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Holy Cross at NJIT, 2:00PM Eastern, No TV

The SCGD is moving off the beaten trail today to turn our attention back to the one team that started the season having already clinched a title.  NJIT has already locked up the best record among all Independents…by virtue of being the lone Division I Independent.  NJIT plays its last home game of the 2013 calendar year tonight when the Highlanders welcome in the Holy Cross Crusaders.

NJIT enters today’s game at 6-6 overall though their best wins to date are a sweep of a home and home with Maine and a win over Lafayette.  After today, 8 of their next 9 will be on the road, with only a home game against CCNY before welcoming in Duquesne on January 29.  This stretch of 10 games will go a long way to determining if the Highlanders can achieve a .500 season.  A .500 record could mean a lot to this program as it could very well bring with it a bid to the CIT tournament (the CIT took a .500 Independent Cal State-Bakersfield team a few years back).  Of course, this time next year NJIT hopes to be preparing for conference play assuming they can obtain membership in the America East, Northeast, Metro Atlantic or the like.

Holy Cross enters today’s game with a 5-5 record, though 3 of those five losses have been to North Carolina, Harvard and Belmont.  The Crusaders are looking to break a two game losing streak today before their last non-conference game next Saturday at Michigan.  Holy Cross has played well enough so far this year that, at least at this point, it appears they will be a factor in the Patriot League title chase along with Bucknell, Boston U, and possibly Lafayette.  Barring a major upset at Michigan next weekend, Holy Cross needs this game to be at .500 heading into league play.

Pacific vs Princeton, 10:30 PM Eastern, No TV, video stream here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/holiday-hoops-classic-2013

The SCGD heads to Las Vegas tonight for the South Point Casino Holiday Hoops Classic.  This two day, four team event’s* marquee matchup comes tonight with a battle of two Tigers – the Princeton Tigers out of the Ivy League and the Pacific tigers out of the West Coast Conference.  This is also a battle of two teams that enter tonight with 8-1 overall records.

Princeton has been a surprise so far this season, having only lost a 3 point game at Butler so far.  They have a road win over Rutgers and an almost unbelievable come-from-behind win last time out at Penn State.  Princeton was down 18 points late in this game and forcing overtime seemed next to impossible even under a minute left, but somehow they did and won it in OT, 81-79.  Harvard still appears to be the best team, on paper at least, in the Ivy League, but Princeton has shown so far that they may challenge the Crimson when we reach conference play.

Pacific has also gotten off to a great start in the first season in the WCC.  They lost 85-62 a few weeks back at Oregon, but that score does not show that Pacific actually had a double digit lead most of the first half of that game before the Ducks just poured it on the second.  The Tigers did score a solid road win two weeks ago against a pretty good Utah State team.  Their two games this weekend in Vegas (tonight and tomorrow night against Bradley) are their final two games before moving into WCC play.  If they can win the title in this event, Gonzaga, BYU and St. Mary’s should at least be put on some notice that the West Coast Conference race this year may be a four way fight and not just a three.

*Technically the South Point Holiday Hoops Classic is a four day event featuring a total of 14 teams, but all other games involve Division II men’s and women’s teams.

This week, we discuss Texas’s big win at North Carolina, and go against the national consensus that it solidified Texas as a good team. We also talk some Big East hoops. The conference has a lot of wins, but they don’t have many good wins, and there is a debate on how many teams from that league we’ll see in the dance this March. We look at UMass, and how they continue to beat good teams away from home, discuss Wichita State’s chances of winning out, and more.

Iona at Dayton, 7:00PM Eastern, NBC Sports Network

The SCGD heads to Dayton, Ohio tonight for a very interesting matchup between Tim Cluess’s Iona Gaels and Archie Miller’s Dayton Flyers.  Iona enters this game with a 5-3 record and coming off a disappointing home loss to St. Bonaventure this past weekend.  However, the Gaels are still the most likely team to contend with Manhattan for the MAAC championship this season, even if not in the at-large bid discussion.  According to KenPom, Iona’s adjusted offensive efficiency rates #34 in the country, easily making them the tops in that department in the MAAC.

