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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Saturday, December 1st

Posted on December 1, 2018 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES

-The Big Ten officially got underway tonight. They start early now that they’ve extended their schedule. Wisconsin and Iowa was a top 25 match-up that did not disappoint as Wisky got yet another huge road win on their resume. Seeing as how Iowa was ranked #14th this is easily their best win of the season so far. Wisky is one of those unranked and un-hyped preseason teams that is now climbing pretty high in the rankings now that the season is underway. And for that matter, so is Iowa. And, so is Texas!! But, about that…

-The biggest headlines of the night probably belong to Radford, who went into Texas and came out with a huge road win. It was close the entire way, and Radford actually had a bit of a lead built up that Texas chipped away at, but couldn’t quite get over the hump. Radford had a win earlier this season at Notre Dame. That win was big because anytime a UTR team can beat a brand name P5 team on the road it’s a big deal, but so far Notre Dame has looked like an NIT team at best. Texas was ranked in the top 20, and had absolutely earned that ranking, so this was a huge win for Radford. As far as them landing inside the bubble, we’ve still got a long way to go, but it’s possible.

-Mississippi State had a nice come from behind victory at Dayton. The Flyers are in trouble. They could end up totally crushing the Atlantic Ten, but because the league is so weak this year they’d still be lacking notable wins. They really needed this one tonight.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

We have 16 solid hours of basketball today starting at 8am!! I really wish Hawaii was playing at home tonight, because that would have extended it to 18 hours!! Today is jam packed, and pretty much every Saturday for the rest of the year will be like this!!

-BUFFALO VS SAN FRANCISCO (Basketball Hall of Fame Belfast Classic). At the beginning of the season I would have never circled this match-up, but with an unbeaten and nationally ranked Buffalo team taking on an unbeaten San Francisco team that’s looking for it’s first really nice win, this is now a highlighted game. Should be fun!

-SAINT JOHN’S VS GEORGIA TECH (Game in Miami FL). The Johnnies come into this game without a loss, and although none of those wins have me jumping up and down, a few of them have been decent, and they have won it all.

-LOUISVILLE AT SETON HALL. We’ve seen Louisville play well against good teams this year, and earlier this week we saw them pick up a big home win against Michigan State. This is their first true road game of the season. Seton Hall has been up and down as well, but they’re coming off of three strait wins out at the Wooden Classic, so they have some momentum built up.

-UNC GREENSBORO AT KENTUCKY. This UNCG team is a lot better than what most people realize, and this Kentucky team is highly talented, but that has been sleepwalking a little bit this season. It is a very intriguing match-up. As excited as everyone is about Wofford, UNCG won the SoCon last year and returned most of their key players. Their only loss was a close one to LSU, so Kentucky better not overlook them.

-NORTHWESTERN AT INDIANA (Big Ten). Indiana got dump-trucked in their last game against Duke, but that’s perhaps not even discouraging. They’ve played pretty well in all their other games, and should be tested by a Northwestern team that’s off to a 6-1 start. I think both teams are looking to make a statement, and this is an opportunity.

-GONZAGA AT CREIGHTON. Gonzaga has looked like the best team in the country despite the fact that a key player in injured, and Creighton has looked pretty good. It’s a huge home game for the Bluejays and it should be a great atmosphere.

-KANSAS STATE AT MARQUETTE. Marquette has looked decent this year, but they are still a long way from reaching their ceiling. A win over a highly ranked team would be a huge step forward. K State comes into this game at 6-0, but this is their first true road game and probably their biggest test of the year.

-TEXAS TECH VS MEMPHIS (Game in Miami FL0. Texas Tech is good, and Memphis isn’t good yet, but probably will be soon. The Red Raiders, who once again started the season with almost no hype at all, are out to a 6-0 start and are currently ranked #20th. Expect that ranking to continue to climb.

-VILLANOVA VS LA SALLE (Big Five, Game at the Palestra). Villanova is ranked in the top 25!! Villanova is the defending National Champion!! La Salle….is…..playing Villanova today!!!

