Hoops HD

NEWS AND NOTES:

-For all of the In-Season Tournament Brackets and Schedules – CLICK HERE

-I don’t think there has ever been a 7th place finish in any event that was anywhere near as impressive as Dayton’s was in the Maui Invitational. They almost upset two really highly ranked teams, and then blew UConn’s doors off 85-67 yesterday. UConn is, without question, NOT the 2nd best team in the country like their ranking indicated, but Dayton is, without question, one of the best 25 teams in the country. They’re probably good enough to blow through the rest of their schedule and end the regular season ranked very high, and perhaps be on the fringe of a protected seed.

-Auburn ended up winning the Maui Invitational as they skated past Memphis 90-76. Auburn’s resume is as follows: they have wins over Houston, Iowa State, North Carolina, and now Memphis, and all those wins are away from home. That’s insanely good!!

-Michigan State finished things off in Maui with a win over North Carolina. Sparty was not a team I was super big on coming into this event, but they picked up two really good wins and are off to a very solid start to the season.

-Gonzaga, who had looked like one of the best teams in the country, somehow fell to West Virginia, who had shown very few signs of life prior to yesterday. That one game completely changes the complexion of WVU’s outlook this season.

-The other surprise was Louisville’s win over Indiana. The fact that Louisville won isn’t that surprising because we had questions about Indiana coming in, but Louisville winning 89-61 was pretty astounding. Louisville is probably a lot better than we thought, and Indiana may be even worse.

-Rutgers, who less than a week ago fell on the road to Kennesaw State, must have woken up. They didn’t get the win against Alabama yesterday out in the Players Era Festival, but they were extremely competitive and only lost 95-90. I’d say there is more reason to hope than to be discouraged after that.

-Texas A&M held on to beat Creighton yesterday 77-73. While it is the 3rd straight loss or Creighton, they were at least competitive against a strong opponent. In their previous two games it didn’t even look like they belonged on the floor.

-Michigan totally blew Xavier’s doors off 78-53. It’s another case of not being surprised at which team won, but being surprised at how much that team dominated. It was a real statement win for the Wolverines.

-Oregon remains unbeaten after their win over San Diego State in the Players Era Festival. Keep your eye on the Ducks!!

-SMU got a nice 77-60 win over a Washington State team that came in looking pretty good. It may not be a win that jumps off the resume, but to me it’s an indication that SMU is capable of playing well.

-Last, and definitely latest, Houston finished off Notre Dame 65-54 in a game that wrapped up at some time around 3am. It’s Houston’s most notable win of the season so far.

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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-LOUISVILLE VS WEST VIRGINIA (Battle 4 Atlantis). Many were probably expecting to see these two play today, but probably not on the winners’ side of the bracket. Louisville blew Indiana into the sun and West Virginia, after having shown no real signs of life prior to yesterday, somehow upset Gonzaga. Both have another chance to pick up a notable win again today.

-MINNESOTA VS WICHITA STATE (ESPN Events Invitational). Minnesota comes in at 5-1, but their only wins have been home buy games. Wichita State is a little more proven, but they have a limited number of opportunities at big wins the rest of the way so it is very important that they do well in this event and pick up some notable wins.

-INDIANA AT GONZAGA (Battle 4 Atlantis). Both teams are in the rankings and both still have a shot at picking up a solid win for their tournament resumes today. The fact that it’s on the losers’ side of the bracket won’t matter to any metrics or team sheets. Gonzaga’s resume still looks very impressive, whereas Indiana has still only won home buy games up to this point.

-FLORIDA VS WAKE FOREST (ESPN Events Invitational). Florida appears to be really solid, but their schedule up until now has been somewhat flimsy outside of a win against Florida State. Wake has a nice win against Michigan, but could also stand to build up their resume some, so this event is a good opportunity for both of them.

-PURDUE VS NC STATE (Rady Children’s Invitational). NC State is unbeaten but also untested. Purdue has already managed a big win against Alabama, but this would be their first win of note away from home, so there’s something at stake for both these teams.

