Under the Radar Game of the Day – Wednesday, January 6: NJIT at Yale

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Chad

Under the Radar Game of the Day: NJIT at Yale, 7:00 PM Eastern

On January 9, 2015, the NJIT Highlanders defeated the Yale Bulldogs in Newark by a score of 78-71 behind 23 points from Damon Lynn and 22 from Tim Coleman.  They also got help from the fact that Yale’s top player, Justin Sears, was knocked out of the game early in the first half (thanks to his tooth being knocked out of his mouth during a collision).  Tonight, Yale has revenge on its mind, both for last season’s loss and for Sears’ tooth.  The Bulldogs will be hosting NJIT in New Haven in the Under the Radar Game of the Day.

NJIT enters play with a record of 9-6.  Tonight’s game is the last non-conference game for the Highlanders.  For the first time in school history, NJIT will begin play in a D1 conference with an automatic bid when they begin Atlantic Sun play on Saturday.  The Highlanders continue to be led be the threesome of Damon Lynn, Ky Howard and Tim Coleman.  However, they have also benefited from strong play by Terrence Smith and a breakout season by junior Rob Ukawuba.  The depth and experience on this team will make them a contender in their first A-Sun season.  But before Atlantic Sun play begins, NJIT will try to pick up one more road win tonight.

Defeating Yale will not be an easy task at all for NJIT.  Yale enters play tonight with a record of only 7-5, but also the top KenPom rating (73) of all Ivy League schools.  Although defeating NJIT tonight may qualify as the Bulldogs’ best win on the season to date, none of their five losses were in any way bad (at Duke, at USC, at Illinois, at SMU and at Albany).  Justin Sears continues to lead the way for Yale and, despite Maodo Lo from Columbia winning Mid-Season Ivy League Player of the Year from our colleague Jon Teitel, Sears should be a serious contender for the conference POY at the end of the season.  Sears scored 24 points last time out against Hartford.  He also has some strong help, including Makai Mason (double digits all but one game this season) and Jack Montague, a three point specialist who has made more 3-pointers this year (30) than he has attempted 2-point shots (21).  With only one more game left in the non-conference schedule for Yale after this one, tonight’s game could be the springboard they need as they head into conference play beginning next weekend.

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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Monday, Jan 5th

Posted on January 5, 2016 by David Griggs

Below is a rundown of tonight’s action, as well as a quick look back at last night.

NEWS AND NOTES

-For the most recent Hoops HD Report Video Podcast – CLICK HERE

-This is not hyperbole.  I don’t know how many college basketball games I watch each year, but it’s a lot.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it was close to 1000.  Maybe more.  Last night’s Oklahoma v Kansas game was one of the best games I’ve seen in three or four years.  It was an exciting game between two really good teams that played really well.  For 55 minutes.  Kansas won, but I don’t penalize Oklahoma at all for not beating one of the two best teams on their floor.  In fact, to have a lead against them after 54 minutes is quite remarkable.  #1 seeds almost never lose at home.  the four #1 seeds may lose a combined total of one or two games a year if it’s even that many.  Most #1 seeds don’t even beat other #1 seeds on the road.  Oklahoma is still in amazingly good shape, especially if they can take advantage of future games against Kansas and Iowa State both in the regular season and in the conference tournament.

-Virginia Tech picked up a big home win against rival Virginia.  This is big in terms of building momentum and giving their fans a feeling that the program is turning around.  They still have a long way to go, but they appear to be on the right road.  This has always been a difficult game for UVA, and they just weren’t able to pull it out last night.

-North Carolina picked up their first true road win at Florida State, which was a good one because the Seminoles came into that game unbeaten at home.

-A quick UTR note, Grambling is 2-0 in conference play for the first time since 1994 with their win at home against Alabama State!

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-MERCER AT CHATTANOOGA (Southern) – CLICK HERE For Chad’s UTR GOTD write up on this game

-SOUTH CAROLINA AT AUBURN (SEC).  South Carolina is unbeaten on the season with several decent wins, but no really good ones.  This will be a test going on the road against an improving Auburn program.

-WISCONSIN AT INDIANA (Big Ten).  Indiana hasn’t been the top fifteen team that we were expecting, at least not yet, but they’re still a solid tournament team and will remain in somewhat decent shape if they can hold serve at home.

-MARQUETTE AT PROVIDENCE (Big East).  Providence is looking more and more like a protected seed with a strong record and some really big wins.  Marquette has a lot of work to do.  An upset win isn’t likely, but it would go a very long way to help them.

