Merit Rankings/Bracket Projections: Monday, Nov 20th

Posted on November 20, 2017 by David Griggs

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

For a rundown of the rest of today’s action – CLICK HERE

Listed below are this week’s Merit Rankings.  I know they look ridiculous, but understand what you are looking at.  The idea is to rank teams based on CURRENT MERIT.  Nothing else.  No attempt is made to rank how good the teams actually are.  I know Villanova (and other teams) are much better than where they appear on this list, but until they do something other than win buy games at home, they won’t move up.

 

1. DUKE – 4-0, neutral floor win vs Michigan State
2. KANSAS – 3-0, netural win vs Kentucky, home win vs South Dakota State
3. XAVIER – 3-0, won @ Wisconsin
4. TEXAS A&M – 2-0, neutral floor wins vs West Virginia
5. MINNESOTA – 4-0, won @ Providence
6. USC – 3-0, won @ Vanderbilt
7. Creighton – 3-0, won @ Northwestern
8. Texas Tech – 4-0, won @ Boston College and neutral vs Northwestern
9. TEXAS ARLINGTON – 2-0, won @ BYU
10. Providence – 3-1, lost @ Minnesota, 2 neutral floor wins (Washington, SLU)
11. TEMPLE – 3-0, neutral floor wins (Old Dominion, Auburn, Clemson)
12. Virginia – 4-0, won @ VCU
13. SAINT LOUIS – 2-1 vs div1, neutral win vs Virginia Tech, neutral loss vs Providence
14. NEVADA – 4-0, 2 road wins, home win vs Rhody
15. VERMONT – 3-1, lost @ Kentucky, 3-0 on neutral floor (Bradley, Coastal, Northern KY)
16. Wichita State – 2-0, home win vs CofC
17. Purdue – 4-0, won @ Marquette
18. BELMONT – 4-1, lost @ Washington, wins vs Vandy, @ Middle Tennessee,
19. OLD DOMINION – 4-1, lost neutral vs Temple, neutral wins vs Indiana State & Dayton
20. Notre Dame – 3-0, won @ Depaul
21. Florida State – 3-0, 2 neutral floor wins (Colorado State, Fordham)
22. North Carolina – 2-0, home win vs Bucknell
23. Seton Hall – 4-0, home win vs Indiana
24. Clemson – 4-1, 2 neutral floor wins (Ohio, Hofstra)
25. Virginia Tech – 4-1, neutral floor win vs Washington
26. Tulane – 4-0, 2 neutral floor wins (Colorado State, Fordham)
27. Maryland – 4-0, home wins vs Butler and Bucknell
28. Saint Joseph’s – 2-1, win @ UIC, lost @ Toledo
29. Houston – 3-1, loss to Drexel, road win @ Liberty, Neutral win vs Wake Forest
30. Boston College – 4-1, neutral floor win vs La Salle
31. Saint John’s – 3-0, home win vs Nebraska
32. Albany – 3-0, win @ Boston U
33. George Mason – 3-1, loss at Louisville, 2 neutral floor wins (Binghamton, CS Northridge)
34. FLORIDA GULF COAST – 2-1, won @ Siena, lost @ Bowling Green
35. NORTH DAKOTA STATE – 1-2, won @ Missouri State, lost @ USC
36. Utah – 3-0, home win vs Mizzou
37. South Carolina – 4-1, won @ Wofford, neutral wins vs UTEP and Western Mich
38. Kentucky – 3-1, home win vs Vermont
39. SAINT MARY’S – 4-0, home win vs New Mexico State
40. COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON – 2-1, lost at Wichita State, won @ Charlotte
41. Villanova – 3-0 in buy games
42. PORTLAND STATE – 2-0, road wins (Portland, UC Riverside)
43. LONG BEACH – 1-1, lost @ Oregon State, won @ San Francisco
44. Ucla – 3-0, 2 buy wins and GA Tech on a neutral floor
45. NORTHERN KENTUCKY – 4-1, lost neutral vs Vermont, 2 neutral wins (James Madison, Iona)
46. TOLEDO – 2-0, home wins vs Saint Joe’s and Akron
47. Boise State – 4-1, 3 div1 wins, neutral wins vs UTEP & Illinois State, lost to Iowa St.
48. Auburn – 3-1, neutral wins vs Indiana State and Hofstra
49. Michigan State – 2-1, lost to Duke, 2 buy game wins
50. West Virginia – lost neutral floor vs Texas A&M, 2 buy game wins
51. Missouri – 2-1, home win vs Iowa State, road loss @ Utah
52. ILLINOIS STATE – 2-2, losses @ FGCU, vs Boise State, neutral wins vs South Carolina and Tulsa
53. Arizona – 3-0 in buy games
54. Gonzaga – 3-0 in buy games
55. Northwestern – 3-2, struggled to win 2 buy games, lost to Creighton and Texas Tech
56. Middle Tennessee – 2-1, won @ Murray State
57. Wyoming – 2-0, won @ Oregon State
58. MONMOUTH – 2-2, won @ Lehigh, losses @ Seton Hall & Virginia aren’t damaging
59. NEW MEXICO STATE – 2-1, home win vs New Mexico
60. Arizona State – 4-0, home win vs San Diego State
61. LIBERTY – 2-2, won @ Wake Forest
62. Smu – 4-0 in buy games
63. Colorado – 5-0, 3 neutral wins against weak teams
64. Florida – 3-0 in buy games
65. Miami FL – 3-0 in buy games
66. Cincinnati – 3-0 in buy games
67. Louisville – 2-0 in buy games
68. Baylor – 3-0 in buy games
69. Texas – 3-0 in buy games
70. Wisconsin – 2-1, lost at home vs Xavier, 2 buy game wins
71. Illinois – 4-0, home win vs DePaul
72. Rhode Island – 2-1, lost at Nevada, 2 buy game wins
73. Oregon – 4-0 in buy games
74. Tcu – 3-0 in buy games
75. Ucf – 3-0 in buy games
76. Oklahoma – 2-0 in buy games
77. Connecticut – 3-0 in buy games
78. Butler – 3-1, lost @ Maryland, 3 buy game wins
79. Southern Illinois – 2-0, won @ Winthrop
80. Arkansas – 3-0, home win vs Bucknell, two buy wins
81. Washington – 2-2, home wins vs Belmont

