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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

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

NEWS AND NOTES

-The Bracket Racket is back!!!  The band is back together!!  If you’ve listened to all of our podcasts and still can’t get enough, check these guys out.  They’ve all been on Hoops HD before, Galen Clavio actually played a huge part in getting this whole place rolling, and they interact with us so much that it feels like that while we may not be roommates, we are college suite mates that share the same common area – CLICK HERE

…and I give them a shout out for two reasons.  1) they do a great job, and 2) LITERALLY NOTHING ELSE OF NOTE HAPPENED LAST NIGHT!!

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-SAVANNAH STATE AT GEORGIA.  THE TEAM OF THE PEOPLE!!!  Savannah State played an exciting brand of basketball and made several runs at Texas A&M the other night despite being behind.  They showed some signs of life, and it will be interesting to see what they do against a Georgia team tonight that we don’t think is quite as good as TAMU.

-SOUTHERN ILLINOIS AT KENTUCKY.  Kentucky was blown through the roof in their opener against Duke.  They’re back at home against a far more manageable opponent tonight, but this is a VERY good Southern Illinois team.  We like this team so much that we think they can make the NCAA Tournament, and if they can pick up a few wins in games like this they won’t need to win the conference tournament to do it.  I have to give props to Kentucky.  They always schedule an early game against a very good UTR team.  They hosted Vermont early in the season last year.

-NORTH CAROLINA AT ELON.  UNC is going after their second true road win of the season.  Not a bad start!  Elon won their opener, but has a rather tall order tonight.

-DREXEL AT EASTERN MICHIGAN.  It wasn’t easy or pretty, but EMU won their first game and we still like their chances in the MAC.

-WICHITA STATE VS PROVIDENCE (Veterans Classic – Annapolis, MD).  It’s gonna be a long year for the Shockers and picking up their first win today won’t be easy.  Providence can improve to 2-0 with a win.

-LOUISIANA AT TENNESSEE.  Both teams 1-0.  Tennessee looking for their first D-I win.

-LEHIGH AT MIAMI FL.  Lehigh won their first game on the road decisively against Monmouth.  This is a buy game and may not be all that interesting, but it will shoot Lehigh through the roof if they’re somehow able to win it.

-STONY BROOK AT SOUTH CAROLINA.  Both teams come in 1-0, and Stony Brook is coming off an exciting road win against George Washington.

-MISSOURI AT IOWA STATE.  Both teams come in with a win, but neither was really tested.  Mizzou is battling injuries, but should get better as the year goes on.  This is a big game for both teams because it will give them some momentum, but also give them a nice early win on their resume.

-STANFORD AT UNC WILMINGTON.  This is a good chance for Stanford to put a road win on their resume against a beatable UNCW team that’s coming off a very exciting loss to Campbell in their opener.

-NORTHEASTERN AT HARVARD (Bean Pot).  Northeastern is coming off a rather heartbreaking loss at home to rival Boston U, where they had what appeared to be a pretty comfortable lead in the second half, but couldn’t hold on to it.  They go on the road to face a Harvard team that we think is good.  The Crimson won their opener against MIT, but is still looking for their first D-I win.

-ARKANSAS VS TEXAS (Armed Forces Classic – Fort Bliss).  We really like this Texas team!  As for Arkansas, well, we really like this Texas team!  Arkansas is in a bit of a reset mode, but if they can pull off the surprise win tonight then that may be an indication that they’re capable of getting reset in a hurry.

-OLD DOMINION AT SAINT JOSEPH’S.  ODU won their season opener, but has a much taller order tonight against a Saint Joe’s team that we think could be a bit of a dark horse in the A10.

-UNC GREENSBORO AT LSU.  This is a buy game, but we really like this UNCG team and think they can make quite a bit of noise in the SoCon this year.  This would be a huge statement win for them if they’re somehow able to pull off the upset.  LSU is better, but the Tigers better not overlook them.

-OKLAHOMA AT UTRGV.  A bit of an unusual game for the Sooners to open their season with.  But, it’s a winnable road game, so on paper it’s better than playing it at home.

-BUFFALO AT WEST VIRGINIA.  I know Buffalo lost some big pieces from their team a year ago that made the Round of 32, but I still really like them.  They ran away from Saint Francis U in their opener, but have a much taller order today against a very good West Virginia team.  The Eers better not overlook them, though.

-UTEP AT NEW MEXICO STATE.  This is a rivalry game between two teams that are coming in 1-0.  New Mexico State doesn’t appear to be quite as strong as what we are used to seeing, and UTEP has a ways to go before they are rebuilt, but the winner of this game will have some early momentum built up after the first week.

-GEORGIA STATE AT MONTANA.  This is an UTR game, but it’s worth highlighting because it’s a Georgia State team that we feel is the best in the Sun Belt, and a Montana team that we feel is among the best in the Big Sky.

-WASHINGTON AT AUBURN.  Washington had a nice win to open the season against a pretty good Western Kentucky team, and now travels most of the way across the country to take on an Auburn team that’s coming off a win in a buy game and ranked really high.  This is a really good early season test for both teams, as well as a chance to add a good win on their resume.

-UC IRVINE AT TEXAS A&M.  I really like this UCI team and think they have a shot at picking this one up on the road.  Both come into this one 1-0.

-UTAH VALLEY AT BYU.  A nice regional pseudo-rivalry match-up.  Utah Valley won their opener, and while BYU didn’t win at Nevada, they made a really good account of themselves.

-YALE AT CALIFORNIA (Shanghai China).  It’s the season opener for both teams.  Truth be told we aren’t expecting all that much out of either one of them, but who knows?  One of them will get to start things off with a win.

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

-Bowling Green @ Saint John’s – both teams 1-1
-Gardner Webb @ Virginia Tech
-NC Central @ Clemson
-Fairleigh Dickinson @ Rutgers
-VMI @ Pittsburgh – both teams 1-0
-Dartmouth @ Davidson – both teams 1-0
-Longwood @ Richmond – Longwood is 1-0
-Detroit @ Temple
-Charleston Southern @ Florida
-Hampton @ VCU – both teams 1-0
-American @ George Mason
-New Hampshire @ UMass – both teams 1-0
-Vermont @ Boston U – BU had a nice road win in their opener
-Northern Kentucky @ Northern Illinois – both teams 1-0
-Austin Peay @ Mississippi State – APSU is 1-0
-Jacksonville State @ Samford – a season opener for a Jax St. team that we think will be good in the OVC
-Coastal Carolina @ Campbell – both teams 1-0
-North Florida @ Penn State
-Lamar @ Georgia Tech
-James Madison @ East Carolina – both teams 1-0
-Kennesaw State @ Kansas State
-Montana State @ Indiana
-Rice @ Penn – both teams 1-0
-Furman @ Loyola Chicago – both teams 1-0
-Maryland @ Navy (Veterans Classic) – winnable road game for the Terps
-Eastern Washington @ Oregon
-Mississippi Valley State @ Texas Tech
-McNeese @ Arizona State
-Pacific @ Nevada – both teams 1-0
-Long Beach State @ UCLA