-VCU AT SAINT JOSEPH’S (Atlantic Ten).  Saint Joe’s is a very surprising 11-2, whereas VCU is a somewhat disappointing 9-5.  Joe’s can play their way into the NCAA Tournament if they keep it up.

-AKRON AT BUFFALO (MAC).  At 11-2, Akron has an outside shot at best at landing inside the bubble, and they’d pretty much need to win out to do it.

-OKLAHOMA STATE AT BAYLOR (Big Twelve).  Baylor was absolutely crushed by Kansas over the weekend, and is suddenly in a situation where their profile needs some meet on it.  Oklahoma State’s profile could use some meet as well.  In short, both these teams have work to do if they want to end up being in the discussion.

-KANSAS STATE AT TEXAS (Big Twelve).  Texas has been inconsistent this year, but that’s a lot better than being consistently bad.  Every game is a big game when you’re trying to make the NCAA Tournament.  K State has been better than what we thought, and they can keep that up with a big road win tonight.

-CLEMSON AT SYRACUSE (ACC).  Syracuse needs to win their home games against non tournament teams, which is what Clemson appears to be right now.

-BUTLER AT DEPAUL (Big East).  Butler is off to an 0-2 start in league play and needs to rebound with what should be one of their more winnable road games at DePaul tonight.  If they lose they don’t necessarily need to panic, but they will really need to get it together.

-KENTUCKY AT LSU (SEC).  LSU has looked better in their last couple of games, but they still have a ton of work to do if they want to play their way back into relevance.  Beating Kentucky, who still looks like a protected seed, would certainly help.

-VANDERBILT AT ARKANSAS (SEC).  Vandy has been very disappointing this year, and has yet to win a true road game.  They need to win against teams that aren’t tournament teams, and that means winning on the road at Arkansas tonight.

-NEBRASKA AT IOWA (Big Ten).  Iowa is suddenly looking like one of the best teams out there with wins over Michigan State and at Purdue.  Throw in a close loss at Iowa State earlier this year and you’ve got three very impressive showings against top notch competition.  This is a winnable conference game against a Nebraska team that has struggled on the road.

-GEORGETOWN AT CREIGHTON (Big East).  Georgetown has been all over the map this year.  They’ve looked amazingly good in close losses at Maryland and against Duke, and they’ve looked pathetic in home losses to Radford and UNC Asheville.  The opportunities will be there for them to get statement wins, but they have to win the games against non-tournament teams as well, which includes Creighton.

-BOISE STATE AT UTAH STATE (Mountain West).  In order for either of these teams to get any attention from the committee at all they basically need to win out.

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Under the Radar Game of the Day – Tuesday, January 5: Mercer at Chattanooga

Posted on January 5, 2016 by Chad

Under the Radar Game of the Day: Mercer at Chattanooga, 7:00 PM Eastern, socondigitalnetwork.com

For our latest HoopsHD Report Video Podcast, CLICK HERE.

After a thrilling overtime game last night between Alabama State and Grambling (what? did some other game go into a few overtimes too?), the UTR Game of the Day heads down to Chattanooga, Tennessee as the Mercer Bears are in town to take on the hometown Mocs.  The visiting Bears enter play today with a record of 11-3, including being 1-0 in early SoCon play.  Their wins on the season include a few major conference teams, including a home court win over George Mason, neutral court win over Tulane, and a win in Little Rock over Arkansas.  The Bears feature a balanced scoring attack.  In the Arkansas win, Stephon Jelks led the way with an impressive 20 points and 15 rebounds, while Jestin Lewis added another 20 points and 9 boards.  Phillip Leonard was the top player in their last game, a win over Samford, with 15 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists.  Although we did not expect much from this Mercer team heading into the season, they have once again outperformed expectations to this point, proving that Bob Hoffman may just be one of the most under-rated coaches in the entire country.

The Bears have a huge test on their hands tonight as they battle the SoCon favorites in Chattanooga.  The Mocs are currently 12-2 on the season and have already picked up road wins at Georgia, Illinois and Dayton.  Their two losses were at Iowa State (certainly understandable) and a tough loss at Louisiana-Monroe.  However, with the three key wins on their profile, we believe that if they are able to dominate conference play, they will get a very serious look from the NCAA Tournament selection committee, even if they slip up in the conference tournament.  Although the Mocs have lost their top player, Casey Jones, to injury, they have not lost a step.  In fact, they are 6-0 without Jones including the win at Dayton.  KJ Bates (15 points against Dayton) and Tre’ McLean (18 points and 9 rebounds against The Citadel) have helped to pick up the load offensively.  The Mocs will looks to them and their teammates to help once again tonight as a win will clearly establish Chattanooga as the team to beat in the Southern Conference whiles a loss will make us here at HoopsHD and the rest of the SoCon much more aware of this Mercer team.

