Week #3 - Games of Interest

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 9 years ago

Week #3 of this young season begins. New polls reflecting the first full week of the season came out today and as no surprise Nebraska dropped out of the Top 25 as a result of the Cornhuskers loss to .

In the AP top 25, URI got 16 votes, Dayton got 3. VCU continues to be the cream of the A-10 with a #14 ranking. Kansas is now at #11.
In the USA Today Coaches poll, VCU ranked #14. With GW getting three votes and URI two. Kansas at #12.

Monday action in the A-10:

The only A-10 game is without a doubt a big one as #14 VCU takes on Big East power, #12 Villanova, in the Progressive Legends Classic Championship Round at the Barclay Center. 7 PM. On ESPN2.

In games involving URI OOC opponents:

In two non-bracketed games of the Orlando Classic:

#11/12Kansas hosts Rider at 8 PM. On ESPN2.
Santa Clara at Michigan State. At 7 PM. On BTN.

In the Progressive Legends Classic Sub Regional at Toledo, Detroit vs. Maryland- Eastern Shore.

Brown at Illinois. At 8 PM.

PeterRamTime · Unread post by **PeterRamTime** » 9 years ago

Now we can maybe see what Kansas looks like when they're not being assaulted by an army of 6-10 NBA guys.

adam914 · Unread post by **adam914** » 9 years ago

That VCU/Villanova game today should be a good one. Looking forward to watching that one.

bressler3south · Unread post by **bressler3south** » 9 years ago

adam914 wrote:That VCU/Villanova game today should be a good one. Looking forward to watching that one.

Well, Villanova is out-VCUing-VCU, having run off like 15 straight points. VCU's point guard play looks putrid.

BleedBlue87 · Unread post by **BleedBlue87** » 9 years ago

Alexander is dominating early on in this Kansas game.

BPR2010 · Unread post by **BPR2010** » 9 years ago

Tonight showed that if you can handle the Havoc and force VCU into a half court game, they simply aren't that scary as an opponent. Arcidiacano had a 9/0 Assist/TO ratio tonight. Against VCU, might as well be 15 assists. They swing momentum with the press and a couple turnovers. If you have a PG and backcourt that can handle that, you have a VERY good shot at beating them. Nova absolutely handed it to them in the 2nd half tonight.

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 9 years ago

77-53 whipping by Nova. The game was close through the first half with VCU taking a small lead in the first two minutes of the second when it all fell apart keyed by turnovers on three straight possessions and Villanova responding by hitting three buckets including two threes. VCU couldn't buy a basket after that. VCU didn't make a three in the second half while Villanova had five.

bigappleram · Unread post by **bigappleram** » 9 years ago

clinical beatdown by Nova, strong guard play and great team offense. i will say this about VCU, and felt the same last year, unless you play out of control they are very beatable. as alluded to, strong guard play diffuses half of their offense. Weber is a nice player and an elite defender, but he is not a dynamic offensive player. Graham was awful tonight and if/when that happens they are in trouble. they are very young, like us.

rodfromcranston · Unread post by **rodfromcranston** » 9 years ago

If VCU is the best team in the A-10, we'll get two bids this year.
They just imploded after getting a six opoint lead early in the
second half.
Embarasment for the league.

Unread post by **ATPTourFan** » 9 years ago

And they likely won't be ranked when they arrive in Kingston next January.

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 9 years ago

In games involving URI OOC opponents:

In two non-bracketed games of the Orlando Classic:

#11/12 Kansas blasted Rider, 87-60. Kansas had a great shooting night in direct contrast to their first two games. The Jayhawks had its way on the glass with many easy second chance points.

Michigan State had no trouble with Santa Clara, 79-52. SC scored only 14 points in the first half and was held to 29% FG for the entire game.

In the Progressive Legends Classic Sub Regional at Toledo, Detroit beat Maryland- Eastern Shore, 69-55. After a close first half which ended with UMES clinging to a 2 point lead, UMES in the second stanza built the lead to eight points before Detroit got into higher gear and tied the game at the 7+ minute mark and took it over to the final buzzer. This is the same UMES team that lost to VCU by 40.

A surprisingly close first half ended with Brown holding a four point lead over Illinois. Brown actually increased the lead to six in the opening minute of the second half and at that point, Illinois went on a 16-0 run to put the game away. Final 89-68.

Sweep The Leg · Unread post by **Sweep The Leg** » 9 years ago

Havoc definitely has masked some of VCU's flaws the past now 2 years. Without a solid perimeter threat, hell, even a mid-range threat, they look very average. When Daniels was there, they were very difficult to defend. Now they drive the lane out of control and brick anything short of 10ft.

