Under The Radar Game of the Day: Buffalo at Southern Illinois (and other highlighted games)

Posted on November 12, 2018 by John Stalica

For Jon Teitel’s recap of the Central Connecticut State-Georgetown game – CLICK HERE

Buffalo (2-0) at Southern Illinois (0-1) – 8:00 PM EST (ESPN+)

Today’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to Carbondale, Illinois for the first of two matchups this season between the Buffalo Bulls and the Southern Illinois Salukis. Buffalo is coming off of their first-ever road win against a Top 25 team; they came from behind to defeat then-#13 West Virginia 99-94 on Friday night. CJ Massinburg had 43 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Bulls; he hit a 3-pointer with 14 seconds left in regulation that sent the game to overtime. Buffalo started overtime with a 15-6 run to take control of that game.

Southern Illinois wasn’t quite as lucky, but they certainly went down swinging in their season-opening loss at Kentucky. They led by 7 midway through the 2nd half of their game on Friday night before losing 71-59 at Rupp Arena. UK outrebounded the Salukis 48-19; this led Barry Hinson to say during his postgame comments “I’d really like to get a lot taller,” Hinson said. “We’re going to start working on that when we get on the bus. We have a bunch of tall pills that we’re going to start taking. They’re placebos, but we’ll see if they work.”

Of course, we cannot pass up an opportunity to mention Barry Hinson’s BBQ sauce:

 

NEWS AND NOTES

-Duke actually got more of a challenge at home against Army yesterday for the first 25 minutes of the game (as compared to their opener against Kentucky where everything went right), but their stud freshmen were just too much for Army to overcome en route to a 22-point win by the Blue Devils.

-For the second year in a row, East Tennessee State had a double-digit lead in the 2nd half on the road against a Big East team. And much like last year, they ran out of gas and ended up missing a golden opportunity for a big road win after falling to Creighton 75-69.

-The American did not have one of its better days, to put it mildly. First, SMU had their 33-game winning streak at home against noncon opponents snapped with a loss to Southern Miss. What really hurt was Central Florida losing on a buzzer-beater at home against Florida Atlantic. The only things that saved them from a really disastrous day was UConn’s blowout win at home against UMKC and a come-from-behind win by East Carolina against Lamar at home, albeit in overtime.

-Vanderbilt had a down season by recent standards, but ended up getting a decent road win at USC last night. They led much of the game but were able to overcome a late Trojan comeback.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-STANFORD AT NORTH CAROLINA.  Both teams come in 2-0, and have actually challenged themselves a bit.  That’s especially true for North Carolina who won their season opener against a pretty good Wofford team on the road.  Stanford is probably in over their heads, but the opportunity to make a big statement is there.

-SAINT BONAVENTURE AT NIAGARA (Big Four).  Probably won’t be that important of a game at the end, but we will highlight it out of our sheer love of mythical conferences!

-AMERICAN AT NORTHWESTERN.  American won their season opener at George Mason, which may end up meaning nothing.  But if they can pick up a second true road win tonight, then we’d have to at least sit up and take notice.

-MIDDLE TENNESSEE AT BELMONT.  A nice crosstown rivalry game between two teams that have been good in recent years, and come into this one undefeated.

-VERMONT AT KANSAS.  The game is at least mildly interesting.  Vermont is in complete rebuild mode, but they do come into this without a loss and having won a nice road game.

-UTAH AT MINNESOTA.  I don’t think we are expecting too much out of either team, so both could really use an early season win.

-Detroit Mercy @ Butler – buy game
-NC A&T @ Maryland
-Jacksonville State @ Penn State – we like this Jax State team, but they were pitiful in their opener
-Troy @ Pittsburgh – buy game
-Monmouth @ Saint Joseph’s – Joe’s may be the best team in the A10
-Bowling Green @ VCU – BGSU is coming off a strong showing at Saint John’s.  VCU tries to improve to 3-0
-Kennesaw State @ Samford – Samford can get to 3-0
-UIC @ Duquesne – may be a little interesting
-Prairie View A&M @ Baylor – will be interesting, but only if PVAM wins it and picks up a second big road win
-Texas Southern @ Iowa State –  buy game
-UL Monroe @ Texas – both teams unbeaten
-Oklahoma @ UTSA – Oklahoma playing their second straight road game against a weak UTR team
-UC Davis @ Arkansas
-Morgon State @ DePaul
-Denver @ Kansas State – both teams unbeaten
-Long Beach State @ Arizona State – Arizona State has struggled so far, but managed to win

