Under the Radar: February 25th

Posted on February 26, 2015 by David Griggs

Chad and David are here for the final Under the Radar Video Podcast prior to the start of the conference tournaments.  They discuss how well UTEP and BYU have been playing, and whether or not they have a shot at ending up inside the bubble with a strong finish to the season.  They run through all 23 conferences and look at what is the final week of the season for most of them, and how the upcoming games will impact the make up of the conference tournaments.  All that, and much more…

 

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

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Higlighted Games for Wednesday, Feb 25th

Posted on February 25, 2015 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES:

-We will be recording our Under the Radar Video Podcast tonight, which will likely be the final of the season in its current format.  Next week, we will begin our nightly Championship Week Video Notebooks, so be sure and check us out tonight.

Speaking of Under the Radar, for Chad’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-VIRGINIA AT WAKE FOREST (ACC).  Virginia is battling injuries, and Wake Forest is battling not being good.  Still, it’s never easy to win on the road, even if it’s a weaker team, and it’s even harder to do while injured.

-GEORGE MASON AT DAYTON (Atlantic Ten).  Dayton is coming off a very damaging loss to Duquesne.  If they lose this one it might be a knockout punch.

-DAVIDSON AT RHODE ISLAND (Atlantic Ten).  This is a hugely important game between a Davidson team that’s right on the bubble, and a Rhody team that’s outside the bubble, but will have a chance to play their way in if they can finish really strongly.  Both teams need to come in with a sense of desperation.

-INDIANA AT NORTHWESTERN (Big Ten).  Indiana is in good shape, but could improve their profile with more true road wins, and this is one of their more winnable true road games.

-KENTUCKY AT MISSISSIPPI STATE (SEC).  Kentucky is cruising to the #1 overall seed and isn’t likely to be derailed tonight.

-VCU AT RICHMOND (Atlantic Ten).  This game is always fun.  Richmond upset VCU at VCU earlier this year, albeit VCU was dealing with injuries at the time.  They’re going to be jacked up for this one.  As well as VCU has been playing, this isn’t the easiest game to win.

-WICHITA STATE AT INDIANA STATE (Missouri Valley).  Wichita should win this, but Indiana State is somewhat formidable at home, and Wichita doesn’t want to get caught looking ahead to Saturday.

-UCF AT CINCINNATI (American).  Cincinnati simply cannot afford to lose this one at home.

-TULANE AT TULSA (American).  Tulsa is outside the bubble, but has played well their last couple of games.  A slip up at home to a weak Tulane team may be too much to overcome.

-MARQUETTE AT BUTLER (Big East).  Butler has struggled since losing a key player to injury, but should be able to take care of business at home in this one.

-BAYLOR AT IOWA STATE (Big Twelve).  Both teams could end up as protected seeds, and a strong finish by Iowa State could get them as high as the #2 line.

-EVANSVILLE AT NORTHERN IOWA (Missouri Valley).  Northern Iowa has been really impressive this year, especially at home.  They fell to Evansville earlier in the season, but I don’t see them falling a second time tonight.

-DUKE AT VIRGINIA TECH (ACC).  Duke continues to play like a #1 seed and they should get it if they keep going at the clip they’ve gone at all season long.

-FLORIDA STATE AT MIAMI FL (ACC).  Miami is coming off a very disappointing loss to Louisville, and they need to get over it quick because they’re right on the bubble and can’t afford a loss to a non tournament team at home.

-SAN JOSE STATE AT COLORADO STATE (Missouri Valley).  Colorado State has had a good season, and is hosting one of the weakest teams in the country.  A loss in a game like this could make a good season look really bad in a hurry.

-ILLINOIS AT IOWA (Big Ten).  Both appear to be in the field, but both need some big wins to feel completely safe.  Illinois has been playing better, but a notable road win would really help their profile.  Wins of any kind would help Iowa’s profile as well.

-GEORGIA AT OLE MISS (SEC).  Georgia is right on the bubble, and could use a big road win like this to get them safely inside of it.  Ole Miss has been playing really well.  They haven’t racked up any monster wins, but have a lot of decent ones and can continue to climb up the seed list if they keep it up.