If you have two very good ball-handlers on the floor at the same time you can beat their press, I'd be more comfortable with three guys who can dribble with confidence and a purpose. But, that's just me. This is a game where I'm scared to see Biggie or Jarrell get quality minutes because they are turnover prone. Maybe a six man rotation, barring injuries and fouls, of TJ, Jarvis, JT, EC, Gil and Hassan for as long as you can in this matchup.

PeterRamTime · Unread post by **PeterRamTime** » 9 years ago

Yeah I don't find Traveon Graham that great either.
I agree with what you say Sweep, they don't have the perimeter threat they used to. During their final four run they would implement that havoc and just nail a ton of threes in transition and blow the doors off of people. Melvin Johnson is a good shooter, but other than that they're lacking. Seems like they pack a lot of poise at times too. They got beat down by Villanova the same way that Michigan did a couple years ago, just got demoralized easily. Sill expect great things from them though.

rodfromcranston · Unread post by **rodfromcranston** » 9 years ago

It all boils down to their half court offense.
When they can't disrupt the opponent and are forced into half court, as they did against
Stephen Austin in the NCAAs, they fold.
They just melted away tonight. Very unimpressive for the flagship
program of the A-10.

Seawrightspostgame · Unread post by **Seawrightspostgame** » 9 years ago

I think Graham was the biggest factor in losing that game.

They were up and kinda imposing their will inside with cox.

Graham came in and they tried to play off him being their leader instead of the hot guys on the floor.

I also think the refs were bad in that they allowed Nova to arm check VCU's ball handlers, but they called fouls on VCU on the other side.

One moment stuck out where they called a charge on Graham in the first half where his defender had two hands on him and he ran into another guy.

rodfromcranston · Unread post by **rodfromcranston** » 9 years ago

Were they the same refs as we had at the Nebraska game?

PeterRamTime · Unread post by **PeterRamTime** » 9 years ago

Marquette is not looking too hot this year.
They lost to Nebraska-Omaha and narrowly beat NJIT 62-57, so if we are to lose to Kansas, it's likely we would be facing Marquette in our third game in Orlando. Georgia Tech is playing pretty well. That said, if we don't beat Kansas ,we may end up coming out of Orlando without any quality wins, which would be ehhh. Buuut 5-1 would still be pretty nice.

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 9 years ago

Tuesday action in the A-10:

#15 VCU plays Oregon in the consolation game in the Progressive Legends Classic. 7:30 PM. On ESPNU.

Jackson State at St. Bonaventure. 7 PM.

St. Francis (NY) at La Salle. 7 PM.

LIU Brooklyn at Saint Joseph’s. 7 PM.

Saint Louis vs. North Carolina A&T in the Corpus Christi Coastal Classic. 8 PM. Weak tournament field should be no problem for even a depleted SLU.

In games involving URI OOC opponents:

In the Progressive Legends Classic Sub Regional at Toledo, Detroit plays host Toledo. 7 PM.

Nebraska tries to rebound from the loss to URI as they host little brother school, Nebraska-Omaha. 8 PM.

D3 Mount Ida at UMass-Lowell.

Troy at Southern Mississippi. 8 PM.

Other games:

#12 Villanova vs. #19 Michigan in the Progressive Legends Championship game at Barclay’s Center. 10 PM. On ESPN2. Michigan had eliminated Oregon, 70-63, to reach the final round.

sf2010 · Unread post by **sf2010** » 9 years ago

Need to see bounce-back games from both VCU and Nebraska. Don't think Big Red will look past N-O, given that they just won at Marquette. VCU needs to show something tonight against a pretty decent Oregon squad led by MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (what an interesting NCAA career he has had...)

sf2010 · Unread post by **sf2010** » 9 years ago

Also, Dillon Brooks averaging 13 and 4.5 for the Ducks so far. I wouldn't necessarily give up any of our frosh for him, but he definitely stood out last recruiting cycle as someone who was going to be very good very quickly.

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 9 years ago

Tuesday action in the A-10:

#15 VCU beats Oregon, 77-63 to take the consolation game in the Progressive Legends Classic.

St. Bonaventure over Jackson State, 79-71.

La Salle in a comfortable win over St. Francis (NY), 73-60.

Saint Joseph’s edged LIU Brooklyn, 74-70 in OT. St. Joe’s led by a small margin throughout game, but LIU finally tied the game with 2 minutes left and took a 3 point lead with 10 tics left when SJU’s James Demery hit a trey with 3 seconds left to send the game into OT.

Saint Louis trailing most of the game rallies to beat North Carolina A&T, 57-54, in the Corpus Christi Coastal Classic.

A-10 5-0 for the night.

In games involving URI OOC opponents:

Detroit beats host Toledo, 82-79.

