Chad, David, and John take a look back at what was an eventful first week that included several upset road wins from UTR teams. LA Tech got a big win at Wichita State, UC Irvine took down Texas A&M, Radford just knocked off Notre Dame, Florida Atlantic won at UCF, and Stony Brook picked up two big road wins. We talk about those, run through all 22 UTR Conferences, and finish with our weekly UTR Top Ten.
And for all you radio lovers, below is an audio only version of the show…
For today’s News, Notes and Highlighted Games – CLICK HERE
Prairie View (1-1) at Texas-Rio Grande Valley (2-1, 1-1 D1) – 8:00 PM EST (WAC Digital Network)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to Edinburg, Texas – home of the UTRGV Vaqueros. They will play host to the Prairie View Panthers. UTRGV is led by junior forward Lesley Varner II – he currently averages 17.7 points per game and 5.7 rebounds per game. The Vaqueros rebounded from a home loss to Oklahoma with a win at intersectional rival Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in their last outing.
Prairie View has also gotten off to a decent start themselves – first they got a decisive 81-64 road win at Santa Clara where they jumped out to an 18-point lead at halftime and never looked back thanks to a 30-point effort from Gary Blackston. They were hanging tough with Baylor for a good chunk of that game, but a 13-0 run late in the 2nd half was too much to overcome and Baylor ultimately pulled away with a 91-80 victory.
NEWS AND NOTES
-I’ll begin by mentioning a game that most of the country wasn’t even aware of, and that’s Chicago State at Illinois State. Chicago State is a perpetually pitiful program, and based on how they had played so far this year things didn’t look to be getting any better. But with less than three minutes to go they had a lead at Illinois State, who we feel is at least a likely NIT team. Had Chicago State won this game, I would rate it as a bigger upset (at least in regards as to how far apart the two teams appeared to be) than when UMBC beat Virginia last year. They weren’t able to hold on, but it was an impressive showing for a team and program that has had so few impressive showings in the last thirty years. Hopefully they are able to build from this and experience some moments of success this year.
-Wisconsin picked up a nice road win at Xavier, which historically is not an easy place to win. They basically controlled the game for the entire second half.
-The Atlantic Ten continues to trip over the rug while carrying their lunch tray back to their seat. George Mason had a 20 point lead going into the second half at Georgia Southern….and lost. They are now 0-3 on the year.
Rhode Island went down to Charleston and got beat, which isn’t too terrible considering that CofC returned a good core group of players from last year’s team, and to be fair one of the things I took away from it was that CofC is better than I thought, but it still went to show you that the Rams have fallen off quite a bit from a year ago.
UMass also dropped a home game to Harvard. I haven’t looked this up, but I now believe that the A10 leads the nation in home losses to Ivy League teams.
-One more quick UTR note is that Furman really had to sweat out Gardner Webb at home after their big win at Loyola Chicago, but managed to pull it out 68-66.
-Other than that, there were some pretty exciting games, but nothing too surprising. Georgetown got a nice early season win at Illinois in a game where the atmosphere was electric and the lead seesawed back and forth. I don’t know how good either team will end up being, but it was a fun game to watch early in the season.
-Memphis hung in with LSU a lot more closely than I expected, but LSU ended up pulling it out in the end.
-Last but not least, THE TEAM OF THE PEOPLE WON THEIR SECOND GAME IN A ROW!! A decisive win over Tennessee Tech!!!
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-MICHIGAN AT VILLANOVA (Gavitt Tipoff Games). The last time these two met there was a little more at stake. As it stands now, both teams come in 2-0 and are looking for their first big win of the season.
-EASTERN MICHIGAN AT DUKE. Some of us liked Eastern Michigan so much coming into the season that they were picking them to win the MAC. They haven’t looked up to that level yet (especially when you consider how well Buffalo has played), but they do come into this game 3-0. I’m not expecting them to beat Duke, but it will be interesting to see how well they play against the nation’s top team (not the top team in the Sagarin ratings, but the top team in the polls).
