NEWS AND NOTES
-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-Notre Dame picked up a nice road win at DePaul. It’s not that beating DePaul is some fantastic feat, but it was a true road game against a team that is at least formidable, and they went in and won without really having to sweat.
-Another note from Friday that I didn’t mention yesterday was that Bill Walton issued what had to have been the greatest and most epic apology in human history!! It occurred right as UCLA v Georgia Tech was tipping off, and I admittedly missed it live. He spent the first thirty seconds apologizing ON BEHALF OF THE HUMAN RACE because of the shoplifting incident that involved three UCLA players. YES!!! YES!!! Bill Walton may be the most Hoops HD person out there who isn’t actually on Hoops HD. He’ll spontaneously begin talking about Grateful Dead concerts while he’s broadcasting games, he wears a t-shirt to work, he periodically gets confused or talks as if he doesn’t have the exact information of what he’s talking about at his fingertips but keeps talking anyway, and every now and then he apologizes on behalf of the human race! What a glorious response to such a stupid act!! I LOVE THIS GUY!!! Granted there are times I can’t stand to listen to him, but I love everything he stands for and everything about his spirit. If nothing else the guy is a huge dose of fun in a game that’s supposed to be fun, but is covered by people who forget that because they’re so obsessed with ‘being professional.’
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-MONMOUTH AT SETON HALL. This is a buy game, but both teams come in 1-0 and despite the fact that Monmouth lost most of their production from the last two years, they still may be good enough to make this interesting.
-GEORGE MASON AT LOUISVILLE. It’s Louisville’s first official game since the sanctions were handed down by the NCAA, the FBI came calling, and Rick Pitino and Tom Jurich were fired.
-UMASS AT HARVARD. Both teams come into this one 1-0, but Harvard’s win came against MIT. We think the Crimson could end up inside the bubble come March, but in order for that to happen they can’t afford to lose games like this.
-VERMONT AT KENTUCKY. We think Vermont can land inside the bubble, but the reason we think that is largely due to us thinking they can win this game today. Kentucky is talented, but young. Vermont blew through their conference last year, was right in there with Purdue in the NCAA Tournament, and has everyone back. If they can somehow win this game, then it’s the kind of game that can land them in the NCAA Tournament even if they trip up in the conference tournament (and avoid tripping up during the regular season as well). Kentucky didn’t exactly blow out Utah Valley on Friday, so this is definitely a game worth watching today.
-YALE AT WISCONSIN. Yale is probably overmatched, but Wiscy has a young team so it wouldn’t be surprised if the Bulldogs were able to compete.
-BUCKNELL AT ARKANSAS. We still really like this Bucknell team despite the fact that they lost their opener at Winthrop. The problem is that their margin for error is almost down to zero and we aren’t even 48 hours into the season. Opening with back to back road games is no easy way to start the season, but making the NCAA Tournament and landing inside the bubble isn’t easy either, and these are the kinds of games they need to win in order to make that happen. They face what we think is a pretty good Arkansas team today and can pick up a win that will look good on their profile.
-PRINCETON AT BUTLER. Princeton should be reasonably strong this year, and they could compete with Butler today. We’re still learning about Butler since their coaching change. We should learn a little more about them today.
-EASTERN WASHINGTON AT WASHINGTON. Both teams won their first game, and although both are kind of rebuilding, continuing to pick up early wins could help build momentum and speed up the rebuilding process.
NORTH DAKOTA AT HAWAI’I. Highlighted simply because both teams are 1-0. This is also Chad’s UTR Game of the Day.
BUY GAMES
-Jacksonville @ Georgetown – Patrick Ewing’s head coaching debut!
-SC State @ Boston College – win gets BC to 2-0
-NC A&T @ Clemson – both teams 1-0
-Radford @ Ohio State – both teams 1-0
-Central Connecticut @ Rutgers
-Omaha @ Oklahoma
-Navy @ Miami FL – both teams 1-0
-Chicago State @ Purdue
-Charleston Southern @ NC State
-Louisiana Monroe @ SMU
-Southern Utah @ Boise State
-Alabama State @ Iowa
-Fairleigh Dickinson @ Penn State
-UMBC @ Arizona
-UT Martin @ Illinois
-UMES @ Maryland – both teams 1-0, and UMES is an intriguing story given how much their program has improved in recent years
-The Citadel @ Virginia Tech – both teams 1-0
-Alcorn State @ Creighton
-Howard @ Indiana
-Pacific @ Stanford
