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For today’s SCGD, we turn to the 12 Noon Eastern game in Kennesaw, Georgia between Warren Wilson and Florida International.  This game is part of the Kennesaw State Tournament, a 5 team round-robin exempt event that has been going on for the past few days.  FIU enters the game with a record of 1-2, having previously defeated Kennesaw State while losing to both Eastern Kentucky and Youngstown State.

Florida International is one of six teams that are ineligible for the NCAA tournament this season due to low APR scores.  The other five are New Orleans, out of the Southland Conference, and four teams from the SWAC: Alabama State, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Grambling State, and Mississippi Valley State.  Despite being ineligible this year, FIU has transitioned from the Sun Belt to Conference USA.  The Golden Panthers have been led so far by senior Rakeem Buckles, who has notched a double-double in each of his first three games, earning Conference USA Players of the Week honors.

Warren Wilson is a small four year school located near Asheville, North Carolina.  They are not an NCAA school, instead belonging to the USCAA, competing in Division II there.  Last season they entered the USCAA national championship tournament as the #9 seed out of 10 teams…and proceeded to win the entire thing, amazingly enough defeating the #10 seed host school Penn State Fayette in the finals.  The Owls are 2-3 so far on the season, having been blown out by Kennesaw State yesterday afternoon, 92-48.  After their game today, they have contests against both Eastern Kentucky and Youngstown State to conclude the tournament.

Welcome to the inaugural Small Conference Game of the Day for the 2013-14 college basketball season.  This is where we highlight teams from conferences outside of the majors, and very often outside even the top mid-majors.  These teams are often unlikely to be playing in the NCAA tournament, but we use this space to highlight their games and discuss them more in depth.

Tonight’s game is a throwback to one of the SCGOD’s favorite conferences, the now defunct Great West.  The GWC played four full seasons as a Division I conference, sending their tournament champion each year to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT).  Utah Valley University hosted the Great West tournament in Orem, Utah during its first two seasons, with Chicago State hosting the final two.  While Utah Valley twice won the regular season championship, they failed to win the conference tournament on any of their four tries.  However, in perhaps the highlight moment for the Great West, UVU earned an at-large bid into the CIT after the 2011-12 season, their lone postseason bid since becoming a member of Division I.

At 9:00PM Eastern tonight, Utah Valley hosts North Carolina A&T out of the MEAC (UVU-TV, free streaming at http://www.uvu.edu/uvutv).  This is UVU’s second game of the season, having beaten IUPUI 74-66 on Friday night, and coming just one day before a trip to Stillwater to take on Oklahoma State.  UVU was led in their first game by Holton Hunsaker, who scored 18 points, and redshirt freshman Zach Nelson, who scored a double-double in his first career game.  North Carolina A&T also won its first game of the season, defeating non-D1 Greensboro College.  Their star player in that game was Richaud Pack, a freshman who dropped 30 points.

While the Great West no longer exists, and the court in Orem, Utah will be proclaiming how UVU is now a member of the WAC, the SCGOD still fondly recalls the four years of its existence.  But, as with all things, time has brought change.  And for the Wolverines of Utah Valley University, they will for the first time ever this season be competing for an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament — and a chance to cut down the nets in the WAC finals this year will be well worth not having done so during their four journeys through the Great West.

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-USC UPSTATE AT VIRGINIA TECH. USC Upstate is one of the better teams in the Atlantic Sun and this is a chance for them to pick up a win against what appears to be a weak Virginia Tech team.

-BALL STATE AT INDIANA STATE. Indiana State may be a fringe tournament team and is worth keeping an eye on.

-MANHATTAN AT LA SALLE. Manhattan is one of the better teams in the Metro Atlantic, and La Salle appears to be a solid at-large caliber team. It would be a statement win for Manhattan if they end up pulling this off.

-NORTHERN IOWA AT OHIO. Both of these teams have potential. A win would be a great way for both teams to start the season.

-TEMPLE AT PENN (Big Five). Big Five action. Neither look to be likely tournament teams, but it’s early and you never know.

-BRYANT AT GONZAGA. This is a buy game, but Bryant does appear to be one of the better teams in the NEC and it’s worth at least pointing that out.

BUY GAMES

-CofC at Louisville. Louisville actually played at CofC last year, but for all practical purposes it’s a buy game.

-IPFW at Dayton.

-Emporia State (nondiv1) at Wichita State.

-Lamar at Butler

-Alabama A&M at New Mexico