Hoops HD

NEWS AND NOTES

-The only game between two ranked teams yesterday was also the craziest game of the day, and will perhaps turn out to be the craziest game of the year.  Minnesota had a somewhat comfortable lead over Alabama, when things got heated and a shoving match (it wasn’t nasty enough to be called a fight) broke out in front of Bama’s bench.  Seven Bama players instinctively ran out onto the court and things escalated a little more but cooled down quickly after that.  The problem was that all seven players were ejected.  Shortly after that, Bama had another player foul out and yet another sustain an injury, and it turned into a 5-on-3 contest.  From that point on, Bama proceeded to mount a comeback and although they didn’t win, the game was not decided until the final minute of play.  For Minney, it is yet another good win away from home (at least on paper).  For Bama, it has to be something of a morale boost to play with so much guts in that situation.  Another thing about this game is that it was only broadcast on Facebook Live, and it was taking place during the Auburn v Alabama football game, so even most Bama fans were probably unaware of what was going on as it was happening.

-QUADRUPLE OT!!!  I believe the count is now two for the season and it’s still November.  Penn and Monmouth, both of whom should be at or near the top of their respective conferences, played in a thriller, and when it came to seeing the end of the third and all of the fourth overtime, you had to be there.  The reason is that due to technical difficulties at the arena the stream went down.

-I still think predicting that TCU would be a protected seed is evidence that Chad is insane, but they are off to a 6-0 start after winning the Emerald Coast Classic against a pretty good Saint Bonaventure team.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-SAINT JOHN’S VS UCF (Advocare Invitational).  Both teams have solid records and have the chance to add another notable win to their profiles.

-TEXAS VS GONZAGA (PK-80).  Both of these teams lost thrillers against top ten teams in the semifinal round, but both appear to be solid tournament teams (perhaps even protected seeds) and this is a chance to add a high profile win to their resumes.  Gonzaga may benefit from it slightly more because Texas will have far more opportunities in conference play to build a solid resume, but both teams will likely end up having big years.

-OKLAHOMA VS OREGON (PK-80).  I keep saying this, but I really like this Oklahoma team and they can add a notable win to their resume today.  I think Oregon can improve throughout the year.  A win today would likely go a long way, but whether they win or lose I think they’ll be inside the bubble come March.

-BUCKNELL AT STONY BROOK.  Bucknell is to a point to where anythings short of winning out may knock them outside the bubble.  Having said that, they may be good enough to win out.  That would meaning needing to pick up their first true road win today.

-JACKSONVILLE STATE AT MISSISSIPPI STATE.  This is an unexpectedly important game between an unbeaten (and for the most part untested) Mississippi State team and a one loss Jax State team that has a blowout win at Richmond and their only loss was at Buffalo.  If Jax State can win this you have to start paying attention to them.

-ARKANSAS VS OKLAHOMA (PK-80).  Both teams are off to impressive 4-1 starts and are looking like they could both end up landing inside the bubble, which makes this a very good resume building opportunity for both of them.

-BUTLER VS OHIO STATE (PK-80).  Chris Holtmann will face off against his own team in a game that features two teams with potential, but (at least not at this point) not two teams that are slam dunk guarantees to make the NCAAs.  It’s a game with an interesting story line where, despite it being early, both teams should come in with a sense of urgency.

-EASTERN MICHIGAN AT SOUTH FLORIDA.  EMU can improve to a very respectable 5-1 with a win.

-AIR FORCE AT COLORADO (Front Range).  We love the Front Range!!!  Colorado comes in unbeaten and AFA comes in at 3-1.  We weren’t expecting much out of either team this year, but they’re both off to decent starts and the winner can continue that momentum.

-SAINT MARY’S VS GEORGIA (Wooden Legacy).  SMC has a very weak schedule, so their margin for error is small.  Georgia is nothing special (although to be fair they are off to a 4-1 start), but if they were to beat them on a neutral floor it may turn out to be their best OOC win.

-TEMPLE AT LA SALLE (Big Five).  Temple is off to a 3-0 start and they can pick up their first true road win against a Big Five rival.

-NORTH CAROLINA VS MICHIGAN STATE (PK-80).  You gotta love top ten matchups in November!  Both teams come in with amazing profiles, both are likely protected seeds, and beating protected seeds away from home is what gets teams in the discussion for a #1 seed, so it’s a big, important, and fun early season game.

-MISSOURI VS WEST VIRGINIA (Advocare Invitational).  Between the blowout loss to Utah and losing a key player for the season, many have just written off Mizzou, but in speaking in terms of their resume they’ve only lost one game and if they’re able to somehow pick this one up then you have to start thinking of them as an NCAA Tournament caliber team.

-TEXAS A&M AT USC.  This is a chance for TAMU to pick up a HUGE road win.  Road wins against ranked teams are what gets teams into the discussion for a protected seed.

