Hoops HD

NEWS AND NOTES

-And the craziness has begun on Day 1!!

-The top five match-up between Kentucky and Duke started off with Kentucky winning the tip, and then winning pretty much nothing after that.  Duke ran them over in a very impressive showing.  I don’t think Duke will always play that dominantly, and I don’t think Kentucky is going to end the season without being anywhere close to the #1 or #2 line, but for a moment in time (and granted it was the first moment) Duke blew their doors off.

-Before that, Kansas had a comfortable lead over Michigan State for most of the game, but with less than a minute to go the Spartans had cut it to 3.  The Jayhawks held on for a huge win, and even thought it’s this early it will likely be one of their biggest wins of the season.

-North Carolina picked up a very nice road win at Wofford.  I know on the surface that doesn’t seem too exciting, but when you step back from it this is a very good Wofford team that may not lose at home for the rest of the year, so it’s a good win for the Heels.

-Florida State blew Florida off the floor in a win over a rival that had to feel good.  The Noles were in the Elite Eight last year and look to be good again this year.  Since the football team isn’t exactly setting the world on fire, don’t be surprised if you see a swell of support for this basketball team even as early as November.

-Western Kentucky had a string of off the court ‘issues’ (we’ll go with that) leading in to a hugely important game against Washington.  Nevertheless, they had a halftime lead and appeared to be in control for the first part of the second half, but then Washington finally got it together and looked great in the latter part of the game.  This is big because WKU’s chances at notable wins go away once conference play begins, and although this doesn’t sink them, they need to win a few games like this one if they want to impress the selection committee.

-Arizona State had all kinds of trouble with Cal State Fullerton, and at times looked to be beaten, but ended up pulling it out in double overtime in a game that was much more exciting than expected.

If you missed it, there was A LOT of excitement involving UTR Teams, and since it’s the first day and everyone is technically tied for first, then at least for right now these were all big games!

-Penn picked up an exciting 1pt road win against a George Mason team that we felt could be a top 40 team.
-Stony Brook fell down 22-0 at GW, but came back to win in overtime
-NJIT went to overtime, but got by Colgate
-Florida A&M picked up their first true OOC road win since 2008 with a 65-50 win at Jacksonville, so BIG TIME congrats to them!
-Campbell held off UNC Wilmington in a seesaw overtime thriller
-Boston U got a surprising 77-74 road win against a very good Northeastern team in a thriller that seesawed back and forth.
-Cal State Northridge fell at home to New Mexico (who I know is not UTR) on a last second 3pt shot that banked in.  Mark Gottfired just missed picking up a big win in his debut at CSUN.

-Last, but certainly not least, South Dakota State knocked off Grand Canyon, but what I took away from this game is how impressed I was with both teams.  GCU fell behind, but kept battling back, and this is a South Dakota State team that we feel is good enough to perhaps end up not needing the automatic bid on Selection Sunday, so it was a good showing for both teams despite the loss.

-Oh yea, and Texas Southern knocked off Baylor for one of the bigger true road wins of the day!  Congrats to Johnny Jones for winning his debut with Texas Southern.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-OHIO STATE AT CINCINNATI.  YES!!!!!  FINALLY!!!!!  These two teams, despite both being very accomplished programs, have only played about ten times since 1921, and have not played a game that did not involve the NCAA Tournament or a third party scheduler for I don’t know how long.  This is a great game and series for both programs, and it’s a great game for both teams to open the season with.  It is currently just a two year deal, but I hope it turns into a fixture game that we get to enjoy every year.  As for the match-up, both teams seemed to have lost more than what they are bringing back, but we still expect both of them to contend for a spot in the NCAA Tournament, so it’s a good chance at a quality win.

-SAVANNAH STATE AT TEXAS A&M.  YOUR TEAM OF THE PEOPLE!!!!  Unless something changes (and we really hope it does) this will be the last season opener for Savannah State at the div1 level.  Winning this game, or any other buy game, will be a huge challenge because we know how overmatched they are, but if they could somehow win just one of these, it would put them in the spotlight and hopefully make it so more people can learn their story.  We will be supporting them all year long!!

-BUCKNELL AT SAINT BONAVENTURE.  Both teams are in complete rebuild mode after being good for several years in a row, and it may be a rough ride for either one of them to make any sort of a postseason tournament.