-COLORADO STATE AT COLORADO (Front Range). We at Hoops HD love the Front Range!!! And, let’s not overlook this Colorado team. They’re off to a 4-1 start and knocking off their rivals at home will certainly help build up that momentum even more.

-SAN DIEGO STATE AT ILLINOIS STATE (MWC/MVC Challenge). Both teams need this win. Both are off to decent starts at best, but that’s all you can say about them. It doesn’t feel like they’re caught up with the pack of teams that will compete for spots in the NCAA Tournament, and whoever loses this game will be even further behind.

-SAVANNAH STATE AT GARDNER WEBB. THE TEAM OF THE PEOPLE!!!!!! They have what we feel is a winnable road game, which would keep them at the top of the MEAC for most current div1 OOC wins.

-PURDUE AT MICHIGAN (Big Ten). Purdue is coming off a very close loss at Florida State, but still appears to be very good. Michigan is coming off an anything-but-close win against North Carolina. They are breathing fire right now with two blowout wins against ranked teams on their resume, and as good as Purdue is, they may end up getting blown out as well.

-LOYOLA CHICAGO AT UIC. A bit of a desperation game here for Loyola. They’re a modest 4-3 on the season and really need to get their motor started if they want to land inside the bubble. Today’s game is winnable, but it’s not a cakewalk. UIC is unbeaten at home, and they’ll be up for this one seeing as how Loyola was in the Final Four last year.

-NEVADA AT USC. USC is good. USC is not usually an easy place to win. Their problem is that Nevada is AWESOME. Nevada is ranked #5th, and although I personally do not feel they are the fifth best team in the country, I do feel they are one of the ten best teams in the country. They can remain unbeaten and pick up their second true road win today.

-PENN STATE AT MARYLAND (Big Ten). This is going to be a good one. Penn State is coming off a huge home win against a very good Virginia Tech team….but that was at home. They’re walking into a snake pit today to take on a Maryland team that isn’t easy to beat at home. They’re also looking to rebound from a home loss against a very good Virginia team.

-TULSA AT UTAH. I highlight this because of Tulsa wins this game and gets to 6-2 with a road win like this on their resume, we will sit up and take notice.

-VANDERBILT VS NC STATE (Game in Miami FL). Both teams come in with just one loss, and both have exceeded any preseason expectations they may have had. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if both these teams ended up in the NCAA Tournament, and that this turns out to be a resume building game for whoever wins it.

-RHODE ISLAND AT PROVIDENCE. We LOVE this rivalry! It is far more intense than what anyone outside the state of Rhode Island realizes, and many of the recent games have been close, hard fought, and fun to watch! The problem is that there is absolutely no indication at all that this year’s edition will look like that. Rhody is not good. In fact, they’re bad. Providence is decent now, and will likely continue to improve. It may be rather lopsided.

-BUTLER AT SAINT LOUIS. This is an important game for SLU. They are one of the few A10 teams that looks like they might be an NCAA Tournament team. If they are, then they should be expected to be able to beat top 40 teams at home. I’m not even sure if Butler is a top 40 team, but what I do know is that if SLU really is a tournament caliber team then this is the kind of game they need to be able to win. Butler only has one loss, but they don’t have anything on their resume that really wows me yet. A win today would change that.

-STANFORD AT KANSAS. This isn’t a buy game, but Kansas is one of the two best teams in the country and Stanford….isn’t. It may end up looking like a buy game before it’s over.

-TEMPLE AT SAINT JOSEPH’S (Big Five). Temple is 6-1, and while they don’t have any huge wins yet, they have shown some potential. A road win against a Big Five rival will at least keep their momentum going.

-GEORGIA STATE AT LIBERTY. This is a really fun UTR game that we are going to go ahead and highlight. It’s unlikely that either team will be inside the bubble, but we may see one or both teams in the NCAA Tournament with auto-bids. Georgia State is off to an impressive start, and Liberty comes into this with just one loss.

-LIPSCOMB AT MIDDLE TENNESSEE. This game isn’t nearly as intriguing as it would have been a year ago. Lipscomb clearly looks like the superior team, and they’re going after their fourth road win of the season and trying to improve to 6-1 on the year.