The Dayton Flyers, on the other hand, are still attempting to rebound from a loss two games ago at Illinois State.  Before that loss the Flyers had slipped into the Top 25 rankings, on the strength of wins over Georgia Tech, Gonzaga and California.  The Flyers still have four more non-conference games left after tonight, including a home game against USC and a trip to Marshall Henderson country (a/k/a Ole Miss).  If they can run through these last five game before A-10 play without any blemishes, they should be in prime position for an NCAA tournament appearance even if they slip up a few times in what should be a very entertaining A-10 season.  These games are of some extra importance though given that the quirks of the A-10 schedule have the Flyers only playing UMass, George Washington, VCU and St. Louis once each — a schedule which should let them seriously contend for the regular season title but also will not give them as much of a boost in ratings such as RPI, BPI and KenPom as some of the other teams in the conference will get.

On this episode, we talk about how Saint Mary’s is a sleeping giant that can not only play their way inside the bubble, but play their way into the Top 25 with a strong showing in the upcoming Diamondhead Classic. We also focus on UC Santa Barbara and discuss the possibilities of them getting an at-large if they absolutely dominate the Big West.

We look at Conference USA and how there are three or four decent teams in it with UAB, Louisiana Tech, and Southern Miss, but then point out how the 16 team format does the league no favors because the good teams only get to play each other once, which it harder to build their profile.

All that, and more!

Welcome to another edition of the SCGD!  There are days when yours truly has to pull and scratch and dig to find a game to feature in this column  Days when I have to sit there and pour over teams to find anything of note to discuss about them.  Days when I almost (or sometimes do, though more likely that is because my day job intervened) give up and just say we will not have an SCGD.  Then there are days like today — days when there are so many games to look at that I don’t know who to feature.  Instead of making a choice today, I decided to just list them all!

Drexel at St. Joseph’s, 7:00 PM Eastern (Comcast Network Philadelphia/SNY):  Drexel is the “sixth” member of the Philadelphia Big 5 — while they are located in Philly with Villanova, Temple, Penn, La Salle and St. Joe’s, they are not historically a true part of this rivalry and very rarely have a regular season game against all five other members.  However, so far this year they have been the second best team in Philadelphia, behind Villanova, and can continue to build their resume with a win tonight.

Massachusetts at Ohio, 7:00 PM (no TV): UMass is a top 25 team and one of 13 remaining unbeatens.  They have a legitimate road test tonight at Ohio U, a team off to a solid 7-02 start even though they have no true wins of note so far.

Winthrop at North Carolina Central, 7:00 PM (no TV): We always enjoy a game between the top teams in two conferences and that is what this game presents.  Winthrop appears to be one of a few teams with a shot at winning the Big South while NC Central has already scored a road win at NC State and should be at the top of the MEAC standings all season.

Indiana State at St. Louis, 8:00 PM (FSN Midwest/Fox College Sports): Saint Louis has quietly put together a solid record and should be a contender in the A-10 all season long.  Indiana State made some noise with a win earlier this season at Notre Dame, but may have given all that goodwill back with a loss to a bad Tulsa team.  A win tonight should get them back into the MVC at-large picture though.

Southern Miss at Western Kentucky, 8:00 PM (HSSN/espn3): Southern Miss can continue to build their resume that only has a single loss at Louisville on it to date (albeit a complete blowout loss).  The best thing that can be said about WKU so far is that they did not get beaten as badly by Louisville, though it was still pretty much a blowout.

Open Bible at Abilene Christian, 7:00 PM (no TV): This final game may be a shock to be appearing with the rest, but if a choice had to be made, the SCGD may very well have selected this one.  There are times during a season that a team plays 3 games in 3 days — normally it is during an in-season tournament like the Maui Invitational or in conference tournament play.  Open Bible, a startup athletic program, is playing 3 games in 3 days this week against transitional D1 schools.  They played at Incarnate Word Monday and Tuesday, losing both games handily, and today travel to Abilene Christian for their third straight game.  Abilene is playing its second game in 2 days as well, having beaten Bacone last night.  Both Incarante Word and Abilene Christian are in their first year of transition from D2 to D1 this season.