BUY GAMES

-North Florida @ Dayton
-Bethune Cookman @ DePaul
-Cal State Bakersfield @ TCU
-Colorado Christian (nondiv1) @ Colorado State
-Houston Baptist @ Arizona
-McNeese @ Saint Mary’s

NEWS AND NOTES

-HAPPY COLLEGE BASKETBALL SEASON EVERYBODY!!!!

CLICK HERE for the Hoops HD Preseason Bracket Projections Video Podcast

CLICK HERE for Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day

-The days of watching meaningless exhibitions that are so lopsided that you stop watching before halftime are over!!  We now have mostly meaningless (but not entirely) buy games that will be so lopsided that you’ll stop watching before halftime is over!!  But, we have some REALLY good games as well, including a top ten match-up, a top five match-up, two really good UTR teams with chances to get big time wins right out of the gate, a big in-state rivalry game between two pretty good teams, and more!

-I say this every year, and I will say it again.  Technically everyone starts out at zero.  Regardless of what we’re saying about each game, we are ultimately just supposing.  Both Duke and Kentucky could in theory end up winning less than ten games making tonight’s matchup completely meaningless, whereas there may be games that we haven’t even listed that end up being hugely important.  If the SWAC gets out there and wins 80 percent of their OOC games, then they’ll send half their conference to the NCAAs.  If the ACC gets out there and loses 80 percent of their games, it will be a one bid league.  Everyone begins at zero.  None of the preseason rankings mean anything.  What ultimately happens in regards to the NCAA Tournament will ultimately be entirely decided by what happens on the court.  Last year there were seven preseason top 25 teams that missed the NCAA Tournament, and that was actually fewer teams than normal.  On the flip side there were three teams that did not receive a single vote in the preseason top 25 last year that ended up as protected seed, and a fourth team in Clemson that was right there with a #5 seed and ultimately made the Sweet Sixteen.  Regardless of where a team is ranked now, in the eyes of the committee and the computer rankings they are all starting off at zero.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-WISCONSIN LUTHERAN (non-D1) AT GREEN BAY.  This is a very meaningless game.  It really can’t be any more meaningless and still be considered meaningful.  But, it is the first regulation game of the 2018-2019 season, so we will go ahead and highlight it.

-MICHIGAN STATE VS KANSAS (Champions Classic).  Nothing like a top ten match up on Day 1!!!  Kansas is ranked #1, and nearly everyone at Hoops HD feels that they are not overrated.  This is a chance for both teams to pick up a huge win on a neutral floor, which will look good on the resume come March.  Can anything top this match-up??…..

-DUKE VS KENTUCKY (Champions Classic).  Nothing like a top FIVE match up on Day 1!!  Kentucky is ranked #2 and nearly everyone at Hoops HD feels that they are not overrated.  This is a chance for both teams to pick up a huge win on a neutral flor, which will look good on the resume come March.

-SAINT FRANCIS U AT BUFFALO.  Probably not a big game, but we really like this Buffalo team and think they can contend for an at-large bid, and STFU is one of the better teams in the NEC.

-RIDER AT UCF.  Very interesting game here even if it is a bit of a mismatch.  Rider is our preseason pick to win the MAAC, and UCF is a team that we think can play their way into the Top 25.  While UCF should be heavily favored, they Rider is good enough to stay with them if UCF overlooks them.

-NORTH CAROLINA AT WOFFORD.  This one should be a fun one.  We really like this Wofford team.  If they can pick up some big wins, which we feel they are good enough to do, then it isn’t outrageous to think they can land inside the bubble.  They host a North Carolina team that they managed to beat on the road a year ago.  To UNC’s credit and Roy Williams’s credit, they don’t shy away from games like this.  It is a huge showcase game for a very good Wofford team that typically does not get games like this on their campus.  Should be fun!!  And, if UNC wins it, it will likely end up as a quadrant 1 win.

-EAST TENNESSEE STATE AT GEORGIA STATE.  Should be a fun UTR game between two teams that we think will do well in their conferences.

-MIT (non-D1) AT HARVARD.  These two seemingly always open the season against each other, and I love it!

-NORTH ALABAMA AT SAMFORD.  Welcome to D-1 basketball North Alabama!!!  Well, sort of.  They have a four year transition ahead of them.

-LA SALLE AT TEMPLE (Big Five).  La Salle welcomes in a new coach, and Temple begins the farewell season of Fran Dunphy, who is a Big Five legend.  It’s fun seeing teams open the season with games like this.  We feel Temple is a fringe bubble team this year, so winning a rivalry game on opening night will certainly give them some momentum.