Down 23-7 in the first five minutes of game, Nebraska rallies to beat in-state rival, Nebraska-Omaha, 80-67.

UMass-Lowell routs Mt Ida, 102-57.

Southern Mississippi rallies to edge Troy, 72-70.

Other games:

In a big surprise winless St. Peter’s routs Rutgers, 68-50.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 9 years ago

The A10 might have gone 5-0 for the night, but looking at those scores, except for VCU the rest struggled against some pretty weak competition.

The bottom of the league is definitely weaker than last year.

So.Miss doesn't look all that strong either.

I think we have a real chance to come out of the OOC portion of our schedule with a pretty gaudy record.

All depends on how we do in Florida. I would love to go 3-0, but with our youth I'll be happy with 2-1.

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 9 years ago

Yes, Rambone that was weak slate last night, a little better in tonight's games.

Wednesday action in the A-10:

Davidson at Central Florida. 7 PM. On ESPN3.

Richmond at NC State. 7 PM. On ESPN3.

Longwood at George Washington. 7 PM.

4-0 Northeastern at UMass as part of the Hall of Fame Tip Off. 7 PM.

In a game involving URI OOC opponents:

Delaware State at Iona. 7 PM.

Ramulous · Unread post by **Ramulous** » 9 years ago

I'm feeling like the A-10 falls back to 2 bids this year.......

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 9 years ago

I'm not quite that pessimistic. I still think we'll get 3-4 bids.

We've got a shot at 3rd-4th. That's what it will take, other than winning the conference tourney.

A few of these teams will improve as the season goes on. Of course we will too.

If I had to guess, which isn't much of a stretch, it's VCU, GW, UMass [possible] and us [possible].

Oops. Left out Dayton. So it's 5 teams for 3-4 berths.

PeterRamTime · Unread post by **PeterRamTime** » 9 years ago

Forget about Kansas! I'm really worried about that Delaware State defense!
http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/gamecast? ... groupId=50

RF1 · Unread post by **RF1** » 9 years ago

Richmond's loss at NC State hurts the Spiders as they have few opportunities for signature wins to really impress in the OOC. They scheduled just TWO games vs the Power-5 leagues or new Catholic Big East. With the loss at NC State, they have just Wake Forest at home left for a high profile win. The Demon Deacons however are not expected to be all that good. Richmond is going to have to rack up a lot of wins in the non-conference to compensate.

Richmond OOC

Radford (Win)
at Old Dominion (Loss)
High Point (Win)
at North Carolina St (Loss)
at Northern Iowa
William & Mary
at James Madison
Howard
South Alabama
vs Pepperdine
IUPUI
Wake Forest
Northeastern

Seawrightspostgame · Unread post by **Seawrightspostgame** » 9 years ago

I think the teams with legit shots at a bid are URI, VCU, Dayton, Umass, GW.... Then you have another tier of UR, Lasalle(next 3 games are big), maybe a SLU, or DUQ.

But def URI, VCU, Dayton, Umass, GW are carrying the A10 flag this year in my opinion.

I understand UR was picked ahead of us but I haven't liked them since we played them at the Ryan last year. If they rolled out Cedrick Lindsay that would be another story.

rodfromcranston · Unread post by **rodfromcranston** » 9 years ago

Hell of a night for the NBE.

Unread post by **ATPTourFan** » 9 years ago

24 of 39 3FG against Delaware State.

RF1 · Unread post by **RF1** » 9 years ago

rodfromcranston wrote:Hell of a night for the NBE.

The New Catholic Big East has a gaudy overall record (38-3) against mostly weak competition. It has however in the last few days buttressed this with several quality wins - PC over FSU & ND, Butler over UNC, Villanova over VCU and Michigan, St. John's over Minnesota, and Georgetown over Florida. The NCBE league is setting itself up in the OOC for a very good RPI which will only help its members when they begin to play one another in conference play. It would seem that its only weak links are Marquette (lost at home to Omaha) and Depaul (lost at home to a winless Lehigh).

Unread post by **ATPTourFan** » 9 years ago

Too bad Fordham and George Mason are so horrible.

rjsuperfly66 · Unread post by **rjsuperfly66** » 9 years ago

The difference so far between this year and last year is that the Big East has sort of succeeding in the way that the A10 did last year ... It's obviously still early but RPI Forecast gives the conference 5 Top 50 teams and 7 Top 75 teams (with SJU just outside).

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 9 years ago

No denying the NBE is off to a terrific start as a conference.