-RADFORD AT NOTRE DAME. It’s a buy game, and it may end up looking very much like a buy game, but this is a good Radford team that’s coming in 2-0 and that could make quite a bit of noise in the Big South later this year, so we’ll go ahead and highlight it.
-TOLEDO AT WRIGHT STATE. A UTR game, but it’s between two pretty good teams that we think will make quite a bit of noise in their conferences.
-SETON HALL AT NEBRASKA (Gavitt Tipoff Games). Both teams come into this game unbeaten against the collection of creampuffs that they’ve played. This is the first real test for either team, and a chance to see if Nebraska really does belong in the rankings.
-NIAGARA AT LOYOLA CHICAGO. Niagara comes into this game with a home win over Saint Bonaventure, and Loyola is looking to rebound from a rather surprising loss to Furman in their first game.
-RICE AT HOUSTON. A nice cross city rivalry game. Houston’s program continues to improve over time, and they need to take care of business in games like this if they want to be in the discussion come March.
-MARQUETTE AT INDIANA (Gavitt Tipoff Games). Both these teams are believed to be much improved this year, so it will be fun watching them square off in an early season game.
-SAINT MARY’S AT NEW MEXICO STATE. This is a really good series for both these programs. Both come into this game at 2-0, and both could really use an early season win like this on their resumes.
BUY GAMES (and other games worth mentioning, but not highlighting)
-UL Monroe @ Michigan State – ULM hung with Texas the other night
-Sam Houston State @ Clemson
-IUPUI @ Boston College
-La Salle @ Florida
-Mount Saint Mary’s @ Marshall
-Miles (nondiv1) @ Samford – not expecting much from Samford, but a win gets them to 4-0
-Mississippi College (nondiv1) @ Auburn
-Western Carolina @ SMU
-UTEP @ Arizona
-Jacksonville State @ Bradley – Bradley can improve to 3-0
-North Dakota @ Kentucky – North Dakota comes in 2-0
-Montana State @ Colorado State – Colorado State can improve to 3-0
-Stetson @ USC
-Washington State @ Seattle
-Texas Southern @ San Diego State
For today’s News, Notes and Highlighted Games – CLICK HERE
For last night’s weekly Hoops HD Report – CLICK HERE
For Jon Teitel’s All-Exhibition Teams – CLICK HERE
For the Puppet’s first checkpoint of Merit Rankings – CLICK HERE
Lafayette (1-1) at Penn (2-0) – 7:00 PM EST (ESPN+)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to the historic Palestra and Dollar Dog Night where the Penn Quakers will play host to the Lafayette Leopards. There have actually been 51 games played all time between both teams, but it is a rather one-sided rivalry with Penn leading the series 42-9. The Leopards do come into this game with some momentum; they made their first trip to Philadelphia over the weekend with a come-from-behind 77-76 win at La Salle. Myles Cherry led Lafayette with 18 points and 12 rebounds; it was also the first time Lafayette beat an A-10 team since Duquesne in 2004.
The Quakers are riding a modest 2-game winning streak with wins at George Mason and at home against Rice. A.J. Brodeur averaged 21 points per game in Penn’s wins – he was named Player of the Week by the Ivy League, Big 5 and CollegeInsider.com’s Lou Henson Player of the Week! Penn also honored their Ivy League championship team last Friday with another banner hung in the Palestra rafters.
NEWS AND NOTES
-For the latest Hoops HD Report where we recap the first week of the season and preview a busy week this week – CLICK HERE
-Kansas, Kansas State, Washington, and Texas all had to sweat a little bit more than you would expect, but all ended up winning their buy games. Having said that, from a UTR standpoint there were some very good efforts from teams like Denver, San Diego, and Vermont in those games, so the struggles weren’t entirely due to the teams not playing well.
-Most notably, Buffalo picked up another big true road win at Southern Illinois. If you don’t follow Under the Radar that may not sound all that exciting, but Southern Illinois is really good this year and may not lose at home for the rest of the season. If they do, it won’t be many. It is not an easy place to win, and Buffalo beat them rather comfortably.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-TENNESSEE TECH AT SAVANNAH STATE. YOUR TEAM!! THE PEOPLE’S TEAM!! Savannah State is going after their second consecutive win tonight!!
