Under the Radar Game of the Day – Friday, January 16, 2015: St. Francis (Brooklyn) at Robert Morris

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Chad

For our latest Bracket Rundown, CLICK HERE.

St. Francis College (Brooklyn) at Robert Morris, 9:00 PM Eastern, ESPNU

The UTR Game of the Day heads to Western Pennsylvania tonight as two of the four teams currently battling for first place in the Northeast Conference matchup in a nationally televised game.  The Terriers from Brooklyn’s St. Francis College enter tonight’s contest at 3-1 in NEC play and 9-8 overall.  Their KenPom rating of 157 is best in the Northeast Conference, though their most notable win was probably only a road win at Monmouth.  The Terriers are led offensively by Jalen Cannon, who has scored 19 points in each of his team’s last two games while pulling down 9 and 11 rebounds respectively.  He is a legitimate double-double threat every time out and may need to get there tonight for his team to win.

Robert Morris enters tonight’s game at 3-1 in conference and 7-9 overall.  The Colonials are coming off back-to-back road wins in conference play, at Wagner and at Central Connecticut.  Marquise Reed has been playing exceptionally well for them recently, including a 22 point effort against St. Francis (PA).  Also keep an eye on one of our favorite players (due to his name), Lucky Jones.  Lucky has scored 18 points in each of the last two games.  If both he and Marquise can put together solid games, the Colonials could take a step towards the top of the standings tonight.

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Bracket Rundown: January 15th

Posted on January 16, 2015 by David Griggs

Chad and David are joined by John Stalica as they run down the latest NCAA Tournament Seed List, and banter about who looks good and who still has work to do.  This was recorded on Thursday evening around 9pm, est, so some of the later games were not factored in.

 

To view the Bracket – CLICK HERE

 

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

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Highlighted Games For Thursday, Jan 15th

Posted on January 15, 2015 by David Griggs

-For our latest Under the Radar Podcast – CLICK HERE

-For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day, which is a surprising selection, and an explanation as to why it’s NOT Belmont v Murray State – CLICK HERE

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-WOFFORD AT THE CITADEL (SoCon).  It’s an outside shot, but if Wofford wins out they may be on the bubble.

-CINCINNATI AT MEMPHIS (American).  Cincinnati has some work to do, and Memphis has more than just some work to do.

-RICE AT OLD DOMINION (Conference USA).  ODU is coming off a loss, but should be able to rebound at home against a weak Rice team.

-AUBURN AT FLORIDA (SEC).  Florida needs to go on a run just to get back onto the bubble.

-GREEN BAY AT OAKLAND (Horizon League).  We say the same thing every game.  If Green Bay wins out, they’re in regardless of the conference tournament.

-UAB AT LOUISIANA TECH (Conference USA).  We believe if LA Tech wins out, they may be in the discussion, but their margin for error is at best minimal, and has perhaps already passed.

-NEBRASKA AT WISCONSIN (Big Ten).  Nebraska has not looked like an NCAA Tournament team at any point this season.  Wisky, on the other hand, has looked like a #1 seed for most of the season.

-COLORADO AT ARIZONA (Pac Twelve).  Arizona is one of the country’s elite teams this year who could still end up as high as the #1 line, and Colorado has been one of the more disappointing teams this year that doesn’t appear to be anywhere close to the field.

-OREGON STATE AT WSHINGTON (Pac Twelve).  With both teams coming in at 11-4 and Oregon State coming off the big win against Arizona, I’m going to be willing to entertain the idea that they’re a potential tournament team if they can pull this one off on the road.

-UTAH AT ARIZONA STATE (Pac Twelve).  Utah is playing like a top ten team and shouldn’t have too much trouble picking up this road win.

-GONZAGA AT PEPPERDINE (West Coast).  I think Gonzaga is a #1 seed caliber team.  Now having said that, this is one of their tougher remaining games.  Now having said THAT, they’re still undermatched.

-BYU AT PACIFIC (West Coast).  BYU is running out of strikes.

-SAN DIEGO AT SAINT MARY’S (West Coast).  At 13-3 with several opportunities at notable wins, SMC has our attention.

-OREGON AT WASHINGTON STATE (Pac Twelve).  Oregon has a lot of work to do and cannot lose to an improving, but still not good, Wazzu team.

 

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Under the Radar Game of the Day – Thursday, January 15, 2015 – Louisiana-Lafayette at Georgia Southern

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Chad

For our latest Under the Radar podcast, CLICK HERE.