-CINCINNATI AT UNLV. Cincinnati is probably a tournament team. They may be good enough to be wearing white in the Round of 64 as the better seeded team. UNLV has a nice brand name, but this year’s team is terrible. It’s never easy to win true road games, but right now I’d say a UNLV win would be more of an indictment on Cincinnati than it would be a quality win for Vegas.

-NORTHERN COLORADO AT WYOMING (Front Range). We at Hoops HD love the Front Range!! And….this is a Front Range game!! Ummm…Northern Colorado is kind of a surprise team in the Big Sky that can improve to 5-1 and pick up their third road win. That’s all I got. Sorry.

-EAST TENNESSEE STATE AT WOFFORD (SoCon). A really good early season Under the Radar game between two of the better teams in the SoCon. It’s a conference game, so this one counts!!

-NEW MEXICO AT BRADLEY (MWC/MVC Challenge). Both teams have a lot of work to do, but if they can put together a long string of wins they will end up getting the attention of the committee.

-FIU AT ARKANSAS. FIU is off to a very surprising 7-1 start, but they’ve not played in a game that will test them anywhere close to as much as this one will today. Arkansas has just one loss on the year, and that was an overtime game against a Texas team that is currently in the rankings, so chances are they’re going to end up being a lot better than what many of us were expecting.

-BAYLOR AT WICHITA STATE. Both teams are off to a slow start and both have a lot of ground to make up. That gives this game kind of a pivotal feel even though it’s still early.

-OREGON AT HOUSTON. Houston is unbeaten, but for the most part also untested. There still doesn’t appear to be that much buzz around the program, but that may start to change if they’re able to win this one. Oregon is still in the rankings, but after their loss to Texas Southern earlier this week that may not last for much longer, especially if they drop this game as well.

-NORTHERN IOWA VS SOUTH DAKOTA STATE (Game in Minneapolis). South Dakota State is almost out of strikes. They basically need to win out or come close to it in order to get inside the bubble.

-WASHINGTON STATE AT NEW MEXICO STATE. Both teams come into this game with just one loss, but New Mexico State has looked like the more impressive team so far. I’m still not all that big on Wazzu, but my opinion will certainly change if they’re able to win this one.

-BYU AT WEBER STATE. This could be a tough road test for BYU against a Weber State team that comes in at 4-2 and could make some noise in the Big Sky.

-TEXAS SOUTHERN AT ARIZONA STATE. With wins at Baylor and at Oregon, you can’t just dismiss this as another buy game for Texas Southern. Arizona State is unbeaten. If Texas Southern gets a third scalp and manages to blow through the SWAC, then you have to start thinking of them as a bubble team. That’s assuming a lot, though. This will not be an easy game to win.

-UTAH STATE AT UC IRVINE. This is one of the better, and perhaps more important, games of the day. Both teams have just one loss, and both have managed some decent wins. Neither have played their way into the national consciousness yet, but both are on pace to have big years and this will probably end up being a big win for whoever pulls it off.

BUY GAMES (and other games worth mentioning, but not higlighting)

-Oakland @ Xavier
-Cleveland State @ Toledo – Toledo only has one loss this year
-Belmont @ Green Bay – Belmont looking to remain unbeaten and pick up their 4th road win
-Marshall @ Ohio – Marshall is looking to improve to 6-1 on the year
-Youngstown State @ West Virginia
-Charlotte @ Charleston
-Western Carolina @ Furman – SoCon game
-Florida Atlantic @ Bethune Cookman – FAU is out of the gate fast, and can improve to 7-1 with a win
-Central Connecticut @ Virginia Tech
-Houston Baptist @ LA Tech
-Stetson @ Duke
-Missouri State @ Oregon State
-Tennessee State @ Western Kentucky – WKU better win this or they’re in trouble
-Iona @ VCU
-Quinnipiac @ Stony Brook
-Fordham @ Manhattan – Fordham can improve to 6-1 with a win over their rival
-Davidson @ UNC Wilmington – Davidson’s first true road game. Can improve to 7-1
-Wake Forest @ Richmond – Wake can improve to 5-2 and pick up their first true road win
-Yale @ Miami FL – game part of an MTE.
-Prairie View @ Murray State
-Cornell @ Syracuse
-Abilene Christian @ Pepperdine – ACU can get to 8-0 and win their third road game
-Long Beach State @ San Diego

