Milwaukee (1-0, 0-0 D1) at Northern Iowa (1-0, 0-0 D1) – 8:00 PM ET (ESPN+)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day features the Milwaukee Panthers and the Northern Iowa Panthers in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Milwaukee was picked to finish first in the Horizon League this year; they won their opener 118-62 against non-D1 Lakeland. Jamichael Stillwell led the way with 18 points and 14 rebounds; in all 7 of the Panthers’ players scored in double figures.
Northern Iowa was picked second in the Missouri Valley behind consensus favorite Bradley. UNI also opened their season with a non-D1 win against Dubuque 96-54. Tyan Anderson had 13 points and 6 rebounds for the Panthers on Monday night; RJ Taylor also had 13 points and 4 assists.
-For John Stalica’s Under the Radar Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-It was a very slow night of college basketball. Most people’s attention seemed to be elsewhere for whatever reason. People were just glued to the news. I guess they were tensely and anxiously waiting for the scores of last nights games to be announced??
-Washington did get a big of a scare from a UC Davis team that may be a little better than most of us expected, but held on to win 79-73. Arizona State had to sweat out Idaho State in their 55-48 win, which means all signs are pointing to Arizona State being every bit as bad as we were expecting them to be this season.
-VERMONT AT AUBURN. Vermont started the season with a win at UAB, which so far is probably the best true road win that any team has managed. We thought the Catamounts would be dominant in the America East, but a road win at UAB is a win that looks really good on a resume. If they were to win at Auburn, who I think is even better than their #11 preseason ranking, would be AMAZINGLY good and probably warrant Vermont cracking the top 25. That being said, Vermont is probably swinging way over their heads tonight, but it’s still a really interesting game and a good opportunity for both teams.
BUY GAMES (and other games worth a mention):
-Wagner @ Rutgers – season opener for both. Rutgers looks really good this year -Sacred Heart @ UConn -Mount Olive (nonD1) @ Richmond -Stonehill @ Notre Dame -Columbia @ Villanova – both teams 1-0 -Lehigh @ Georgetown -Campbell @ Virginia -West Georgia @ Georgia Tech -Lipscomb @ Arkansas – Lipscomb will likely do very well in the ASun, but is probably overmatched tonight -SIUE @ Indiana -Oral Roberts @ Minnesota -UL Monroe @ LSU -UTRGV @ Creighton -Western Illinois @ Pepperdine – Western Illinois won their opener on the road at San Jose State -Oakland @ Boise State -Alcorn State @ Utah State -UC San Diego @ San Diego State
Seattle (0-0) at Eastern Washington (0-1) – 9:00 PM ET (ESPN+)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day goes to Cheney, Washington for an intrastate matchup between the Seattle Redhawks and the Eastern Washington Eagles. Eastern Washington had a lead midway through the 2nd half in their opening game at Colorado, but a 23-5 run helped turn a close game into a 76-56 rout. Nic McClain led the Eagles with 16 points in the loss.
Seattle comes into this season after winning the CBI Invitational in Daytona Beach last year. Seven players return from that team, including 1st-team All-WAC Preseason pick John Christofilis. As a team, Seattle was picked to finish 3rd in the WAC (where Grand Canyon was picked to win the league this year).
EDITOR’S NOTE: I was also going to highlight this as the season opener for Chad’s mythical Top Range league, but he neglected to add Washington and Seattle to the mix.Click HERE for all of Chad’s mythical matchups.
-At one point last evening we estimated that there were 142 D1 games all going on at the same time. I’m pretty sure that is a record.
-Most highly ranked teams played at home yesterday and blew out their opponents. Having said that…
Gonzaga was one of those highly ranked teams that played at home (or at least in their home city) and blew out their opponent. But the team they blew out was Baylor, who was also a highly ranked team. I’m not too surprised that the Zags won. We did believe them to be the better team and they were in a home-ish environment. But the fact that they just blew Baylor into the sun 101-63 is beyond surprising. It was easily the most impressive showing of any team yesterday.
-Texas A&M, a team who we were highly praising during the preseason, went on the road to UCF and fell 64-61. It was a road game, but we believed TAMU to be a top 15ish team and that UCF was…well…not. Now it’s time to start paying a little bit of attention to UCF. They may be able to make some noise in the Big 12, or at the very least be good enough to play with some of those teams when they’re at home.