-ARKANSAS VS ILLINOIS (Thanksgiving Hoops Showcase). Both of these teams appear to be good and both have high expectations for the year, but to date they are both also lacking in a high caliber win, so this is clearly an opportunity for them to pick up what would be their biggest win of the year to date.

-OKLAHOMA VS ARIZONA (Battle 4 Atlantis). Oklahoma pulled out a close one against Providence yesterday and they’ll have an even tougher test today against an Arizona team that cruised by Davidson and who can add another nice win to their resume today.

-BYU VS OLE MISS (Rady Children’s Invitational). Both teams come in at 5-0 and both have high expectations of being likely tournament teams this year, but they’re also both facing their first real test of the season today.

-UTAH STATE VS SAINT BONAVENTURE (NIT Season Tip-Off). Utah State is coming off a very nice win against Iowa and can add another notable neutral floor win to their resume today. Saint Bonaventure is unbeaten, but completely unproven. This event is a chance for them to pick up some decent wins and get the committee’s attention.

-NORTHWESTERN VS BUTLER (Arizona Tip-Off). Despite Butler’s early loss to Austin Peay and Northwestern not having managed any sort of notable win yet, I still think both of these teams can have bigger years than what their preseason expectations were and even make it to the NCAA Tournament. So, this event and this game today is a big opportunity for both of them.

-KENNESAW STATE VS UC IRVINE (Western Slam). Kennesaw State is a very surprising 5-1 on the year and has a really nice win against Rutgers. UC Irvine is a perfect 5-0 and probably one of the best UTR teams out there. If they are going to make a run at the bubble, the margin for error is very thin.

-USC VS SAINT MARY’S (Acrisure Classic). Saint Mary’s is a perfect 6-1 and USC is a very respectable 5-1. Outside of Saint Mary’s win against Nebraska both teams need some quality wins to build up their resumes.

-MISSISSIPPI STATE VS UNLV (Arizona Tip-Off). Mississippi State is coming off a really nice road win at SMU and can build up their resume some more if they’re able to pick up a couple of wins in this event.

-NEW MEXICO VS ARIZONA STATE (Acrisure Classic). Both teams have managed some decent wins already, and both seem to be better than what we were expecting in the preseason. It will be interesting to see what they do against each other tonight.

BUY GAMES (and other games of note):

-Rhode Island vs UT Arlington (Jacksonville Classic) – Rhody can remain unbeaten on the year
-TCU vs Santa Clara (Acrisure Invitational) – TCU can get to 5-1, but Santa Clara is probably better than their 2-4 record
-Washington vs Colorado State (Acrisure Invitational) – Washington can get to 5-1 with a win
-Providence vs Davidson (Battle 4 Atlantis) – both teams are looking to bounce back and pick up their first notable win of the season
-Northern Iowa vs North Texas (NIT Season Tip-Off) – North Texas can improve to 6-1 and add another road/neutral win to their profile
-Kent State vs Towson (Western Slam) – Kent State can improve to 5-1

NEWS AND NOTES:

-For all of the In-Season Tournament Brackets and Schedules – CLICK HERE

-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE

-Kansas squeaked past Duke 75-72 in Las Vegas. Both these teams have tested themselves big time, and both will likely end up having monster years. They’ve each played the types of schedules and won the types of games teams need to play to end up as protected seeds, and even #1 seeds. Duke losing by 3 in November to the #1 team in the nation on a neutral floor hardly even qualifies as a setback.

-UConn’s 73-72 loss in Maui DOES qualify as a setback. UConn came in ranked #2, and will likely be dropping down the polls quite a bit after dropping games to both Memphis and now Colorado. And they’ll be tested again tonight by Dayton. Speaking of Dayton…

-For the second day in a row Dayton took a highly ranked team to the final minute of the game, but came up just short as they fell 89-84. You kind of hate to see a team play as well as Dayton and not yet finish off one of those big time wins. They’ll have a good year, and based what they’ve shown us so far it’s hard to imagine them not blowing through the Atlantic 10, but they don’t get numerous opportunities at wins like this throughout the season the way teams from the P4 level conferences do.

