Under the Radar: December 13th

Posted on December 13, 2017 by David Griggs

Chad, David, and John are back  for this week’s Under the Radar podcast.  The feature conference is the Colonial, which is about as strong as we thought it would be prior to the season, but with different teams than what we expected carrying the torch.  Towson is out to a fantastic start with just one loss, and although they got off to a rough start, College of Charleston can catch back up if they’re able to pull off some big wins this week.  From there, we run through all 22 UTR conferences where we cover UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis’s good starts out in the Big West, the strength of the Missouri Valley, Middle Tennessee looking very strong once again, and much more.  And as always, we close with this week’s UTR Top Ten.

 

And for all you radio lovers, below is an mp3 version of the show…

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Under the Radar Game of the Day: Milwaukee at Belmont (and other notable games)

Posted on December 13, 2017 by Chad

Milwaukee at Belmont, 7:30 PM Eastern, ovcdigitalnetwork.com

Nashville, Tennessee is the home of the Grand Ole Opry, some great hot chicken, and one of the Ohio Valley Conference’s top programs, the Belmont Bruins.  Tonight, in our Under the Radar Game of the day, Belmont will be hosting the Horizon League’s Milwaukee Panthers.  Belmont enters tonight’s game at 5-5 on the season, including a very notable road win at Middle Tennessee.  The Bruins biggest setback so far this year came in their two Battle of the Boulevard games against rival Lipscomb, a team they had defeated 11 straight times heading into the year, and got swept by this season.  Amanze Egekeze has scored 20 or more points 7 times this season while Dylan Windler has 7 double-doubles to his credit.  Both players will need to step up their games and get some help as the Bruins play out the end of their non-conference schedule and get ready for OVC play in two weeks.

Milwaukee has been one of the most up-and-down teams in the nation already this season, something that seems to have carried over from last year when they finished in 10th place in the Horizon before making a run to the conference tournament championship game.  The Panthers are 6-4 on the season with a win at Iowa State among the feathers in their cap.  On the other hand, their losses include a home 69-55 loss to non-D1 Concordia.  Depending on which Milwaukee team shows up each night, this team could simultaneously be considered a favorite to win the Horizon League and a team that might finish at or neat the bottom of the league standings again.  Sophomore Bryce Nze is an important piece for the Panthers, and his stat lines have fluctuated as much as the team’s wins and losses have — from 4 points (Montana State) to 17 points (Florida International) and from 3 rebounds (Western Illinois) to 12 rebounds (Elon and Jacksonville).  As he gets more experience, and his team improves around him, it would not shock us at all to see this team get consistent and begin raking in the wins.

 

OTHER NOTABLE GAMES

-VILLANOVA AT TEMPLE (Big Five).  It has been a while since Nova lost a Big Five game, and they aren’t likely to lose tonight, but Temple appears like they may have a tournament caliber team and they’re at home in a rivalry game, so it’s definitely worth tuning into.

-WESTERN KENTUCKY AT WISCONSIN.  Western KY has some pretty good wins, but they also have a handful of head scratching losses.  At just 4-7, Wiscy needs to string together several wins just to elevate themselves to the level of not sucking.  They were blasted by Marquette at home over the weekend, which was their third home loss of the season.  Western KY is definitely good enough to pull off this win.

-HOUSTON AT LSU.  I like this Houston team (even though no one else at Hoops HD does).  I know LSU isn’t great but they are unbeaten at home and this would be another road win on Houston’s profile, which is starting to look more and more respectable.

-DENVER AT NORTHERN COLORADO (Front Range).  We at Hoops HD love the Front Range!!!!  Other than that this game is rather meaningless.

-GRAND CANYON AT BOISE STATE.  GCU’s schedule has a lot of cupcakes on it, but that is not the case tonight.  Boise comes in with just one loss on the season and some fairly decent wins.  They will continue to be in good shape and on pace for the NCAA Tournament if they’re able to hold serve in games like this.

-PORTLAND STATE AT OREGON.  This is a buy game, but I like this Portland State team and think they can make a little bit of noise at Oregon tonight.

