Welcome back! We have another full slate of Saturday basketball…

Game of the Day: #13 UW-Eau Claire @ #1 Hope, 3 pm EST

This is going to be a must-see matchup, period. Watching both of these teams play, they appear built for the postseason, and this will almost be a preview of what we might see come March. UWEC has four seniors in the starting lineup, which certainly helps, and is especially good in the rebounding game (40.8 reb/game). We all know that Hope has been crushing everyone in its path as of late, but this one might be a little different. UWEC might just be the best team Hope has battled up to this point, and the Blugolds will be eager to achieve a marquee conference win to add to their resume, especially heading into WIAC play, where multiple teams have legitimate cases for the tournament spots. Of course, keeping the margin within single digits against Hope might be a win in it

Keep an eye on…

• #15 UMHB @ Emory, 3 pm EST
• #7 Smith @ Bowdoin, 4 pm EST
• #20 Ithaca @ Catholic, 4 pm EST

Thoughts…

• As far as yesterday’s games go, I ended up being spot-on about the matchup between #11 Tufts and WPI. With WPI playing at home, the Engineers nearly sprang an upset on Tufts, with the final score being only a three-point margin, 60-57. Watching it back, there is not much more WPI could’ve done, besides maybe not foul Maggie Russell, who cut Tufts’ deficit to just one on a pair of free throws with about a minute and a half left. The Jumbos were on their game defensively, and besides a three-point attempt that missed long, WPI did not have many good opportunities offensively down the stretch. It is no secret that Tufts is reliant, to some degree, on Russell and her ability to score. She had 25 points last night, every one of which were key considering the narrow result. Now that may hurt Tufts as the season progresses, facing teams such as Amherst. But only time will tell. The Jumbos also turned the ball over just nine times in the game, compared to 13 turnovers for WPI.
• I tuned into the Millikin/Coe game, and saw the Big Blue closing in on their second straight win. But then Coe found a spark, and almost in the blink of an eye, had Millikin’s lead down to two. Coe is one of those programs in the ARC that is looking to bounce back after a down year last season (they were 8-17), and has started fairly well. They were 3-0 entering the game, and hung with Millikin for the vast majority of it, until the Eagles went stagnant offensively. They struggled to make shots, in large part because of Millikin’s defense, which was the best I’ve seen it be this season. Millikin extended the lead back to nine, and Coe never got any closer, with the final being 66-57.
• I was emailing with a coach yesterday who recommended I take a look at the UAA. Though I had been following the scores of programs in the league, like Rochester, NYU, and Emory, I took a look at the conference’s overall record yesterday, and was both impressed and a little surprised to see it at 21-3. All but two of the league’s eight teams are undefeated. There is a lot of experienced, deep teams in the UAA this year, and it will be a conference to watch, if nothing else, because of the parity we’re seeing here in the early weeks of the season.
• #15 Mary Hardin-Baylor visits Emory (4-0) in an intriguing matchup this afternoon. UMHB is officially the last Top 25 team to start its season, and I can’t say I disagree with head coach Mark Morefield’s thinking on this. Talking with him, he noted that the Crusaders would have liked to have played last weekend, but due to the travel schedule, it didn’t end up working out. But he also said this set up makes more sense, as it has given UMHB additional time to work out the kinks before the season opener, and have over a month to prep following Oct. 15, rather than less than a month, as most teams did, starting on Nov. 8-12. Be sure to watch the guards in this matchup. Emory’s Claire Brock has been virtually unstoppable through four games, averaging 27.5 PPG. On Wednesday, she became the program’s first player to go for 30+ points in consecutive games. UMHB also has a handful of talented guards, a number of which are incoming transfers, and that battle backcourt, if you will, is going to decide a lot in this one.
• Congratulations to Joe Shotland on his first head coaching win at UT-Dallas last night. After a tough start in Rochester last weekend, the Comets won 69-37 against Covenant last night. They have Transylvania today…we’ll see how that goes. This is probably Transy’s best non-conference game…
• Maine Maritime had No. 7 Smith on the ropes last night, but struggled to score in overtime, putting just three on the board in the extra period, as Smith won 66-60. But USMMA looks like they will have no issue following up on last year’s 20-4 campaign.

Alright…this is all, since I realized we’re nearing an hour until some games tip off. Expect an earlier post tomorrow. And enjoy the day!