With Black Friday being in full swing when you read this, it's now the ladies turn to go head first into their Thanksgiving holiday tournaments while the men continue thiers. Today we have quite a few contest on tap for you to enjoy including a great game this afternoon featuring Syracuse and Stanford ...
Marquee Match Up
5:00pm Stanford vs. Syracuse
Kris Joseph had he first double-double of the season Wednesday night against a surprisingly tough Virginia Tech team at the Garden. Now he’s taking his Orange and their 5-0 record against Stanford who is also a perfect 5-0 to start the season. Without a true star player (at least in my opinion) the Cardinal have been playing by committee and it may, at some point, fall to Dwight Powell to defend Joseph. Powell is coming off an ankle injury and is playing his way back into shape after missing two games early but he played 21 minutes in the blowout of Oklahoma State two days ago so he should be up to the challenge. For Joseph, this will be another early test for him and his Orange. The Hokies came close to pulling off an upset but Syracuse was up to the challenge and Joseph hung a quiet 21 points and 10 rebounds when he needed to step up. Stanford could play a similar game to the Hokies and if they do this will be a great game to watch.
And here are the rest of the men …
12:00pm Indiana State vs. Minnesota
2:00pm James Madison vs. Rider
2:30pm Texas Tech vs. DePaul – Texas Tech took their first loss of the season yesterday and in that loss Ty Nurse was 0-for-5 from the floor and managed only one free throw in 33 minutes. DePaul is a coming off a tight loss to Minnesota yesterday so they will be hungry for a win. Will Nurse be ready to shoot down the Blue Demons today?
2:30pm Boston University vs. Cleveland State
3:30pm Western Carolina vs. Northern Colorado – Through the last three games, Harouna Mutombo is averaging 20 points and 3.7 rebounds and is looking like the player he was three seasons ago when he took the Southern Conference by storm to win Freshman of the Year. For Northern Colorado, Emmanuel Addo had a career best 15 points in the loss to Iowa State this past Tuesday. It could be one to catch online on your last break.
6:00pm Northern Iowa vs. Rice
6:00pm Princeton @ Bucknell – After two games where he combined to shoot only 2-of-13 from the field, Bryson Johnson had 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting this past Tuesday in the win over Marist. Could this be the turning point?
7:00pm Marshall @ Cincinnati
7:00pm Pitt @ Penn
7:00pm Elon @ North Carolina State – I can’t get enough Alex Johnson. After toiling in relative anonymity at independent Cal Bakersfield, he’s settled into a leadership role off the bench for the 4-1 NC State Wolfpack. He’s not starting but he’s playing 28 minutes a game and he’s averaging 3 assists and a steal per game. This should be a great game for him and he’ll be facing another young Canadian guard in Kevin Blake who’s been coming off the bench for Elon. I don’t think that these two will be playing head-to-head very much but it will be nice to see Johnson play again this season.
8:00pm Tennessee-Martin @ Mississippi State
8:00pm Lamar @ Tennessee Tech
8:05pm Campbell @ Creighton
8:30pm Iowa State vs. Providence – Melvin Ejim may be settling into his new role now for Iowa State. His minutes are down by about 8 per game so far but he’s still learning his new position in this set up. In the Cyclones’ last win Ejim hit for double figures for the first time this season going for 12 points and 7 rebounds in 20 minutes.
And now for the ladies …
2:00pm Siena @ North Carolina State
2:30pm Weber State vs. Nicholls State
3:00pm Nebraska @ Florida A&M – Kaitlin Burke is the in the starting five, plays big minutes and passes the rock. Worth a watch.
4:00pm Evansville vs. Brown
4:00pm Wagner @ Lafayette – The sister of former Davidson gunner William Archambault, Marie-Laurence, starts for Wagner and is the team’s second leading scorer to this point.
4:30pm Utah Valley vs. Kent State
5:00pm Chattanooga vs. Cincinnati
5:00pm Portland State @ Portland
5:00pm Cleveland State @ Western Michigan
5:45pm Prairie View A&M vs. Marquette – I could swear that I saw this game on the docket for Thursday so this could be a typo. If it is then chalk up me seeing it on the schedule as lack of sleep, proper nutrition and the new Air Jordan IIIs.
5:45pm USC vs. Notre Dame
6:00pm Monmouth @ Lehigh
7:00pm Utah vs. Detroit – This could be a great match up. Utah’s Taryn Wicijowski is on a tear since coming back from a knee injury last season. She’s averaging 17 points, 8.7 rebounds and 2 blocks in 29.3 minutes a game and is making up for lost time. Detroit’s Canadian in the middle, Yar Shayok is a reigning member of the Horizon League all defensive team. Watching these two go at it in the paint will be titanic. I didn’t even mention Michelle Plouffe who’s averaging a double-double, 11.7 points and 10 rebounds, for Utah.
8:00pm Texas vs. Virginia
8:00pm Yale @ Houston
8:00pm North Dakota vs. Southern Utah
8:00pm Michigan vs. Washington State
8:00pm Minnesota vs. Quinnipiac
8:30pm Vermont @ Houston Baptist – Vermont is one of many women’s teams that are counting on multiple Canadian contributions.
9:00pm UC Riverside @ Utah State
9:00pm Akron vs. Loyola (IL)
9:30pm Valparaiso @ Colorado
10:00pm California @ Hawaii
10:30pm Colgate @ Cal State Northridge
11:00pm San Francisco @ Seattle U – Though she is suffering from an early bout of altered role syndrome, I just think that Elle Kerfoot is cute, I totally dig the Twitter pictures she posts and the fact that she’s starting for Seattle U is worth mentioning her here.