Posted in Under the Radar | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Under The Radar Game of the Day: Buffalo at Southern Illinois (and other highlighted games)

Hanging with the Hoyas: Part 1

Posted on November 11, 2018 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. Part 1 of his series features last night’s game against Central Connecticut State, who came to DC to visit the Hoyas in the schools’ 1st-ever meeting:

Pregame media room meals in years past have involved BBQ or pizza but tonight was make-your-own tacos: I like tacos!

Perhaps the folks in charge of credentials think that I went to medical school, but if we ever decide to merge our own college basketball site with an athletic trainer website then I THINK I have figured out the perfect name for it:

It was not a huge crowd on a cold Saturday night during a holiday weekend but it is always fun to watch a pair of former Big East Players of the Year square off as current coaches (1984/1985 POY Patrick Ewing vs. 1994 POY Donyell Marshall). As we prepared for tip-off I could not help but notice Georgetown’s new court with free throw lanes featuring the school’s colors in an intricate kente cloth pattern that we 1st saw on jerseys during the Allen Iverson era almost 25 years ago:

It appeared that the “other” Blue Devils were going to be in for a long night against a Big East opponent after their 1st possession ended in a shot clock violation, but they never backed down. FR SG Ian Krishnan grew up about 45 minutes outside of DC and it was obvious that this was not just another road game for him. From jumpers to 3-PT shots, every time the ball left his hands it looked like it was going in, which it mostly did during his 12-PT 1st half. SR wing Tyler Kohl did not have his outside shot working early (0-3 in the 1st 20 minutes) but he made a pair of acrobatic layups that each had a high degree of difficulty.

2 keys for power conference teams when facing mid-major opponents is to make use of their size advantage while also playing smart. As the Hoyas doubled up CCSU on 1st half points in the paint (16-8) and did not allow their opponent to attempt a single FT in the 1st 20 minutes, it is no surprise that they were up by double digits at halftime. SR C Jessie Govan displayed his entire arsenal: a 3-PT shot, a REB/putback, a layup, a follow-dunk, and a baby hook en route to 14 PTS at the break. FR SG Mac McClung only made 1-5 FG in the 1st half but the 1 was a crowd-pleasing breakaway dunk: for a 6’2” kid playing in his 2nd career college game, his vertical leap is something to behold:

Last year the Hoya mascot rode a skateboard, this year he has his own custom SUV!:

The 2nd half was an old-fashioned offensive shootout with both teams combining to make 15-25 from 3-PT land. Kohl found his touch by making all 4 of his 3-PT attempts, while Krishnan made 4 of his own and was fouled while attempting a 5th one en route to a game-high 28 PTS. The X-factor for CCSU was FR SF Karrington Wallace: after not taking a single shot in the 1st half, he was perfect in the 2nd half with 12 PTS off the bench (4-4 FG/4-4 FT).

Georgetown is going to experience some growing pains this year due to starting a pair of freshmen in the backcourt (McClung and James Akinjo combined to shoot 4-20 from the field while committing 6 turnovers), but they held on for the win thanks to a huge 2nd half from their starting big men. 6’9″ SR PF Trey Mourning (whose father Alonzo actually played against Coach Marshall back in 1992 when Georgetown and UConn were both in the Big East) scored a career-high 12 PTS on an array of layups and baseline jumpers:

6’8″ SO SG Jamorko Pickett was only 1-4 from behind the arc in the 1st half but got back in sync by making all 3 of his 2nd half attempts to finish with 12 PTS. 6’10” SR C Govan was the best player on the court by far: apparently the advice he received from Coach Ewing all night paid off:

In the postgame press conference I asked Krishnan what it was like to face Georgetown after growing up in the Maryland suburbs: he said that everyone growing up in the area wants to attend Georgetown, but his team proved that everyone on its roster is good enough to play for the Hoyas:

