NEWS AND NOTES
-Friday’s are typically dead days during the college basketball season, but not last night.
-A #16 seed has never beaten a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but occasionally we see a game during the regular season that is just as improbable. Kansas losing to TCU back in 2013 was along those lines. TCU was a sub 200 RPI team, and Kansas went on to earn a #1 seed. This year’s Georgia Tech team is nowhere near as good as that Kansas team, but at the same time that year’s TCU team is nowhere near as bad as this year’s Grambling team. Grambling’s win at Georgia Tech last night was both astounding and historic. I believe Grambling has won only three total out of conference games against div1 teams since 2011, and I don’t believe they’ve ever beaten a P5 school. They led for most of the game. Georgia Tech had to come back, and actually got the lead, but on Grambling’s final possession Georgia Tech actually deflected the ball into their own basket, and then missed what would have been a game winning shot. A HUGE win for Grambling. It’s arguably their biggest win ever in basketball.
-Northwestern needed overtime to knock off rival Illinois in the basketball version of the Land of Lincoln trophy. Northwestern had gotten off to a disappointing start this season, and although Illinois had not disappointed, no one was really expecting them to do much this year anyway. It’s hard to say where the teams will go from here, but it was a much needed win for the Wildcats.
-Purdue also picked up a big road win in their conference opener at Maryland. That caps off a pretty good week for the Boilermakers after they stumbled through the Battle 4 Atlantis.
-Boise State picked up a huge win at Oregon. Oregon isn’t quite as good as they’ve been the last two years, but they’re still potentially an NCAA Tournament team that isn’t likely to lose too many home games. In fact they had won 46 straight at home prior to tonight. Boise State, along with Nevada, has put together a very good resume up to this point, and they appear to be good enough to continue to build on it.
-The showcase game of the night was actually one of the more boring games. Creighton led for most of the first half, and for almost none of the second half as Gonzaga ended up blowing it open and running away from the Bluejays.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-CINCINNATI AT XAVIER (Crosstown Shootout). Both teams are ranked, and both could end up as protected seeds. On paper it’s a great looking win on a tournament resume. Off paper, it’s all about the local bragging rights.
-INDIANA AT MICHIGAN (Big Ten). Both teams have looked good at times, but both could use some good wins. The fact that this is a conference game makes the stakes even higher.
-COLORADO AT COLORADO STATE (Front Range). Not many people are that big on the Buffs, but they are out to a 6-0 start. They have a decent (but not great profile) and picking up a true road win against a rival will add to it.
-WICHITA STATE AT BAYLOR. This is a fantastic road test for a Wichita State team that is traditionally good on the road. It’s also a big opportunity for Baylor. Both teams are in the rankings, and one or both could end up as protected seeds.
-VIRGINIA TECH AT OLE MISS. VA Tech has looked good so far, but this is their first true road game, and if they want to impress the committee they’ll need to win on the road.
-UMASS AT SOUTH CAROLINA. South Carolina has a lot of work to do. If they fail to win this game they’ll have even more work to do.
-GEORGIA AT MARQUETTE. Both teams have good records and both have potential, but both need notable wins on their resume.
-SAINT LOUIS AT BUTLER. You get the sense that both of these teams are going in the wrong direction. The game has a pivotal feel to it due to both teams needing to get things turned around.
-SAINT BONAVENTURE AT BUFFALO (Big 4). We still like this Bonnies team, and they’ve won four out of five since dropping their opener, but their margin for error is kind of small. A road win in a rivalry game against a Buffalo team that’s pretty solid at home would look nice on their resume.
-AIR FORCE AT DENVER (Front Range). We highlight this only because of how much we love the Front Range!!
-SOUTH DAKOTA AT DUKE. This is a buy game, but South Dakota is off to an impressive 7-2 start and they played well in an earlier loss at TCU. It will be interesting to see how competitive they are against the nation’s top ranked team.
-HARVARD AT KENTUCKY. This is a buy game, and it will probably end up looking like a buy game given how poorly Harvard has played this year.
-MONMOUTH AT UCONN. Can a rebuilding Monmouth team make a very inconsistent UConn team sweat in this one?
-UIC AT LOYOLA CHICAGO. A little cross town/former conference rivalry action going on here. A win for Loyola gets them to 8-1 on the year.
-OHIO STATE VS WISCONSIN (Big Ten). This game is leading into the Big Ten Championship football game, which features Ohio State vs Wisconsin. Both teams have potential, but both have blown some key opportunities and could really use this win. This being a conference game ups the stakes even more.
-PENN STATE AT IOWA (Big Ten). Penn State has looked solid so far. Iowa has looked atrocious so far. Can Penn State keep their momentum going by opening up league play with a road win?
-PROVIDENCE AT RHODE ISLAND. This is a HUGE rivalry, at least in terms of intensity and bitterness. With both teams being possible tournament teams the heat will be turned up even more. This has been a fun game to watch in recent years and tonight should be no different.