-FRESNO STATE AT WYOMING (Mountain West).  Wyoming is a long shot, but they’re still in the discussion.  They won’t be if they lose this game, though.

-WASHINGTON AT UCLA (Pac Twelve).  Washington is in a bit of a slump.  They are coming off a win over rival Wazzu, but Wazzu isn’t any good and Washington barely beat them.  They’d lost seven straight prior to that.  UCLA is on the bubble and can’t afford a home loss to a team like that.

-OREGON AT CALIFORNIA (Pac Twelve).  Oregon is right on the bubble, but one of the things that’s lousy about their profile is a lack of road wins.  Cal isn’t a tournament team, but any road wins would be really helpful for the Ducks.

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Under the Radar Game of the Day – Wednesday, February 25, 2015: North Florida at Florida Gulf Coast

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Chad

Last night’s UTR Game was postponed until tonight due to a water main break on the Toledo campus.  For a discussion of that game, CLICK HERE.

North Florida at Florida Gulf Coast, 7:00 PM Eastern, espn3

When Dickie V is in the house, you know it is a big game.  Prior to tonight’s UNF-FGCU game, Dick Vitale will be at Alico Arena in Fort Myers, Florida for a book signing, and he has stated that he plans to stay and watch the game as well.  If he does, he is going to see a good one.  First place in the Atlantic Sun, and home court advantage throughout its conference tournament, is at stake tonight as the North Florida Ospreys are in town to take on the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles.  UNF enters the game one game behind FGCU in the league standings with only two games left to play.  With UNF having already won the first head-to-head matchup of these two teams this season, barring a crazy upset over the coming weekend, the winner of today’s game will be the top seed.

North Florida enters play tonight at 10-2 in the A-Sun and 18-11 overall.  Their wins not only include a home win over FGCU back on January 14 but also a huge road upset win at Purdue on December 6.  While North Florida has already guaranteed themselves at least the #2 seed on the A-Sun tournament, winning today’s game and Saturday’s home contest against Stetson will guarantee that if they make it to the conference championship game, it will be played in Jacksonville.  The Ospreys will look for a big effort from Dallas Moore tonight, who led the team to its first victory over Gulf Coast, dropping 27 points on the Eagles while collecting 9 assists as well.

Florida Gulf Coast enters play tonight at 11-1 in conference and 21-7 overall.  Their wins include a victory in Sioux Falls, South Dakota over Summit League co-leader South Dakota State and one in Springfield, Massachusetts over UMass.  The only really bad loss on their profile was a home game against Florida International back in mid-December.  Despite their impressive record, they need a win tonight to clinch the A-Sun regular season championship and avoid having to potentially go on the road for the conference tournament title game.  The Eagles are led by seniors Brett Comer and Bernard Thompson, both of whom many may recall from their Sweet 16 run two years ago.  Both players will need to be on top of their games tonight for the Eagles to avenge their earlier loss at UNF and clinch the regular season title.

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Highlighted Games for Tuesday, Feb 24th

Posted on February 24, 2015 by David Griggs

NEWS, NOTES AND LINKS

-For our latest Bracket Racket Video Podcast – CLICK HERE

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

-An interesting bit of trivia.  Alabama has lost five games by two points or less.  That is remarkably unlucky.  Essentially, they’re outside the bubble now and really aren’t close.  But, they’re ten points away from being very safely inside the bubble and most likely ranked in the Top 25 at 21-6.  They play Angry Frank Martin’s South Carolina Gamecocks tonight in a game we will not be highlighting.

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-TEXAS AT WEST VIRGINIA (Big Twelve).  Texas doesn’t have any bad losses, but they have A LOT of losses.  With this many opportunities at good wins, they eventually have to pick up at least one or two of them.  If they go 7-11 in conference play they’re in trouble.

-PROVIDENCE AT VILLANOVA (Big East).  Nova is contending for a spot on the #1 line, and Providence is a first ballot team that can add to an already very impressive profile.

