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…..
Loyola (Chicago) at Evansville, 8:00 PM Eastern, FSN-Regional, Fox College Sports Central and espn3
The UTR Game of the Day heads to Evansville, Indiana tonight as the Purple Aces welcomes the Loyola (Chicago) Ramblers in for a Missouri Valley Conference game. Loyola has been one of the most surprising teams in the MVC so far this season. Despite being picked to finish near the bottom of the standings, the Ramblers put together a 10-2 non-conference record which included wins over Texas Tech and Boise State. They have gone 1-1 in MVC play so far as well, with a win over Bradley followed by a loss at Northern Iowa. While the Ramblers would have to come up with several more solid wins without slipping up at all in order to even sniff an at-large bid (and that may not even be enough), they are definitely going to be tough to beat, especially at home, and will be a very difficult out in the MVC tournament in March.
Evansville was a team that we picked to finish near the top of the MVC standings this year and so far they have, more or less, performed as we predicted. Despite losing 19 times last season, the Aces are already 11-3 including wins over Fresno State, Belmont and Northern Iowa in their MVC opener. The bad news for Evansville is that they pretty much gave back all the credit they earned for defeating UNI by losing an overtime game last time out at Indiana State. While the game against the Sycamores was their big MVC in-state rivalry, it was not the type of game a team with tournament hopes can afford to lose. The Purple Aces will have several chances to score key wins, including at least two games with Wichita State, before the season ends, but for now they need to rebound from the Indiana State loss and score a solid home win over a good Ramblers team tonight.
For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-OLE MISS AT KENTUCKY (SEC). With most of the ranked teams out of the way, Kentucky begins the easier portion of their schedule in the SEC.
-ARKANSAS AT GEORGIA (SEC). Arkansas is in the rankings and is having a good year, but they traditionally have not played well on the road, and this Georgia team is unbeaten at home. If Georgia wins, it won’t be an upset.
-EAST CAROLINA AT CINCINNATI (American). Cincinnati does not have a large margin for error due to the lack of quality win opportunities in the AAC.
-WESTERN MICHIGAN AT AKRON (MAC). Both teams are probably outside the bubble, but both come in at 9-4 in what is shaping up to be a very competitive and exciting MAC this year.
-MARQUETTE AT GEORGETOWN (Big East). Both teams need this one, but Marquette needs it a whole lot more.
-MICHIGAN AT PENN STATE (Big Ten). Both teams need this one, but….well….both teams need this one.
-CONNECTICUT AT SOUTH FLORIDA (American). If UConn does not win this game they will need to improve just to get to the level of being in bad shape. In other words, they’ll be in worse than bad shape if they don’t win.
-SAINT LOUIS AT GEORGE WASHINGTON (Atlantic Ten). I really like this GW team. For the second year in a row they’re good, and for the second year in a row no one is really paying attention to them.
-VILLANOVA AT SAINT JOHN’S (Big East). The Johnnies are good, but they face the real possibility of starting off 0-3 in conference play despite being ranked. Nova is still looking to earn a #1 seed.
-OKLAHOMA STATE AT IOWA STATE (Big Twelve). Both teams have looked pretty good. Perhaps Oklahoma State has been a little underappreciated, but if they get a road win like this one that will change.
-OHIO STATE AT MINNESOTA (Big Ten). Both teams are good, but both need to improve their profiles, so there is a sense of urgency to this game despite it being early.
-PROVIDENCE AT BUTLER (Big East). If Providence wants to land safely inside the bubble then this is the kind of game that they’re going to have to win.
-TEXAS A&M AT ALABAMA (SEC). Neither team has done anything spectacular, but both have bloated records so it’s worth paying attention to.
-NEW MEXICO AT SAN DIEGO STATE (Mountain West). This is a down year for the Lobos, but they’re still a respectable 10-4 and San Diego State has shown they are beatable. Both teams need to improve their resumes, and to do that they need to win games like this.
-MORGAN STATE AT SAINT MARY’S. Buy game.
