For Chad Sherwood’s UTR Game of the Day: CLICK HERE
-TEMPLE AT CONNECTICUT (American). Temple has been playing really well lately, and has a chance to land inside the bubble. If they can pick up this win on the road it will go a long way toward helping them.
-SAINT JOHN’S AT SETON HALL (Big East). The Johnnies appear to be the better team, but opening league play at Seton Hall, who is unbeaten at home, may not be easy.
-PENN STATE AT WISCONSIN (Big Ten). This is the first real test for Penn State.
-HOUSTON AT MEMPHIS. If Memphis wants any hope at all of making the field they’ll have to absolutely dominate in conference play.
-VANDERBILT AT SAINT LOUIS. Both teams have good records, but neither have any really big wins yet.
-BUTLER AT VILLANOVA (Big East). Butler has been good this year, but this is a huge order opening conference play on the road against a Nova team that looks like they can get a #1 seed.
-MINNESOTA AT PURDUE. Minney is out to an impressive 11-2 start. If they are a legit tournament team this is the kind of road game they need to be able to win.
-GEORGIA AT KANSAS STATE. Georgia is 7-3, but hasn’t done anything too spectacular yet. This is the kind of road game they need to be able to win if they’re a serious contender.
-BROWN AT RHODE ISLAND. A win gets Rhody to 8-3.
-GEORGE MASON AT OKLAHOMA. Oklahoma can improve to a respective 9-3 with a win.
-SOUTH FLORIDA AT SMU (American). Despite being 9-3, SMU’s margin for error is small. One problem is that this is their tenth home game, and they haven’t done much away from home to brag about.
-MARQUETTE AT DEPAUL (Big East). Both these teams have some catching up to do.
-AIR FORCE AT SAN DIEGO STATE (Mountain West). Air Force can be tough to play against, but San Diego State should be able to pick up their conference opener at home.
-INDIANA AT NEBRASKA (Big Ten). Both these teams have been somewhat surprising. Indiana has been better than expected, and Nebraska has been a lot worse. The pressure is really on Nebraska to do well in league play. Otherwise they’ll be on the outside looking in come March.
-CORNELL AT SYRACUSE. This match up has been fun in the past, but it appears to be a huge mismatch this year.
-WICHITA STATE AT DRAKE (Missouri Valley). Wichita will definitely be tested in conference play, but probably not today.
MISSISSIPPI STATE AT IOWA STATE. Buy game.
-CREIGHTON AT PROVIDENCE (Big East). Both teams have played well at times, but both still have work to do.
-BOISE STATE AT COLORADO STATE (Mountain West). This is a great match up between a Boise State team with a 10-3 record who still needs some big wins, and a still unbeaten and now nationally ranked Colorado State team.
-UNLV AT WYOMING (Mountain West). Both teams have good records and UNLV got a big win recently against Arizona, but still doesn’t have a true road win.
-GEORGETOWN AT XAVIER (Big East). Georgetown is in the rankings and has some big wins already. Xavier is unbeaten at home, though, so this should be a really good game.
Bracket Racket: Dec 28th, News, Notes and Highlighted Match-ups
On tonight’s somewhat abbreviated version of the Bracket Racket, Chad and David look back at this past week’s action, particularly, Louisville v Kentucky and how sloppy of a game it was, the tremendous job George Washington did to win the Diamondhead Classic, and how Old Dominion has been overlooked and ignored. They also take a look ahead at this week’s upcoming games. All that, and much more. Also, see the bottom of this post for an mp3 version of the show.
NEWS AND NOTES
-It did not go final until after the recording of the Bracket Racket, but Stony Brook overcame a double digit deficit on the road against Washington, and came back to win 61-57. Washington had just four points in the last eight minutes of the game. It’s a huge win for the Stony Brook program, and it’s the kind of win that helps them avoid the #15 and #16 seeds if they were to make the NCAA Tournament, and give them a slightly more manageable and winnable first round game.
MONDAY’S HIGHLIGHTED ACTION
For CHAD SHERWOOD’S UTR game of the day – CLICK HERE
-TOLEDO AT DUKE. Toledo has a good team, but they’ve been sort of a disappointment this year. If they could pull off the upset tonight it could turn everything around for them. That being said, it’s not likely that they’ll beat one of the two best teams in the country on the road.
-SAN FRANCISCO AT SAINT MARY’S (West Coast). Saint Mary’s has a small margin for error. They need to avoid losses in games like this, and pick up a win or two against the likes of Gonzaga and BYU if they want to land inside the bubble.
-PORTLAND AT BYU (West Coast). Portland has a good record, but needs some notable wins if they want to get the attention of the committee. Winning this one on the road should do it.
-GONZAGA AT SAN DIEGO (West Coast). Gonzaga is coming off a big win at BYU, and shouldn’t have too much trouble picking up a second conference road win.
-UC IRVINE AT OREGON. It’s a buy game, and although this UC Irvine team has somewhat underachieved so far, they’re still really good. Oregon can’t just sleep walk and beat them.
-RICE AT TEXAS. Buy game.
-CLEVELAND STATE AT VCU. Buy game.
-SOUTHERN MISS AT LSU. Buy game. Southern Miss has had some good seasons recently, but they’ve struggled this year.
-TENNESSEE STATE AT TCU. Buy game.
-NORTH TEXAS AT TEXAS TECH. Buy game.
-ARKANSAS PINE BLUFF AT STANFORD. Buy game.
-SOUTHERN AT HAWAI’I. Buy game. Hawaii has been playing really well recently, though and at 10-4 they could be a force in the Big West once league play starts.