-Also in Maui, Auburn held off North Carolina to pick up yet another win against a top 15 team away from home, and they’ll face Memphis tonight, who is also off to an incredible start this season.

-Alabama and Houston squared off in the Players Era Festival in another game that featured two top ten teams. Alabama held on to get the overtime win 85-80 in a game that seesawed back and forth. I’m still all in on Houston being a Final Four caliber team, and they’ll have many chances to pick up big wins between now and March, but as of now they’ve failed to get a win in their first two big tests of the year.

-Oregon, who we had a lot of questions about coming into the year, is starting to answer those questions. They had a nice road win at Oregon State last week, and beat a really good Texas A&M team 80-70 in the Players Era Festival yesterday. If they continue to do well in this event they should shoot up the rankings.

-Creighton will NOT be shooting up the rankings. They are down a key player and have not looked good at all in their last two games. Props to San Diego State who picked up the 71-53 win, and who also looked a little sluggish in a few of their early games, but looked really good yesterday.

-Clemson has started to look better and has now picked up two nice wins in the Sunshine Slam. They beat San Francisco handily on Monday and beat what was an unbeaten Penn State team 75-67 yesterday.

-Grand Canyon finally got a notable win with an impressive 78-71 showing against what was an unbeaten (and untested) Stanford team in Palm Springs. Hawaii, Georgia, and Saint Louis still remain on their schedule, so there are a few more chances to at least get a few notable wins.

-Boston College, who we just didn’t have any thoughts on at all coming into the year other than being the likely doormat of the ACC, has shown out this year! They improved to 6-1 yesterday after beating Boise State 63-61 in the Cayman Islands Championship. The Eagles will take home a little bit of hardware, but more importantly add some good wins to their profile which is starting to stick out a little bit.

-Rutgers needed overtime to get by Notre Dame 85-84 in the Players Era Festival. While it remains to be seen how good Notre Dame is, it was still a nice bounce back for Rutgers after the loss at Kennesaw State.

-Keep an eye on Furman. They are now 7-0 after a win over Seattle U (who I know isn’t that good) and are starting to look like a UTR team with a lot of promise.

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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-LOUISVILLE VS INDIANA (Battle 4 Atlantis). Both teams have shown signs of promise, and Indiana is high in the rankings, but neither team has managed to win any games that aren’t home buy games yet. Louisville was blown out by Tennessee in their only real test of the season, and Indiana has had no real tests yet, so we should learn something about both of them today.

-WEST VIRGINIA VS GONZAGA (Battle 4 Atlantis). This appears to be a massive mismatch. Gonzaga should have no trouble getting the win and moving on to the winners’ side of the bracket.

-COLORADO VS IOWA STATE (Maui Invitational). Colorado’s win over UConn yesterday came after I talked about what a huge mismatch the game was going to be and how down Colorado was this year. Now Colorado is suddenly 5-1 with a very impressive win on their profile. They’ll have their hand full again today against an Iowa State team that battled Auburn in the first game and got by what appears to be a really good Dayton team yesterday.

-OREGON VS SAN DIEGO STATE (Players Era Festival). San Diego State had appeared sluggish in their first few games this season, but they weren’t sluggish yesterday as they absolutely blasted Creighton. Oregon comes in at 6-0 with a really nice win against Texas A&M yesterday, so both teams showed out in their first games of this event.

-MEMPHIS VS AUBURN (Maui Invitational). Both teams come in unbeaten with multiple big wins. Something tells me that regardless of the outcome of this game Memphis will not be unranked next week. Both are already putting together profiles that would land them as solid protected seeds, and both have the chance at another big win today.

-OKLAHOMA VS PROVIDENCE (Battle 4 Atlantis). Both teams come into this game completely untested. They’re unbeaten, but they’ve played nothing but home buy games.

