Tonight's Marquee Matchup features two Canadian big men from Vancouver going head to head. Find out who else is playing right here ...
Marquee Matchup
9:00pm Santa Clara @ Gonzaga
Gonzaga is in danger of not winning the West Coast Conference for the first time in ten years. And they have been on the up and down all season which makes this last stretch a very important one. Rob Sacre has been the man in the middle all season but he has been a little un-Sacre the last three games. He’s been averaging 6.7 points and 5 rebounds in that span which ended with a 2 point, 2 rebound game in the win over Pepperdine. This may just be a matter of fatigue since the Zags have a notoriously strong RPI every season and Sacre may be feeling that now. But he can’t revert to the guy that people thought was soft, especially since he’s played so well up to this point. The same holds true for Santa Clara’s Marc Trasolini. He’s been inconsistent this season having split time in and out of the starting lineup. In his last three games Traz has been averaging 7 points and 5 rebounds in about 21 minutes which are decent but not what you’d expect from a former All WCC player. This victory should go to Gonzaga but keeping an eye on how the Canadian big men perform tonight would be a better game to watch.
And here is where everyone else is playing tonight …
7:00pm Richmond @ Temple
7:00pm St. Francis (NY) @ Mount St. Mary’s
7:00pm Robert Morris @ Fairleigh Dickinson
7:00pm Minnesota @ Penn State
7:00pm Western Carolina @ Appalachian State – Despite Western Carolina having a less than stellar season in the Southern Conference, over the last five games Harouna Mutombo has been averaging 12.4 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.6 assists and a steal in 28 minutes. He’s looking more like the old Harouna and this may be a game to watch.
7:00pm Long Island @ Wagner – Tyler Murray has been among the best players in the Northeast Conference this season and he’ll be leading Wagner against the best team in the conference in Long Island. LIU has their own Canadian in Kyle Johnson who has been playing well of late. Before his last game, Johnson was averaging 15.8 points and 8 rebounds in the four games leading up to his 6 point, 3 rebound effort in the Feb 12 win over St. Francis (NY). Look for this to be an intense contest to the finish.
7:00pm South Dakota State @ IPFW
7:00pm St. Francis (PA) @ Momnouth
8:00pm Western Kentucky @ Ark-Little Rock
8:00pm East Tennessee State @ Belmont
9:00pm San Francisco @ Portland – Portland lost to San Francisco in an upset earlier in the year and they will want to get them back, especially at home. Nem Mitrovic has been on a tear the last five games averaging 16.8 points including 20 threes, 4.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.2 steals in 30 minutes. He’s been the rock for the Pilots in that span so it’ll be interesting to see how he plays in this game.
10:30pm UCLA @ Stanford
10:30pm USC @ California