-DUKE VS FLORIDA (PK-80).  Both of these teams won overtime thrillers in their last games and their seasons are already off to terrific starts.  If this game isn’t an overtime thriller then I am going to be VERY disappointed!!  In all seriousness, the winner of this game will have two wins away from home against (currently) highly ranked teams.  That is #1 seed caliber stuff if things hold up.

-WASHINGTON STATE AT SAN DIEGO STATE (Wooden Legacy).  Wazzu has been a huge surprise this year.  They come in at 5-0 after beating Saint Mary’s in their last game.  If they manage to pick this one up then you have to start looking at them like a possible (and perhaps probable) tournament team

BUY GAMES

-Houston Baptist @ Oklahoma State
-UC Riverside @ Michigan
-UIC @ Kentucky
-UC Irvine @ UCLA
-New Mexico Highlands (nondiv1) @ Wyoming

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

NEWS AND NOTES

-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE

-All of our highlighted games from yesterday were from exempt tournaments, and most of the recaps are included in the write up for today’s games.  The Battle 4 Atlantis is all kinds of upside down.  We are getting the Arizona vs Purdue match up that many of us were expecting and wanting, but it’s in the 7th place game instead of the title game.  Western Kentucky and SMU is another match-up that many thought we would see, but we didn’t expect it to come about because those two were able to knock off Purdue and Arizona.  Northern Iowa, along with WKU, has emerged as a viable UTR team that really wasn’t even on our radar when we did the UTR podcast 36 hours ago.  (If you missed it, don’t bother listening to it.  It was bad.  I’m not saying that as a joke.  It really was bad).

-The PK-80 has been great, which is kind of like saying the Thanksgiving Day meal was filling, but it has certainly not disappointed.  I think Phil Knight should turn 80 every year!!

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-MISSOURI VS SAINT JOHN’S (Advocare Invitational).  The Johnnies haven’t been all that relevant in quite some time (and for that matter neither has Mizzou).  Both teams come in with good records and can pick up a good early season win.

-NORTHERN IOWA VS VILLANOVA (Battle 4 Atlantis).  Northern Iowa may be the surprise team of the year.  Furthermore, if Northern Iowa wins this game, they may turn out to be the surprise team of the year.  Maybe not just the surprise college basketball team of the year, but the surprise team of the year, period.  They’ve managed two nice wins against SMU and NC State, but they’re really swinging for the mo0n today.

-UMASS VS MINNESOTA (Barclay’s Center Classic).  Don’t know if there will really be anything classic about this game today, but UMass does come in with a respectable 3-1 record.  If they were to somehow pull this off it would change the complexion of their season.

-EAST CAROLINA AT RUTGERS.  Rutgers is untested, but they’ve passed every easy open note quiz so far.  A win today gets them to 6-0.

-SAINT MARY’S VS WASHINGTON STATE (Wooden Legacy).  I must admit that Wazzu is better than I thought.  They’ve reached four wins already, which is more than I thought they may get for the entire year.  I still think they’re a long way from being good, but they’re not a sub 300 team.  SMC is unbeaten and is only slightly more tested, but both teams come in with momentum.

-BYU VS ALABAMA (Barclay’s Center Classic).  The story of this game is Texas Arlington, and what they did earlier this week against these teams.  They beat BYU, and lost to Alabama after missing a last second shot.  Both of these teams could really use a notable win away from home.

-NC STATE VS TENNESSEE (Battle 4 Atlantis).  Both teams have managed a notable win already, and are looking to leave this tournament with a second big win on a neutral court which would look really good on their NCAA Tournament profiles, and a lot of momentum going into their future games.

-PORTLAND STATE VS BUTLER (PK-80).  Butler better watch out in this game.  Portland State is a solid UTR team who came into yesterday’s game unbeaten and although Duke blew it open down the stretch they were right in there for over a half.  They’re capable of beating the Bulldogs if Butler overlooks them.

-NORTH CAROLINA VS ARKANSAS (PK-80).  I love how both of these teams have played so far and think they’ll both go on to have big years.  This is a resume building opportunity for both of them.

-HARVARD VS SAINT JOSPEH’S (Wooden Legacy).  It’s early, but you get the sense that both of these teams need to dig themselves out of holes, and losing this game would make that hole even deeper.

-EASTERN MICHIGAN AT INDIANA.  This is a buy game, but EMU comes in unbeaten and Indiana has struggled so far (to say the least).

-UCF VS WEST VIRGINIA (Advocare Invitational).  I’m looking forward to this match-up and am anxious to see what an unbeaten but (for the most part) untested UCF team can do against a very good West Virginia team.

-LOYOLA CHICAGO VS UNC WILMINGTON (Savannah Invitational).  Loyola comes in 5-0 and if they can win this tournament they will be on our radar.  They are one of several MVC teams that are off to better than expected starts.