-KANSAS VS SYRACUSE (Miami FL). Both teams come into this unbeaten, but Syracuse hasn’t been quite as tested as the Jayhawks. They will certainly be tested today. They’ve looked good against some pretty good UTR teams at home, but if they win this we’ll have to start thinking of them as a protected seed caliber team.
-VILLANOVA AT SAINT JOSEPH’S (Big 5). This is a very intense rivalry, but as intense as it is it’s also a huge mismatch. Still, it’s Nova’s first true road game, so it’ll be interesting to see how they respond to their first hostile environment.
-DRAKE AT WYOMING (MWC/MVC Challenge). Wyoming is coming off a rather bad looking loss at Denver, and their margin for error is getting to be less and less.
-HAWAII AT UTAH. Both teams have good records, and Utah has a nice win against Missouri already. Hawaii should be at or near the top of the Big West, but if they want the committee to really take them seriously they need a win in a game like this.
-OLD DOMINION AT VCU. This is an old Colonial rivalry that’s still pretty heated. Old Dominion is off to a pretty good start, and can improve the complexion of their resume even more if they’re able to win this one.
-VERMONT AT BUCKNELL. This game isn’t quite the UTR showcase that we thought it’d be prior to the start of the season, but it’s a chance for Vermont to win their 7th in a row and pick up their third true road win.
-MIDDLE TENNESSEE AT FLORIDA GULF COAST. Middle can improve to 5-1 on the year, and with multiple CUSA teams getting off to strong starts they could make a run for the bubble if they can continue to rack up the wins. FGCU is also tough to beat at home.
-ARKANSAS AT HOUSTON. An old Southwest Conference rivalry!! Both teams come into this with 5-1 records, and it would be a nice win for an Arkansas team that I think is a solid NCAA Tournament caliber team that’s currently underrated.
-PRINCETON AT MIAMI FL. Miami is coming off a very impressive win at Minnesota. This may end up looking like a buy game given how much Princeton has struggled so far.
-NORTH TEXAS AT UT ARLINGTON. A win for UTA gets them to 7-1.
-SAN FRANCISCO AT ARIZONA STATE. Arizona State has been one of the bigger surprises of the season and I don’t expect they’ll have too much trouble improving to 8-0.
-USC AT SMU. This is a tough road test for a really good SMU team that I think will continue to improve as the year goes along, but isn’t quite at their ceiling yet. They already have a true road win at Vanderbilt, but SMU is a little better than Vandy.
-ARIZONA AT UNLV. This will be a fun match-up between an Arizona team that is desperately wanting to turn things around and a much improved UNLV team that is coming off a tough road loss against Northern Iowa.
-NEVADA AT UC IRVINE. This is a very strong Nevada team. A win today gets them to 8-0, as well as gets them their fourth true road win.
-SAINT MARY’S AT CALIFORNIA. SMC basically can’t lose for the rest of the season if they want to land safely inside the bubble.
-CAL BAPTIST AT CHAMINADE (Pac West, Team of the People). Barring interference, tonight’s game for your Team of the People will be the Pac West opener after heavy rains forced a postponement of the Cal Baptist/Hawaii-Hilo game from Thursday night. The game will be made up in February at CBU’s arena.
BUY GAMES
-Lehigh @ Virginia
-SC State @ NC State
-UC Davis @ Washington State
-Yale @ TCU
-Wright State @ Western Kentucky – not an actual buy game, but it will probably end up looking like one
News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Sunday, Dec 3rd
NEWS AND NOTES
-Nothing about the Xavier v Cincinnati game was exciting. I think Xavier got up by double digits in the first 90 seconds (or so it seemed), and it was never close or interesting after that. Thank God that after the game Cincinnati Coach Mick Cronin came riding to the rescue!! All we really know for sure is that at the end of the handshakes after the game, he ran at a Xavier player and needed to be restrained. The whole incident lasted for just a few seconds (not wanting to blow this out of proportion), which is fortunate because had he not been restrained and had he not left the floor, yesterday may have ended up being the last game he ever coached. The list of coaches who have gotten in physical altercations with opposing players is small, and the list of coaches who have continued to coach after that is non-existent. He was also spectacular in the postgame press conference by calling the player (JP Macura) out by name and claiming the Macura told him to “eff off” multiple times. So, all and all it was a typical Cincinnati v Xavier game. A boring game with spectacular postgame antics. They call this a great college basketball rivalry, and it is, but after a previous stretch where seemingly every game came down to the wire every year, we’ve had nothing but boring games on the court for what seems to be nearly a decade. Like the brawl a few years ago, most of us learned about yesterday’s incident on social media. The game was boring so we had all changed the station and almost no one saw it live.
-Kansas continues to look extremely impressive. They blasted Syracuse down in Miami yesterday.