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Hanging with the Hoyas: Part 2

Posted on November 30, 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 featured an early-November game against Central Connecticut State (https://hoopshd.com/2018/11/11/hanging-with-the-hoyas-part-1), while Part 2 is about Richmond’s visit to DC earlier this week for the schools’ 10th meeting all-time:

The Game 1 pregame media room meal was make-your-own tacos but they kicked it up a notch for Game 2: salmon crostini, chicken and orzo, with berry crunch pie for dessert! Moving on to the game:

Richmond limped into the nation’s capital missing 2 of their top-3 scorers: Nick Sherod (12.7 PPG but out for the year after tearing his left ACL last Sunday) and Jacob Gilyard (16.6 PPG but missing his 2nd straight game with a strained groin after starting all 32 games last year as a freshman). Their inexperience was on display early as they were whistled for a 5-second call…coming out of a TV timeout! However, despite a quiet 1st half from leading scorer Grant Golden, the Spiders were only down 40-35 at halftime thanks to the efforts of 2 of their younger players. I still cannot tell if SO SF Nathan Cayo can make shots from the perimeter but he did not need to because he kept driving to the basket and made layup after layup (finishing with 18 PTS on 7-11 FG). FR SG Jake Wojcik (son of former San Jose State coach Dave, nephew of former Tulsa/Charleston coach Doug) was coming off of an 0-7 shooting performance in his prior game against Hampton, but apparently he rediscovered his shooting touch by making a trios of threes in the 1st half.

Georgetown had some freshman firepower of their own in the form of PG James Akinjo, who matched Wojcik with 3 threes of his own during the 1st 20 minutes. The star of the show, as expected, was SR C Jessie Govan who was simply unstoppable in the paint with 18 1st half PTS: layups, jump hooks, rebound/putbacks, you name it. He stood alone as the best player on the court:

The shorthanded Spiders did not get a single bench point all night but stayed close throughout the 2nd half thanks to Golden. Wojcik kept converting from the backcourt with 3 more threes after halftime but it was his 6’10” teammate who did his best Govan impression: he made a ton of turnaround hook shots as well as layup after layup to finish with 22 PTS/10 REB/3 BLK in only 31 minutes of action. I thought it would be an easy win for Georgetown but Coach Patrick Ewing kept calling timeouts to get some effort out of his team:

The quietest contributor was FR G Andre Gustavson: he started the night with 1 career AST in his short college career, but somehow had 10 more during 39 minutes from start to Finnish (he’s from Helsinki: give me a break!).

Govan kept pouring it on in the 2nd half and looks like the Big East Player of the Year at the moment: 29 PTS/9 REB and only 1 TO in 36 minutes. He even made all 7 of his FT attempts:

The freshman backcourt of Akinjo/Mac McClung struggled when I last saw them in person against CCSU but they have grown up a lot over the past 3 weeks, combining for 29 PTS/5-10 3PM/7 AST. The breakout star was Greg Malinowski: he had 3 solid years at William & Mary before sitting out last year after transferring to Georgetown and he played like a veteran senior on Wednesday with arguably the best all-around effort of his lengthy college career (10 PTS/7 REB/5 AST in 20 minutes off the bench) to help the Hoyas win 90-82.

I expected Coach Ewing to be ecstatic in the postgame press conference after scoring 90+ PTS in back-to-back games for the 1st time in forever and improving to 6-1 this month (with their only loss coming to undefeated Loyola Marymount in Jamaica) but he was quite unhappy. Wins are important…but allowing an opponent that is missing 2 star players to score 82 PTS on your home court must have rubbed him the wrong way. I attempted to improve his mood by asking if he was impressed by Malinowski’s growth as a player and he said that Greg “did all of the things that I wanted him to do”:

That was followed up by Greg’s 1st-ever appearance at a postgame press conference as a Hoya. I asked him (sitting to the left with Govan on the right) if his great game was due to confidence/matchups/other and he responded that it was not a matter of confidence because “any man on our team can step up and I just took advantage of the opportunity tonight”.