Coach Ewing said that his team made too many mistakes and took too many 3-PT shots but he was very happy with the way that Pickett played:

I asked Govan if his amazing effort (26 PTS/8 REB/0 TO/0 fouls/3 BLK/3 STL) was as close to a near-perfect game that he has ever played: he smiled and said that it is never perfect when he misses 3 FTs and he was just glad that his team did not get upset:

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

Posted in CBB | Tagged , | Comments Off on Hanging with the Hoyas: Part 1

Under The Radar Game of the Day: North Texas at Hawaii

Posted on November 11, 2018 by John Stalica

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

North Texas (3-0, 1-0 D1) at Hawaii (2-0, 1-0 D1) – 11:00 PM EST (Live Stream)

Today’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to the Outrigger Resorts Rainbow Classic in Hawaii – this is the de facto championship game between the North Texas Mean Green and the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. This is part of a 4-team round-robin event that also includes Portland and Humboldt State. Both teams have already defeated Portland and Humboldt State, and North Texas also had a season-opening win at home against Angelo State.

The Mean Green have been led so far by 3 notable starters – Umoja Gibson is averaging 22.7 PPG that includes 15-for-23 shooting from 3-point land. Ryan Woolridge is averaging 13.7 PPG and 7 RPG; Zachary Simmons also averages 14.7 PPG with 17-for-21 shooting from the field.

As for Hawaii, Zigmars Raimo has averaged a double-double for his first 2 games (12.0 PPG and 10 RPG) and Jack Purchase leads the way so far with 15 PPG.

Posted in Under the Radar | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Under The Radar Game of the Day: North Texas at Hawaii

News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Sunday, Nov 11th

Posted on November 11, 2018 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES

-It was a rather chalky day yesterday.  Evansville hung in with Xavier for most of the game and Ball State made Purdue sweat a little bit, but there weren’t any results that were particularly surprising.  The only exception was Oklahoma State going down at Charlotte on a last-second 3-point bank shot – which is at least noteworthy when you consider that the 49ers didn’t even qualify for the C-USA tournament last season.

-The Atlantic 10 is showing more signs of concern – while Saint Louis barely squeaked by Troy at home, La Salle lost at home to Lafayette by a point and Fordham had a close loss on the road at Houston Baptist. And as one astute reader on Twitter noted, the A-10 is now 0-3 this year against the Patriot League (with Bucknell winning at St. Bonaventure and American winning at George Mason).

-Cal State Northridge at Pepperdine was postponed yesterday due to the wild fires in that area.  We hope that everyone being effected by that is able to stay safe.

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-GEORGE WASHINGTON AT VIRGINIA.  This will end up looking very much like a buy game.  GW is 0-2, which includes losses in home buy games.  So this one could get ugly.

-HOFSTRA AT MARSHALL.  Both teams are 1-0, and Marshall has a good deal of momentum built up after advancing to the Round of 32 a year ago.

-SOUTHERN MISS AT SMU.  Both teams 1-0, and while Southern Miss still has a long way to go, they appear to be tremendously improved after the tire fire that they were a few years ago.  Doc Sadler has done a very good job with that program.

-MIDDLE GEORGIA STATE (non-D1) AT SAVANNAH STATE.  The Team of the People have their home opener today!!!!!

-FLORIDA STATE AT TULANE.  Florida State is coming off a very impressive feel good win against Florida in their season opener.  They may be tested a bit on the road today against a Tulane team that has a long way to go, but at the same time appears to be showing signs of improvement.

-VANDERBILT AT USC.  Both teams come into this game having won their openers, but neither team faced a real test.  I have a lot more questions than answers when it comes to these two, and it will be interesting to see what they do against each other.

-NORTH TEXAS AT HAWAII.  Neither team has done anything to get all that excited about, but neither team has lost a game yet.

