If you send in a guest post, we just may put it on the website. Our email is thesportsguys2008@gmail.com. Today, we received a guest post from my brother, Matt Miller. He previews some of the overlooked season openers today in college basketball. Enjoy!
Everybody knows about the high profile games opening this season. There's supposedly something about an aircraft carrier and two teams ranked in the top 20? (Syracuse and San Diego State for those of you not up to speed with college basketball yet). Then there's Kentucky-Maryland, or Michigan State-UConn, all great treats to open the season. But what games are coming today and this weekend that will be "sneaky good?" What opening day upsets might we see? Here's 6 games to get us off to a great start of the college basketball season!
Lehigh vs. #19 Baylor
- A major upset on the first day of the season? Possible. CJ McCollum vs. Pierre Jackson? Delicious. McCollum is a Pre-Season All-American and Jackson is a guy who needs to show that he is now "the man" on a talented team that lost some NBA talent. Also, can the Mountain Hawks become a household name by knocking off a ranked opponent. They'll get some exposure this year if they win (especially considering they are in the Pre-Season NIT bracket), and could garner a top-25 place with some wins.
Bucknell vs. Purdue
- Here a mid-major team that is poised for a big year finds themselves at the home of a rebuilding major conference team. Purdue has some talent, but much of it is young in Ronnie Johnson and AJ Hammons. The Bison, also from the Patriot League where they'll challenge Lehigh for an NCAA bid, bring back one of the best mid-major forwards in Mike Muscala. With Purdue's frontcourt being smallish and inexperienced, will the 6'11 Muscala be able to enforce himself and make an early statement?
Belmont vs. Lipscomb
- Belmont moved to a new conference with their highly touted team this year, and they'll spend the season challenging Isaiah Canaan and the Murray State Racers for national coverage. But they begin with a tricky rivalry game, now in the beginning of the year because of the conference switch. It was Lipscomb who took down an undefeated Belmont team two years ago, and this "Battle of the Boulevard" in Nashville has always been heated. It may be even more intense this year with the feeling that Belmont jumped ship on it's old conference.
USC Upstate vs. St. Louis
- USC Upstate has an absolute stud in Torrey Craig. The guy is getting NBA scouts to give him a long look. A 6'6 swingman, he'll be a perfect 2 guard for some NBA squad's 2nd team. But right now, he's leading a solid mid-major program that is picked highly in the Atlantic Sun conference. St. Louis, on the other hand, isn't known for their NBA talent so much as their stifling defense. Even without Rick Majerus on the sideline, this Billiken team projects highly (#25 in the KenPom rankings). We'll see if Upstate can put the ball through the basket enough.
North Texas vs. #16 Creighton
- Tony Mitchell is a double double machine. The best "double doubler" in the country. Greg McDermott is right behind him, but maybe is the best all-around player in the nation. And they are playing in the first game of the season. Creighton is ranked, but North Texas is totally capable of making the nation doubt them. This is a tough game for Creighton because many people in the nation will only see the score and assume that North Texas is a nobody. It's a game they've got to win if they want to stay relevant nationally. For North Texas, will they just be the Tony Mitchell show or can they compete as a team with good teams?
South Dakota State vs. Alabama
- One of the closest match-ups of opening day, pits another star-led mid-major (Nate Wolters) against a mid-level SEC team. Alabama is supposed to be better this year, but Nate Wolters is a scoring machine (21.2 a game last year) and the Jackrabbits stayed close with Baylor in the NCAAs last March, falling by only 8. Alabama should be good this year, but a lot rests on a talented freshman class (read: inexperienced). Making this even more interesting is that Alabama lacks a true inside threat, always a good thing when a mid-major is trying to pull the upset (see Duke-Lehigh from last march :-) And KenPom doesn't even have these teams ranked too far apart, Alabama at #35 and SDS at #49!
By: Matt Miller
The biggest shock of opening night for me was that Michigan State went down to UCONN. The Huskies were supposed to be a little weak this year after much of their talent vacated the program when they got hit with violations, but they beat a good Spartan squad.
ReplyDeleteAnother good game though was Kentucky and Maryland. Kentucky's talent got them out to a big lead but their youth allowed Maryland to come back. The Wildcats did hold on though despite a shaky performance. Alex Len of Maryland is a star in the making however.
But a couple of these "sneaky good games" did turn out to be just that. Bucknell beat Purdue on the road. Great win for them and a big RPI win down the road.
The other great game was SD State at Alabama. It came down to the wire as well and Alabama won on a last second 3. SD State got off to a big lead thanks to the stud Wolters, but Alabama picked up the pressure and their athleticism was the difference.
Lehigh though couldn't hang with a big boy as Baylor smoked them despite 36 points from McCollum. Baylor was better than I expected.
In the other battles, the "favorites" won. Creighton, St. Louis, and Belmont looked the part and locked up important wins. It's just the way they wanted to start the season.
Andrew