NEWS AND NOTES:
-I think it is safe to say we are through the first couple days of the season where all the games seem like they were ordered off the pastry cart.
-Yesterday, on November 9th (not Feb 9th or March 9th), Auburn and Houston gave us a game that was played at a high level between two of the best teams in the country. There have been Final Four games that didn’t feature two teams as good as that who played as well as that. And, congratulations to Auburn on going into the city of Houston (albeit not Houston’s home court) and getting a win against a legit top 4 caliber team. Granted they had some issues on the flight over, but once they got there they were amazing to watch! Considering that it was a (mostly) road game against a team that could still end up as a #1 seed, this may turn out to be one of the most impressive singular wins that any team manages to put on its resume all season long! And, it’s November 9th! But, both teams played great, and made big plays, and it was close all the way down the stretch. It was just a fantastic college basketball game! I still think Houston is really good, and I still think they can win it all. This loss will probably just make them better.
-Baylor also bounced back from getting pounded at Gonzaga with a really nice 72-67 win over Arkansas. Suddenly Baylor’s resume is this…a lost at Gonzaga (not bad at all), and a neutral floor win against Arkansas (very good!). The Bears will be just fine. I expect that Arkansas will be similar to many previous Kentucky teams we’ve seen. They’ll start off okay, then get really good over the winter break, and then be high in the rankings and in the protected seed range by the end of the year.
-Louisville fans were as excited for their game against Tennessee yesterday as they had been for just about any home game they had played since before Covid. And for about 90 seconds it was a hell of a game! It was 10-0 just a couple minutes in and I don’t think it was ever below double digits after that as Tennessee won handily on the road 77-55.
-Fordham got a nice 57-56 win at Seton Hall. Having said that, I think this says more about how Seton Hall is bad than it does about how Fordham is good.
-Memphis went on the road and got a really nice win against UNLV. I have been very skeptical of this Memphis team (and to be honest I still am). I know they are talented, but my question is can they play together? Well, they’re off to a great start! To go on the road and win at UNLV is a very good early season win for a team that’s trying to play its way inside the bubble.
-Northwestern hung tough with what we think is a very good Dayton team for about 30 minutes, and managed a double digit lead into the second half, but the Flyers rallied, came back, got control late, and ended up with a nice 71-66 win. I think both teams will go on to have pretty good years, so it was a good early season game for both of them to have on their schedules.
-I said Richmond might be a dark horse in the Atlantic 10 before the start of the season. Last night they lost at home to Marist 79-72. I now need to go find where I said that and delete it.
-I said Vermont would be a top level Under the Radar team before the start of the season, and after their win at UAB I said they may have a shot at landing inside the bubble. They were blown out by Auburn right after that, but I still wasn’t overly concerned. Yesterday, they lost 65-51 to Merrimack. I am now concerned. I now need to go find where I said that and delete it.
-Grand Canyon was without two starters, and trailed Western Kentucky at home for seemingly the entire game, but they kept it close. Then, in the final minute, they made some big plays and escaped with a buzzer beating shot to win 74-72. I’ve been saying for a while that I think Grand Canyon is a top 25 team. While they did struggle more than you would expect yesterday, they were without two of their key players, and WKU is a talented team, and the Lopes still won the game. So, I won’t be going back to delete anything I said about them! At least not yet.
-Boise State is a team we think can (and still will) make the NCAA Tournament. We knew they’d be tested yesterday on the road at San Francisco. They failed the test 84-73. And before I get attacked about how it was a tough road game, I know it was a tough road game! But…THAT’S THE POINT! NCAA Tournament teams are expected to be able to win tough road games. And while winning at San Francisco is admittedly tough, it’s not like they were playing at Gonzaga or Arizona. It was a tough game that a good team should have been able to win. I still like the Broncos, but the loss gives me a little bit of pause.
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HIGHLIGHTED GAMES:
-MICHIGAN VS WAKE FOREST (Greensboro, NC). This is the first real test for either of these teams. Michigan is expected to be much better this year under head coach Dusty May, and Wake is someone that we think can be an NCAA Tournament team. It’s both an early test and an early opportunity to add a notable win to their profiles.
-UC IRVINE AT NORTHERN IOWA. These are two really good UTR teams that we expect will do very well in their conferences. I actually picked both these teams to win their conferences, so it’s fun to see them square off against each other. These are the kinds of OOC games that you want to see the top UTR schools play. It’s probably a long shot to think either of these teams can end up inside the bubble, but a win today would likely end up looking good on either team’s profile and would be a step in the right direction.
-ARIZONA STATE AT GONZAGA. Both teams come in without a loss, but given how Gonzaga blew out Baylor and how Arizona State struggled to get by Idaho State in their opener, this looks to be a big mismatch. Arizona State did beat Santa Clara in their last game, and that may turn out to be a really nice win, but whereas Santa Clara might be an NIT team, Gonzaga might be a Final Four team. They are on a much higher level.
-Eastern Illinoins @ Indiana
-Appalachian State @ Wisconsin
-SEMO @ Vanderbilt
-North Florida @ Georgia Tech – both teams unbeaten
-Stephen F Austin @ Drake – both teams 1-0
-Princeton @ Northeastern – Princeton has won their first two games, but both have been a struggle
-Eureka (nonD1) @ Loyola Chicago
-Binghamton @ Miami FL
-Saint Thomas @ Oklahoma State
-SELA @ UAB
-Texas Southern @ Georgia
-Tennessee State @ Wyoming – Wyoming can get to 2-0
-Alivia (nonD1) @ Saint Louis
-Fairleigh Dickinson @ Creighton
-Alabama State @ LSU
-San Jose State @ Hawaii (Rainbow Classic)