82. Syracuse – 3-0 in buy games
83. Kansas State – 3-0 in buy games
84. Ohio State – 4-0 in buy games
85. Davidson – 2-0 in buy games
86. NC State – 4-0 in buy games
87. Penn State – 4-0 in buy games
88. Michigan – 3-0 in buy games
89. Alabama – 3-0 in buy games
90. Oklahoma State – 3-0 in buy games
91. Iowa – 3-0 in buy games
92. Missouri State – 2-1, won @ Western KY, lost at home to North Dakota St.
93. BROWN – 1-1, road win @ Quinnipiac
94. Miami OH – 3-1, neutral loss vs Hartford, road win @ Fordham
95. Stanford – 3-1, 3 buy games wins, home loss to Eastern Washington
96. Vcu – 2-1, lost at home to Virginia, 2 buy wins
97. Georgetown – 3-0 in buy games
98. Evansville – 4-0 in buy games
99. Unlv – 3-0 in buy games
100. Valparaiso – 4-0, 2 div1 buy game wins
101. LEHIGH – 3-1, won @ Marist
102. uab – 2-0 in buy games
103. Washington State – 3-0 in buy games
104. Georgia – 3-0 in buy games
105. Ole Miss – 3-0 in buy games
106. Oregon State – 2-1 with 2 buy wins
107. LAMAR – 2-1, won @ Tulsa
108. MERCER
109. NC A&T – 2-1, div1 wins vs The Citadel, @ Jacksonville
110. WAGNER – 2-1
111. TEXAS SOUTHERN – no SWAC teams have any div1 wins

 

 

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Under the Radar Game of the Day: Missouri State vs Georgia Southern

Posted on November 20, 2017 by Chad

Missouri State vs Georgia Southern, 1:30 PM Eastern, flohoops.com

The eight team Gulf Coast Showcase starts its first game at 11:00 AM Eastern this morning (UMKC vs Manhattan), making it the first game of one of the most fun weeks in college basketball.  While we did have a few exempt tournaments last week, the next seven days will give us the vast majority of the In-Season Tournaments, and will include a handful of events with absolutely stacked fields.  Although the Gulf Coast Showcase is not one of the premiere early season events, it does have an intriguing second quarterfinal today (1:30 PM Eastern) between Missouri State and Georgia Southern.

With Wichita State now playing in the American, the Missouri Valley Conference is as wide open as it has been in years.  That said, one of the preseason favorites is head coach Paul Lusk’s Missouri State Bears.  Missouri State is 2-1 so far this season, with a nice road win at Western Kentucky and a mildly disappointing home loss to North Dakota State.  Alize Johnson has been a force so far for the Bears.  He scored 13 points to go with 8 rebounds against WKU, followed that up with 10 points, 14 boards and 5 assists in a win over Southern, and added an almost amazing 23 points and 20 rebounds (do we call that a twenty-twenty instead of a double-double?) against North Dakota State!  If he continues to have stat lines like that, the Bears should be the favorites to win the Gulf Coast Showcase this week, and do a lot more throughout the MVC regular season.