I also questioned Golden about whether he had shared any words of wisdom with Sherod since Grant had overcome his own medical redshirt situation 2 years ago. He stated that he told Nick that the injury was not the end of the world and that “the silver lining is the fact that he will get a medical redshirt that will give him 1 more year on the team”.

That’s all for now, check back in the weeks ahead for Part 3.

Posted in CBB | Tagged georgetown, Richmond | Comments Off

News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Friday, Nov 30th

Posted on November 30, 2018 by David Griggs

-The Basketball Hall of Fame Classic from Belfast Ireland is already underway! Buffalo had no trouble in their game, and SFA and an undefeated San Francisco team are playing right now. The potential of a San Francisco v Buffalo game is kind of appealing.

-MICHIGAN STATE AT RUTGERS (Big Ten). Rutgers gets a moment in the sun! They are coming off a huge road win at Miami, and tonight are at home against a top ten team. Hopefully there is some energy that’s starting to build and they can get a great atmosphere tonight.

-RADFORD AT TEXAS. It’s a buy game, but Radford is 5-1 with some decent wins on their resume, so they may not be complete pushovers.

-MISSISSIPPI STATE AT DAYTON. Dayton may be the last best hope for the Atlantic Ten. They have a semi-decent win against Butler, and although they did pick up two losses in their exempt tournament, neither of them were damaging. If they can take down a ranked team tonight and hold serve against sub-NCAA Tournament caliber teams for the rest of the season (which means pretty much winning all the rest), they should be able to land inside the bubble.

-DUQUESNE VS PITTSBURGH. It’s the City Game!! And this year there, for the first time I can ever remember, there are signs of life on both sides!! Duquesne was blown out at Notre Dame, but that is their only loss. Pitt is off to an amazing start and coming off a very strong effort in a close loss at Iowa. This game is usually fun to watch even when it appears to be a mismatch, and hopefully that is the case tonight.

-CENTRAL MICHIGAN AT TCU. Both teams have bloated records, but both teams lack quality wins.

-WISCONSIN AT IOWA (Big Ten). Both teams have played their way into the rankings with some huge early season wins, and it’s going to be fun watching them go at it in this conference opener.

-OKLAHOMA STATE VS MINNESOTA (Us Bank Stadium). It’s the trial run for the Final Four!! They’re playing at the site of this year’s National Championship, although there will most likely be far fewer people there tonight, and it would also be a shock if either of these teams were back playing in April. Having said that, Oklahoma State has looked better than we thought they would, so we will continue to keep an eye on them.

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Under The Radar Game of the Day – Sacramento State at UC-Santa Barbara (and other News and Highlighted Games)

Posted on November 29, 2018 by John Stalica

For yesterday’s weekly Under The Radar podcast – CLICK HERE

Sacramento State (3-0, 2-0 D1) at UC-Santa Barbara (5-1, 4-1 D1) – 10:00 PM EST (BigWest.tv)

Tonight’s highlighted game pits the Hornets of Sacramento State against the UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos. All of the Hornet’s action against D-1 competition has come against Big West schools – the first win was a crosstown matchup against UC-Davis in overtime (at the Golden 1 Center); their last game was a home win against Cal State-Fullerton. Both Marcus Graves and Ethan Esposito currently average 15 points a game for Sacramento State in their first three games.

Interestingly enough, three out of UCSB’s four wins have come against Big Sky foes – two of which came in the Idaho Vandal Holiday Hoops Showcase over the weekend against Portland State and Idaho. Armond Davis leads the Gauchos with 14.3 points per game through their first six games played thus far this season.

OTHER NOTES AND HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-Michigan really continues to impress. For the second time this season they absolutely blew out a highly ranked team. They ran away from North Carolina in the second half last night.

-Florida State held on to beat Purdue in a game that saw quite a few momentum shifts. It was a really nice win for the Seminoles, who now have two wins against ranked teams on their profile.

-Virginia remains unbeaten after picking up a tough road win against Maryland. The Hoos are good again.

-Syracuse is now awake. After sleepwalking through the first couple of weeks and missing out on opportunities for notable wins, they went into Ohio State and got a huge OOC road win on their profile. They held a lead pretty much through the entire second half of the game.

