With a finicky internet connection and me still on vacation, I've put together a more concise schedule breakdown for you here. There are a lot of games going on in the next couple days leading up to New Year so enjoy the buffet for now ...
Remember that you can find the full list of players playing in Division 1 right here.
6:00pm North Carolina-Asheville @ Western Carolina- All need to say about Western Carolina's Harouna Mutombo is that he's playing some of his best ball in years. You need to pay attention to him now. Also to note, his teammate Keaton Cole is also playing the best ball of his career having scored in double digits in four of his last five games. 7:00pm UAB @ George Washington 7:00pm Liberty @ Richmond 7:00pm Seton Hall @ Syracuse - Kris Josephis averaging 17 points, 3 rebonds and 2 assists over his last three games. These last three mark his current double figure scoring streak also, all wins of course and all blowouts. This is the first of the many conference games for SU and you can bet that Joseph has a target on his back. If you check out this game you will get to see Herb Pope for Seton Hall too, which will be a treat. 7:00pm UMBC @ Niagara 7:00pm Loyola (MD) @ Bucknell- The ball seems to finally be falling more consistently for Bucknell's Bryson Johnson. He's averaging 13 points in the last three games and has hit 11 threes in that span also. 7:00pm Lehigh @ St. Peter's 7:00pm Cornell @ Stony Brook 7:30pm Binghamton @ Canisius 7:30pm Fairfield @ Drexel 8:00pm Charlotte @ Arkansas 8:00pm Wichita State @ Bradley 8:00pm Missouri State @ Creighton 8:00pm Southern Utah @ South Dakota 8:00pm Texas A&M-CC @ Rice - Dylan Ennishas been having some big games for Rice all season and has moved into the starting role permanently it seems. If he's not scoring tonight look for him to to other things to help his team get the win. He's averaging 5 rebounds and 4 asssits in his last three games, the games where he didn't score in double figures. 8:00pm IPFW @ South Dakota State 8:00pm Cleveland State @ Toledo 8:05pm Indiana State @ Drake 8:30pm Lamar @ Kentucky 9:00pm New Mexico @ New Mexico State - New Mexico State's Christian Kabongomissed two games due to suspension and returned to the lineup Dec. 21 to drop 15 points, 3 assists and 4 steals on McNeese State off the bench. I would expect to see him back in the starting lineup tonight. That would mean that either Daniel Mullings or Tyrone Watson will be going back to the bench though and both have been playing well as starters. As for Hernst Laroche, he scoring was up with Kabongo out of the lineup with is a plus but his assists were down. Laroche had 6 assists in the game that game that Kabongo came back so look for more helpers and less scoring from him tonight. 9:00pm Portland @ Gonzaga- Gonzaga is riding a four game winning streak heading into this game against Portland and Kevin Pangos has been a star. He's averaging 16.8 points, 3 rebounds and 4.8 assists during that run and is currently the team's leading scorer and assist man too. Rob Sacre on the other hand is on a slide. In that four same span, Sacre's averaging 5.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2 blocks in a reduced 22.3 minutes per game which includes 2 board, no point, no block performance in 19 minutes in the win over Air Force Dec. 22. Should we think anything of this? I hope not. Portland is riding a six losing streak and it shouldn't stop here and Nem Mitrovic has been a little sporadic with his shooting all season but he has come on of late having hit for double figures in consecutive games two games ago. 9:00pm Mississippi State vs. Baylor - Baylor Brady Heslip has scored in double figures in the last four games and 16 three balls in that span. That accounts for 19 of his made field goal attempts in those games, FYI. And this is where the women are playing today ... (Sorry peeps but I wasn't able to get this together in time for the any of the early games so I decided to just post the schedule. The highlighted games are games you should really check out though.) ... 1:00pm Bryant @ Central Connecticut State 2:00pm Longwood @ Notre Dame 2:30pm East Carolina vs. Delaware 4:00pm Delaware State @ Texas 4:30pm Elon vs. Massachusetts 5:15pm Cornell @ Canisius 7:00pm Columbia @ Fairleigh Dickinson 7:00pm Duquesne @ Pittsburgh 7:00pm Wagner @ Virginia 7:00pm Cincinnati @ Virginia Tech 7:00pm Lake Erie College @ Cleveland State 7:00pm Providence @ Akron 7:00pm Howard @ Seton Hall 9:00pm Utah Valley @ Utah 9:00pm Troy @ Denver 10:00pm Cal State Bakersfield @ San Diego 11:59pm Alcorn State @ Hawaii