-WISCONSIN AT XAVIER (Gavitt Tipoff Games). After playing and winning their buy games, this is the first real test for both teams, and both could use an early season win like this to establish themselves.
-MEMPHIS AT LSU. Neither team has lost, but neither has really been tested either. LSU appears to have a strong team this year, and they can make a statement with a win today. Memphis should improve rather quickly, but they’re probably a year away.
-UNC ASHEVILLE AT NC STATE. Neither team has a loss yet, but NC State clearly looks to be the superior team.
-STEPHEN F AUSTIN AT MAIMI FL. Neither team has a loss yet, but neither team has really been tested by a tournament caliber team yet, and it could be that will still be the case after today.
-RHODE ISLAND AT CHARLESTON. Neither team has a loss yet, but both still have a lot of work to do.
-GEORGIA AT TEMPLE. Both teams are unbeaten and untested. This would be a nice early season win for either one.
-HARVARD AT UMASS. UMass, who wasn’t expected to do much in the A10 (and still may not) can improve to 3-0 and put a semi-impressive win on their profile.
-GEORGETOWN AT ILLINOIS (Gavitt Tipoff Games). Not really all that big on either team, but both are unbeaten and this would be a good early season win for whoever pulls it off.
-GEORGIA TECH AT TENNESSEE. Both of these teams are unbeaten, and the team that’s playing at home looks really good!!
BUY GAMES
-Southern @ Louisville
-Norfolk State @ South Carolina
-Holy Cross @ Providence
-Gardner Webb @ Furman – Furman can improve to 3-0
-Milwaukee @ Florida International – FIU can improve to 3-0
-Longwood @ UMES – Longwood can pick up another road win and improve to 3-0
-Lafayette @ Penn – Penn can improve to 3-0
-NC Central @ Cincinnati
-Harding (nondiv1) @ Louisiana Tech
-SELA @ Texas Tech
-North Alabama @ Saint Louis
-Drake @ Colorado
-Coastal Carolina @ Tulane – Coastal can improve to 3-0 and get their second true road win
-Pepperdine @ Northern Colorado – both teams 1-0
-Iona @ New Mexico – both teams 1-0
-Northwestern State @ BYU
-Mississippi Valley State @ Utah State
-UC Riverside @ UNLV
News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Thursday, Nov 15th
NEWS AND NOTES
-For our first regular season Under the Radar Podcast – CLICK HERE
-The month of March, beginning with Championship Week(s), is a special time of year for any college basketball fan. The second half of November is a special time of year for DIEHARD college basketball fans because of all the multi-team events (MTEs), or exempt tournaments, or whatever the hell you want to call them. It gives us a lot of unique games in the sense that it’s so many games between so many teams that would almost never play each other under normal circumstances. Most of the tournaments are bracketed, so it’s a chance for teams to ‘win and advance’ (so to speak) and in theory get the chance to play better competition with each win, pick up a lot of good NCAA Tournament resume wins, and play their way onto the national scene. And for teams that don’t win, they still get to keep playing. It’s important to point out that the selection committee does not look at any of these “losers bracket” games, or 5th place games as being anything other than a neutral floor game between the two teams. Less credit is not given to a team that wins a fifth place game than what would have been given to them if they just happened to play on a neutral floor. It’s the same.
There are more basketball games over the next week and a half than there are at any other point during the season. As someone who has been writing up each days games for the past several years, I can confirm that is absolutely the case. Many of these games are in unique settings (small gyms, ball rooms, theme parks, casinos, or wherever). It’s just a very enjoyable and unique period of the season for anyone that’s a diehard fan. And it all begins today!!
-The Big 10 picked up 3 wins against the Big East in the Gavitt Games last night – the biggest surprise was how easily Michigan demolished Villanova in Philly. The Wolverines led by as many as 31 in the first half and handed the Wildcats their worst home loss since Creighton beat Nova by 28 in the 2013-14 season.