-Ohio State got a really nice 80-72 win against what we think is a really good Texas team out in Las Vegas. We weren’t expecting too much out of the Buckeyes, but now that they’ve started off with a win against a ranked team on a neutral floor, they certainly have our attention.
-Saint Louis was a team we were very big on coming into the season and thought they would be a team that would end up inside the bubble. They still could, but they weren’t able to beat Santa Clara in the Field of 68 Showcase yesterday. The Broncos picked up a very impressive 85-78 win that not many of us were expecting, and now they are a team that has our attention right out of the gate.
-James Madison, who had an outstanding season last year, started things off yesterday with an 88-78 win over an Ohio U team that we (or, at least ME) was expecting to be very good. It wasn’t as big as last year’s season opening win at Michigan State, but it was impressive how JMU was pretty much in control the entire time.
-Vermont got a HUGE 67-62 win at UAB in what may end up being one of the more important results of the day. UAB is a team that we felt was really strong coming into the season, but were concerned about the overall strenght of their schedule and whether it was good enough to get them inside the bubble. Vermont was an Under the Radar team that we were super big on, and now that they’ve gone out on the road and gotten what was perhaps the most impressive true road win any team managed yesterday, we’re now even higher on the Catamounts.
-McNeese State, another Under the Radar team that we were really big on and thought could make a push to land inside the bubble, did not get off to the start they needed to yesterday. They fell 80-73 to South Dakota State in the Field of 68 Showcase, and even though it was just the first game of the season it is still a rather big blow because their margin for error is so small.
-Seeveral Big East teams really struggled last night. Butler, Providence, and Xavier all won, but all had to sweat a lot more than expected against teams that we were expecting them to blow out. Butler edged out Missouri State 72-65, Providence barely got by Central Connecticut 59-55, and Xavier had to come from behind in the second half to beat Texas Southenr 79-68. Seton Hall also barely edged out Saint Peter’s 57-53, and DePaul’s game against Southern Indiana came down to the last possession, but the Blue Demons held on to win 80-78. I suppose that last one wasn’t too surprising. No one is really expecting DePaul to be any good this year.
-Princeton got a huge scare from Iona, but barely held on to win 81-80. Princeton was a team that I had pegged as a likely top 40 team. They still could be. It was just one game. But, they didn’t look like a top 40 team yesterday.
-Wichita State went on the road and got a nice win against what should at least be a talented Western Kentucky team. Wichita State has been somewhat absent from the spotlight in recent years, but this was a nice start to the season for them yesterday.
-Lastly, I want to give a shout out to Chicago State. They didn’t win against Loyola Chicago, but they competed at an impressively high level against a team that’s expected to do very well in the Atlantic 10 in their 79-72 loss. Them, along with Central Connecticut, played in a way that shows they are likely good enough to make quite a bit of noise in the NEC. We were debating resurrecting the Team of the People this year and elevating Chicago State to that highly esteemed status.
Evansville (0-0) at North Texas (0-0) – 8:00 PM ET (ESPN+)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day goes to Denton, Texas for the season opener between the Evansville Purple Aces and the North Texas Mean Green. UNT was picked to finish seventh in the American this upcoming year, although they have typically been one of the stingiest defensive teams in the country in recent years. The Mean Green have only allowed 57.2 points a game at home going back to 2020.
Evansville had an 11-game improvement from a 6-win campaign in 2022-23 to 17 wins in 2023-24, including a quarterfinal appearance in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament last season. Tanner Cuff played in all 35 games for the Purple Aces last year averaging 7.4 points a game and 4.2 rebounds a game, but he figures to play an even more prominent role this upcoming season.
Charleston (0-0) vs. Southern Illinois (0-0) – 12:00 PM ET (YouTube)
While there is one game that starts at 11:00 AM between IU-Indianapolis and non-D1 IU-Columbus, the season begins in earnest at noontime in Sioux Falls, South Dakota at the historic Sanford Pentagon. The College of Charleston begins the season with a new coach in Chris Mack; his one-time assistant Pat Kelsey took over at Louisville during the offseason. Two notable players stayed behind – CAA Preseason Player of the Year Ante Brzovic and CAA 2nd Teamer CJ Fulton.
There is also a change in the coaching ranks for Southern Illinois – Scott Nagy left behind a perennial Horizon League contender in Wright State to take over as head coach of the Salukis. Kennard Davis is one of three players returning from last year’s team; he was a third team-preseason MVC pick. Ali Dibba was another third team-MVC pick; he played last year for Abilene Christian.