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The Hoops HD Report: January 4th

Posted on January 4, 2016 by David Griggs

Chad and the panel once again run through all of the major conferences.

This week they start off in the Big Ten and talk about how good Iowa has looked, and how Indiana and Ohio State appear to be improving.

In the ACC they talk about North Carolina’s big road win against Florida State, which is their first true road win of the year and FSU’s first home loss of the year.  They also talk about how good Virginia has looked.

The Big East has three teams that look like they’re capable of earning protected seeds in Villanova, Butler, and Xavier despite Butler’s rough 0-2 start.  They also talk about how impressive Seton Hall has looked, and discuss whether or not Georgetown can get things turned around.

The Big Twelve also has three strong teams, each of whom could compete for #1 seeds in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa State.  Baylor has been somewhat disappointing, but Texas Tech has been better than expected.

UCLA is out to a rough start in the Big Twelve, and Arizona still looks like the class of the league.  Kentucky still looks like the class of the SEC, and Saint Joseph’s has been better than expected in the Atlantic Ten.  All that, and much more….

 

And for all you radio lovers, below is an mp3 version of the show….

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Hoops HD Staff Bracket Projections (John Stalica): Monday, January 4th

Posted on January 4, 2016 by David Griggs

The following Bracket is John Stalica’s personal bracket.  No attempt is being made to guess the actual committee.  He is merely portraying the field the way he thinks it should be.  To see Jon Teitel’s Bracket Projections, which do attempt to guess the committee – CLICK HERE

 

JOHN’S NOTES

– As David Griggs explained earlier, this bracket represents my own view as to what the bracket would look like as of today; part of the bracket is a checkpoint based on current play and part of it is the dreaded “eye test.”

– With most of the teams in the country now saddled with at least one loss, Virginia and Xavier trade seed lines this week. The Villanova win looks bigger for the Hoos along with the Sooners who beat Villanova in Hawai’i last month. Edmond Sumner’s injury will be taken into account during the year, but what is paramount is that Xavier won a big game at home against Butler without Sumner. This is in contrast to a team like Wichita State – the Shockers are back in the field this week, but they’re also in an auto-bid situation right now.

– Bracketing rules did not allow for Kentucky to be in the South Region this week; it also forced Duke to be shipped out to Spokane. As for seed line shifts, Seton Hall was bumped up to a 9 and Notre Dame down to a 10 in one instance; Washington moved up to a 10 and Monmouth down to an 11.

– Wait a minute, you said Washington? While they split games with Texas outside of the United States, they opened Pac-12 play with a splash with wins over UCLA and USC (a 22-point comeback against the Trojans). The Huskies did lose a stinker at home against UC-Santa Barbara, though.

– I did not want to include Texas Tech in the field due to the Red Raiders not playing a true road game yet, but I cannot ignore their notable wins so far – namely Little Rock, South Dakota State, Richmond and Texas.

I will now yield the floor to Mr. Chad Sherwood from New Jersey and Mr. David Griggs from his palatial couch.

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-My first 4 teams out of the field – Colorado, Florida State, UCLA and Oregon State.

 

COMMENTS FROM DAVID

-My biggest gripe is Monmouth.  John isn’t the only problem, but he’s definitely part of the problem.  Our Selection Committee guessing expert Jon Teitel is projecting that the committee would put Monmouth on the #12 line, and John Stalica is putting them on his personal #11 line.  When a team has won nine games, and were staying in a hotel for eight of them, how in the hell is that not more impressive??  We’re not talking about a trip to Disney World either.  Well, okay, maybe we “literally” are since some of those wins came in Disney World, but definitely not “figuratively.”  They’ve beaten Notre Dame and USC.  They’re the only team that’s won at UCLA, and they also have a win at Georgetown.  Losing on the road to Army and Canisius are games they should win, but when a team plays THAT many games on the road, a few losses should be forgivable.  Had they played those games at home they’d probably win them.  I can’t help but think the only reason Monmouth isn’t getting more respect is because of a presumption people have of them.  They’re not a #5 seed.  They’re Monmouth.  It’s too bad their jerseys don’t say something else.

-Gonzaga is one of many teams that John likes more than Monmouth, and that the real committee will probably like more than Monmouth as well, but that hasn’t done anywhere close to as much as Monmouth, and had to sweat out an overtime win against San Francisco.  I could see Gonzaga having a tough rest of the year now that they’re without their big man.