Louisiana-Lafayette at Georgia Southern, 7:30 PM Eastern, No TV

Looking at this evening’s schedule, the UTR Game of the Day pick at first seemed obvious.  Arguably the two best teams in the OVC are playing each other at 9:00 PM on ESPNU as Belmont travels to Murray State.  However, looking closer at the standings, both of those teams are only in second place in their respective divisions.  The two division leaders, Eastern Kentucky and Eastern Illinois, are also playing tonight (7:30 PM Eastern, live streaming at ovcsports.com).  However, instead of either of those games, we have chosen to send our UTR crew to Statesboro, Georgia, to take a look at an UTR team that even the UTR guys have ignored so far this year — the Georgia Southern Eagles.

The 11 team Sun Belt Conference runs a full double round-robin schedule, meaning that each teams gets a home-and-home with every other team in the conference.  While this is, in our opinion, the best way to produce a true regular season champion, it does have a significant disadvantage for a league with more than 10 teams in it.  The SBC conference season is 20 games long, resulting in two fewer chances for a non-conference game.  Georgia Southern made matters even worse this year by scheduling three of their nine non-conference games against non-D1 competition.  In other words, prior to conference play, we only had six games to evaluate the Eagles with.  They went 4-2 in those games, with close losses at Illinois and at UCF, and the best win coming at South Florida.  The Eagles at currently 10-3 overall after sweeping their non-D1 games and starting 3-1 in league play, the loss coming by one point at Texas-Arlington.  The start is good enough to have Georgia Southern sitting at second place in the conference and to hold a 130 RPI, second best in the league.  It is also good enough to have them on our radar.

Tonight, Georgia Southern welcomes in the best team so far in conference play, and we are not talking about Georgia State.  With the preseason favorites appearing to be imploding in early Sun Belt play, the defending conference tournament champions from Louisiana-Lafayette are 4-0 and in first place (10-5 overall).  The Ragin’ Cajuns are coming off of a home win over Georgia State and also have a home win over one of the top teams in Conference USA, Louisiana Tech, to their credit.  If they can pick up the road victory in Statesboro tonight, Louisiana-Lafayette will have asserted itself as the early favorite to take the regular season crown, something we did not think possible about a month and a half ago when Georgia State was blowing out Green Bay and taking Old Dominion to overtime on the road.  With the conference tournament being held practically in Lafayette’s backyard in New Orleans, and the top two teams in the Sun Belt tournament receiving byes into the semifinals, the Ragin’ Cajuns appear to be well on their way to setting themselves up for another shot at the NCAA tournament.

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Under the Radar: January 15th

Posted on January 15, 2015 by David Griggs

On this week’s episode, Chad and David take a quick look back at the notable action in the power conferences over the weekend, as well as discuss the upcoming legislation that is expected to pass this week in regards to the cost of living stipends, and how that could impact the non-power conferences.  Then, they go through each of the UTR conferences and discuss who the frontrunners in each league are.  After that, it is their latest version of the UTR Top Ten, and a look ahead to this week’s upcoming action.

 

And for all you radio fans out there, below is an mp3 version of the show…

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Under the Radar Game of the Day – Wednesday, January 14: Hofstra at Northeastern

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Chad

For today’s Highlighted Game, CLICK HERE.

Hofstra at Northeastern, 7:00 PM Eastern, free streaming at caa.tv

While the biggest game in Boston tonight features the Harvard Crimson taking on the Boston College Eagles, here at HOOPS HD we will also be paying a lot of attention across town to a key game in the CAA as the Northeastern Huskies host the Hoftsra Pride in a battle of arguably the two best teams in the conference.  Hofstra, as we highlighted a few days ago, has been a surprise this season, having quietly coasted out to a 13-4 record including 4-0 in CAA play and enter tonight’s game ranked 72 by KenPom.  The Pride are led by Juan’ya Green and Ameen Tanksley, both of whom have scored in double digits every game this season.

Northeastern (11-5, 3-1 in CAA) was the early season talk of the CAA, especially after having finished a disappointing 11-21 last season.  The Huskies started the year with a huge win over Florida State (whom at the time we thought to be a good team).  Tonight is only the second home game for the Huskies since December 6, though they have been solid on the road, picking up 9 victories on road and neutral courts so far this season, including a win at Richmond on December 31.  Scott Eatherton is the clear leader for Northeatern, with six double-doubles on the year so far, including a 22 point, 13 rebound effort at James Madison last week.  If the Huskies want to keep pace with Hofstra in the race for the league title, a win tonight at home may be imperative.

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