PeterRamTime · Unread post by **PeterRamTime** » 9 years ago

Yeah and it was Marquette who was the only team that has lost last time I checked. It looks like they're gonna pull out a W over Georgia Tech though.

ramster · Unread post by **ramster** » 9 years ago

Marquette with a hard fought win over Georgia Tech after Tech mounted a fierce comeback.
Matt Carlino set the tournament record for most points in a game plus hit 8-14 on 3 pointers and 14-16 free throws - great shooting night for him

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 9 years ago

Back from holiday travels.

A look so far at today's action.

From a local perspective, in addition to the URI win over Santa Clara, 66-44;

Brown defeated winless Prairie View A&M, 81-71 In the Las Vegas Invitational.

PC over Yale, 72-66.

Elsewhere in the A-10:

La Salle vs. #8 Virginia in the Barclay's Center Classic. At 9:30 PM.

Mississippi State vs. Saint Louis in the Corpus Christi Coastal Classic.

Also,

Delaware State at Wake Forest.

UT Martin at Nebraska.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 9 years ago

Georgia Tech is pulling away from Rider, but they were tied 30-30 at the half.

We should beat them by 10 on Sunday night.

Henton is going to have a monster season for PC. If he, Harris, and Dunn stay healthy, they have a shot of making the Dance. They had a couple of injuries today, including Dunn, but not serious I think.

Billyboy78 · Unread post by **Billyboy78** » 9 years ago

rambone 78 wrote:Georgia Tech is pulling away from Rider, but they were tied 30-30 at the half.

We should beat them by 10 on Sunday night.

Henton is going to have a monster season for PC. If he, Harris, and Dunn stay healthy, they have a shot of making the Dance. They had a couple of injuries today, including Dunn, but not serious I think.

Dunn has a badly sprained ankle. He's probably not playing against Kentucky.

ace · Unread post by **ace** » 9 years ago

Strange that Duquesne has only played two games this season, and those were against Bluefield State and Abilene Christian.

This place would be going crazy if those were the only types of games to talk about at this point in the season.

Seawrightspostgame · Unread post by **Seawrightspostgame** » 9 years ago

Yes ACE I am grateful for this tournament giving us so many games.

Crazy how some athletes just always seem to be hurt, all the Dunn talk all summer and I kept saying/thinking he is a guy that has to be on the court to really give him any credit.

Seawrightspostgame · Unread post by **Seawrightspostgame** » 9 years ago

Lasalle, can they pull the upset? Brooklyn mojo.

From ESPN: La Salle has fared well against ranked opponents in recent years, winning three of its last six matchups. The Explorers most recently knocked off No. 12 Kansas State on March 22, 2013.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 9 years ago

If Dunn can't play against Kentucky they are done like dinner. Ha.

Wonder if he'll be 100% by our game? Only 12 days away.

Remember, it took Gil several weeks to get over his sprained ankle a while back. A bad high ankle sprain can be as bad [or worse] than a break.

rodfromcranston · Unread post by **rodfromcranston** » 9 years ago

Delaware State just beat Wake Forest.
Go figure.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 9 years ago

There are some crappy teams in every league, even the P5 bunch.

The A10, I'm afraid, has a couple too many this season, which isn't going to help a team like URI who may or may not be on the bubble come March.

ace · Unread post by **ace** » 9 years ago

Mike Aaman set to play his first game of the season tomorrow against Penn.

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 9 years ago

Nebraska gets by a stubborn UT- Martin team, 75-64.

La Salle down by 37-19 at half to #8 Virginia.

Saint Louis down by 10 to Miss State at the half in the Corpus Christi Coastal Classic.

In other games;

Not a good night for the BE as #23 Creighton upset by Ole Miss, 75-68. and Gonzaga beats St. John's in the NIT Season Tip-Off in MSG. Also, Marquette trailing Michigan State early in second half in Orlando Classic.

bigappleram · Unread post by **bigappleram** » 9 years ago

hate to defend the BE but Creighton is overachieving at this point, so not a huge loss to the BE. They aren't a top 25 team. Gonzaga is among the best teams in the country, that was a good showing for the Johnnies.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 9 years ago

Right now PC is the 2nd best team in the BE behind Villanova, with Georgetown and Butler close behind.

Butler is a surprise. Just like Davidson is so far in our conference. McKillop is a good coach.

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 9 years ago

No question that BE is ahead of the A-10 with some notable wins over top ranked teams, but also remember that any overall record reflects the level of competition and the BE overall SOS in OOC play is much weaker than the A-10 SOS. In looking at the SOS, you also have to consider where the game is played. PC is a good example here because in 13 OOC contests they play 9 at the home court, two at neutral site which is a short drive away and a quasi home court, one away game at BC's Conte Forum where PC fans brag that they take over. In the final analysis, PC plays one true OOC away game in a hostile environment - Kentucky. Smart scheduling, in my opinion.