-TEXAS A&M VS CREIGHTON (Players Era Festival). Creighton has not looked good at all in their last two games, and they’re also without a key player. Texas A&M is a team we were big on coming into the year, and while they haven’t looked terrible, they haven’t exactly looked as good as their ranking yet either. I do think that at some point a switch will flip and they’ll start playing at a much higher level. They have the chance to pick up a notable win for their resume today.

-DAVIDSON VS ARIZONA (Battle 4 Atlantis). Davidson comes in unbeaten, but has only played home buy games. We will see during this event whether or not they are for real. Arizona has tested themselves a couple times, but lost the couple times they did it. They still appear to be a very good team, but this would be their biggest win to date if they are able to pull it off.

-MICHIGAN VS XAVIER (Fort Myers Tip-Off). Xavier is 6-0 with a couple of notable wins, but this would probably be their strongest of the season so far if they can get it done against Michigan. The Wolverines are a respectable 5-1, but also don’t yet have a win as good as this one would be.

-MICHIGAN STATE VS NORTH CAROLINA (Maui Invitational). Both teams are off to very solid starts, and both have the chance to leave this event by adding one more high caliber win to their resumes.

-SMU VS WASHINGTON STATE (Acrisure Holiday Invitational). Both teams have very respectable records with SMU coming in at 5-2 and Wazzu coming in at 6-1. SMU also battled against a really good Mississippi State team last week. They lost, but they have shown signs of potential. It will be interesting to see what they can do against each other tonight.

-RUTGERS VS ALABAMA (Players Era Festival). Rutgers recently had a loss at Kennesaw State and had to struggle to get by Notre Dame last night. Alabama is coming off a really nice win against Houston. So…one of these teams appears to be far more proven than the other right now.

-UCONN VS DAYTON (Battle 4 Atlantis). In the last 48 hours, these teams have lost four games by a combined total of 10 points, and three of those four losses came against top 12 teams! After playing so well, especially in the case of Dayton, you’d hate to see them take on that level of competition, have a chance to beat not one, but TWO really strong teams away from home, and then still come away with nothing. The winner of this game will get what should be a really strong resume-building win. There’s actually quite a bit to play for even though it’s the 7th place game. It’s arguably one of the more meaningful games of the day.

-NOTRE DAME VS HOUSTON (Players Era Festival). Houston has two losses, one of which was to Auburn and the other to Alabama. As good as I think they are, they still don’t have anything other than a buy game win. That should change tonight.

BUY GAMES (and other games of note):

-Detroit Mercy vs Rhode Island (Jacksonville Classic) – Rhody can remain unbeaten
-Northern Kentucky @ Charleston
-New Orleans @ Baylor
-UT Martin @ Tennessee
-Bucknell @ Maryland
-Lindenwood @ Missouri
-South Dakota @ Nebraska – Nebraska just got a really nice road win at Creighton
-Alabama State @ Cincinnati
-Milwaukee @ UCF
-Cornell @ Syracuse
-Utah Valley @ Samford (Samford Thanksgiving Special) – Utah Valley can improve to 5-1 on the year
-UMass Lowell @ Saint Louis – SLU better be on upset alert
-Wyoming vs LMU (Cancun Challenge) – Wyoming can get to 6-1
-Stonehill @ Marquette
-Cal State Northridge @ Montana – CSUN can get to 6-1 and pick up their 3rd true road win
-Mercyhurst @ California

NEWS AND NOTES:

-For the latest HOOPS HD REPORT Video Podcast – CLICK HERE

-For all of the In-Season Tournament Brackets and Schedules – CLICK HERE

-For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE

-I’m sure someone like John Stalica, who has an encyclopedia level of knowledge for these types of things, can come up with other examples, but yesterday’s Maui Invitational may have been the greatest single day of games at any one in-season tournament event ever!

-Memphis came into yesterday with multiple decent wins, but none against anyone on the level of UConn. The Tigers had a 12 pt lead late in the game and appeared to be cruising when a series of turnovers and a run by UConn allowed the Huskies to come back and force overtime. Still, Memphis regrouped in OT (and UConn’s coaches kind of fell apart) and won in a 99-97 thriller in what may turn out to be one of their biggest wins of the year!

