Under the Radar Game of the Day: Fort Wayne at Austin Peay

Posted on November 30, 2016 by Chad

Under the Radar Game of the Day: Fort Wayne at Austin Peay, 8:30 PM Eastern, Gov-TV/ovcdigitalnetwork.com

The Under the Radar Game of the Day comes to us from Clarksville, Tennessee tonight as the Austin Peay Governors will be welcoming in the IP-Fort Wayne Mastodons in a non-conference game.  Fort Wayne enters tonight’s game with a 5-2 record, including one of the signature wins of any UTR team so far this season, a thrilling 71-68 overtime win last week at home over the Indiana Hoosiers.  The Mastodons had two players record double-doubles in that win as Bryson Scott scored 18 points and grabbed a dozen rebounds while John Konchar scored 15 and pulled down 11 boards.  Scott has been in double figures in all but one game so far this season, as he is excelling at this level in his junior year after two somewhat disappointing season playing at Purdue.  Fort Wayne, with the confidence they gained in the Indiana win, has a chance to excel in Summit League play this season and potentially earn the school’s first ever bid to the Division I Tournament.  However, they will need to win away from home to do that, and today’s test at Austin Peay will certainly be a tough one.

The Austin Peay Governors enter tonight’s game with a record of 4-2 on the season.  Their two Division I wins came at the Tarkett Sports Classic, hosted by Miami (Ohio), where the picked up wins over Northern Kentucky and Delaware.  They finished 2-1 in the event, losing to host Miami by 6 points.  Their only other loss was on the first night of the season at Dayton.  Kenny Jones has been a force so far this season for the Govs, with three double-doubles already, including a 26 point, 12 rebound performance against Delaware.  He will need to have another strong night tonight if his team wants to knock off IPFW.

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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Tuesday, Nov 29th

Posted on November 29, 2016 by David Griggs

Below is a rundown of tonight’s action, a quick look back at last night’s results, and some very important links.

NEWS AND NOTES

CLICK HERE for this week’s Hoops HD Report where we look back at all the exempt tournaments and other action from this past week and talk about how we think it will shape the college basketball season

CLICK HERE for Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day between Belmont and Lipscomb 

-Oregon picked up the win against Boise State last night, but it wasn’t easy.  In fact, they were behind for just about the entire game.  Oregon ended last season by winning 11 straight games, and in the process finished first in the Pac Twelve, won the Pac Twelve Tournament, earned a #1 seed, and advanced to the Elite Eight.  So, with six of their top players back this year and a pretty good recruiting class being added to it, we were expecting them to destroy the planet.  They have not.  It’s early, and there is plenty of time to get rolling, but they’re not rolling now.  They were beaten handily by Baylor, they lost to Georgetown, the squeaked by Tennessee, and last night barely beat Boise Statea t home.

-Northwestern improved to 5-2 last night with a feel good win over Wake Forest.  They’re two losses were close games away from home against Butler and Notre Dame, and they were in a position to win both of them.  Could this be the year for….??  OH WHO AM I KIDDING!!??  WE DO THIS EVERY YEAR!!  Northwestern is still looking to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever.

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-RHODE ISLAND AT VALPARAISO (***Spotlight Game***).  Okay, this is not the biggest showcase game of the day, but it is HUGELY important in the sense that Valpo has very few chances at statement wins, so that makes the few chances they do have even more important.  I think that if they want to be able to make the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team, they need this win.  Pure and simple.  If they don’t get it, then anything short of winning out until the conference tournament isn’t likely to be enough.  As for Rhody, it’s a pretty big game as well.  They’re trying to build a profile, and this could turn out to be one of their more impressive road wins.

-NORTH DAKOTA STATE AT XAVIER.  This is a buy game, but since we think North Dakota State will contend for the Summit League title we’ll go ahead and highlight it.  Xavier is highly ranked, unbeaten, and likely to remain that way so long as they don’t get caught looking ahead to this weekend.

-PITTSBURGH AT MARYLAND (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  Neither team was high on the radar when the season started, but both are off to very good starts.  It should be a fun Big Ten/ACC/Former Big East/Former ACC Challenge game.

-GEORGIA TECH AT PENN STATE (Big Ten/ACC Challenge)  Georgia Tech is looking for their first true road win and to improve to a respectable 5-1.

-CHATTANOOGA AT COASTAL CAROLINA.  Chattanooga has had a few slip ups and pretty much needs to win out if they want to end up inside the NCAA Tournament bubble.  Having said that, they should be good enough to where they can win out or come close to doing it.

-DAVIDSON AT MERCER.  This won’t be an easy win for a pretty good Davidson team.  Mercer can be tough to beat at home, they’re 3-0 this year on their home court, and will likely be up for this game.

-PRINCETON AT VCU.  I still think Princeton could end up having a big year, but they have stumbled a little bit in games we thought they’d win and come into this one at 2-2.  VCU can improve to an impressive 6-1 with the only loss being against Baylor if they get it done at home.

