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Niagara at Monmouth, 7:00 PM Eastern, espn3
With only six games on the Division I slate tonight, choosing the UTR Game of the Day looks fairly simple. A look at the schedule shows that Valparaiso will be at Green Bay in a battle for the top spot in the Horizon League between two teams that may still have at-large big aspirations should they need one. However, instead of heading to Green Bay, we have chosen to go to West Long Branch, New Jersey for the Metro Atlantic contest between Niagara and Monmouth. And by heading to West Long Branch, I mean that literally. In honor of our colleague, Lee Delveccio, and his love of MAAC basketball, I will be in attendance tonight as the Hawks take on the visiting Purple Eagles.
Niagara enters tonight’s game as the second worst team in the MAAC behind only Marist. The Purple Eagles are 3-15 overall on the season, and 2-6 in conference play. They looked like they might be a surprise team back in November when they pulled off an early conference victory at St. Peter’s, but have only picked up a pair of home victories (Albany and Manhattan) since then. Their losses include a home loss to Penn last week and a pair of losses to Siena already as well. Tonight, the Purple Eagles will look to avenge a 66-50 home loss to Monmouth that occurred back on January 4. We will be keeping an eye on Emile Blackmon, who scored 21 points in his team’s last game, and Ramone Snowden, who has hit double-digits in scoring each of his last five times out.
The Hawks have had a better season than Niagara by far, sitting at 10-9 overall and 6-2 in conference play. They are in the middle of a stretch of three games in six days as they won at Penn in a non-conference tilt Wednesday night and will be traveling to Manhattan on Sunday. The Hawks most significant win of the season came back on December 7 when they defeated conference favorite Iona at home. They also played a very strong home game against Rutgers, falling by only one point. A win tonight would improve them to 7-2 in MAAC play and tie the Hawks for first place with Iona. We will be paying particular attention to Deon Jones and Justin Robinson, the top two scoring threats for Monmouth. If they play well there is no reason why the Hawks will not pick up the home victory and keep the pressure on Iona as we move towards the end of January.
Bracket Projections for Friday, Jan 23rd
For a discussion of each team and the seed lines they ended up on, see our latest Bracket Rundown show – CLICK HERE
BRACKET NOTES
– The only seed line swap required was between the last 11 seed (Tennessee) and the top 12 seed (St Mary’s/Washington First Four game). This was done to send the First Four winner to a Friday-Sunday site that did not require them to travel cross-country from Dayton to Seattle.
– The potential Kentucky vs LSU round of 32 game is perfectly permissible as the two teams only play once this season. If they were to meet a second time in the SEC tournament, that potential matchup would no longer be allowed, but for purposes of these brackets we do not assume any conference tournament pairings.
– I got a kick out of VCU’s pod in the West Region, featuring Oklahoma vs Stephen F Austin (a regular season rematch from two years ago won by SFA) and a potential VCU vs SFA round of 32 game (rematch from last year’s tournament also won by SFA). That was purely coincidence, as is the potential Indiana-Notre Dame game in the round of 32. That would be a regular season rematch from this year, but those are not considered by the committee beyond the round 64.
– Teams in the top 4 seed lines are not supposed to be at a home court disadvantage in their round of 64 game. I was slightly concerned that Utah vs Eastern Washington in Portland could be an issue there, but I just don’t think it would be a factor. I do not think Eastern Washington would be placed in Seattle though.
– I have noted previously that, as the bird flies, Pittsburgh is closer to Charlottesville, VA than Charlotte is. However, it is a longer drive to Pittsburgh with no direct highways. I therefore placed Virginia in Charlotte. It will be interesting to see which way the committee goes if the Cavaliers remain on the 1 seed line.