-Rutgers!!! They tried to blow it at Miami FL after holding a lead for pretty much the entire game, but just weren’t able to do it. A huge win for the Scarlet Knights as they improve to 5-1 on the year.

-ALABAMA AT UCF. Both teams are off to pretty good starts, and both have some decent wins, but neither team has a win that really pops yet. Today’s win may not pop either for whoever pulls it off, but it’s still a good match-up between two teams that are off to good starts.

-UC Irvine got another nice road win at Saint Mary’s. The Eaters are now 7-1 on the year, with three true road wins.

-BELMONT AT SAMFORD. Two UTR teams that are off to really strong starts. We knew Belmont would be pretty good, but the start Samford is off to is kind of a surprise. This could be a fun one tonight.

-GEORGIA SOUTHERN AT ARIZONA. Georgia Southern comes in at 5-1 and has some decent wins to go with it. They’re ranked really high in a lot of these early season metrics. Tonight is a chance to see what they can do against Arizona, who is also still trying to put some big wins together for their season.

-CAL BAPTIST AT UC RIVERSIDE. We have been waiting for this one for a long time!! Ever since Cal Baptist announced they were moving up to div1, we have been looking forward to the Battle of Riverside!!!!

-Sacred Heart @ Boston College
-McNeese @ SMU
-Bethesda (nondiv1) @ LMU
-Milwaukee @ Buffalo

Posted in Under the Radar | Tagged Big Sky, Big West, Sacramento State, UCSB, under the radar | Comments Off

Under the Radar: November 29th

Posted on November 29, 2018 by David Griggs

Chad, David, and John begin by talking about Texas Southern’s big win a Oregon, and have a debate on how big of an upset it actually was in terms of its improbability and historical significance. After that, they run through all 22 UTR conferences and discuss Stony Brook’s great start with their road wins, how Furman is very close to getting into the rankings, C-USA’s sudden struggles, Belmont and Lipscomb’s strong play, and much more. And as always, we close with this week’s UTR Top Ten.

And for all you radio lovers, below is an audio only version of the show…

Posted in Podcasts, Under the Radar, Videocasts | Comments Off

News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Wednesday, Nov 28

Posted on November 28, 2018 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES

-Louisville led Michigan State for most of the game, but Sparty mounted a second half comeback and it looked like Louisville might be letting another one slip away. After a missed Michigan State freethrow at the end of regulation, the game went into overtime and Louisville pulled it out. Beating a ranked team at home may be the most feelgood moment that entire department (not just the basketball team) has experienced in years. Two years ago they self imposed a postseason ban, last year they missed the tournament, their football team has crashed into a mountain, and they are still under the cloud of the FBI investigations that may be looming. But, they had a good moment last night with a new coach and a lot of new players that had nothing to do with their previous troubles, so good for them!

-In a much anticipated rematch from last year’s Sweet Sixteen, Nevada won impressively at Loyola Chicago in front of a crowd that was absolutely jacked for the game. Loyola has been somewhat disappointing this season, but Nevada has looked impressive every time they have taken the floor.

-Penn State got a big win against a Virginia Tech team in a game that was close all throughout. This Penn State team has a lot of potential, and they took a huge step forward last night.

-For over a year, we’ve been beating up on Pitt. They lost at Iowa last night, but I was far more impressed with them than anything else. Iowa is a very good team that earned their ranking after winning some big wins, and who was at home, and who had a lot of momentum built up. Pitt led for most of the game and had a chance to win it. This likely won’t end up being a damaging loss, and if they play like that the rest of the year Pitt will win a lot of games, and come up with the good wins they need to make the NCAA Tournament. They are no longer the sludge-fire that they were a year ago.

-In UTR news, Stony Brook is now 6-1 with four true road wins. They are a team to keep an eye on. We will discuss them, Texas Southern’s win against Oregon which was the most improbable win that I can ever recall, and a lot more when we record our Under the Radar podcast tonight.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-GEORGIA STATE AT TULANE. Field Trip!!!! It’s an afternoon game early in the day that a lot of school children will be at. They’ll should be treated to a fairly decent line up between a Tulane team that is improving, and a Georgia State team that is already good.