-LOUISIANA TECH AT WICHITA STATE.  Yunno, both these teams were really good just a few years ago!  This year…well…both these teams were really good just a few years ago!  Wichita State has an excellent program, but this year’s edition of it is in complete rebuild mode, so it may be a long season.

-BOSTON U AT NORTHEASTERN (Bean Pot).  Another intriguing UTR game.  We really like this Northeastern team and think they are the favorites to win the Colonial.

-GRAND CANYON AT SOUTH DAKOTA STATE.  CLICK HERE to read Chad’s write up

-FLORIDA AT FLORIDA STATE.  This is the kind of game we want to see on opening night!!  It’s a rivalry game between two likely tournament teams!  Bragging rights are on the line, and a good resume win is on the line!  Opening night should be a big night!  I applaud both of these teams for doing it right.  People aren’t as big on the Gators as they were last year, but that can all change tonight if they can get a road win of this caliber under their belts right out of the gate.

-UMBC AT MARQUETTE.  I know this is a buy game, but what’s unique about this is that one of these teams was in the Round of 32, and it ain’t the team that’s buying.  It’s the team that’s being bought.  UMBC did something incredible last year, but even had they not knocked off #1 seeded Virginia, they would have still done something incredible considering how much they’ve improved in the last three seasons.  Marquette is a likely tournament team, and they should win tonight without too much trouble, but it’s still a much more interesting match-up than what we will see in most buy games.

-NORTH DAKOTA STATE AT NEW MEXICO STATE.  A good UTR match-up between two solid programs who appear to be rebuilding a little bit this year.

-WEBER STATE AT SAN DIEGO.  Two more really good UTR teams.  This is a good first game for both teams.

-IDAHO AT UC IRVINE.  We’re highlighting this game only because I’m really big on this UC Irvine team and think they may be good enough to make a run at the bubble.  Probably not, but maybe.

-WESTERN KENTUCKY AT WASHINGTON.  This is a fantastic early season game between what I think are two Top 25 teams.  I know WKU isn’t ranked that high yet, but it wouldn’t shock me at all if they’re in the rankings before the end of the season.  They play in C-USA, so their opportunities to get big wins later in the year will likely be limited, so this is a very important game for them tonight.

-BYU AT NEVADA.  We think Nevada will likely end up with a protected seed and maybe even contend for a spot in the Final Four.  We aren’t as big on BYU, but a win tonight will certainly change that.

BUY GAMES

-Chicago State @ Indiana
-Siena @ Providence
-Wagner @ Seton Hall
-Loyola MD @ Saint John’s
-Towson @ Virginia – Towson has had some pretty good teams, but probably not this year
-Lenoir Rhyne (non-D1) @ Tennessee – fun fact: Rick Barnes is a Lenoir-Rhyne alum
-Morgan State @ Villanova
-Eastern Washington @ Syracuse – Eastern Washington is pretty good, but they’re probably overmatched
-The Citadel @ Clemson
-Fairfield @ Purdue
-Cleveland State @ Davidson
-UMass Lowell @ UMass
-Bryant @ Rhode Island
-Gardner Webb @ VCU
-South Carolina Upstate @ South Carolina
-Youngstown State @ Pittsburgh
-UIC @ Notre Dame
-Mount Saint Mary’s @ NC State
-Delaware @ Maryland
-Incarnate Word @ Texas Tech
-Tennessee Tech @ Memphis
-SEMO @ Saint Louis
-Eastern Illinois @ Texas
-Alabama State @ Iowa State
-Central Arkansas @ Missouri
-Omaha @ Minnesota
-Mississippi Valley State @ Nebraska
-Coppin State @ Wisconsin
-Winthrop @ Vanderbilt – perhaps more interesting than most buy games
-Southern U @ Alabama
-Cal State Fullerton @ Arizona State
-Norfolk State @ Michigan
-SELA @ LSU
-Western Illinois @ Creighton
-IUPUI @ Xavier
-UMES @ Georgetown
-Idaho State @ Gonzaga
-South Alabama @ Auburn
-Fort Wayne @ UCLA
-UNKC @ Loyola Chicago
-Texas Southern @ Baylor
-Seattle @ Stanford
-Pine Bluff @ San Diego State
-Portland State @ Oregon
-Robert Morris @ USC