-Radford got a big win against Notre Dame last night. Surprising, but not surprising. Even more surprising was IUPUI going into Boston College with their biggest road win in the brief Jason Gardner regime.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-BALL STATE VS VIRGINIA TECH (Charleston Classic). Ball State has looked good in their first couple of games (at least from what I’ve seen), but they’re probably in over their heads today against a VA Tech team that’s ranked in the top 15.
-SAINT JOSEPH’S VS WAKE FOREST (Myrtle Beach Invitational). Saint Joseph’s is one of the very few Atlantic Ten teams that hasn’t looked pitiful this year. If they can do well in this tournament they could catapult themselves onto the radar and add some nice wins to their resume. Wake won their opener, but hasn’t been tested yet.
-UCF VS CAL STATE FULLERTON (Myrtle Beach Invitational). This tournament is an opportunity for UCF to pick up some decent wins away from home, and rebound from a somewhat damaging loss to FAU last week.
-ALABAMA VS NORTHEASTERN (Charleston Classic). A really good game this afternoon between a Northeastern team that we think can contend in the Colonial, and an Alabama team that is trying to recover from the loss of their best player from a year ago, but still has a lot of pieces back. Neither team is really on the national radar yet, but this tournament is a chance for them to pick up some nice wins.
-PURDUE VS APPALACHIAN STATE (Charleston Classic). Hot! Hot! Hot! The Boilers come in without a loss and the Mountaineers are coming off of a close to Alabama, but Purdue clearly appears to be the superior team.
-VALPARAISO VS WESTERN KENTUCKY (Myrtle Beach Invitational). It is really important for WKU to pick up some big wins in this tournament. Although C-USA is off to a strong start, their chances at quality wins in the second half of the season are going to be limited, so if they want to be in the safe zone for an at-large then this tournament is crucial.
-SYRACUSE VS UCONN (2K Classic, MSG). The Old Big East rivals are back for this ACC vs American showdown!! This is the first real test for either team after a couple of buy game tuneups. We’re expecting a lot more out of Syracuse than UConn this year, but this is a chance for UConn to really make a statement early.
-SOUTHERN MISS AT TROY. Southern Miss can improve to a somewhat surprising 3-0 and pick up their second true road win.
-OHIO STATE AT CREIGHTON (Gavitt Tipoff Classic). Ohio State already has one really nice road win, and will really be out of the gate fast if they’re able to pick up a second one. Creighton is a little bit down this year, or so it appears, but this is a chance for them to make a statement as well.
-DAVIDSON VS WICHITA STATE (Charleston Classic). Wichita had a rough start to the season, but rebounded with a nice neutral floor win against Providence. Davidson won both their buy games, but it wasn’t easy, and they’re going to face much bigger tests in this tournament.
-BELMONT AT LIPSCOMB. The Battle of the Boulevard!! This BETTER be the UTR game of the day!! Two rivals. Two really good UTR teams that will likely be conference frontrunners.
-FRESNO STATE AT TCU. Both teams come in without a loss, although TCU got a really big scare against Bakersfield in their last game.
-PENN STATE AT DEPAUL (Gavitt Tipoff Games). Neither team has a loss yet, and Penn State has looked pretty good. This is a chance to add a road win that is at least semi-notable to their resume.
-OREGON VS IOWA (2K Classic). Like so many teams in these events, these two come in having won their buy games, but not having been tested yet. This is their first chance to add some meat to their resume.
-TEXAS A&M AT GONZAGA. A very late tipoff tonight, but we have a match-up that would have been a great game a year ago. Unfortunately for TAMU it’s not a year ago, and they’re on the road against a Gonzaga team that we think is a Final Four caliber team.
BUY GAMES (and other games worth mentioning, but not writing up)
-Central Arkansas @ Pittsburgh
-Monmouth @ West Virginia
-Mississippi Valley State @ Utah
-Oral Roberts @ BYU
-UC Irvine @ Santa Clara. – Irvine can improve to 4-0 on the year
-Detroit @ California