-Savannah State @ Texas A&M – buy game
-Longwood @ Illinois – buy game
-New Orleans @ SMU – buy game
-Kennesaw State @ Texas Tech
-Pine Bluff @ Fresno State – buy game

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Under the Radar Game of the Day: Hofstra at Stony Brook (and other notable games)

Posted on December 12, 2017 by Chad

Hofstra at Stony Brook, 7:00 PM Eastern, espn3

It is time for the Battle of Long Island in Stony Brook, New York tonight as the America East’s Stony Brook Seawolves host the Colonial’s Hofstra Pride.  Stony Brook is going to be attempting to narrow Hofstra’s all-time 9-3 lead in this young rivalry series.  The Seawolves enter tonight’s game at 4-6 on the season, though they have been playing much better lately after a tough 0-4 start.  They picked up a solid road win at Columbia last time out, 77-72, behind 30 points and 9 rebounds from sophomore Awkasi Yeboah.

Hofstra enters tonight’s game at 6-3 on the year, including back-to-back road wins over the past week at Monmouth (by one point) and at Rider.  Eli Pemberton had 28 points and 8 rebounds in the Rider win while both Joel Angus and Rokal Gustas each had double-digit rebounds.  In fact, a 40-26 overall edge on the glass was likely the deciding factor in that 6 point victory.  Also keep an eye on Justin Wright-Foreman, who has been in double figures in scoring every game, and is averaging over 25 points per game in his team’s last four outings.  The Colonial Athletic Association seems to always present us with fun and competitive regular season battles, and so far it appears that Hoftsra should be right in the mix for the league crown this year.

 

OTHER NOTABLE GAMES

-A slightly better night tonight than what we had last night where nothing happened.  I mean that.  We always write up the notable action from the night before.  Last night had absolutely nothing worth noting.

-MISSISSIPPI STATE AT CINCINNATI.  Mississippi State is unbeaten.  They’ve also yet to leave home and have had some close calls against teams that don’t appear to be anywhere close to the NIT, much less the NCAAs.  A win in this game would be the statement win on their resume so far.  Cincinnati’s wins haven’t been that much better and they could use this one as well.

-FORDHAM AT RUTGERS.  You know it’s a busy night when one of the games we are HIGHLIGHTING is Fordham vs Rutgers!  It’s a game between two non UTR teams and Rutgers can improve to a respectable 9-3 on the year with a win.

-LOUISIANA AT LOUISIANA TECH.  You know what??  This one might be fun!!  I’m a little disappointed it wasn’t the UTR Game of the Day.  Both teams have good records, and both have demonstrated having a pulse with LA Tech nearly winning at Alabama and Louisiana (formerly Louisiana Lafayette) playing well in the Cayman Islands tournament.  Louisiana, along with UT Arlington, could be one of the better teams in the Sun Belt, and LA Tech should be a force in CUSA.

-MURRAY STATE AT SAINT LOUIS.  I know their chances are pretty slim of landing inside the bubble, but Murray State just one loss on the year and can get their third true road win today.  If they can keep winning at this clip and then blow through their conference they may end up in the discussion.

-MICHIGAN AT TEXAS.  Both teams have looked good at times, but up until now neither really has the resume to show it.  They both appear to be good enough to get the big wins that they need, but the sooner that starts the better, and this game has a pivotal feel for both teams.

-ALBANY AT MEMPHIS.  As bad as Memphis has looked, their 6-2 record doesn’t have me quite holding my nose as hard as I think I should be.  Albany is 10-1 on the year, they have looked to be as good as Memphis, and if they can pick this one up it would be their fifth true road win of the season.  They more they keep winning the more we need to pay attention to them.

-JACKSONVILLE STATE AT OREGON STATE.  Jax State comes in at 7-2 and has looked really strong during parts of the season.  Oregon State is a modest 6-3.  I know this is a buy game, but it’s a buy game where the team being bought is certainly capable of winning it.

-Saint Peter’s @ Seton Hall – a mildly interesting buy game based only on geography
-Columbia @ Boston College – buy game
-Catholic (nondiv1) @ Maryland – buy game
-SELA @ UCF – buy game
-Eastern Washington @ Wyoming
-Eastern New Mexico (nondiv1) @ New Mexico State

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The Hoops HD Report: December 11th

Posted on December 11, 2017 by David Griggs

A full panel is back to review a very exciting and upset ridden week of college basketball.  We run through all of the multi-bid leagues and discuss how much of a surprise Arizona State has been while the rest of their conference has struggled, how Villanova continues to impress as they are once again the #1 team in the nation, how Michigan State is strong and should be expected to roll over the rest of the Big Ten, BC’s big win over Duke, and we debate how strong the American is.  We also discuss who we feel the surprise teams are, who we feel the biggest disappointments are, the players of the year, and the game of the year.  All that, and much more!