-Later that evening, Iowa State jumped all over Auburn and had an 18pt lead!! Auburn is a big time pressure defensive team, and they turned it up, made big plays, got back into it, and hit a shot in the final seconds to come away with the 83-81 win. Auburn now has a road win at Houston and a neutral win against Iowa State. That’s two top ten teams away from home, which I believe gives them the most impressive resume of any team to date.

-So Dayton v North Carolina couldn’t top both of those….but it did!! Dayton came out and played out of their minds and built up a 21 POINT LEAD early in the second half!!! It was just amazing to watch. It’s not really fair to say that Dayton blew it so much as it was that UNC just chipped away at it and got back into it. There were multiple times late in the game where Dayton needed to make a big play and did. Dayton actually hit what appeared to be a game-tying 3 with the shot clock turned off, but the edge of his shoe was on the edge of the line and after a lengthy review it was changed to a 2. The Tarheels finally got the lead with just under 2 minutes to go and held on for the 92-90 win.

-And also at some point, Michigan State did beat Colorado in a game that was decided by more than 2pts and did not feature a ridiculous 2nd half comeback.

-And today, we get more!! Dayton will face Iowa State, Auburn will face North Carolina, and Michigan State will take on Memphis!!!

Oh yeah, and UConn will take on Colorado. Ummm…yay?

-It was also a crazy day down in the Cayman Islands. Boise State and South Dakota State went back and forth with Boise State escaping 83-82. This would have been a HUGE win for South Dakota State assuming Boise goes on to be one of the better teams in the Mountain West, and may have put them in a position to where the Jackrabbits could have made a run at the bubble. As heartbreaking as it was, and as much of a missed opportunity as it was, South Dakota State is definitely a team to watch the rest of the way.

-The Broncos will face Boston College, who is off to a much better start than expected and who is also coming off an exciting overtime win in their game against Missouri State.

-North Texas is now 5-1 after a nice 58-55 win over Oregon State. Oregon State may struggle this year, but they did come in with just one loss, and that was to a pretty good Oregon team in a close game.

-Liberty is emerging as the top UTR team after improving to 7-1 yesterday with a 62-58 win over McNeese. The Flames’ only loss was in overtime to Florida Atlantic, and they now have wins over McNeese and Kansas State on their resume.

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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:

-SAN DIEGO STATE VS CREIGHTON (Players Era Festival). Both teams should have a bit of a sense of urgency coming into this one. Neither has a big win and both have looked a little sluggish. Creighton was just beaten rather handily by Nebraska and is looking to bounce back from that, and San Diego State has even struggled in some of their buy games. A win today would probably end up looking good on their resume as well as give whoever wins it a much needed jump start.

-UCONN VS COLORADO (Maui Invitational). UConn lost an overtime thriller against Memphis that they almost came back and won. They should be able to bounce back today against a Colorado team that’s perhaps better than we thought, but still not as good as the rest of this field.

-PENN STATE VS CLEMSON (Sunshine Slam). Both teams have good records against predominantly weak schedules. Penn State has won five buy games and beaten Virginia Tech, which is pretty much like a buy game, and Clemson did beat a good San Francisco team yesterday, but other than that their only wins had been home buy games. This is a chance for each team to sparkle up their resume a bit.

-OREGON VS TEXAS A&M (Players Era Festival). Oregon is coming off a nice win at rival Oregon State, but they’ll have a much tougher test today against TAMU. This event is a chance for them to add multiple quality wins to their resumes.

-SOUTH DAKOTA STATE VS MISSOURI STATE (Cayman Islands Classic). Both teams are coming off heartbreaking losses with South Dakota State losing by just 1 to Boise State, and MO State losing in overtime to Boston College. This was nearly the championship game. Both are solid UTR teams and both have limited opportunities at notable wins, so that’s what makes this one today so important.

