News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Friday, Dec 18th

Posted on December 18, 2015 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES

-For our latest Under the Radar Video Podcast where we focus on all the teams that are outside the traditional multi-bid leagues – CLICK HERE

-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE

-John’s Stalica’s most recent installment of Throwback Thursday focuses on the 1976 NCAA Tournament.  It was a very significant year that saw UCLA reach the Final Four in their first year without John Wooden as a head coach.  It also saw Rutgers and Indiana reach the Final Four, both of whom were undefeated.  To read the article – CLICK HERE

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-SOUTH CAROLINA AT CLEMSON.  South Carolina is out to a surprising 9-0 start and has a lot of momentum built up.  That will continue if they can knock off their in-state rivals on the road tonight.  Clemson is a modest 7-3, but hasn’t looked much like an NCAA Tournament team as of yet.

-OLE MISS AT MEMPHIS.  This is another regional OOC rivalry game.  Both teams have respectable records, but they need to start putting some quality wins on their profile if they want the committee to notice them.  Winning this game certainly wouldn’t hurt.

-LONG BEACH STATE AT OREGON.  Long Beach continues their gauntlet of an OOC schedule, and despite being 6-6 has actually looked pretty good in some of their games against top notch competition.  As of now, Oregon has played well but is mostly a home court hero.  Their only win away from home is a neutral floor win against Navy.  Eventually, they’ll need to start winning some road games if they want their profile to stay healthy.

-CENTRAL MICHIGAN AT BYU.  This game is between two teams who have been disappointing this season so far, but still have the ability to turn things around.  Winning tonight would be a great start.

-GRAND CANYON AT SAN DIEGO STATE.  The Team of the People is in action once again!!  This is another big test for them as they go on the road to face an NCAA Tournament caliber team.  Even if Grand Canyon shows themselves to be an NCAA Caliber team, they won’t be allowed to play in the NCAA Tournament because of NCAA rules that are in contradiction of what their stated mission statement is.  Take to Twitter!!  Take to email!!  Pick up your phones!!  Call, tweet, and email the NCAA and tell them to Let the Lopes Play!!  #LopesWaiver.

-CAL STATE FULLERTON AT OREGON STATE.  A win for the Beavers gets them to a very respectable 7-2 on the season so far.

 

BUY GAMES

-Incarnate Word @ Saint John’s
-Coastal Carolina @ Wake Forest
-Kennesaw State @ Chattanooga.  Not technically a buy game, but could end up looking like one
-Texas State @ Washington State
-Nicholls State @ Colorado

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Under the Radar Game of the Day – Friday, December 18: Southern at Louisiana Tech

Posted on December 18, 2015 by Chad

Under the Radar Game of the Day: Southern at Louisiana Tech, 7:30 PM Eastern

For our latest Under the Radar video podcast, CLICK HERE.

The UTR Game of the Day heads to Ruston, Louisiana tonight as the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs play host to the Southern University-Baton Rouge Jaguars.  Louisiana Tech has been solid so far this season, looking like they will be among the top teams in Conference USA.  They enter the game with a record of 8-2 including a road win at Ohio State and a home win against a solid Texas-Arlington team.  Their losses came at Memphis and at Ole Miss.  The Bulldogs have been led this season by Alex Hamilton (30 points and 11 rebounds against Louisiana-Lafayette) and Erik McCree (25 points and 11 rebounds against Jackson State).  If Hamilton and McCree can put together strong efforts again tonight, the host Bulldogs have a chance to pick up their 9th win of the year.

Tonight’s opponent for La Tech is the Southern University Jaguars.  Southern has gone through a rough few years following a determination by the NCAA that invalidated all of their APR data and left the entire school ineligible for postseason play.  The APR issues have finally been fixed and Southern is once again eligible this year.  Just in time for their restored eligibility, the Jaguars have been putting together a solid season , including road wins at Southeastern Louisiana, Wyoming and Mississippi State — and barely falling earlier this week at Memphis.  Adrian Rodgers has scored in double figures every game so far this season and will be looking to lead his team to yet another victory tonight.  If the Jaguars can pick up the win, it will be the 10th non-conference road win against D1 competition by a SWAC school this season, tieing the league’s 1990 mark for the most in the past 27 years.

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Under The Radar: December 17th

Posted on December 17, 2015 by David Griggs

Chad and David start off with a special holiday gift for all you last minute Christmas shoppers, and then move in to a quick Hoops HD Report Extra where they briefly discuss the retirement of Bo Ryan.

