NEWS AND NOTES
-Phil Knight should turn 80 every year! He should also move to the east coast seeing as how the games aren’t over until almost 3am, but what can you do? The Florida vs Gonzaga game last night went into two overtimes, and I lost count of how many lead changes there were from the under 4 timeout on. It was an amazing, exciting, and well played game between two really good teams. Florida ended up pulling it out and will face Duke, who needed overtime to get past a much improved Texas team. You may not see a more exciting double header for the price of a single ticket than that for the rest of the year. Or next year. Or the year after that.
-In the seventh place game of the Battle 4 Atlantis, we saw the match-up that most of us thought we’d be seeing in the championship game. Or, maybe we didn’t see it. Purdue absolutely blew Arizona out of the arena, and after watching just a few minutes of it many of us probably changed the station.
Northern Iowa had a fantastic showing in that same Advocare Invite. They fell to Villanova, but the final score did not indicate how well they played and how long they were in the game. They also beat two pretty good teams along the way in SMU and NC State. UNI has started to put together a rather impressive NCAA Tournament resume, and they have another shot at a high quality win against Xavier. The teams in their conference aren’t terrible either. Don’t be shocked if this team is inside the bubble on Selection Sunday. Speaking of Xavier…
-I believe Xavier had a 13 point lead over Arizona State at the under 4 timeout to close out the first half. They proceeded to lose 102-86, and the score does not dictate just how dominant the Sun Devils were in the second half of that game. It is a great win for Arizona State, who has endured a lot of sucking and a lot of frustration in recent years. They now improve to 6-0 with blowout wins over San Diego State and Xavier on their resume. If they’re not ranked next week, then they likely will be soon.
-WAZZU!!! A team that I called the worst P5 team ever in a preseason podcast, has won the Wooden Legacy, improved to 5-0 on the year, and has a win against Saint Mary’s on a neutral floor! So far, they are the biggest surprise of the year. Hands down! Northern Iowa is perhaps second, but they are a distant second!!
-I really liked this UCF team. West Virginia did unspeakably terrible things to them yesterday in an 83-45 blowout win. I still like UCF, but perhaps not as much.
-Portland State missed a last second shot against Butler that would have either tied or forced overtime. Normally that’s an incredible game, but that only ranks it third on the list of most exciting games played in the PK-80 yesterday. I still like this Portland State team by UTR standards, but I don’t think they’re going to pick up the wins they need to make their resume look like an NCAA Tournament resume. But if they do win the Big Sky’s auto-bid, watch out!!
-Nevada picked up a really nice win at Hawaii. It’s the third true road win for the Wolfpack, and it’s Hawaii’s first home loss. It wouldn’t shock me at all if it also turns out to be Hawaii’s only home loss. It’s not the kind of win that would excite the casual college hoops fan, but the diehard college hoops fan will know what a good win that was for Nevada. Hopefully the selection committee notices as well.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-ALBANY AT HOLY CROSS. Albany is looking to improve to 6-0 and pick, up their third true road win. They don’t have any huge wins on their resume yet, but they’ll have two chances at Memphis and Louisville, and if they can hold serve until then and pick up one of those then you have to start seriously looking at them.
-GEORGIA SOUTHERN AT BRADLEY. This is one of the better games of the day as both teams come in 5-1. If one or both of them keep it up this could be one of those games that the committee really ends up looking at.
-VERMONT AT YALE. Vermont’s only loss was the opener at Kentucky. They can pick up their first true road win today against a Yale team that has struggled so far, but could still turn out to be pretty good.
-BYU VS UMASS (Barclay’s Center Classic). I kind of get the sense that if BYU wants to be there in the end that they can’t afford to lose a game like this at the beginning.
-NEW MEXICO VS MARYLAND (Emerald Coast Classic). Maryland fell to Saint Bonaventure in a thrilling game yesterday. They need to rebound against a New Mexico team that doesn’t appear to be all that good, but that did make TCU really work for it yesterday.
-ALABAMA VS MINNESOTA (Barclay’s Center Classic). Both teams are in the rankings, and while Alabama knocked off a pretty good Texas Arlington team the other night, this is their chance at picking up a huge signature win. It would probably be Avery Johnson’s biggest win since taking over considering that this would be a win over a ranked team as a ranked team, and really establish their national relevance.
-LOYOLA CHICAGO VS KENT STATE (Savannah Invitational). A win for Loyola gets them to 7-0. A lot of Missouri Valley teams are bloating their records out. There haven’t been many high caliber wins yet, but there have certainly been a lot of wins.
-NORTHERN KENTUCKY AT MEMPHIS. This is a really good NKU team that is capable of winning this game. Their chances of landing inside the bubble are rather slim, but they are certainly not impossible.
-GEORGETOWN AT RICHMOND. This is Georgetown’s first road game, and as bad as Richmond has looked this year it may be the biggest test so far for the Hoyas. A win gets them to 4-0, but they’ve done that against a schedule that close to 200 teams would also have gone 4-0 against.
-DAVIDSON AT APPALACHIAN STATE. Davidson needs a road win. In fact they need many road wins.
-AKRON AT DAYTON. Akron comes into this 2-0 and they’ll certainly have our attention if they can somehow pull this one off.
-PENN AT MONMOUTH. These teams aren’t likely to end up as at-large teams, but they will both likely end up at or near the top of their conferences.
-OLD DOMINION AT WILLIAM & MARY. On the surface there isn’t much to be excited about here, but it’s an old Colonial rivalry, W&M is unbeaten at home, and a win for ODU can get them to 5-1 on the year with two true road wins.
-TCU VS SAINT BONAVENTURE (Emerald Coast Classic). The championship game of this tournament gives us two teams that are trying to break through to national relevance. Both are good, and both have potential. This one should be fun.
-NORTHERN COLORADO VS SOUTH DAKOTA (Sanford Pentagon Showcase). I like this South Dakota team. Their only loss was a close game at TCU, and if they keep winning it will be interesting to watch them and South Dakota State once we get into conference play.
-UT ARLINGTON AT NIAGARA. UTA is a really good team, and should have a rather impressive profile by the end of the year if they’re able to hold serve in games like this.
-VALPARAISO VS UNC WILMINGTON (Savannah Invitational). Valpo is another Missouri Valley team with a bloated record. They can improve to 7-0 with a win today.
-BOSTON COLLEGE AT PROVIDENCE. It’s an old rivalry game, and this year both teams come in with really solid records. This should be a fun one.
-WESTERN ILLINOIS AT IOWA STATE. The Leathernecks of WIU are unbeaten, and Iowa State has really struggled this year. This is a buy game, but it’s not entirely outside the realm of possibility that Western Illinois gets this one.
-LMU AT BOISE STATE. Both teams come in with just one loss, and Boise has looked pretty good this year.
-SAN DIEGO AT GRAND CANYON. Neither team has played a challenging schedule, but both come into this game unbeaten.
-UTEP AT NEW MEXICO STATE. We liked UTEP coming into the year, but they’re just 1-3 on the season so far, and could get absolutely demolished by a New Mexico State team that’s really tough to beat at home.
BUY GAMES
-Morehead State @ Virginia Tech
-Savannah State @ Texas Tech
-North Florida @ Miami FL
-SIUE @ Creighton
-Southern Utah @ UNLV
