After two days of fairly light schedules, we have a massive set of games on tap for the first Friday night of the season. 18 Top 25 teams are in action, some against fellow Top 25 opponents, and there are some games you certainly will not want to miss. What games, you say? Let’s take a look at my Game of the Day…

Game of the Day: No. 8 Trine @ No. 12 Baldwin Wallace, 6 pm EST

This is going to be extremely competitive and will be a major resume boost for whoever pulls out the victory. Both teams have had to replace at least two starters from last year’s team, so there are new contributors in new roles, which can play a significant impact at this point in the year. And this is the first look we’ll get at Baldwin-Wallace as well, since it is Yellow Jackets’ season opener, so there is a lot be watching for in our first Top 15 matchup of the year.

Keep an eye on…

• No. 16 Springfield @ No. 9 Amherst, 7 pm EST
• No. 6 Christopher Newport @ East Texas Baptist, 7 pm EST
• Wartburg @ No. 13 UW-Eau Claire, 9 pm EST

Thoughts from around the division…

• I wrote about the potential for NJCU to come away with a win over D-I Monmouth (N.J.) in yesterday’s post, and the Gothic Knights proved my prediction right. Though they fell 79-70, the score was tied at 34 when halftime rolled around. Monmouth never really pulled away, and the majority of the team stats were balanced. The difference came in the offensive rebounding and points in the paint, where Monmouth’s taller lineup paid dividends. NJCU was outrebounded 19-8 on the offensive boards, and had just 16 points in the paint as compared to Monmouth’s 42. But in the big scheme of things, this showed the NJCU is certainly as good as we anticipated, well on its way to a three-peat in the NJAC.
• To add one more note about that one, Damaris Rodriguez will be a player fans across the nation should be keeping an eye on. All-American potential for sure. The junior guard had 33 points for NJCU, shooting 14-of-26 from the field. Just a special player that should only improve as the season goes on.
• No. 23 Whitman suffered a loss to NAIA Lewis Clark State for the second straight year, falling 66-60 in last night’s road matchup. Whitman had defensive troubles out of the gate, outscored 23-13 in the opening quarter, before fighting back against a really solid opponent that went 28-5 a year ago. I think Whitman is certainly a Top 25 team, though they’ll need to improve their defending of the three-point line: Lewis Clark State was 8-of-17 from beyond the arc.
• Bridgewater State is on my radar, as they’ve started the year 2-0, adding a decent road win over Suffolk last night. Sydney Bradbury was really impressive, making five three-pointers as she had 19 points. The MASCAC seems to be a battle between BSU and Framingham State this year, and with the way BSU has started, we should be in for some excellent duels between the two once conference play gets going.
• Really looking forward to finally getting to see a bunch of Top 25 teams in action on the same night. 7 of the Top 10 will be playing this evening, and some will be tested early on. I don’t see No. 1 Hope having much trouble against Geneva, but it will still be interesting to see how the Flying Dutch have made up for some of the key departures from last year’s team.
• Speaking of Hope, I really appreciate the tournament format that is put together for this season-opening weekend. You don’t see this very much, and one of the reasons for that I would expect is that coaches do not get guarantees on who they will be playing, which can be concerning for SOS purposes. But come on. It will be fun to see if Illinois Wesleyan and Hope do indeed win their respective games today, and play for a “championship” of sorts tomorrow. IWU is unranked but received votes in the Preseason Top 25, and if the Titans found a way to pull off the upset of No. 1, they could easily find themselves in contention for a national ranking.

Well, this ended up longer than I thought it would. But there’s a lot to cover, and I didn’t even get to it all! Such is the case when you have a massive slate on one evening like we have today. It should be exciting. What game(s) will you be watching? Drop your responses in the comments below!