Under the Radar Game of the Day – Saturday, January 10, 2015: North Florida at Jacksonville

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Chad

North Florida at Jacksonville, 3:00 PM Eastern, espn3

First, congratulations to the NJIT Highlanders for our adopted team’s huge home win over Yale last night, with yours truly there to root our team on!  I know that Yale played most of the game without their top scorer, Justin Sears, and just wanted to assure everyone that I personally had nothing to do with his tooth getting knocked out early in the game.  I also wanted to give a shout out to Ky Howard for NJIT.  While he may not have the best stats at the end of the games, it was clear that the Highlanders are a vastly better team with him on the floor.  Ky literally through himself around the floor and was the spark the team needed every time a big run happened.

For today’s game, the UTR focuses in on what is (with all apologies to Stetson and Florida Gulf Coast fans) the best rivalry in the Atlantic Sun, the River City Rumble between North Florida and Jacksonville.  Round One this year takes place on Jacksonville’s home floor.  The Dolphins enter tonight’s game at 6-11 on the season while the Ospreys are 8-9.  This is the first conference game for both teams.  UNF clearly had the better non-conference season of the two, most notably scoring a 73-70 upset road win over Purdue.  While USC-Upstate and FGCU are the two clear favorites in the A-Sun this season, it would not surprise us at all if North Florida was able to hang right there with those two all season long.  In order to do that, they need to start with a win over their biggest rival this afternoon.  We would also like to point out that this is the first day of Jacksonville using its new mobile streaming that will be bringing espn3 webcasts of virtually all sporting events at the university.

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Bracket Rundown: January 8th

Posted on January 9, 2015 by David Griggs

Tonight, Chad and David run through all the teams that are inside the bubble of the most recent Hoops HD Bracket Projection, and spend some time talking about the teams on, inside, outside, and around the bubble.  They also go over the bracketing rules and procedures, and discover that they had inadvertently broken a few of them when they initially put it together, so for those of you who love blooper reels, you’ll love this!!

 

LINKS

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

To view the final bracket – CLICK HERE

For our latest Under the Radar Podcast – CLICK HERE

And for all you radio lovers, there is an audio only version of the show posted below….

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Under the Radar Game of the Day – Friday, January 9, 2015: Yale at NJIT

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Chad

Yale at NJIT, 7:00 PM Eastern, No TV

With only four games on the entire Division I schedule tonight, there was not much to choose from for the UTR Game of the Day.  Therefore, we have decided to literally go to Newark, New Jersey for our adopted team, NJIT’s, home game against Yale.  Unlike so many out there these days, I am using the word “literally” in its..um..literal meaning.  Yours truly will be in attendance tonight to root on our team as the Ivy League’s Yale Bulldogs come to town.

Yale enters today’s game at 10-5 on the season and in the top 100 in RPI, BPI and KenPom ratings.  They have already scored road wins over Bryant and Sacred Heart (both of whom could contend in the Northeast Conference), Vermont (who rarely loses at home), and one of the better teams in one of the top Under The Radar conferences, Connecticut.  They also played very well at Vanderbilt, losing in double overtime last time out.  The Bulldogs will be looking to bounce back from that loss and pick up a victory in their final non-conference test tonight.  (Yale does have one more non-conference game left, but it is against non-D1 Daniel Webster and unless they decide to have a spelling bee instead of a basketball game, it should not be a real test).

Our NJIT Highlanders, the adopted team of HOOPS HD this season, enter tonight’s game at 8-9, with a chance to reach (for now at least) that magical .500 mark tonight.  With the win at Michigan already in the books, it is our firm belief here that as long as the Highlanders finish .500 or better on the season, the CIT should come calling.  Given that 8 of their remaining 12 games are all at home, with four of those coming against non-D1 competition, NJIT has a great chance to get that first ever postseason invite.  A win tonight over Yale will put them well on their way there.

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Highlighted Games for Thursday, Jan 8th

Posted on January 8, 2015 by David Griggs

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

For our latest Under the Radar Video Podcast – CLICK HERE

 

TONIGHT’S HIGHLIGHTED ACTION

-OLD DOMINION AT MARSHALL (Conference USA).  ODU is in to the rankings, and no one else in the league appears to be as good as they are.

