A rundown of today’s college basketball games, and a quick look back at yesterday…
NEWS AND NOTES
-Things are getting busy and more intense with conference playing starting up.
-Michigan State fell on the road at Iowa, but they weren’t at full strength and it’s hardly a bad loss. I still think the Spartans have what it takes to land on a #1 seed. Iowa has beaten the #1 ranked team, and had a 20 point lead on the #2 ranked team in the second half. They’re not always playing at a top level, but when they are they’re pretty good.
-Texas Tech picked up another notable win at home when they knocked off Richmond. They may be good, but their problem is that they haven’t even played a true road game yet. True road wins in Big Twelve play are not going to be easy to come by, and they’ll be under more pressure to pick up a few. It’s rare that you see teams with less than four wins away from home in the field.
-Florida State picked up what is probably their biggest and most feel good win of the season by winning at Florida. The Noles should be able to make some noise in ACC play.
-Cincinnati lost at home to Temple. It’s never good to lose conference games at home to sub NIT teams, which is what Temple appears to be. Without an abundance of chances at notable wins, Cincinnati can’t afford too many strikes like that. They’re still in good shape, but they won’t be if that becomes a habit.
-For Chad Sherwood’s Under the Radar Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-WEST VIRGINIA AT VIRGINIA TECH. Virginia Tech’s program appears to be improving under Buzz Williams, but they still have a long way to go. West Virginia has just one loss and has looked strong this season, but this is their first true road game of the year, and it comes against a rival, so it may be somewhat challenging.
-INDIANA AT RUTGERS (Big Ten). Indiana needs wins to strengthen what is a flimsy profile heading into conference play. With a defense as weak as theirs it won’t shock me to see them drop road games like this throughout the year.
-PENN STATE AT MARYLAND (Big Ten). Penn State has a decent record, but they amassed it against bad teams. Maryland is a very good team and their resume should improve as they go through conference play.
-HOUSTON AT SOUTH FLORIDA (American). Houston has a good record, but it came against weak teams, which means their margin for error is razor thin. In fact, this would be their first true road win if they pull it off.
-MICHIGAN AT ILLINOIS (Big Ten). Despite being 10-3, Michigan still has work to do in order to get to the level many were expecting them to be at at the start of the year. Are they good enough to beat a very NIT-ish looking Illinois team on the road?
-NORTHWESTERN AT NEBRASKA (Big Ten). Northwestern has just one loss, but they’ve had to sweat out some very weak opponents. For most of the season Nebraska hasn’t even looked like an NIT team, but they’re still a lot tougher than most of Northwestern’s opponents.
-OAKLAND AT VIRGINIA. Oakland took Michigan State to overtime this past weekend, but I’d be shocked if they’re able to do the same at Virginia today.
-MINNESOTA AT OHIO STATE (Big Ten). Ohio State has so much ground to make up that they’ll need to roll off three or four wins just to get back into the conversation. But, seeing how good they looked against Kentucky they could be good enough to do just that. If they lose at home today, though, they’re in real trouble.
-CLEMSON AT NORTH CAROLINA (ACC). Clemson has not won a true road game yet. And, they haven’t won at North Carolina yet. Ever. EVER!!! UNC is good enough to be a protected seed and should win their conference opener today.
-SETON HALL AT MARQUETTE (Big East). Neither team has really gotten the nation’s attention yet, but both come into this game at 10-2 and actually have some decent wins to go along with it.
-ARKANSAS AT DAYTON. Dayton has just two losses on the year and should land inside the bubble so long as they hold serve in games like this one.
-BRADLEY AT NORTHERN IOWA (Missouri Valley). Northern Iowa has two huge wins, but they’ve also failed to hold serve in games against lower level competition. To make the dance, you have to win the big ones, but you also have to avoid losing the small ones. They need a very strong showing in conference if they want to make the field.
-INDIANA STATE AT EVANSVILLE (Missouri Valley). Evansville can improve to 12-2 on the year with a win today. This conference will give them a few opportunities at notable wins, but only a few, so they’ll need to finish very strong in order to end up in the conversation.
-SOUTHERN ILLINOIS AT LOYOLA CHICAGO (Missouri Valley). Southern Illinois’s schedule has been weak, but they are 11-2 and this would be their fifth true road win of the year if they’re able to pick it up.
