER AT WYOMING (Front Range).  We at Hoops HD Love the Front Range!!!  Colorado and Colorado State don’t play the full Front Range schedule anymore, but the fantastic spirit of this mythical conference lives on in great, high level match-ups like this one!!

-JOHNSON & WALES (nondiv1) AT NORTHERN COLORADO (Maybe Front Range!!).  Johnson & Wales may be a law firm, but then again it may be a college.  We aren’t really sure.  What we do know is that it is in Colorado!  That raises this question of whether or not this is a Front Range game.  We at Hoops HD Love the Front Range!  We certainly would never want to neglect highlighting one of their games.  Maybe this is.  Maybe it’s not.  Johnson & Wales wouldn’t be considered a member of the classic Front Range lineup, but bands like Guns & Roses toured with different lineups, and people still said it was G&R.  Colorado and Colorado State no longer play the full Front Range schedule.  Is this a sufficient substitute??  Northern Colorado, in all seriousness, has looked like one of the better Big Sky teams, and shouldn’t have any trouble against a non-div1 law firm.  But, maybe they will!  Maybe this is a Front Range game!  And if it is, you can just throw all the records out the window!!!

-SC State @ Liberty -Liberty can improve to 8-2
-Charleston Southern @ Furman
-Loyola MD @ Maryland
-Mississippi Valley State @ Louisiana Tech
-North Florida @ Minnesota

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The Hoops HD Report: December 10th

Posted on December 10, 2018 by David Griggs

Chad, David, and Jon look back at a very busy week of college basketball that saw Tennessee knock off Gonzaga in a classic game, tons of rivalries this past Saturday, and two big wins by Nevada.  We run through all the multi-bid conferences and look at Kentucky’s overtime loss to Seton Hall and talk about how they still don’t have any big wins, how improved Louisville is despite the close loss at Indiana, Kansas is the new overall #1 team despite getting a tough test from New Mexico State, how the teams in the Pac Twelve and Atlantic Ten are continuing to struggle, but that VCU and Saint Louis are finally starting to make cases for themselves.  All that, and much more…

 

And for all you radio lovers, below is an audio only version of the show…

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Puppet’s Bracket Projections: Monday, Dec 10th

Posted on December 10, 2018 by David Griggs

Just so everyone knows what they were looking at, this bracket is a CHECKPOINT based mostly on CURRENT MERIT.  It is not a forecast of what I think things will look like in March, nor is it a ranking of how good I think teams actually are.  I’m basically asking myself how difficult is it for an average team to win the games that they’ve played, and then ranking them accordingly.

Things are starting to “normalize” but there is still some stuff in the bracket that is obviously way out of whack.   More on that below…

OTHERS CONSIDERED: Iowa State, UCLA, Davidson, Maryland, Toledo, UCF, Missouri, Oregon State, San Francisco, NC State, Vanderbilt, Liberty, Colorado, Georgetown, Creighton, Northwestern, Kent State, North Texas, Drake, Butler, Ole Miss

 

NOTES ON THE BRACKET:

-Furman has been a great story.  They’re unbeaten, they had two big road wins against Villanova and Loyola Chicago, and they have cracked the top 25 (and deservedly so).  Their seed in this bracket reflects that merit.  I do not actually believe them to be that good.  Other than the win at Villanova, they have not beaten any other teams that have a winning div1 record.  On top of that, they had to sweat out Gardner Webb and Western Carolina at home, and neither of those teams are likely to finish in the top 200.  If you’re asking me to forecast Furman, I don’t even think they’ finish in the top two of the SoCon, much less win it, much less run the table and end up as a protected seed.  But, this bracket is not intended to make any assumptions.  With an unbeaten record and a big win against Nova, you can’t say they don’t belong on the #4 line right now if you’re doing it based only on merit.

-The season is starting to take shape, but a lot of things are still pretty flimsy right now.  A team like Purdue, who is on the #12 line, has had a couple of close losses.  If they win just one or two of those, then they’re probably a protected seed.  With so little data, any one game can have a huge sway on things.  That is another reason that this bracket is not for you if you’re looking for something that accurately measures the overall strength of the teams and not just the current merit.

-I don’t know what to do with Western Kentucky.  They’ve got two really good wins away from home, and a smattering of unimpressive results.  A case could be made that they don’t belong in at all.  A case could also be made that they should be seeded a lot better.

-I’m big on Louisville.  I like their win at Seton Hall, and the home win against Michigan State isn’t bad either.  Their losses to Tennessee (who is a #1 seed) and at Indiana (who is unbeaten at home and also looking pretty good) are hardly damaging.

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Under The Radar Game of the Day: Morehead State at Marshall (and other News & Notes)

Posted on December 10, 2018 by John Stalica

Morehead State (3-5, 1-5 D1) at Marshall (5-4) – 7:00 PM EST (ESPN+)

Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day actually features the Ellis Johnson traveling trophy featuring a pair of teams separated by 63 miles of Interstate 64 – the Morehead State Eagles and the Marshall Thundering Herd. Morehead actually pulled off an upset against the Herd at home last season with an 86-83 victory. This season, Morehead comes into the game with a 3-game losing streak against D-1 competition (with a field trip win against non-D1 Ohio-Chillicothe sandwiched in between). While Jordan Walker currently leads Morehead with 14 points a game through 8 games, Lamontray Harris is the main leader of this team. He averages 12.6 PPG and 9.9 rebounds a game (and is also on pace to reach the 1,000-point mark later this season).

Marshall also started the season with higher expectations after a season that saw them beat Wichita State in the NCAA Tournament, but the Herd have hit the skids of late with a 3-game losing streak of their own against Ohio, Duquesne and Toledo. Marshall still has a 2-headed offensive monster that includes Jon Elmore (20.3 points a game) and CJ Burks (19.4 points a game), but their defense has allowed a whopping 81 points a game so far this season.

NEWS AND NOTES

-One of the most exciting games of the year yesterday was Tennessee v Gonzaga.  It saw a lead that seesawed back and forth, one of the greatest defensive blocks I have ever seen in my life in any basketball game, big shots, big plays, and a last second shot that would have sent the game to overtime had it gone in.  It was also a huge win by Tennessee.  So far this season, Tennessee has taken Kansas to overtime, and beaten Gonzaga.  They have to be thought of as a #1 seed caliber team and included in that conversation.  They aren’t likely to lose too many the rest of the way.

-Virginia had to sweat a little bit against VCU at home, but ended up pulling it out in the final few minutes.

-Alabama got a really nice home win against Arizona.  They’ve still got a lot of work to do, but this was a big step in the right direction.

-Saint Louis picked up a home win against an Oregon State team with a bloated record, but without any big wins.

-Texas got things turned around after back to back losses with a big home win over Purdue.  Purdue still has some work to do, but they’re a good team and will have the chances they need to land safely inside the bubble come March.

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