-XAVIER VS ARIZONA STATE (Las Vegas invitational).  Both teams come in unbeaten, both teams have been been tested (at least somewhat) and both teams are looking to pick up a really good neutral floor win.  This would really help Arizona State, who will still have opportunities but not quite as many, and is looking to land in the world of relevance again.

-DUKE VS TEXAS (PK-80).  We really like this Texas team and today is a great litmus test.  They’re playing the (deserved) #1 ranked team in the nation.  This would certainly be a protected seed caliber win for the Longhorns if they could pull it off.

-PORTLAND VS OKLAHOMA (PK-80).  Oklahoma is a good team that lost a thriller yesterday and is just looking to hold serve today and perhaps get the chance at a quality win tomorrow.

-WESTERN CAROLINA AT UT ARLINGTON.  We like this UTA team and will continue to watch them.  They may be top 40 good.  They beat BYU on the road and lost to Alabama after missing a last second shot.

-NEW MEXICO VS TCU (Emerald Classic).  TCU is unbeaten and I don’t think they’ll have a whole lot of trouble staying that way.

-GEORGIA VS SAN DIEGO STATE (Wooden Legacy).  This is a big game for both teams who really need some notable wins.  Georgia is unbeaten, but this is one of their bigger tests so far.

-SMU VS WESTERN KENTUCKY.  Western KY played tough against Arizona in the opener and followed that up with a win against Purdue yesterday.  SMU got a really big win against Arizona as well, so both teams come into this with a ton of momentum and two really good wins on their resumes.  Western Kentucky won’t have nearly as many chances to impress the selection committee, so this is a really big win for them today.

-VALPARAISO VS KENT STATE (Savannah Invitaitonal).  Two really strong UTR teams coming into this with really good records so far.

-VIRGINIA VS RHODE ISLAND (NIT Preseason TipOff).  Rhody picked up a very big and surprising win against Seton Hall yesterday and could really cap things off in a big way if they’re able to beat Virginia.  Both of these teams are likely tournament teams, so this is a resume building game.

-OAKLAND AT KANSAS.  This is a buy game, and Oakland hasn’t been as good as we expected so far, but they are back at full strength tonight and while they’re likely very overmatched don’t be surprised if they play better than expected.

-GEORGE WASHINGTON VS KANSAS STATE (Las Vegas Invitational).  K State lost a close one to Arizona State yesterday and is just trying to get out of this with a win away from home.

-MILWAUKEE AT WISCONSIN.  This is a game that Wisconsin should dominate, and really kind of needs to.  They’re just 2-3 on the year and Milwaukee, who comes in at 4-1 and already has a road win, is not a team they want to overlook.

-STANFORD VS OHIO STATE (PK-80).  Neither team needs to hit the panic button yet by any means, but both could really use this win.

-ARIZONA VS PURDUE (Battle 4 Atlantis).  I don’t recall a single incident where we had a seventh place game that featured two top twenty teams.  But, we’ve got one tonight, and if both these teams get it turned around and remain top twenty teams throughout the year, it won’t matter to the committee at all that this was a seventh place game.

-SAINT BONAVENTURE VS MARYLAND (Emerald Coast Classic).  We really like this Bonnies team and this is a great opportunity for them to grow their profile.

-OREGON VS DEPAUL (PK-80).  Oregon isn’t nearly as good as what they’ve been the past two years, but the are still formidable and can put a decent win or two on their resume before this event is over.

-VANDERBILT VS SETON HALL (Preseason NIT).  Seton Hall was surprised by Rhody yesterday, and Vandy was completely blitzed by Virginia.  Both teams are looking to get a nice neutral floor win on their resume in the third place game.

-FLORIDA VS GONZAGA (PK-80).  This is one of the more exciting games of the day.  These teams aren’t just fighting for tournament spots, they’re fighting for protected seeds, and this is the kind of win that protected seeds need on their profile.

-UCONN VS MICHIGAN STATE (PK-80).  It’s been a frustrating 13 months for UConn.  They can alleviate a ton of that if they can find a way to win this game today.

-NEVADA AT HAWAII.  This is a very interesting game between what we think are two really good teams that come in unbeaten.  Those of you in the east will need to stay up late, but this one should be worth it.

-MISSOURI S&T AT CAL BAPTIST (Team of the People). Your Team of the People returns to action tonight in the first game of the Cal Baptist Thanksgiving Classic. Click HERE to watch them live as they take on the Miners of Missouri S&T (formerly Missouri-Rolla).

BUY GAMES

-Texas Southern @ Clemson
-Oral Roberts, @ Penn State
-Seattle @ Washington
-North Texas @ Georgia Tech
-Saint Francis U (STFU) @ Louisville
-Winthrop @ Auburn
-NC Central @ Illinois
-The Citadel @ Florida State
-Eastern Washington @ Utah
-Sacred Heart @ Northwestern
-Pepperdine @ Texas A&M