-LITTLE ROCK AT SOUTH ALABAMA (Sun Belt). A first place finish in the SBC should land Little Rock inside the bubble, but they need to avoid bad losses. That basically means they need to avoid losing to pretty much everyone other than Arlington.
-GEORGIA STATE AT UT ARLINGTON (Sun Belt) – CLICK HERE to see Chad Sherwood’s Under the Radar Game of the Day
-SYRACUSE AT PITTSBURGH (Big East…I mean ACC). Pitt has a great record against awful teams. Syracuse has big wins, but very few of those occurred in the United States. The best part of their resume was winning the Battle 4 Atlantis down in the Bahamas. With Pitt playing such a weak schedule it puts a lot more pressure on them to do well in conference play. They better end up more than just two games above 500 if they want to feel safe on Selection Sunday.
-GEORGETOWN AT DEPAUL (Big East). Georgetown has looked great this season when they’re not playing buy games. They have a lot of ground to make up in conference play if they want to end up safely in the discussion.
-FRESNO STATE AT UNLV (Mountain West). UNLV is perhaps the only team from the Mountain West that has a solid chance of landing inside the bubble, and they’ll have to blow through the conference in order to do it.
BUY GAMES
-Long Beach State @ Duke
-Francis Marion (nondiv1) @ South Carolina
-Coppin State @ Iowa State
-Western Michigan @ Vanderbilt
-UC Davis @ Boise State
News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Thursday, Dec 31st
Below is a rundown of today’s college basketball action…
NEWS AND NOTES
-For our latest Under the Radar Video Podcast – CLICK HERE We Discussed last night how we feel that there are several teams in the Colonial that could end up in position to get an at-large bid if they can run away from the league, but that there is probably only room for the first place finisher. You’ll see that noted in the Highlighted Games below.
-For Chad Sherwood’s Under the Radar Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-Severe weather continues to lead to games being postponed or cancelled due to hazardous travel. Hampton v Texas Southern has been cancelled for today.
-I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Years!!
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-XAVIER AT VILLANOVA (Big East). We’ve been projecting Xavier as a #1 seed. #1 seeds typically need to pick up at least one road win against a protected seed. Nova hasn’t been quite as good as expected, but this is still Xavier’s biggest test of the year seeing as how Nova is high in the rankings and unbeaten at home. It’s also the conference opener for both teams.
-CHARLESTON AT JAMES MADISON (Colonial). Neither team was outstanding out of conference, but both were solid and we think if one of these teams can run away from the rest of the league they can land inside the bubble.
-DELAWARE AT HOFSTRA (Colonial). As mentioned above, Hofstra is one of the teams that could end up inside the bubble, but they’ll have to run away from the league to do it.
-TOWSON AT WILLIAM & MARY (Colonial). W&M is another Colonial team that could land inside the bubble if they can run away from the league.
-NORTHEASTERN AT ELON (Colonial). Northeastern had a few big wins out of conference, but they weren’t as impressive as we were expecting. Elon has been strong at home and this is the kind of game Northeastern needs to win moving forward if they want to be in the discussion at the end.
-DRAKE AT WICHITA STATE (Missouri Valley). Wichita State needs to blow through Missouri Valley play in order to be safely inside the bubble at the end of the year.
-PROVIDENCE AT BUTLER (Big East). Both teams are highly ranked with just one loss, and both already have some impressive wins on their profile. It wouldn’t surprise me if one or both ended up as protected seeds. Winning a game like this on the road is the kind of win that makes you consider Providence for a #1 seed. They have already beaten Arizona away from home, and their only loss was a close game against a full strength Michigan State team. Adding a road win of this caliber to an already very impressive profile will go a long way toward #1 seed consideration.
-GONZAGA AT SANTA CLARA (West Coast). Gonzaga’s profile is okay, but they have just one true road win on the season. They’re expected to blow through this conference, and they’ll need to because they’ll be adding a damaging loss to their profile for virtually every league game they don’t win.
-BYU AT SAINT MARY’S (West Coast). Saint Mary’s will be somewhat tested today, but the biggest strike against them is a lack of quality wins and a lack of wins away from home. Their margin for error in conference is razor thin. BYU has yet to win a true road game this year, so you can’t give SMC too much credit for this win either.