 

And for all you radio lovers, below is an mp3 version of the show….

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Bracket Projection: Monday, December 11

Posted on December 11, 2017 by John Stalica

Click HERE for Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day featuring Siena and Vermont (also featuring video of Siena head coach Jimmy Patsos)

This week, it is HoopsHD Correspondent John Stalica’s turn to do the weekly bracket projection. As a reminder, this projection is part checkpoint and part eye test (in John’s eyes) as to how the field can be expected to play out.

Thanks to their win at Kansas yesterday, Arizona State not only cemented their status as a protected seed (i.e. Top 4 seed), they are now on the #1 line thanks to wins against Kansas State and Xavier away from home.

Teams like Duke, Notre Dame and Kansas have blips on their radar, although Kansas is now in the midst of a 2-game losing streak against a very unlikely pair of Pac-12 teams. Florida also had a pair of toe stubs at home (Florida State and Loyola-Chicago), but righted their ship for now with a notable win in the Never Forget Tribute against Cincinnati over the weekend.

Arizona has rebounded quite nicely from the disaster in Atlantis, but USC has now taken a turn for the worse. They miss out on this week’s bracket projection thanks to their recent slide.

Without further ado, here is the weekly bracket:

 

COMMENTS FROM DAVID

-John already alluded to this, and we all know it, but we are still not to a point to where all is definitive.  You have some teams that will likely end up in the top half of the bracket in March, but that aren’t even in this bracket due to having won only buy games up to this point.  We also have other teams like Washington that are in the bracket due to one or two really big wins, but that may turn out to be one-hit wonders and end up missing the field.

-One team that I like that isn’t in this bracket (and perhaps at this point doesn’t deserve to be yet) is Houston.  They don’t have the best of credentials yet, but they’ve shown signs of having a ton of potential to get them once they get into conference play.  They do have a rather ugly loss to Drexel, but that’s their only loss of the year and it came in the second game of the year.  They have a blowout win at home against Arkansas (who’s on John’s #4 line) and another decisive win at Saint Louis, who isn’t great, but it’s still impressive to see them win back to back games by a huge margin with one of them being on the road.  They have another big week this week with games at LSU and a neutral floor game against Providence.  If they get both of those then we’ll have to start thinking of them as an at-large candidate.

-I’m a little surprised at the lack of love for Northern Iowa.  Their only two losses are Villanova and North Carolina, and they’ve managed wins against SMU, NC State, UNLV and UT Arlington.  Their next two games are against Iowa State and Xavier with Xavier being at home.  It’s unfortunate that the students are on break for that one because that could have been an incredible environment.  Some bad news for Northern Iowa is that they were cited for their first Ten Commandments Infraction for playing two games against nondiv1 teams.

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Under the Radar Game of the Day: Siena at Vermont

Posted on December 11, 2017 by Chad

Siena at Vermont, 7:00 PM, espn3

Burlington, Vermont is the site of tonight’s Under the Radar Game of the Day as the hometown Catamounts play host to the Siena Saints.  Vermont was projected as one of the top Under the Radar teams heading into the season, and their 6-1 start seemed to be confirming our projections.  Unfortunately, three straight losses (at Bucknell, at Marquette and at Northeastern) have the Catamounts desperate to turn the tide and get back to winning games.  Trae Bell-Haynes did not play in the loss at Northeastern due to a concussion, and hopefully will be back in the lineup soon.  A win tonight will be even more special for Vermont as they will be dedicating their court in a pre-game ceremony to the school’s most winning all-time coach, and the man who put Vermont basketball on the map, Tom Brennan.

Siena enters tonight’s game at only 2-7 on the season, coming off a home loss to rival Albany this past weekend.  Nico Clareth, the Saints’ sixth man who can be a prolific scorer, was held to only 10 points in the loss to the Great Danes, and will need to score more than that if his team wants to pick up the big road win tonight.  Of course, patrolling the Siena sidelines will be one of our favorite current head coaches, Jimmy Patsos.  How can he not be after he did this?

 

OTHER NOTABLE GAMES

-Arizona State won at Kansas yesterday.  With an unbeaten record, a neutral floor blowout win against Xavier, a true road win at Kansas, and other notable wins against K State, Saint John’s, and San Diego State, they have the early makings of a #1 seed profile.

-Bryant @ Louisville – buy game
-Chicago State @ Northwestern – buy game
-Drake @ Minnesota – buy game
-Texas Southern @ Oregon – buy game

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