-VILLANOVA AT PENN (Big Five).  We highlight because it’s the Big Five, but Nova should cruise.

-SYRACUSE AT WISCONSIN (ACC/Big Ten Challenge).  Wisky has dropped some tough close games, and Syracuse is coming off a loss to South Carolina.  Both look pretty good, but could use a big early season win.  The sooner they can get quality wins like this on their profile, the better.

-TENNESSEE STATE AT VANDERBILT.  We’re highlighting this game not because of Vandy, but because of Tennessee State.  They come into this one at 6-0 and have three true road wins already.  If they pick up this win then you have to start thinking of them as an NCAA Tournament caliber team.

-BUFFALO AT CREIGHTON.  This is a buy game, but this is a pretty good Buffalo team out of the MAC so we’ll go ahead and highlight it.

-HOUSTON AT LSU.  LSU is a long ways away from being considered a good team, so it’s a road game that a good team should be able to win.  Is Houston good?  We should learn something tonight.

-NC STATE AT ILLINOIS (ACC/Big Ten Challenge).  NC State looks to pick up their first true road win and improve to 6-1.

-IOWA AT NOTRE DAME (ACC/Big Ten Challenge).  Notre Dame looks to remain perfect on the season and improve to 7-0.  They’ve been better than we expected them to be so far.

-MICHIGAN STATE AT DUKE (ACC/Big Ten Challenge).  This game looked a lot better before the season started.  It’s still hugely important, but for different reasons.  Despite being plagued with injuries Duke continues to look good.  Michigan State has played a killer schedule and none of the losses will hurt them that much, but eventually they’ll need to win a game that isn’t just a home buy game.  They’ve struggled this year.  Part of it is being young and part of it is the killer schedule.  In the grand scheme of things I think they’ll be okay even if they don’t pick this up and fall to 4-4, but a win tonight would certainly help.

 

BUY GAMES

-Charleston Southern @ Alabama
-Hampton @ East Carolina
-South Carolina Upstate @ Auburn
-UT Arlington @ Texas
-Northern Colorado @ Oklahoma
-Long Beach State @ Kansas
-Southern Nazarene (nondiv1) @ Wichita State

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Under the Radar Game of the Day: Lipscomb at Belmont

Posted on November 29, 2016 by Chad

Lipscomb at Belmont 8:00 PM Eastern, ovcdigitalnetwork.com

For our most recent HoopsHD Report video podcast, CLICK HERE.

The Battle of the Boulevard.  Two schools separated by only abut two miles in Nashville, Tennessee, with a basketball rivalry that dates all the way back to 1953.  The Bisons of Lipscomb enter tonight’s game at Belmont with a 73-65 all-time lead in the series.  However, since both teams made the move up to Division I, Belmont has an 18-9 edge, including having won a series-record tieing nine consecutive games against their rivals.  Lipscomb head coach Casey Alexander is currently 0-8 in this rivalry, a record he wants to fix tonight.  Of course, one of the key underlying stories in this rivalry is the head coaches as Alexander both played for Belmont and served as an assistant coach under Belmont head man Rick Byrd for 16 years.

Lipscomb enters play tonight with a record of 2-5 on the season, but a disappointing 0-5 against Division I foes.  Sophomore Garrison Mathews has been the team’s top player so far, including a 16 point, 6 rebound and 7 assist effort in a loss to St. Peter’s.  Belmont is only 1-3 on the season, but the three losses were all respectable (Vanderbilt, Florida and Rhode Island).  Senior star Evan Bradds missed the team’s last game dealing with an injury but, assuming he is able to go tonight, figures to be a major factor in this game.  He had a very impressive 26 point, 14 rebound effort in his team’s win over Western Kentucky and averaged a double-double in the team’s two wins over Lipscomb last season.  Regardless of which players are on the court, however, or what their records are, this is a rivalry and all the stats can be thrown out when these two teams play.  And if you are like us and love this rivalry, don’t worry because you will get to see them play again this season, on December 6 at Lipscomb.

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The Hoops HD Report: Nov 28th

Posted on November 29, 2016 by David Griggs

Chad and the panel review a very busy week in college basketball.  They run through all of the exempt tournament results and talk about how teams like South Carolina, Baylor, and Butler picked up huge wins and have begun to build what appear to be strong profiles.  Temple also picked up two surprising wins in the NIT, but in our minds New Hampshire is the real preseason NIT champ since both Temple and New Hampshire finished 3-1, and UNH won the head to head match-up.  #RankUNH #GoDancingOrDie.  On the flip side, Oregon was rather disappointing out in Maui, and Michigan State and UConn continue to struggle.  They also preview all of this week’s big games, including the Big Ten/ACC Challenge match ups.