Georgia Southern enters this afternoon’s game at a perfect 3-0, including an opening night 85-83 win at Wake Forest.  Although so far this season the Demon Deacons appear to be down, the GSU Eagles can build on that victory and prove that they will contend in the Sun Belt this year with a strong showing in this event.  Five different Eagles were in double-digits in scoring in the win at Wake, including a double-double from Montae Glenn.  Also keep an eye on Tookie Brown who dropped 22 against the Demon Deacons and scored 24 in a solid win over Cal State-Bakersfield.

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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Monday, Nov 20th

Posted on November 20, 2017 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES

-The Merit Rankings/Bracket Projections should be posted late this morning/early this afternoon.  We will also be recording this week’s Hoops HD Report this evening.

-Northwestern followed up their struggle in two buy games and home loss to Creighton with a blowout loss to Texas Tech.  Texas Tech is probably better than we thought, but Northwestern is also playing a lot worse than we thought they were.

-Since blowing out Indiana on the road in their season opener, the Trees have lost three straight.  They fell to Ohio in what is the season’s first quadruple overtime game yesterday.

-Tulane is out to a 4-0 start and can continue to build momentum and move closer and closer to relevance if they keep it up.  I completely understand that 4-0 is not 14-0, but it’s still a much better than expected start for the Green Wave.

-Vermont came from behind to beat Northern Kentucky and pick up a nice win away from home for their profile, while at the same time denying NKU what would have been a nice win on their profile.  It was an exciting and well played game that almost no one saw.  The arena was empty (to be fair, the game was in the Bahamas), and I don’t think too many people outside of myself purchased the stream.

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-LOUISIANA VS IOWA (Cayman Islands Classic).  Iowa can improve to 4-0 with a win today and land on the winning side of the bracket which should provide them with the opportunity to face quality teams and potentially pick up quality wins.

-MISSOURI STATE VS GEORGIA SOUTHERN.  Georgia Southern is off to a 3-0 start with a notable (at least for now) win at Wake Forest.  Missouri State has dropped a game, but we still like their team and they can emerge as a contender for the NCAAs if they do well in this tournament.

-MARQUETTE VS VCU (Maui Invitational).  This would be a nice early season win for either team, which is something that they may really need later on.  Neither team has done much other than win against cupcakes so far.

-SOUTH DAKOTA STATE VS WYOMING (Cayman Islands Classic).  We like both these teams, but also realize they’ll face limited opportunities.  Today’s game is hugely important because it gives them a nice neutral floor wins and puts them on the winner’s side of the bracket where the competition will (in theory) be stronger.

-WICHITA STATE VS CALIFORNIA (Maui Invitational).  This game could get exceptionally ugly.  Wichita is a top ten team and Cal will struggle to finish in the top half of div1.

-EASTERN WASHINGTON VS GEORGIA STATE (MGM Resorts Main Event).  This is a fairly decent UTR game with both teams looking fairly good in their games so far.

-UAB VS RICHMOND (Cayman Islands Classic).  UAB comes in 3-0, but will have limited chances at statement wins.  If they want any shot at all at landing inside the bubble then they need to do well in this tournament.

-FURMAN AT DUKE.  It’s a buy game, and it could be ugly, but Furman is one of the better teams in the SoCon (or so we think), so we’ll go ahead and highlight it.

-TEXAS A&M VS OKLAHOMA STATE (Legends Classic).  Both teams come into this undefeated, but TAMU has all the signs of clearly being the superior team.  We’re thinking it could be a long year for the Pokes, but if they win this game then they will have proved us long (at least for now).

UCLA VS CREIGHTON (Hall of Fame Classic).  Both teams come in unbeaten, including Creighton’s big win at Northwestern.  UCLA had a nice win against Georgia Tech as well despite the soap opera that is surrounding their team.  This is simply a good early season test.

-OAKLAND AT SYRACUSE.  Oakland is coming off a really surprising and potentially very damaging loss to Toledo.  This is a road game that we’ve kind of had circled as a chance to impress the selection committee with a high quality road win.  That’s still the case, but they’ll certainly have to do better than they did the other night.

-SIENA AT BUCKNELL.  Neither team has won a game yet.  Having said that, this may be the best game between two winless teams after the first week of the season that I can ever recall.

-CINCINNATI VS BUFFALO (Cayman Island Classic).  Cincinnati looks to be the strongest team in this tournament.  They open against a Buffalo team who has won their first two games, but they haven’t played a team quite like the Bearcats yet.