-WISCONSIN AT MARYLAND (Big Ten).  Wisky is a very good team, but to date they don’t have a high caliber true road win.  That can change tonight.  Maryland had hit a skid, but they appear to have come out of it.  The place should be electric tonight.

-LSU AT AUBURN (SEC).  LSU is not as safe as they’d like to be, and that status will not improve if they fall on the road to a sub-NIT Auburn team.

-NC STATE AT NORTH CAROLINA (ACC).  Duke v UNC has more tradition, but NC State v UNC has more hate.  On top of being a bitter rivalry, this is a hugely important game for both teams on paper as well as off.  UNC is trying to earn a protected seed, and NC State is trying to get themselves safely inside the bubble.  We don’t see enough games like this in college basketball anymore, so I’m going to enjoy this one tonight.

-SYRACUSE AT NOTRE DAME (ACC).  Notre Dame is a very solid protected seed and shouldn’t have too much trouble at home against the Orange.

-BOSTON COLLEGE AT PITTSBURGH (ACC).  Pittsburgh is outside the bubble, but they’ve played their way into the picture.  The last thing they need is a home loss to a weak team.

-TEXAS A&M AT ARKANSAS (SEC).  This is a hugely important game for a TAMU team that’s right on the bubble.  This would be a much needed quality road win that would change the entire complexion of their profile.

-NEW MEXICO AT BOISE STATE (Mountain West).  Boise State is right on the bubble and can’t afford any type of home loss to non tournament teams.

 

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Under the Radar Game of the Day: Tuesday, February 24, 2015: Northern Illinois at Toledo

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Chad

For our latest Bracket Racket podcast, CLICK HERE.

Northern Illinois at Toledo, 7:00 PM Eastern, BCSN-TV/espn3

UPDATE: Due to a water main break, the game has been postponed to Wednesday night, 8:00 PM Eastern.

The Mid-American Conference invites all 12 of its member schools to its conference tournament.  However, the top two seeds get a triple-bye, all the way into the semifinal round.  Seeds 3 and 4 receive a double bye into the quarterfinal round, while the remaining eight teams have to win twice just to make the quarterfinals.  Therefore, order of finish within this conference is as important as any other conference in the country.  Entering play tonight, just four games away from the end of the regular season, six teams are within two games of each other for the top seed in the conference . . . meaning that two of these six teams will have to win five games to capture the automatic bid while two of them would have to win just twice.

One of the three teams tied for first place entering play tonight is the Toledo Rockets.  Toledo sits at 10-4 in conference (tied with Central Michigan and Kent State) and 18-9 overall.  Unfortunately for the Rockets, they are sitting on the wrong side of most tiebreakers at the moment having gotten swept by Kent State and losing their only game so far against CMU (the two teams will play again next week).  The good news is that Toledo gets a pair of home games this week while both CMU and Kent will have to head out on the road.  That makes sweeping this week’s games against Northern Illinois and Ball State imperative for the Rockets.  They will need strong efforts from Julius Brown, J.D. Weatherspoon and Justin Drummond to pick up these wins.

The first team with a shot at knocking off the Rockets this week is the Northern Illinois Huskies.  NIU sits at 4-10 in conference and 10-15 overall, with a strong probability that they will have to go on the road for their first round MAC tournament game (the first round is played at campus sites before all remaining teams head to Cleveland for the rest of the tournament).  NIU is only one win away from its second straight season with more than 10 victories — a major accomplishment given that the Huskies failed to record more than 10 wins in any season between 2007 and 2013.  Unfortunately for the Huskies, one of their top players, Darrell Bowie, has missed 8 games already this season with injuries and is questionable at best to play tonight.  The rest of the team will need to step up if they want to score the upset win in Toledo.

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Bracket Racket: February 23rd

Posted on February 24, 2015 by David Griggs

Chad is joined by David, Joby and John.  The panel runs goes through each of the nine-multi-bid leagues, as well as the teams from outside the major conferences who are inside the bubble.  They talk about, argue about, and banter about where everyone stands in regards to the NCAA Tournament.

 

For all you radio lovers out there, below is an mp3 version of the show….

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