Today is one busy day in college basketball making it one busy day for the NC-Double-Eh schedule. Today we have a comple of big match ups that include Gonzaga and Kentucky and a whole days worth of action as well ...
Marquee Match Ups
4:00pm Western Michigan vs. Gonzaga – The Zags have had seven days off to prepare for this game but the last time they had an extended amount of days off, they were blitzed. But then again those games were against Notre Dame and Washington State last season. Western Michigan is not close to either of those schools in terms of talent but stranger things have happened. Let’s see if both Rob Sacre and Kevin Pangos can maintain what they started three games ago.
7:00pm Portland @ Kentucky – Here is an intriguing game. Toronto’s Nem Mitrovic is now the lone gun for Portland and I think he’s feeling the defensive pressure more this year with no real interior player of the same skill as graduated big man Luke Sikma. He’s not shooting the ball particularly well so far but as the team offense gets better he should be able to get back to shooting at about .500 like last year. For Kentucky, we continue the Kyle Wiltjer peak/valley playing time situation. This could be a quick blowout early, and it should, so we’ll likely get to see a lot of Wiltjer.
And here are the rest of the men’s games today …
2:00pm South Dakota State @ Nebraska
2:00pm Davidson @ North Carolina-Wilmington
2:30pm Cleveland State vs. Hofstra
3:00pm Western Illinois @ North Dakota
4:00pm UC Irvine vs. Alaska Anchorage
4:00pm Northeastern @ St. John’s
4:00pm Delaware State @ Wagner – Delaware State should be a good game for Tyler Murray to reassert his killing instinct. Not that he’s lost it, but the Hornets shouldn’t be a step down in comp for Wagner and this is fertile ground for an offensive outburst by the senior.
4:30pm West Alabama @ Bucknell
4:30pm Harvard vs. UCF
4:30pm Rider vs. La Salle
4:30pm Northern Colorado vs. Southern University
5:00pm Denver @ California
7:00pm Detroit @ Akron
7:30pm Iowa State vs. Rice – Iowa State’s Melvin Ejim is coming off a not so great game against Providence and is now playing in his third game in three days. The same can be said of Dylan Ennis for Rice. Let’s see how both young men respond for their teams in this game.
8:00pm Grambling State @ Arkansas - I haven’t had the chance to mention Arkansas’ Marvell Waithe yet this season so I’m doing it now. He can play and if this Grambling State game turns out to be a wash, he should get lots of minutes.
8:00pm Sam Houston State @ Texas – Texas’ Myck Kabongo was held to 1 point, 3 assists and 16 minutes in the Longhorns’ loss to NC State this past Tuesday. I’m sure he’s feeling like its redemption time and unfortunately for Sam Houston State, they are the fodder for this feast the ‘Horns should have.
8:00pm Milwaukee @ Arkansas-Little Rock
8:05pm Cal State Northridge @ Drake
10:05pm Montana State @ Idaho
And here are the ladies …
2:00pm Brown @ Maine
2:00pm Syracuse @ Binghamton – Kayla Alexander for Syracuse is reason enough to watch this game but there will also be two Canucks on Binghamton. Expect a big game from Alexander here.
3:00pm Navy @ Mount St. Mary’s
3:00pm Valley City State @ North Dakota State - Danielle DeGagne is second on the team in scoring, rebounding and assists while leading the team in steals. Worth a gander I'd say.
4:00pm Eastern Washington @ BYU
4:00pm South Alabama vs. Utah – Despite a loss, both Canadian starters had good games. Taryn Wicijowski had 11 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and a block while Michelle Plouffe had 19 points, 7 boards, and an assist. In the second game of a back-to-back, what will they do against a weaker team like South Alabama?
300pm Texas Southern vs. Vermont
4:00pm Northeastern @ UNLV
4:00pm Kent State @ Northern Arizona
5:00pm California vs. Texas
5:00pm Dayton vs. Fairleigh Dickinson
5:30pm McNeese State @ Houston
5:45pm Washington State vs. Prairie View A&M
6:00pm Detroit @ UTSA
7:00pm Green Bay vs. Georgia Tech – A Canadian playing big minutes for a Top 25 team, as Megan Lukan is, should be paid attention to.
7:00pm Virginia @ Hawaii
7:30pm Buffalo @ Connecticut – Last night, Brittany Hedderson scored 22 points against Dayton. Can she do that against Connecticut? Likely not but it will be a fun game to watch her try though.
8:00pm Marquette vs. Michigan – Both Katherine Plouffe of Marquette and Kendra Seto had their best outings so far this season last night. Plouffe went off for 22 points, 6 rebounds and 5 dimes in the win over Prairie View A&M while Seto went for 7 points and 2 boards in limited action. Let’s see what happens when these two good teams collide.