-VCU AT OLD DOMINION. This is an old Colonial rivalry that still burns pretty hot. VCU is off to a good 5-1 start, but this is their first true road game of the season

-BRADLEY AT IUPUI. Bradly is off to a good 6-1 start, but doesn’t have a true road win yet. They should get this one, but IUPUI is a surprising 4-2 with a win at Boston College, and a really good showing at Xavier in a loss, so while the Braves should win it won’t be an easy win.

-SYRACUSE AT OHIO STATE (ACC/Big Ten Challenge). Syracuse has not produced away from home, and has been a little disappointing this year. Ohio State, on the other hand, is off to a fantastic start with two really good wins already and the chance to add another notable win to their resume.

-RUTGERS AT MIAMI (ACC/Big Ten Challenge). Both teams have just one loss and are trying to build up some momentum as we approach the end of November.

-VIRGINIA AT MARYLAND (ACC/Big Ten Challenge). This is an old ACC rivalry that, in my opinion, should still be an ACC rivalry. Virginia is off to a great start as we all expected. Maryland is also off to a great start, and not all of us were expecting that. Both teams are in the rankings, neither team has a loss, and Maryland should be jacked to be playing this game at home, so it should be fun.

-SAN DIEGO AT OLE MISS. San Diego is off to a good 5-1 start, and this appears to be a winnable road game for them.

-BYU AT ILLINOIS STATE. This is an important road game for a BYU team that has looked pretty good at times, but really needs some meat on their resume. Illinois State is a solid team that plays well at home, and the committee should throw some credit BYU’s way if they’re able to pull this off.

-MONTANA AT CREIGHTON. This is one of the games that I’m most looking forward to tonight. Montana has just one loss and will really shoot up the relevance ladder if they’re able to pull off a road win like this. Creighton has also played well this year and picked up a real nice win against Clemson last week.

-HAWAII AT UCLA. UCLA needs to take care of business at home against a decent but not great Hawaii team.

-NEW MEXICO STATE AT UTEP. Another chapter in this rivalry. New Mexico State can improve to a very respectable 5-1 and pick up their second true road win. Not bad for a team that was supposedly having a rebuilding year.

-NORTHERN COLORADO AT DENVER (Front Range). WE LOVE THE FRONT RANGE!!! In all seriousness, Northern Colorado is off to a really good start and can improve to 4-1 on the season tonight.

-PURDUE AT FLORIDA STATE (ACC/Big Ten Challenge). Both teams are ranked in the top 20, and both have some pretty good wins on their resumes. This is a fun, early season match up that allows both teams that chance at a resume building win.

-GEORGIA TECH AT NORTHWESTERN (ACC/Big Ten Challenge). I’m still not all that big on either team’s longevity this year, but at this moment both have just one loss, and both have a chance to keep that momentum going.

-NORTH CAROLINA AT MICHIGAN (ACC/Big Ten Challenge). This Challenge has given us some good games this year, but this is the most intriguing. It’s a Michigan team that’s played its way into the top ten after picking up some huge wins, and a North Carolina team that’s looking to bounce back from it’s seemingly annual early season loss.

-UC IRVINE AT SAINT MARY’S. I really like this UCI team, and they have a chance to get a decent win that the committee will notice if they’re able to pull this off tonight.

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

-Eastern Kentucky @ Tennessee
-Miami OH @ Xavier
-Rider @ West Virginia – we like this Rider team by UTR standards, but this is a very tall order
-Richmond @ Georgetown
-Stetson @ South Florida
-South Carolina State @ Charleston
-Alabama State @ Akron
-William & Mary @ Marshall
-Liberty @ Navy – Liberty can get to 6-1
-North Alabama @ Toledo
-Saint Peter’s @ Auburn
-UMKC @ South Dakota State
-UTRGV @ Houston
-Cleveland State @ DePaul
-Monmouth @ Kentucky
-Portland @ Colorado
-Omaha @ Arizona State
-Northern Iowa @ Utah State
-Valpo @ UNLV
-Long Beach State @ USC