South Carolina Upstate at UMKC, 8:00 PM Eastern, free streaming at wacsports.com
The UTR Game of the Day heads to Kansas City, Missouri tonight for a non-conference matchup between the WAC’s UMKC ‘roos and the A-Sun’s South Carolina Upstate Spartans. With January here, non-conference games are getting sparse, and tonight’s game is the final such tilt for both teams before starting conference play this weekend (with the sole exception of Upstate’s scheduled game against a non-D1 team on February 3).
UMKC enters tonight’s game with a 5-11 record, and only 3 of those wins being against D1 competition. The first of those wins was a huge one though, as the ‘roos won at Mizzou, 69-61, on the season’s opening night back in November. Sophomore Martez Harrison is the player to watch for the ‘roos, having scored in double digits every game so far, including lighting up Indiana State for 34 in one of their other wins.
South Carolina Upstate has been showing that they intend to contend in the Atlantic Sun this season, as they enter tonight’s game with an 11-4 record and (narrowly over Florida Gulf Coast) the best KenPom Rating in the conference. Most notably, the Spartans won at Georgia Tech on December 6. They have also picked up a win over an SEC team, albeit Mississippi State. A pair of seniors are the standout players this season for the Spartans, Ty Greene and Fred Miller. Greene had a great game last time out, scoring 26 against Hampton. He will need to have another strong game tonight for the Spartans if they want to head into conference play coming off of a road victory in Kansas City.
Chad Sherwood built the following bracket….
– This is the bracket through games of Sunday, January 4, 2015. For the most part, this bracket is based on how teams have performed to date. No projections are made as to the outcomes of future games, other than the team that has the best resume to date in each conference is deemed to be the automatic bid winner (even if they do not currently have the best record in the conference). Honestly, I have ever been able to figure out why so-called “Bracketologists” that claim they know everything about college hoops simply choose the first place teams from each conference for the automatic bid winner — are they too lazy to take 2 minutes and figure out which team is in fact the best on the league, and thus the team most likely to receive its automatic bid? With so many conferences having unbalanced league schedules, conference record (especially this early in the season) is an almost a meaningless stat and should never be the criteria for projecting a field.
– The ACC ended up leading the way with 8 bids, followed by the Big 12 with 7 and the Big East with 6.
– Oregon is on the 12 seed line while the NC State/UNLV play-in game is on the 11 line. This was done because of bracketing problems resulting from BYU being in the First Four and the requirement that at least one of the two at-large vs at-large First Four games go to a Friday-Sunday site. Since that couldn’t be the BYU game, and I don’t believe the committee would send a First Four winner all the way out to Seattle, the only choice left was to move them up to the 11 line and drop Oregon down. In addition, NC State got UNLV instead of Xavier due to a shift among the First Four teams because the committee would not repeat the same matchup from last season’s First Four.
– The SEC getting four teams in, all above the First Four, kind of shocked me at first, but Arkansas has a good profile, LSU has a very good win at West Virginia and South Carolina now has a very good neutral court win over Iowa State. None of the these teams has any awful losses on their profiles, which made them better than the rest of the teams being evaluated at the bottom of the field.
– NC State, Xavier, BYU and UNLV were the last four teams in. None of them truly deserve a bid, but again they were better than anyone else for now. UNLV’s resume is particularly weak, but at this point in the season one big win can propel a team into a bracket projection, and they definitely have that with the win over Arizona.
– In no particular order, the next seven teams out were Cincinnati, Georgia Tech, TCU, Providence, Minnesota, UTEP and Georgia. In fact, Providence was the very last team left out, and it was a very close call between the Friars and UNLV.
– As always, I love to see some of the matchups created here purely by application of the bracketing rules. The 8/9 games between Temple-Syracuse and George Washington-Georgetown are particularly appealing. Also, Kentucky and Louisville being the top two seeds in the Midwest Region with a chance to meet again is interesting..though we know how painful those games can be to watch.
Highlighted Games for Wednesday, Jan 7th
NEWS AND NOTES
-Charlotte coach Allen Major is sidelined for health reasons. Our thoughts are with him.