 

BUY GAMES (and others worth mentioning, but not highlighting)

-Army @ Duke
-Saint Francis Brooklyn @ Boston College
-East Tennessee State @ Creighton
-Florida Atlantic @ UCF – both teams are 1-0
-Drexel @ Rutgers
-Green Bay @ Iowa
-SELA @ Nebraska
-Fort Wayne @ Ohio State
-Stetson @ Missouri State – both teams unbeaten
-Hartford @ Mississippi State
-Oral Roberts @ TCU
-Sam Houston State @ Louisiana Tech – both teams are unbeaten
-UMKC @ UConn
-Cal Poly @ Arizona – both teams are 1-0
-FGCU @ Michigan State
-Nicholls @ Washington State – after playing Louisville tough don’t be surprised if Nicholls wins this one
-Appalachian State @ Alabama – both teams are 1-0
-Utah Valley @ Saint Mary’s

Posted in Daily Rundown, News and Notes | Comments Off on News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Sunday, Nov 11th

Under The Radar Game of the Day: Wright State at Murray State

Posted on November 10, 2018 by John Stalica

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

For Jon Teitel’s interview with Knight Commission committee member Danielle Donehew – CLICK HERE

Wright State (1-0) at Murray State (0-0) – 8:00 PM EST (ESPN+)

For the second day in a row, our UTR Game of the Day features a pair of teams that are coming off of NCAA Tournament appearances from the previous season and will certainly be part of the equation for contending in their respective conferences this season. The Raiders of Wright State had little trouble winning their opener at home 96-73 against Western Carolina earlier in the week. Bill Wampler (a transfer from Drake) led the Raiders with 26 points on 9-15 shooting (including 5-9 from 3-point land) and Loudon Love also added 17 points and 7 rebounds in their last game.

The Murray State Racers will be playing in their first regular season contest since losing to West Virginia in the NCAA Tournament as a 12-seed last season. They defeated Brescia 99-61 in their exhibition tuneup – 4 players scored in double figures for the Racers in that game. Ja Morant led the Racers with 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting in that game.

Posted in Under the Radar | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Under The Radar Game of the Day: Wright State at Murray State

News, Notes, and Highlighted Games, Saturday, Nov 10th

Posted on November 10, 2018 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES

-If you’re reading this, then you must like college basketball to at least some degree, and therefore probably already know what I’m about to say.  November basketball is both very exciting and every important.  A lot of what happened yesterday will impact decisions that the selection committee makes in March.

-Let’s begin really quickly with what wasn’t exciting, but very impressive.  Auburn beat up on Washington the way most SEC teams beat up on opponents in buy games.  it was never even a game.  Now it’s not easy for Washington to play late on Tuesday night against a good (we think) Western Kentucky team, and then fly across the country for a game on Friday night, but then again it’s not so difficult that that alone should have resulted in them being as overwhelmed as they were.  They were on a plane, not a school bus.  I know it’s early, but what is easily the single most impressive performance of the year for an SEC team was Auburn last night. (Additional note: A long night for Washington turned scary when their team bus caught fire en route to the airport, but thankfully nobody was hurt.)

-Buffalo picked up what is probably the most impressive true road win of the season after knocking off West Virginia in overtime.  There were moments where Buffalo did get the lead, but for the most part WVU led for throughout the game.  In the final minutes Buffalo came up big on several possessions, forced overtime, and then sprinted out to a lead in the overtime.  This is a HUGE resume win for the Bulls, especially if WVU finishes in the rankings like we expect them to.

-After losing a ton of their roster from last season it wasn’t that surprising to see Wichita State go down in their season opener to Louisiana Tech.  What was shocking (pun intended) was how they bounced back and picked up a massive neutral floor win against what we think is a very good Providence team.  It was a real gutty performance by a young Wichita State team, especially when you consider that they fell behind early in the first half, and suddenly they are very much alive and kicking.

-Another team that surprised me was Arkansas.  I know they didn’t win the game against Texas, but they certainly had their chances.  I had them pegged as a team that would likely miss the NIT by about a hundred miles, and for them to play that well in a game where they came from behind against a Texas team that by all accounts looks very good is impressive and indicative that the Hogs may end up winning some big games this year after all.

-Stony Brook picked up their second true road win in a buy game last night as they knocked off South Carolina.  Now, neither team that they beat is expected to be all that good this year, but it is still a very impressive start for a Stony Brook team that we thought would be an also-ran in the America East this year.