-NOTRE DAME VS CHAMINADE (nondiv1) (Maui Invitational).  Notre Dame is one of the stronger teams in the field along with Wichita State.

-BAYLOR VS WISCONSIN (Hall of Fame Classic).  I think both of these teams are better than their current rankings.  This is a good chance for each of them to pick up what I think will turn out to be a really good win.

-PENN STATE VS PITTSBURGH (Legends Classic).  Penn State shouldn’t have any trouble winning this and staying unbeaten.  Saying that makes me think we are now in Bizarro World.

-UTAH STATE AT PORTLAND STATE.  We’ll highlight this because Portland State has the chance to face a non UTR team at home, and if they win it they’ll improve to 4-0 on the year.

-RICE AT UNLV.  A win for UNLV, gets them to 4-0.  Not sure exactly how good they are yet, but they look to be much improved.

-NORTH CAROLINA AT STANFORD.  Stanford underwent a somewhat surprising loss to Eastern Washington recently, but they can completely rebound from that and then some if they’re able to knock off North Carolina at home.  This won’t be a walk in the park for UNC.  To their credit, they oftentimes play a big game away from home early in the season, but they also always seem to have trouble winning it and oftentimes don’t.  I still think that it’s a good type of game to play because of how it prepares them later on for what they face on the road, but don’t be surprised if they struggle in this one.

-MICHIGAN VS LSU (Maui Invitational).  Both teams are unbeaten.  I wasn’t expecting much out of LSU this year, but they beat what I thought was a pretty good Samford team rather handily and could be better than I thought.

-OLE MISS VS UTAH (MGM Resorts Main Event).  Both teams come in unbeaten, and Utah already has a rather impressive and decisive win over Missouri.  It’s a chance for both of them to pick up an early season win away from home that could (and likely will) help their resume.

BUY GAMES

-Molloy (nondiv1) @ Saint John’s
-Long Beach State @ West Virginia
-Jackson State @ Maryland
-UMES @ Saint Bonaventure
-Troy @ Kentucky
-Emporia State (nondiv1) @ Missouri
-Green Bay @ Mississippi State
-Northern Arizona @ Kansas State
-Hampton @ Xavier
-Omaha @ TCU
-Pine Bluff @ Air Force – AFA can improve to 3-0
-Eastern Illinois @ San Diego State

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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Sunday, Nov 19th

Posted on November 19, 2017 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES

-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day between Belmont and Northern Kentucky, which once again may be the overall game of the day – CLICK HERE

-It was a very chalky day, but there was one rather big surprise, and that was Oakland’s loss at Toledo.  We really like this Oakland team and feel that they were a top 40/at large caliber team.  At the same time we didn’t think much at all of Toledo, but the Rockets are off to a 3-0 start with wins over Saint Joseph’s and now Oakland.

-Bucknell is 0-4.  They’ve played really well in their last two games at North Carolina and at Maryland (where they lost by just 2pts after leading most of the game), and may be one of the best 0-4 teams in history.  Unfortunately, they needed to get a couple of these wins on their profile to be looked at as a top forty team, and it just hasn’t happened so far.

-UT Arlington went into BYU, who seemed to have a lot of momentum built up, and absolutely blew them off the court.  A real nice win for a still unbeaten UTA team.

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-NIAGARA AT UMASS.  Niagara has a nice road win at Saint Bonaventure already, and has what is potentially another winnable road game today.

-MONMOUTH AT VIRGINIA.  Monmouth is off to a pretty good start with their only loss coming at Seton Hall.  They may be swinging over their heads today, but if they were to somehow pick up this win then we’d have to once again start thinking of them as a potential tournament team.

-HOLY CROSS AT RHODE ISLAND.  Rhody will be withought Hassan Martin, and holding serve against a Holy Cross team that’s currently unbeaten may not be the easiest task in the world.

-SOUTH CAROLINA VS WESTERN MICHIGAN (Puerto Rico Tipoff).  Winning another early season game away from home would be helpful for South Carolina.

-HOUSTON VS WAKE FOREST (Paradise Jam).  Both teams could really use some early season momentum, and a win away from home wouldn’t be the worst thing either.

-LA SALLE VS BOSTON COLLEGE (Hall of Fame Tipoff).  Whoever comes out of this game with a win will be off to a fairly decent start.  It would at least be a much better start than what we’re used to seeing out of either of these teams.

-OLD DOMINION VS DAYTON (Charleston Classic).  Both teams could really use this win.