-DAYTON AT SAINT BONAVENTURE (Atlantic Ten).  Dayton has had some really bad luck which has depleted their roster, but you’d never know it by watching them play or by looking at their record.  They’re going for their fifth straight win tonight against a Saint Bona team that’s pretty good at home.

-MICHIGAN STATE AT IOWA (Big Ten).  Iowa has been good but still has room for improvement.  Michigan State really needs a road win like this because they are looking very bubblish right now, if they’re even that good.

-LSU AT MISSOURI (SEC).  LSU has been somewhat surprising.  They have just two losses and are building a solid resume.

-SAN FRANCISCO AT GONZAGA (West Coast).  This is a conference game that could end up looking very much like a buy game.

-MEMPHIS AT SMU (American).  Both teams appear to be on the outside looking in, and need to win games like this if they want any chance of making it to the inside.

-LOUISIANA TECH AT UTEP (Conference USA).  Again, both teams appear to be on the outside looking in, particularly Louisiana Tech who has been disappointing this year, but both are capable of playing really well and being a dangerous team.  UTEP could still land inside the bubble, but they have a very small margin for error.

-STANFORD AT UCLA (Pac Twelve).  UCLA keeps backtracking.  This is a conference road game that Stanford should be able to win.

-RUTGERS AT NEBRASKA (Big Ten).  It pains me to say this, but the only reason I mention this game is to mention that it is not worth mentioning.

-ARIZONA AT OREGON (Pac Twelve).  This will be a really tough road win for Arizona to win.  Oregon has looked like they could be a tournament team, and they’re not going to be easy to beat at home in a showcase game.

-PEPPERDINE AT BYU (West Coast).  BYU is good, but their current margin for error is very very very small.

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Under the Radar Game of the Day for Thursday, January 8, 2015: Hofstra at College of Charleston

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Chad

Check out our latest Under the Radar podcast: CLICK HERE

Hofstra at College of Charleston, 7:30 PM Eastern, Local TV in Charleston, free streaming at caa.tv

The UTR Game of the Day heads to beautiful Charleston, South Carolina tonight for a Colonial Athletic Association matchup between the College of Charleston Cougars and the visiting Hofstra Pride.  College of Charleston, once a dominant force in the Southern Conference, has followed up a 14-18 initial campaign through the CAA last season with a 5-10 start to this year.  The Cougars were the focus of some ugly offseason news where a scandal led to the firing of head coach Doug Wojick and the hiring of Earl Grant late in the offseason.  Despite treading water early, starting the year 5-4, the Cougars are now on a six game losing streak including having dropped their first two conference games of the year.  All indications so far are that this will be a long season as Coach Grant attempts to rebuild the program.  A win tonight, however, could start to turn things around.

Heading into the season, the CAA appeared to us to be a two team race between Northeastern and William & Mary.  While the early non-conference season seemed to confirm that, Hoftsra slowly flew in not only under the national radar but even (one could say) under the “Under the Radar” crew’s radar.  However, we have now noticed the Pride and are definitely aware that we have a three team race in the CAA.  The Pride enter tonight’s game at 111-4 overall and 2-0 in early CAA play.  They have the highest BPI (74) and KenPom (83) ratings in the conference.  While none of the Pride’s wins have been exceptionally noteworthy (a home win over Stony Brook may be the best of the lot), the Pride have certainly learned how to win games and have momentum as we move deeper into the conference season.  With the entire CAA being down a bit this year (David and I discussed Delaware’s almost amazing fall from grace during this week’s podcast, below), this could be the perfect chance for the Pride to sneak in and steal the conference title.  Of course, to do so, the Pride must win conference games on the road — which is exactly their challenge tonight.

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Under the Radar: January 7th

Posted on January 8, 2015 by David Griggs

After a hiatus for Christmas (allegedly), and another for New Year’s (also allegedly), Chad and David are back for the first Under the Radar edition of conference play.  On this episode they run through all 23 of the non-power leagues, and talk about which teams have looked the best so far.  They also reveal this week’s edition of their UTR Top Ten, and preview the upcoming games.

 

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

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