 

And for all you radio lovers, below is an audio only version of the show…

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Bracket Projections: November 28th

Posted on November 28, 2016 by John Stalica

For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day between Boston University and Saint Peter’s College, and the rest of today’s Highlighted Games – CLICK HERE

Now that the lion’s share of exempt events have been played through Thanksgiving weekend, we now have a large enough sample size to start making a bracket projection that does not feature as many outliers (sorry, Wagner). If you were paying attention in Atlantis, for example, you had to be impressed with the showing that Baylor made. They already had a home win against Oregon under their belts, and now they added wins against VCU, Michigan State and Louisville. While I’m not convinced that Baylor will finish the season as a #1 seed, that body of work certainly merits a 1 seed at this point in time.

The other big winner during Feast Week was Gonzaga. After a comfortable win over Quinnipiac in the Advocare opener, they added wins against Florida (almost as good as a road win) and Iowa State to their profile. Welcome to the 2 line, Zags. Xavier and UCLA also won their respective events, but the competition just wasn’t on par as the two aforementioned teams before. Xavier will certainly have their opportunity at a signature win later this week when they hit the road for a game at Baylor; UCLA will get their chance when they visit Kentucky on Saturday as well.

Butler (wins over Vandy and Arizona in Las Vegas), South Carolina (wins over Monmouth/Michigan at home and over Syracuse in Brooklyn) and USC (win at Texas A&M and against SMU at home) also make this week’s field. And if you’re looking for other teams that, while technically power conference teams, fall completely under the radar but still made the NCAA Tournament field, look no further than the play-in games. SPOILER ALERT: It is not Northwestern, nor is it Nebraska. Sorry, Puppet.

And if you pay attention to the South Region, a potential UCLA-Stanford rematch is permissible for the time being since they are only scheduled to play once at UCLA this season. This matchup becomes null and void if they play in the Pac-12 Tournament.

11-28-16-bracket-part-1

11-28-16-bracket-part-2

My first 4 teams out this week would be Wichita State, Seton Hall, California and Georgia.

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Under the Radar Game of the Day: Boston University at St. Peter’s (And Other Highlighted Games)

Posted on November 28, 2016 by Chad

Boston University at St. Peter’s, 7:00 PM Eastern, saintpeterspeacocks.com (PPV)

The Under the Radar Game of the Day heads to Jersey City, NJ tonight for a non-conference battle between the Patriot League’s Boston University Terriers and the Metro Atlantic’s St. Peter’s Peacocks.  The visiting Terriers have the rare distinction of being able to claim they have beaten every team on their schedule so far this season, despite not being undefeated.  They opened the season with a loss at cross-town rival Northeastern, then returned the favor a week later by beating the Huskies in the opening game of the Steve Wright Classic, a four team round-robin event hosted by BU.  In fact, the Terriers swept their host event by following that win up with victories over Maine and LIU-Brooklyn.  The Terriers have had four or more players hit double-digits in three of their five games so far, and that balanced scoring attack and deep use of the bench should make them a tough team to beat all season long.

The host Peacocks of St. Peter’s enter tonight’s game with a record of 2-2.  They are coming off a solid home win over one of the Northeast Conference’s top teams and in-state rival Fairleigh Dickinson.  Six different players hit double-digits in scoring in that game for the Peacocks, including Quadir Welton who picked up 12 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists.  The Peacocks need to make certain they don’t overlook BU tonight, as Friday will actually mark the start of conference play for this team.  With a 20 game regular season, the Metro Atlantic teams each play a pair of conference games in early December before returning to non-conference play until the New Year.

 

OTHER HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-KENTUCKY VS ARIZONA STATE (Atlantis Showcase).  I don’t know how much of a “showcase” this will be.  Most people love the Bahamas.  Chances are Arizona State will not enjoy themselves tonight.

-MINNESOTA AT FLORIDA STATE (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  Minney is unbeaten, but this is by far their biggest test of the year up to this point.  If they win this one then we’ll have to look at them as being nationally relevant.  At least for now.

-WAKE FOREST AT NORTHWESTERN (Big Ten/ACC Challenge).  Despite it being early, and despite both these teams having multiple chances at big wins in front of them, I can’t help but feel this is a pivotal game.  Northwestern has two losses, and both were close games against quality teams.  If they ever want to get over the hump, they need to start winning a few of those.  Wake has just one loss and has looked good, but this is still one of their tougher tests of the season up to this point.

-BUTLER AT UTAH.  Both teams are unbeaten, and both have looked pretty good up to this point, especially Butler who is coming off a huge win against Arizona.

BOISE STATE AT OREGON.  It’s not what we would normally call a buy game since Boise is from a multi-bid league (not to mention this is a return game from last year’s meeting in Boise), but the final score may end up looking as if it were.

-MANHATTAN AT WEST VIRGINIA.  Buy game.

-MOUNT SAINT MARY’S AT ARKANSAS.  Buy game.

-SAVANNAH STATE AT SAN DIEGO STATE.  Buy game.

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