-Villanova v Saint Joe’s is another heated rivalry that typically turns out to be a boring sort of rock fight. Yesterday was no different with Nova winning by close to 40.
-Wichita State picked up a HUGE true road win at Baylor yesterday. That is the kind of win that ends up in teams getting protected seeds.
-USC continues to look overrated as they fell huge at SMU yesterday. That’s not a bad loss in and of itself, but to lose by that margin, and to have not looked like a top fifteen team at any point in the season so far, is leading me to believe that USC is not a top fifteen team.
-Look out for Georgia! They picked up their second true road win of the year with a win at Marquette yesterday, and are now 6-1 on the season.
-Washington State, the team that I doubted more than anyone coming into the year, and then quickly jumped on their bandwagon after the 6-0 start, lost rather handily yesterday. At home. To UC Davis.
-Ohio State won easily on the road at Wisconsin yesterday. It’s the first true road win on the year for the Buckeyes, and Wisconsin is continuing to slump. Ohio State fans were so excited about beating Wisconsin yesterday! The city was just one big buzz!!
-Rhode Island FINALLY knocked off Providence to get the upper hand in a rivalry that they haven’t had the upper hand in in quite some time. It was a nice win for Rhody who continues to build a solid profile and look like a solid team despite the injuries.
-Vermont lost their first game since losing the opener at Kentucky when they fell to Bucknell yesterday. Bucknell had a lead for most of the game, but it was very close. Vermont just couldn’t get over the top. When your margin for error is small, which it is for nearly every UTR team, then every loss hurts.
-Houston blasted, and I mean BLASTED, an Arkansas team that I thought was underrated. I’m still sold on Arkansas and am not writing them off just because of one game. My question now is, at 6-1, is this Houston team a lot better than we thought?
-Arizona won an overtime thriller at UNLV to close things out last night. This is a much improved UNLV team, and by the end of the year I think this win will end up looking pretty good on paper.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-TULANE AT NORTH CAROLINA. This may look and sound like a buy game, but it’s not. UNC actually went to Tulane a year ago. Tulane is also off to a very surprising 6-1 start. They don’t have any scalps that are nearly as big as this one would be, but they have been one of the more surprising teams of the season so far.
-UCF AT ALABAMA. UCF has been somewhat of a disappointment this year whereas Alabama has had some close calls, but they’ve had close calls against some really good UTR teams and at the end of the day are an impressive 6-1.
-KANSAS STATE AT VANDERBILT. K State is off to a decent 6-1 start, but this is their first true road game.
-TEMPLE AT GEORGE WASHINGTON. A win for the Owls gets them to 5-1 on the season and will give them their first true road win of the year.
-GEORGE MASON AT AUBURN. The Tigers can improve to 6-1 on the year. All things considered, they’ve actually had a pretty good season as far as what they’re doing on the court. It’s probably their best start to a year since Bruce Pearl arrived on the plains.
-SETON HALL AT LOUISVILLE. Louisville is coming off a close loss at Purdue and is trying to pick up their first win that isn’t a buy game. Seton Hall comes in with a rather impressive 6-1 record, but this is their first true road game and it would be their biggest win of the season to date.
-NORTHWESTERN AT PURDUE (Big Ten). Northwestern is off to a somewhat sluggish start, but they can get things turned around in a hurry if they can pick one up on the road against Purdue in a conference game. They’re coming off of a win against rival Illinois, which in and of itself isn’t that big of a deal, but a win in a rival game can sometimes build up momentum, which is something Northwestern really needs.
-NEBRASKA AT MICHIGAN STATE (Big Ten). Nebraska has a respectable 6-2 record. The problem is they don’t have any decent wins. Michigan State continues to look like a #1 seed and could roll in this one today.
-RUTGERS AT MINNESOTA (Big Ten). Minney has had a good year and shouldn’t have too much trouble at home against Rutgers, who comes in at 6-1, but who also comes in as buy game heroes.
-TENNESSEE AT GEORGIA TECH. Tennessee has been surprising this year in a good way. Georgia Tech is coming off of a loss to Grambling, which is far more surprising in a bad way. This would be the Vols first true road win of the season if they’re able to pull it off.
-BRADLEY AT SAN DIEGO STATE (MWC/MVC Challenge). A really good match up here between two teams with solid records, but who need solid wins to go along with that. It should be fun.
-MARYLAND AT ILLINOIS (Big Ten). This game has a pivotal feel for both teams. Both have had their struggles and could really use it.
-DAYTON AT MISSISSPPI STATE. Mississippi State has had some close calls, but should be able to remain unbeaten on the year against a Dayton team that is rebuilding.
BUY GAMES
-Saint Francis Brooklyn @ Notre Dame
-UNC Asheville @ Clemson
-Mississippi Valley State @ Oklahoma State
-Portland @ Boise State
-Pairie View @ New Mexico State
-Coppin State @ Georgetown
-Omaha @ Washington
-Detroit @ UCLA