-MEMPHIS VS MICHIGAN STATE (Maui Invitational). Memphis won a thriller yesterday and already has an outstanding looking resume. Today looks like it’s another winnable game, but Michigan State is pretty good too. Their only loss was to Kansas, and it was a game where they hung tough despite not playing their best game, and they handled Colorado yesterday.

-GRAND CANYON VS STANFORD (Acrisure Holiday Invitational). Stanford is unbeaten, but this is probably their biggest test of the year so far. Having said that, GCU has been somewhat disappointing. I still think they can have a monster year and play their way inside the bubble, but their remaining opportunities are few and far between, and if they want to be in a position to make the NCAA Tournament without needing the auto-bid then I get the sense that they almost need to win this one today.

-BOISE STATE VS BOSTON COLLEGE (Cayman Islands Classic). BC was not a team we were big on at all coming into the year, but they now have a solid record with some respectable wins on their resume. If they can somehow win this one, you have to start thinking of them as a possible tournament team. They will have certainly outperformed much of the ACC if they can knock off a really good Boise State team tonight.

-HOUSTON VS ALABAMA (Players Era Festival). Both teams are highly ranked and both are likely to end up as protected seeds. Alabama already has wins against a pretty good McNeese team as well as Illinois. Houston fell to Auburn in the first week of the season and is still looking for their first notable win. It should be a good one!

-IOWA STATE VS DAYTON (Maui Invitational). As stated above, both teams built big leads against highly ranked teams yesterday, and both let those leads slip away. I’m convinced that Dayton is for real, but they need to come out of this event with at least one big win to substantiate that. I’m not saying the game doesn’t matter for Iowa State, but Iowa State will face a gauntlet of highly ranked teams the rest of the way and have every chance in the world to build up their resume. But for Dayton, this event is pretty much it. They have a chance today, and if they win they’ll likely get a shot at UConn tomorrow, so there is still a lot on the table for the Flyers.

-KANSAS VS DUKE (Vegas Showdown). Both these teams have played a ridiculously hard schedule early on, both are better teams because of it, and both can pick up a win against a likely protected seed tonight. It should be fun! Duke is coming off a huge win at Arizona (which followed a loss to Kentucky), and Kansas has already knocked off North Carolina and Michigan State.

-RUTGERS VS NOTRE DAME (Players Era Festival). Both teams are coming off losses to UTR teams. Rutgers went on the road to Kennesaw State and lost, and Notre Dame is coming off a home loss to Elon. A win today would help them bounce back, and a good overall showing in this event would help them bounce so far back that it will be as if neither team was ever gone.

-AUBURN VS NORTH CAROLINA (Maui Invitational). Both teams had exciting come from behind wins yesterday. Both have already been tested in this young season, and both have established themselves as likely protected seeds. It’s an early season opportunity at a likely quad-1 win.

BUY GAMES (and other games of note):

-Fordham vs San Francisco (Sunshine Slam)
-Hampton vs High Point (Cayman Islands Classic) – High Point can get an additional win away from home and improve to 7-1
-Louisiana Tech vs Richmond (Gulf Coast Showcase) – LA Tech can stay unbeaten
-Wyoming vs Tulane (Cancun Challenge) – Wyoming can get to a very respectable 5-1 on the year with a win
-Western Kentucky @ Kentucky
-Western Carolina @ Florida State
-Wagner @ Georgetown
-Coppin State @ Saint Joseph’s
-USC Upstate @ Iowa
-LMU vs Belmont (Cancun Challenge) – Belmont can get to 5-1
-Mississippi Valley State @ Utah
-SMU vs Cal Baptist (Acrisure Holiday Invitational)
-Eastern Washington @ UC Santa Barbara – UCSB can get to 5-1 on the year
-Southern Utah @ UCLA – it’s a buy game, but both teams come in with just one loss
-Furman vs Seattle U (Vegas Showdown) – Furman can get to 7-0
-Fresno State vs Washington State (Acrisure Holiday Invitational) – Wazzu can get to 6-1