-COLORADO STATE VS FLORIDA STATE (Jamaica Classic).  Florida State is off to a 2-0 start and could pick up some nice wins away from home in this tournament.

-TEXAS TECH VS NORTHWESTERN.  Texas Tech comes in unbeaten after picking up a halfway decent win against Boston College.  Northwestern has stumbled a little bit early on, but they can certainly help out their profile by picking up a second win away from home in a two day stretch.

-AUBURN VS HOFSTRA (Charleston Classic).  Both these teams have looked good early on (at least at times) and now have the chance to leave this tournament with two wins away from home.

-TULANE VS FORDHAM (Jamaica Classic).  Tulane can improve to a rather surprising 4-0 with a win.

-BOISE STATE VS IOWA STATE (Puerto Rico Tipoff).  Boise State is off to a surprisingly good start and have been every bit as impressive as anyone else from the Mountain West so far.  They can continue to build on that with a win today against an Iowa State team that has a massive rebuilding project ahead of them.

-USC AT VANDERBILT.  A really good early season road test for a USC team that is currently ranked in the top ten.

-SAINT MARY’S AT SAN JOSE STATE.  It’s a road game, but it may still end up looking like an upside down buy game once SMC is done with San Jose.

-NORTHERN KENTUCKY VS VERMONT (Island of the Bahamas Showcase).  UTR Game of the Day.  Click here

-MERCER VS COLORADO (Paradise Jam).  Both teams have played really well so far with just one loss between them, and they can continue to build momentum. and add wins away home to their profile.

-TEMPLE VS CLEMSON (Charleston Classic).  Both teams come in unbeaten and are looking to add early season wins away from home to their profiles.

BUY GAMES

-Coppin State @ Rutgers – win gets Rutgers to 4-0
-TAMUCC @ Georgia
-Bethune Cookman @ Georgia Tech
-North Dakota @ Nebraska
-Northeastern @ Ohio State
-UC Irvine @ Arizona State
-Seattle @ Belmont – Belmont can improve to 4-1 on the year
-Stony Brook @ Michigan State
-Western Carolina @ Minnesota
-Marshall @ Illinois – Illinois can improve to 4-0
-New Hampshire @ Florida
-South Florida @ Indiana
-Boston U @ UConn
-Ball State @ Oregon

Posted in Daily Rundown, News and Notes | Comments Off on News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Sunday, Nov 19th

Under the Radar Game of the Day: Vermont vs Northern Kentucky

Posted on November 19, 2017 by Chad

Vermont vs Northern Kentucky, 8:00 PM Eastern, flohoops.com

The Under the Radar Game of the Day returns to the Bahamas tonight for the Championship Game of the inaugural Islands of the Bahamas Showcase.  Often in events like this, one of the tournament’s top two teams will suffer an upset loss and prevent the anticipated title game.  That did not happen here, and the two teams we expected and wanted to see in the finals will be meeting.

Vermont enters tonight’s game having survived against Bradley, 65-64, in the quarterfinals and then taken care of Coastal Carolina, 80-67, yesterday.  The veteran Catamounts team had four players in double-digits each game, and if they get that type of balanced production again tonight, they could be claiming the championship.

Northern Kentucky defeated James Madison by 9 in their first game before rolling Iona by 13 in the semifinals.  As with Vermont, NKU features a tough, balanced scoring attack.  Four players were in double figures against Iona and all five starters hit at least 10 points against James Madison.  Tonight’s game should be a fun and exciting one between two teams that have legitimate aspirations to be dancing in March.

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Under the Radar Game of the Day: Mercer vs Drexel

Posted on November 18, 2017 by Chad

Mercer vs Drexel, 6:00 PM Eastern, flohoops.com

For the rest of today’s action, check out David’s write-up, below!

The Under the Radar Game of the Day heads to Lynchburg, Virginia this evening, site of the re-located US Virgin Islands Paradise Jam, as a pair of upset winners in yesterday’s quarterfinals meet in the first of the two semifinals.  Head coach Bob Hoffman’s Mercer Bears knocked off Liberty (the host team) in the first quarterfinal by a score of 63-48.  The Bears were led by Jordan Strawberry, who only had 9 points but pulled down 13 boards and dished out 7 assists.

Mercer’s opponents is Zach Spiker’s Drexel Dragons.  Drexel upset Houston in the quarterfinal round 84-80.  Tramaine Isabell came off the bench to have a huge day, scoring 21 points and pulling down 16 rebounds.  Three other players also scored in double-digits for the Dragons.  If they can have such a balanced attack today, this team has a great chance to advance to Sunday’s championship game, where they would take on the winner of the second semifinal between Colorado and Drake.

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