Monday, December 2, 2019

11/24 recap

Paradise Jam:
Nevada 84, Valparaiso 59
Bowling Green 91, Cincinnati 84 (OT) - ok, this is one that made me notice.  Let's start up the dream of a MAC at-large bid again!

Myrtle Beach:
Baylor 87, Villanova 78 - shouldn't be a game that will alter the trajectory of either team significantly....probably just a seed line game
Mississippi St 81, Coastal Carolina - well this tourney didn't do much for anyone's resume after all, IMO.  We know Baylor/Nova will be fine, and everyone else is meh
Ohio 75, Middle Tennessee 63
Tulane 65, Utah 61

MGM Resorts Main Event:
Colorado 56, Wyoming 41
Clemson 62, TCU 60 (OT)

Charleston Classic:
Florida 70, Xavier 65 - there's a quality win.  Just like Nova/Baylor, shouldn't change the trajectory of either team, but it's worth a seed line, sure
UConn 80, Miami 55
Buffalo 75, Missouri 74 - useful for mid-major pecking order determinations.  MVC sucks again
Towson 76, St Joseph's 64

HOF Tip-Off:
Virginia 48, Arizona St 45 - go to hell, Virginia
St John's 78, UMass 63
over in the meh bracket side, Rider beat Vermont.  aw man

Jamaica Classic:
Utah St 68, North Texas 59
LSU 96, Rhode Island 83

Islands of the Bahamas:
George Washington 66, Milwaukee 63
Rice 77, East Carolina 69
Evansville 115, Morgan St 112 (3OT)
Liberty 62, UMKC 49 - Liberty won this tournament.  Neat

Junkanoo Jam:
Indiana St 84, Air Force 74
Duquesne 71, Loyola Marymount 50

Saturday, November 30, 2019

11/23 recap

HOF Tip-Off:
Arizona St 80, St John's 67
Virginia 58, UMass 46

Paradise Jam:
Fordham 70, Grand Canyon 58
Western Kentucky 83, Illinois St 69

Islands of the Bahamas:
Milwaukee 62, Morgan St 57
UMKC 74, East Carolina 68
George Washington 78, Evansville 70
Liberty 71, Rice 59

non-tourney rubble:
@Memphis 87, Ole Miss 86
DePaul 72, @Boston College 67 - everybody panic.  DePaul is 6-0 (with a bunch of empty calorie wins, but still)
SMU 72, @UNLV 68
St Louis 60, Belmont 55 - important win for a StL team that should be an at-large factor

interesting mid-major stuff:
@UCF 72, Charleston 71
@Penn St 58, Yale 56 - Yale showing well in a road game
Penn 81, @Providence 75 - Providence sucks
Boise St 82, @Pacific 76 (3OT)
Texas Southern 98, @Northern Kentucky 96 (2OT)

MAAC/ASun Challenge:
Did you know there was one?  Neat.  Looks like 2 teams from each conference (Iona, Monmouth, Kennesaw St, Stetson) convering on a neutral site.  Nothing of impact happened, but it existed.  Bully to them.

Summit/WAC Challenge:
And there was one of these too!  This is a more traditional home/away setup.
Utah Valley 68, @North Dakota St 62 - that's a good poach for the WAC

11/22 recap

2K Empire Classic:
Duke 81, Georgetown 73 - ho hum for Duke here.  These wins won't move the needle for them
Texas 62, California 45

Myrtle Beach:
Baylor 77, Coastal Carolina 65
Villanova 83, Mississippi St 76 - service holds for the top 2 teams here
Tulane 86, Middle Tennessee 74
Utah 80, Ohio 66

Jamaica Classic:
Utah St 80, LSU 78 - you don't need me to tell you this was more critical for USU given general access to signature win chances
Rhode Island 60, North Texas 47 - if you're wondering, I have to imagine they made the top 2 teams play each other in the semis to guarantee a signature win chance for USU/LSU
we ain't covering the lower half of the tourney here, but UMBC and Nicholls lost, which is weird