From there, they go on to discuss another huge win by Monmouth as they knocked off Georgetown.  They’ve now won at UCLA, at Georgetown, and have neutral floor wins against Notre Dame and USC.  They certainly appear to have the makings of a profile that will enable them to make the NCAA Tournament if they fail to win the MAAC.

Chattanooga is also coming off a big win at Dayton, and they discuss their chances of making the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team.

They run through all 23 Under the Radar Conferences, preview this week’s upcoming games, and reveal their weekly Under the Radar Top Ten…

 

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

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Throwback Thursday: 1976 NCAA Tournament

Posted on December 17, 2015 by John Stalica

Click here for Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day and a brief recap of tonight’s games

1976 – this year represented the bicentennial celebration for the United States of America. Philadelphia hosted a couple of major sporting events that year – the first was the Men’s Final Four; the other would be the 1976 MLB All-Star Game. This season would also feature 2 teams that would enter the City of Brotherly Love with a perfect record.

The first team that finished with a perfect record was the Indiana Hoosiers. This was the 2nd season in a row in which the Hoosiers would finish with a perfect regular season; however, with star player Scott May injured the year before, they lost to Kentucky in the regional final in one of Bob Knight’s most devastating losses in his career (if not the worst loss). 3 notable wins by Indiana included a pair of wins against Michigan (another Final Four team that will be discussed later) and a revenge win against a Kentucky team that would win the NIT title that season. In the Mideast Region, the Hoosiers beat St. John’s, Alabama and Marquette to claim the 1st Final Four berth. Another ironic twist of fate here – Indiana beat a Marquette team that was arguably better and more talented than their 1977 team that would go on to win the national title.

The second team that finished with a perfect record came in the form of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Led by a starting unit that included Phil Sellers, Mike Dabney, Hollis Copeland, James Bailey and Eddie Jordan (yes, that would also be current Rutgers head coach Eddie Jordan), Rutgers beat several eventual NCAA Tournament participants including St. John’s, Syracuse (the last season in which Roy Danforth was head coach), and Princeton. In the NCAA Tournament, the Scarlet Knights would again defeat Princeton, UConn and VMI to clinch a Final 4 spot out of the East regional.

In the Midwest Regional, the Michigan Wolverines would become the 3rd team to clinch a spot in the Final 4. With wins over Wichita State, Notre Dame and Missouri, the Wolverines also helped the Big 10 become the first conference to have multiple teams in the Final 4. The Wolverines were lead by future NBA star Rickey Green.

The final team to clinch a spot in the Final 4 would be the UCLA Bruins. This season was expected to represent a passing of the torch since John Wooden had retired last season after UCLA won what was then a record 10th NCAA title against Kentucky. This season, Gene Bartow (the future architect of UAB’s basketball program) would be head coach and his star players included Richard Washington and Marques Johnson. In the NCAA Tournament, UCLA would defeat San Diego State, Pepperdine and future conference foe Arizona (who was in the WAC at that time) to advance to Philadelphia.

In the Spectrum, Michigan would spoil Rutgers’ perfect season with an 86-70 victory; the Hoosiers (led by Kent Benson, Quinn Buckner, Scott May, Tom Abernethy and Jim Crews) would defeat UCLA 65-51 to ensure an all-Big Ten final. In the championship game, Indiana would put on a clinic and defeated Michigan 86-68 to clinch Indiana’s third national title as well as the first of 3 titles for Bob Knight. UCLA would also defeat Rutgers to clinch 3rd place overall in the NCAA Tournament. Even in victory, Bob Knight had said, “Should have been two” to Bob Hammel of the Bloomington Herald-Telephone (now the Bloomington Herald-Times newspaper).

Click here to view the video of the 1976 Final Four; you’ll want to jump ahead about 30 seconds if you want to avoid the color bars at the beginning of the video.

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Under the Radar Game of the Day – Thursday, December 17: Belmont at Middle Tennessee

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Chad

Under the Radar Game of the Day: Belmont at Middle Tennessee, 7:00 PM Eastern, ASN

Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day comes from Murfreesboro, TN, home of the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders.  MTSU enters play tonight with a solid record of 6-2, including having taken home the championship at the Great Alaska Shootout and having picked up an overtime win this past weekend in Nashville against Auburn.  Other than a season-opening loss at Murray State, the Blue Raiders’ only slip up so far this season was a home game on December 2 to VCU, which they lost by 6 points.  Reggie Upshaw has led the way for Kermit Davis’ squad so far this season, including a very strong 21 point and 13 rebound effort in the Auburn win.  He also picked up 4 assists, 3 steals and a block in that game.  Giddy Potts also bears keeping an eye on for MTSU, as his stat line this season includes 17 points and 14 rebounds in a win against South Alabama.