-Ole Miss put on a great performance last night. With the exception of about a thirty second stretch at the end of regulation where they were forced into a turnover, and then took a poor shot when they had time to run a play and win the game at the end of regulation, it was a fantastic effort and performance. They didn’t have a great profile, but that win would have made it worth looking at.
-Conference play is officially in full swing! In addition to Ole Miss v Kentucky, Arkansas won a big and exciting game at Georgia, Providence and Butler put on a show in a back and forth affair, Ohio State got a big and much needed road win at Minnesota, 11-1 Central Michigan got a big road win at Toledo which may put them inside the bubble, George Washington came from behind to beat Saint Louis in an exciting game, and Oklahoma State and Iowa State put on a show. There are more great games tonight
TONIGHT’S HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-NC STATE AT VIRGINIA (ACC). NC State has a decent record, but they haven’t looked all that good. Virginia still appears to be a #1 caliber seeded team.
-PURDUE AT WISCONSIN (ACC). Purdue has won their first two conference games, but they’ve got one of their toughest tests of the season against a #1 seed caliber Wiscy team.
-SETON HALL AT XAVIER (Big East). Seton Hall has been one of the biggest surprises this year, and they are now in the rankings. Xavier has been somewhat disappointing overall, but they’re still very tough to win at home. This would be a huge resume win for Seton Hall, not to mention it would keep them in the rankings and keep them unbeaten in the conference.
-DAVIDSON AT VCU (Atlantic Ten). Everyone knows VCU is good. I’m not so sure people know how good Davidson is. This is the kind of game that can legitimize them as a tournament caliber team.
-TEMPLE AT TULANE (American). Temple has been a surprise team this year. Tulane has been better than expected, but still hasn’t looked as good as a tournament team. Both teams are unbeaten in league play, and Tulane has been tough at home.
-SYRACUSE AT GEORGIA TECH (ACC). Syracuse is struggling, and Georgia Tech has been very tough at home. This is a big game between two teams who need to work on their resumes.
-FLORIDA AT SOUTH CAROLINA (SEC). Speaking of surprises, South Carolina has a good record and is coming off a big win against Iowa State. They look like they can land inside the bubble. Florida needs big wins. This is suddenly a much more important game than we originally thought it would be.
-BRADLEY AT WICHITA STATE (Missouri Valley). This is a conference game that will probably end up looking like a buy game.
-SOUTHERN ILLINOIS AT NORTHERN IOWA (Missouri Valley). See directly above.
-LOYOLA IL AT EVANSVILLE (Missouri Valley). A huge match up between two surprise teams that still look good enough to possibly land inside the bubble. This is also Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day. CLICK HERE FOR MORE.
-DUKE AT WAKE FOREST (ACC). It’s a Tobacco Road conference rivalry. Sort of.
-CLEMSON AT LOUISVILLE (ACC). If you throw out the Big South losses, Clemson has been halfway decent. Not good, but halfway decent. Louisville can still get a #1 seed with a strong showing in league play.
-COLORADO AT UTAH (Pac Twelve). Colorado needs to win an improbable game like this to get their season turned around. Utah is in the top ten, and deservedly so.
-MARYLAND AT ILLINOIS (Big Ten). Illinois isn’t desperate yet, but they’re getting there. Maryland has been a huge surprise this year and has a shot at another notable road win tonight.
-KANSAS AT BAYLOR (Big Twelve). Baylor is having a great year, and they should be jacked up tonight for Kansas.
-TCU AT KANSAS STATE (Big Twelve). I’m still not buying into TCU. This is probably their most winnable conference road game, though.
-WYOMING AT COLORADO STATE (Front Range, Mountain West). This is a huge conference rivalry (and mythical conference rivalry) between two teams that are having big years. Should be fun! I guarantee you the committee will be watching this one.
-NEVADA AT UNLV (Mountain West). These two don’t like each other. UNLV doesn’t have any bad losses, but they don’t have a huge margin for error.
-CALIFORINIA AT USC (Pac Twelve). Cal needs this road win. Or, to put it another way, they cannot afford this road loss.