Paradise Jam:
Valparaiso 78, Grand Canyon 74
Cincinnati 66, Illinois St 65
Nevada 74, Fordham 60
Bowling Green 77, Western Kentucky 75

Charleston:
Xavier 75, UConn 74 (2OT)
Florida 78, Miami 58
Missouri St 71, St Joseph's 69
Buffalo 76, Towson 73

Islands of the Bahamas:
Liberty 78, Morgan St 48
Rice 75, Milwaukee 69
UMKC 74, George Washington 68
East Carolina 85, Evansville 68

Junkanoo Jam:
Indiana St 72, Loyola Marymount 60
Duquesne 69, Air Force 63

non-tournament games do exist:
@Oregon 78, Houston 66
Wake Forest 82, @Davidson 70
Temple 70, @USC 61 - a quality road win?

Thursday, November 28, 2019

11/21 recap

Tournaments start.

2K Empire Classic:
Duke 87, California 52
Georgetown 82, Texas 66 - I don't know if Georgetown is ready for the bubble this year, but this is a start

Myrtle Beach:
Villanova 98, Middle Tennessee 69
Baylor 76, Ohio 53
Mississippi St 80, Tulane 66
Coastal Carolina 79, Utah 57 - what the hell happened here?  Disaster for Utah who's now trapped on the obviously wrong side of the draw.  I do wonder about these tournaments, if it's worth going to 8 teams instead of 4.  Everyone good is sweating out a quarterfinal

Charleston Classic:
Xavier 73, Towson 51
Miami 74, Missouri St 70
Florida 70, St Joseph's 62
UConn 79, Buffalo 68 - service holds in this tourney, and chances by the boards for good mid-majors

Junkanoo Jam:
Loyola Marymount 78, Air Force 64
Duquesne 74, Indiana St 71



@Arizona St 71, South Dakota St 64
Omaha 85, @Washington St 77 - ok the Pac-12 is starting to slip again
@TCU 59, UC Irvine 58 - wouldn't worry about the closeness of this game
@Notre Dame 64, Toledo 62 (OT) - nor this one
New Mexico 78, @New Mexico St 77
Hofstra 88, @UCLA 78 - ok time to restart the Pac-12 fail tracker

11/20 recap

@Georgia 82, Georgia Tech 78 - if I'm starting here, you know it was a garbage day
James Madison 80, @Old Dominion 78 - surprised by this one
Northern Kentucky 59, @Ball St 57
Belmont 73, @Lipscomb 67
Texas St 64, @UNLV 57
Arkansas St 80, @Colorado St 78
@Boise St 72, BYU 68 (OT)
San Diego St 66, @San Diego 49
St Mary's 68, @Fresno St 58

A weird day of a lot of road mid-major wins.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

11/19 recap

dumb loss of the day:
Boston U 78, @South Carolina 70 - I'm not sure BU was even supposed to be great

@Davidson 91, Nevada 71 - a reminder Nevada is way down this year
Charleston 76, @Marshall 66 - road wins are never trivial
@Murray St 79, Southern Illinois 66

Mid-majors showing well:
@Kansas 75, East Tennessee St 63
@Virginia 61, Vermont 55
@Rhode Island 70, Nicholls 65 - Nicholls seems to be a problem this year.  Stretching URI, LSU, Illinois to the brink and beating Pitt
@Alabama 81, Furman 73
In all these cases, longshot at-large hopes probably disappeared

Mid-majors showing really, really well:
Radford 67, @Northwestern 56

11/18 recap

SMU 59, @Evansville 57 - I hope no one boarded the Evansville bandwagon quickly after the UK game.  That's probably gonna go down at a fluke.  SMU does pick up a useful road win the process though

here's an impossibly dumb upset:
Montana Tech 74, @Montana 72

I'm not seeing much else that matters on this day.  Utah Valley hung with Kentucky for a full game; looks like the WAC should be a solid mid-major conference again.  William & Mary hung in against Oklahoma at Oklahoma.  Nothing else approaching a notable result.