Today's Marquee Match Up features an underexposed talent playing at Scottie Pippen's alma mater. Check out who else is playing today right here ...
As a note, please bear in mind that due to the tournaments that are going on this weekend, I may miss some games due to seeding based on results that may not have been finalized when I wrote this schedule.
Marquee Match Up
3:00pm Central Arkansas @ Southern Methodist
This may not be a game of glamour teams but it’s a game worth tuning into. Senior Imad Qahwash has been playing incredibly through the first four games for the Bears. The Kitchener, ON native has been averaging 17.5 pts, which leads the team, as well as 6 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 23.5 mins off the bench. That’s very efficient for a player that had previously been more a distributor in his career. Now, let’s not get too high on the numbers yet. Qahwash and the Bears have played against two non D1 teams out of four but regardless those are still great numbers. Today’s game against Southern Methodist will be a good one to see if Qahwash can do his thing at that clip against a very competitive team from a tough conference.
1:00pm Boston College vs. California
1:00pm Colorado @ Harvard
1:30pm DePaul vs. Stanford – Toronto’s Dwight Powell has been a surprise, at least for me, for Stanford this season. I never would have thought he’d be starting the season off the way he has. He had a career high 16 pts and 4 rebounds in the Cardinal’s loss to Murray State two days ago but then followed that with a 2 point, 4 rebound game yesterday. DePaul may not be in their glory days, actually they’re far from it, but they will play hard. How Powell plays in this game may give us an indication of the player he’ll be for the rest of the season. By the way, Thornhill, ON’s Stefan Nastic is averaging 3 pts and 4 rebounds in 11 mins of action per game. Not bad efficiency.
2:00pm Columbia @ American University
2:00pm Binghamton @ Drexel – Toronto’s Chretien Lukusa had 22 of Binghamton’s 58 points in the Bearcats’ last game against Army on Tuesday. That is something that you would never expect to say. Lukusa played all but one minute in that blowout loss but he came up big offensively and is currently the team’s second leading scorer. After that game Lukusa may be a new found scoring option for the dismal Bearcats and this game may be a window to that possibility.
4:00pm Arkansas-Pine Bluff @ Missouri
4:30pm Western Carolina @ William & Mary
5:00pm Morehead State @ SIU-Edwardsville
5:30pm Niagara @ Detroit – Toronto’s Jason Calliste is playing amazing though the Titans’ first five games which included a 20 point outburst against Mississippi State. But in the game against Bowling Green yesterday, Calliste was a DNP and there was nothing I could find that indicated as to why. Detroit is a fun team to watch (I’ve seen a half of action and they were running and trapping) and whether Calliste plays or not, it will be entertaining. On top of that, you may have a sighting of Hope, BC native Eric Williams for Niagara.
UPDATE: A big thanks to my boy Tariq from www.northpolehoops.com for giving me the update. Calliste was not a DNP last night against BGU, he played 32 mins, had 11 pts, 6 rebs, 3 ast and 2 stls in the win. In an age of instant messaging and real time information, I wasn't able to find anything on Calliste after midnight yesterday despite his entire team's stats being available. The stats crew need to sync with the info outlets for true real time info dispersal, real talk.
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