Tonight, the Blue Raiders welcome in the preseason pick to win the Ohio Valley Conference, Coach Rick Byrd’s Belmont Bruins.  Belmont was a team that we here at HOOPS HD though might have at-large bid potential heading into the season.  However, a 7-4 start with the only win of note having come at Marquette has probably dashed those hopes.  Although none of the Bruins’ four losses were bad by any means (at Arizona State, Evansville, BYU and Valpo), the Bruins really needed to pick up at least two wins in those four games to put enough solid numbers on their resume before OVC play begins.  The good news is that the season is far from over, and if they can dominate the rest of their schedule, including picking up a road win over a solid team tonight, Belmont will certainly prove that they will be a very tough out in March.  Of course, they have the added bonus of playing in the OVC, which gives its top two seeds byes into the conference tournament semifinals and plays the entire tournament in Belmont’s backyard in Nashville.  In other words, this is one team that really should not have to worry too much about putting together an at-large bid resume — they really should not need it.

 

OTHER HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-WEST VIRGINIA VS MARSHALL (Charleston, WV).  This is a rivalry game in the sense that it has all the bitterness that most rivalries have and then some, but it’s not in the sense of it being a huge mismatch in terms of the status of the two programs.

-Hampton @ SMU (Buy Game)
-Norfolk State @ Evansville (Buy Game)
-Cal Poly @ USC (Buy Game)

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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Wednesday, Dec 16th

Posted on December 16, 2015 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES

-Yesterday was another slow day, but Monmouth ended up picking up what will perhaps be their most impressive win on the season when they won going away at Georgetown.  I realize Georgetown isn’t high on everyone’s radar yet, but they had lost to Duke and Maryland by a combined total of six points, and had REALLY been playing well.  I still think Georgetown will end up having a big year, and that this will be a hugely important win for Monmouth.  On another note, I like seeing people complain about Monmouth’s bench after each big win.  Anyone who is annoyed by kids in their late teens and early twenties that they don’t even know just because those kids are having a good time deserves to be annoyed.  I’m glad they’re annoyed!  I hope they continue to be annoyed!

Speaking of Monmouth…

For Jon Teitel’s most recent interview with Monmouth Legend Ron Kornegay – CLICK HERE

-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day between Alabama A&M and Western Kentucky – CLICK HERE

-We had some technical difficulties creating the mp3 audio file for our most recent Hoops HD Report.  We have it sorted out now, though.  If you haven’t seen it yet, CLICK HERE TO WATCH AND/OR LISTEN

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-HIGH POINT AT NC STATE.  This is a buy game, and it’s between two teams that may not be anywhere close to the bubble, but we highlight it because High Point is off to a very good 8-2 starts and has looked like one of the better teams in the Big South, and NC State has played at least decently well since dropping their opener to William & Mary.  We also highlight it because there is so little else to highlight.

-OLD DOMINION AT RICHMOND.  This is an old Colonial rivalry.  Richmond has been somewhat disappointing, but they are at least hovering around the bubble right now.  Old Dominion has been one of the more disappointing teams in the country this year.

-SOUTH DAKOTA STATE AT TEXAS TECH.  Both teams come into this with just one loss, and although both are flying way under the national radar right now, I’m not ready to rule out the possibility that neither will end up having a big year.

-LITTLE ROCK AT CENTRAL ARKANSAS.  A win for Little Rock keeps them unbeaten and keeps a pretty healthy profile in tact.

-MISSISSIPPI STATE AT FLORIDA STATE.  Florida State doesn’t have a ton of meet on their profile yet, but they are playing better and are good enough to get some big wins once they start to get the opportunities.

-WINTHROP AT ALABAMA.  Both teams come in at 6-2, and Alabama has had some pretty impressive wins despite having to overcome injuries and a somewhat sluggish start to the year.

-NEW MEXICO STATE AT NEW MEXICO.  This is the second leg of this rivalry, and it’s kind of a game New Mexico needs to win if they want to keep from drowning.

-ARIZONA STATE AT UNLV.  Both teams have looked better than we expected this year, but both also still have work to do, so this game is a big opportunity for both teams.

–

 

BUY GAMES

-Tulane @ North Carolina
-Kennesaw State @ Louisville
-Savannah State @ Utah
-NC Central @ Houston
-Hardin-Simmons (nondiv1) @ Baylor
-Northern Arizona @ Arizona
-Southern Utah @ Saint Mary’s

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