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, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Thanksgiving Edition!!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!!! I say this every year, and it’s the truth, there are way more good college basketball games than any level of good football games on Thanksgiving Day! Today is certainly no exception.
NEWS AND NOTES
-NC State pulled off the biggest surprise of the year and perhaps won one of their biggest games in years. They went from not looking like any sort of serious NCAA Tournament contender to looking like a really solid team against Arizona. They led for much of the game and opened it up in the final minutes. A great win for the Wolfpack’s profile!
That wasn’t the only surprise in that tournament. Villanova hung on to beat Western Kentucky, but Purdue also landed on the loser’s side of the bracket when they fell in overtime to Tennessee. This sets up a possible fifth place game between two ranked teams, and a championship game that may look rather boring.
-Wichita State led Notre Dame for almost the entire game, and was up by double digits for a fair amount of that time, but in the final minutes (or minute) Notre Dame closed the gap and got the lead in the final seconds. It was a really nice win for the Irish. As for Wichita State, the loss stings but doesn’t injure them. They’ll have more opportunities later on in the year.
Chaminade won the 7th place game against Cal in a game that was an absolute blowout!! My God! How bad is Cal?
-Cincinnati blew out what I thought was (and still think is) a good Wyoming team. Almost no one saw the game due to such limited availability, but I’m sold on the Bearcats. They are REALLY good this year!
-Belmont lost a thriller at the buzzer at Providence. It was a game that seesawed back and forth, and it looked as though Belmont had hit a shot in the final seconds to win the game, but in three seconds Providence pushed it up the floor and hit a three to win it. This would have been a great win for Belmont since they have so few chances at quality wins in conference play. They could still land inside the bubble, but they pretty much have to win out in order to do it.
-UNLV picked up a REALLY impressive win by blowing out Utah. Both teams came in unbeaten, and Utah had looked pretty good in their blowout win against Mizzou. UNLV is a team to watch this year.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-MISSOURI VS LONG BEACH STATE (Advocare Invitational). Mizzou has learned that they will be without Michael Porter Jr. for the rest of the year. They really appeared to have things turned around and while they are still much improved they likely won’t be as good as we thought they could be. Still, this tournament is a chance for them to pick up some nice wins.
-TENNESSEE VS VILLANOVA (Battle 4 Atlantis). Tennessee Picked up a really nice and surprising win against Purdue in overtime yesterday, which in one sense denied us of a top twenty match-up, but in the other gives them the chance to land on the winners side of the bracket and continue to rack up big OOC wins. Nova had a little trouble with Western Kentucky in their game, but not by much.
-SAINT JOHN’S VS OREGON STATE (Advocare Invitational). Both teams are looking to have turnaround years and this tournament is a chance for both of them to pick up some nice wins away from home.
-PORTLAND VS NORTH CAROLINA (PK – 80). This tournament will feature some fantastic competition!! This game is probably not among the most fantastic that we will see.
-NC STATE VS NORTHERN IOWA (Battle 4 Atlantis). NC State picked up a really nice win against Arizona, which in one afternoon made them the potential surprise team in college basketball this year. They take on a UNI team that’s also looking much better than expected after they knocked off SMU.
-SAINT MARY’S VS HARVARD (Wooden Legacy). Harvard has been very disappointing this season, and SMC’s schedule has been rather disappointing as well. Both teams need to do well in this tournament due to a lack of opportunities at statement wins, and in Harvard’s case a (so far) lack of ability.
-VIRGINIA VS VANDERBILT (NIT Preseason Tipoff). Virginia has clearly looked like the more impressive team so far and can add two more wins to their profile this weekend if they play like they have been.
-PORTLAND STATE VS DUKE (PK 80). Portland State comes in undefeated with some pretty nice wins by UTR standards. They’re going to be tested on an entirely different level today, though.
-XAVIER VS GEORGE WASHINGTON (Las Vegas Invitational). Xavier has pretty much blown through their schedule this year (including a nice win at Wisconsin) and it wouldn’t surprise me to see them blow through this tournament as well.
-ARKANSAS VS OKLAHOMA (PK-80). I like both of these teams a lot and think they’re both better than their current ranking (or lack thereof). This is going to be one of the more exciting games of the day.
-RHODE ISLAND VS SETON HALL (NIT Preseason TipOff). Rhody will be without a key player in this game and as good as they are at full strength they’re probably overmatched in this one. Seton Hall comes in 4-0 and can start to build their profile if they take care of business.
-UCF VS NEBRASKA (Advocare Invitational). UCF is unbeaten, but also unproven up to this point. Playing well in this tournament can certainly change that.
-SAINT JOSEPH’S VS WASHINGTON STATE (Wooden Legacy). Wazzu comes in with a perfect record, but I’d be very surprised if they ended up leaving this event with one. If they do then I’ll be forced to admit that they’re not the worst non UTR team in hoops this year.
-PURDUE VS WESTERN KENTUCKY (Battle 4 Atlantis). It’s a little strange seeing Purdue on the loser’s side of the bracket, but between them and Arizona they still have the chances at picking up some really good wins in this event.
-BUTLER VS TEXAS (PK-80). Texas comes in unbeaten and we think very much improved. They certainly have the chance to show us that in this tournament.
-KANSAS STATE VS ARIZONA STATE (Las Vegas Invitational). Both teams come into this game unbeaten, but both really need some quality wins on their resume if they want people (and more importantly the committee) to think they are legit. We should learn something about both of them today.
-WEST VIRGINIA VS MARIST (Advocare Invitational). West Virginia should have little to no trouble landing on the winners side of this bracket and being set up to pick up some big wins in the future.
-UCONN VS OREGON (PK-80). Both teams come in unbeaten and unproven. In fact right now we’re still questioning how good both of them are. This tournament should tell us.
-ARIZONA VS SMU (Battle 4 Atlantis). This was a game that many of us were expecting to see, but perhaps not on this side of the bracket. That really doesn’t matter, though. The games look the same on a tournament resume no matter what side of the bracket they fall on, and it’s a chance for both of them to pick up a nice neutral floor wins.
-FLORIDA VS STANFORD (PK-80). Stanford hasn’t been nearly as good as we thought they’d be so far. They were just blown out by North Carolina at home and haven’t shown any real signs that they’re capable of doing well in this. Florida, on the other hand, has looked really strong and could really explode onto the national scene if they pick up some big wins in this tournament.
-MICHIGAN STATE VS DEPAUL (PK-80). Michigan State shouldn’t have too much trouble landing on the winner’s side of the bracket in this one.
-OHIO STATE VS GONZAGA (PK-80). Both teams come in unbeaten and untested. Gonzaga appears to be the much better team, but we’ll learn something about both of them tonight as well as through the rest of the weekend.
-SAN DIEGO STATE VS SACRAMENTO STATE (Wooden Legacy). San Diego State really needs to blow through this event in order to not disappoint the selection committee.