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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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Sunday, Dec 10th

Posted on December 10, 2017 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES

It was another fantastic Saturday in college basketball!

-Down goes #1!!  Duke, who clearly had the best resume of the season and perhaps the best team of the season, went down at Boston College yesterday.  There are several things to take away from this.  BC is much better than what we’re used to, perhaps Duke isn’t quite as good especially considering one of their big wins came against Florida and they’ve had their struggles, but the third and perhaps most notable thing is how hard it is to win your first true road game regardless of who you are.  We’ve seen protected seeds, and even #1 seeds, lose their first true road games before.  So, while it’s never fun, I wouldn’t chalk this up as a hugely damaging loss for Duke.  They need to win some road games at some point, but they’ll have other opportunities.

-Naturally, Cal goes on the road for the first time this season and steals a win at San Diego State after blowing a double-digit lead in the 2nd half. 2 free throws by Juhwan Harris-Dyson in the closing seconds put the Bears ahead for good and gave the Aztecs a damaging loss in the friendly confines of Viejas Arena. If you had told me at the beginning of the day that Cal would win their first road game and Duke would not, there is a very good chance that Chad and the rest of the HoopsHD panel would have me committed.

-Florida got a nice win against Cincinnati up in Newark that they really needed after losing two straight.  I like this Cincinnati team, but their guard play could use some work and they still don’t have a solid win on their resume.

-Since being outscored in a situation where the game ended up 5-on-3 against Alabama, Minnesota has lost three out of four and were absolutely blasted yesterday by Arkansas.

-West Virginia was blowing out Pitt in the renewal of the Backyard Brawl, but Pitt somehow closed it up and made the game very interesting in the final minutes.  Still, it was the first true road win of the year for West Virginia, and getting it against a hated rival should give them some momentum.

-Marquette went into Wisconsin and dispatched the Badgers from the planet.  Perhaps Marquette is better than we thought.  Perhaps Wiscy is worse.  Perhaps it’s some sort of combination of those two things. Perhaps the Badgers also have a very short bench now that 2 of their guards are out indefinitely with injuries.

-Alabama didn’t get the win at Arizona, but I think I was more impressed with their effort and how well they played in this game than in any other I’d seen before.  This is a legit top 25 caliber team that Bama has, and I don’t recall the last time that was the case.

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-TULANE AT FLORIDA STATE.  Tulane looks to be much improved, but still has a ways to go.  Florida State looks to be much better than we thought in the preseason.  They come in at a perfect 8-0 and that includes a road win at Florida.

-LA SALLE AT VILLANOVA (Big Five).  Nova has blown through their schedule and rolled in every Big Five game they’ve played so far.  Today probably won’t be any different.

-ARIZONA STATE AT KANSAS.  Arizona State has proven that they are a solid tournament team, and at times they’ve looked like they’re good enough to end up as a protected seed.  If they can win at Allen Fieldhouse, it is an indication that they are perhaps good enough to end up as a #1 seed.  Kansas is coming off their first loss of the year earlier in the week to Washington and will be looking to rebound from that.

-WESTERN KENTUCKY AT OHIO.  This WKU team has a pretty solid profile so far, but this is their first true road game of the season so there is something to be gained here.

-MISSOURI STATE AT ORAL ROBERTS.  A win for MO State gets them to 10-2 on the year and to 3-0 in true road games.

-GONZAGA AT WASHINGTON.  Not only is the rivalry back, the intrigue is now back!  Washington is 7-2 and they’re coming off a huge win against Kansas in Kansas City.  They have the makings of being an NCAA Tournament caliber team and if they can pick up this win against the Zags, they’ll suddenly have all kinds of momentum.

-UMES @ Virginia Tech – buy game
-Dubuque (nondiv1) @ Northern Iowa – buy game
-Alcorn State @ Iowa State – buy game
-IUPUI @ Purdue – buy game

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Under the Radar Game of the Day: St. Francis (Pa) at Niagara

Posted on December 10, 2017 by Chad

St. Francis (Pa) at Niagara, 2:00 PM Eastern, purpleeagles.com

The Under the Radar Game of the Day is on its way to Niagara, New York this afternoon, to take in the incredible sites of Niagara Falls, eat a little Beef on Weck, and, most importantly, watch St. Francis (Pa) take on the hometown Niagara Purple Eagles.  The Purple Eagles enter today’s game at 4-5 on the season, including a pair of road wins at St. Bonaventure and at New Hampshire.  They feature a two-headed scoring monster with Kahlil Dukes and Matt Scott.  Dukes has topped the 20 point mark seven times already this season, including 31 in the New Hampshire win.  Scott has been over 20 seven times as well, with his most notable game having been 36 in a loss at BYU.

The Red Flash of St. Francis University are currently 3-5 on the season with only 2 wins against D1 competition.  Despite their slow start, they still remain one of the favorites in the Northeast Conference this year.  They also are desperately in need of a solid game after a somewhat disastrous 124-67 loss at Duke last time out.  Keith Braxton has been their top player so far, with three double-doubles on the year.  He and his teammates will need to step up their games, and find a way to slow down Dukes and Scott for Niagara, if they want to get back into the win column this afternoon.

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