-UC Irvine was our pick to win the Big West, and they picked up a huge road win at Texas A&M last night.  We don’t think TAMU is necessarily a tournament team, but this was still a very good early season road win for the Anteaters.

-Loyola Chicago made a surprise run in the NCAA Tournament last year.  The surprises continued last night, but not the good kind.  Furman went up to Loyola for what had to be their biggest home opener in half a century, and pulled off a stunning upset.  It isn’t that we were shocked that Loyola failed to win so much as it is a Furman team, who wasn’t exactly our pick to win the SoCon, was able to play as well as they did and beat them.  It was one of the many exciting games that came down to the final seconds.

-The Atlantic Ten is hurting.  Davidson needed to come from behind to beat Dartmouth yesterday, Richmond lost at home to Longwood, and George Mason lost a home buy game (their second of the week) to American.  Less than a week in, the league has already collectively lost more home buy games than what most leagues lose throughout an entire season.

-Northeastern played their second consecutive thrilling rivalry game and picked up a nice win at Harvard.  That may not seem like a lot, but it may be one of the only home games Harvard loses this year, and in the new NET rankings this would give them a bit of a boost.

-Saint John’s had to come from behind to beat a Bowling Green team in a rather underwhelming showing, but if nothing else it was another exciting game!

-Other exciting games that probably won’t end up on the radar at the end of the year, but were still exciting to watch and important for now since everyone starts out at zero included James Madison’s last second win at East Carolina, Eastern Michigan holding off Drexel at home, LIU Brooklyn improving to 2-0 with a close win over Brown, and Toledo getting an exciting one point win at Oakland in their season opener.

-Because of the Woolsey Fire in Malibu, California, the Cal State Northridge-Pepperdine game has been postponed.

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-WYOMING AT OREGON STATE.  We aren’t all that big on either of these teams.  Oregon State can improve to 2-0 with a win.

-TENNESSEE STATE AT LIPSCOMB.  An early season inter-city match-up.  We like this Lipscomb team and a win today will get them off to a 2-0 start.

-OKLAHOMA STATE AT CHARLOTTE.  A bit of an unusual early season road game for the Cowboys for their season opener.  We are expecting them to struggle this year, but they do have a good chance at kicking things off by picking up a true road win.

-BALL STATE AT PURDUE.  This is a buy game, but both teams managed wins in their season opener, and Ball State may be able to make some noise in the MAC this year, so we will go ahead and highlight it.

-ILLINOIS STATE AT BELMONT.  A pretty good UTR game between an Illinois State team that we think will be one of the better teams in the Missouri Valley, and a Belmont team that’s opening its season and who we think will be the frontrunner the Ohio Valley.

-TEXAS SOUTHERN AT GONZAGA.  This is an obvious buy game, but since Texas Southern is coming off a huge upset win at Baylor we will go ahead and highlight it.  If they can somehow manage a win in this one, they’ll probably jump into the top 25 next week.

-LMU AT UNLV.  We aren’t expecting much out of LMU, but they did win their season opener.  While we don’t think UNLV is a tournament caliber team, we do think their program is improving.

BUY GAMES

-UMES @ NC State
-Jackson State @ Saint Bonaventure
-NC A&T @ Wake Forest
-Alabama A&M @ Wake Forest
-Pine Bluff @ Colorado State
-Western Michigan @ Ole Miss
-Bethune Cookman @ Marquette
-Evansville @ Xavier
-South Carolina State @ Tulsa – both teams 1-0
-Southern @ Baylor
-Central Connecticut @ Georgetown – both teams 1-0
-Morehead State @ Syracuse
-Miami OH @ Butler
-Coppin State @ Dayton
-UT Martin @ Western Kentucky
-Holy Cross @ Michigan – both teams 1-0
-Quinnipiac @ Villanova
-Troy @ Saint Louis – both teams 1-0
-Northern Iowa @ UT Arlington – both teams 1-0
-Idaho State @ Boise State
-Portland @ North Texas – both teams unbeaten

Posted in Daily Rundown, News and Notes | Comments Off on News, Notes, and Highlighted Games, Saturday, Nov 10th