-Many people probably feel Oregon belongs on the #6 line, which is where John has them.  I value road wins a lot more than most people, I guess.  I think it’s harder to beat an NIT team on the road than it is to beat a tournament team at home.  Oregon has been pitiful away from home.  Until they can at least beat an NIT caliber team in a true road game, I can’t look at them as a team that belongs on the first ballot.

-If North Carolina wins at Florida State tonight, then I’ll feel like they belong on the #3 line.  But, as of now, their next true road win will be their first.

 

COMMENTS FROM CHAD

– I don’t have much to add this week that David did not already say.  One thing I do notice is Oklahoma being sent to Anaheim, meaning that they would presumably be the fourth 1 seed on the S-Curve.  I personally would have them #1 overall and in the South Region.  Although I know that Michigan State did not have Valentine when they lost this week, I cannot overlook the loss when it comes down to deciding the ranking of the top handful of teams.

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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Monday, Jan 4th

Posted on January 4, 2016 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES

-We will be recording our Hoops HD Report Video Podcast tonight, so be sure to watch and/or listen once it’s posted.

-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR GOTD – CLICK HERE

-We will discuss this on the podcast tonight, but we’ve made some changes in regards to how we will be doing our Bracket Projections.  Essentially, we will be posting two kinds of brackets.  One will be the Hoops HD Staff Brackets, which reflect what WE think the field SHOULD look like.

The other will be an attempt to guess what the ACTUAL COMMITTEE will do, which is entirely different from what we’ve done in the past.  Jon Teitel is our official NCAA Selection Committee Bracket Guessing Expert!  We plan to put that on his business card!  Last year, Jon accurately predicted 66 out of 68 teams correctly, and a remarkable 62 out of 68 teams’ seedings either exactly or within one of the actual seed line.  This made him among the most accurate in the nation.  For more CLICK HERE to check out our BRACKET PROJECTIONS page.

-Oregon State got a big win over rival Oregon yesterday in a win that’s just as important off paper as it is on paper.  This program has had so little going for it for the better part of a quarter century, and now they have a solid record and have just beaten their rivals at home.  For Oregon, they are sorely lacking in wins away from home, so each conference road game is important from here on out.

-Utah Still hasn’t won a true road game.  They need at least a few before the end of the year or they could be in trouble despite an otherwise fairly strong profile.

-Arizona State Head Coach Bobby Hurley was less than thrilled with the officiating in their game against rival Arizona, and ended up leaving early because of it.  It was a nice road win for an Arizona team that didn’t give themselves many chances at true road wins out of conference, but now has two big ones against Arizona State and Gonzaga.

-Louisville finally beat a team that isn’t a sub NIT team!!  And, it was a little harder than they thought.  Wake Forest had cut the lead to just 1 with less than two minutes to go, but Louisville still held on to win.  Louisville had two close losses on the road against very good teams that aren’t likely to lose at home, but as far as actually winning games, yesterday was clearly their biggest of the year.

 

HIGLIGHTED GAMES

-WEST VIRGINIA AT TCU (Big Twelve).  West Virginia picked up a big win at Kansas State over the weekend, and needs to take advantage of what is perhaps their most winnable true road game of the season.

-NORTH CAROLINA AT FLORIDA STATE (ACC).  North Carolina is obviously a very strong team, but to date the one thing that’s missing from their profile is a true road win.  Florida State is unbeaten at home.  UNC is winless in true road games.  If the Tarheels win this one then it drastically improves their resume.

-CANISIUS AT MONMOUTH (Metro Atlantic).  We will be saying pretty much the same thing about Monmouth for the rest of the year.  They have a very strong profile, and need to avoid bad losses in order to sustain it.

-OKLAHOMA AT KANSAS (Big Twelve).  Both teams will contend for first place in the Big Twelve, and both will contend for #1 seeds.  In fact it wouldn’t surprise me to see both teams earn #1 seeds.  With Oklahoma City hosting first/second round games, and Louisville and Chicago both hosting regionals, both could also end up being sent to ideal locations throughout the entire tournament.  Oklahoma is unbeaten on the year, and Kansas has just one loss, which came to Michigan State in a close game when they weren’t at full strength.  This one tonight should be fun.

-VIRGINIA AT VIRGNIIA TECH (ACC).  Virginia Tech is a lot better than I thought they’d be.  I still don’t think they’ll end up anywhere near the tournament, but they are certainly good enough to pull off some big wins at home.  As good as Virginia is, they have struggled at VA Tech in recent years.

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