2022-23 Around the NCAA

It’s opening day!!

Pacific lost by 10 at Stanford.

Interested to see how UP’s upcoming opponent Kent State does at Northern Kentucky later today. One of the top matchups overall today.

Mostly a good opening day for the WCC and UP's other future opponents.

GOOD
Kent St - demolished Northern Kentucky on the road. Led by 29 at one point, ended up winning 79-57.
Seattle - wire to wire over UC San Diego, also on the road. Ended up winning 85-71.
Pepperdine - destroyed Rice by 40. When Mallette and Lewis are firing, look out.

BAD
North Dakota - needed a massive second-half run to avoid a road loss to #357 Incarnate Word. Hey, wait a minute...

GOING TO GET STOMPED IN THE B12
BYU - extra points for not losing, I guess, but #345 Idaho State was leading 53-48 with 3 minutes to go.

UP's opponent on Wednesday, Florida A&M, had no offense in their 80-45 loss in Eugene.

The Pilots opponent a week from Thursday in Colorado Springs, the USAFA Falcons, outscored the Bowling Green Falcons in the second half on the road but ultimately lost, 62-58.

UC Riverside, UP's opponent on the road on December 22, allowed LMU to score 52 points in the first half but then limited the Lions to just 27 points in the second half in the Highlanders 81-79 comeback win in LA.

After opening the season with a win over Incarnate Word, the Fighting Hawks of North Dakota who come to the Chiles Center on December 3, were shot out of the sky by Creighton in Omaha, 96-61.

The North Dakota St. Bison, UP's opponent on December 5, lost at Top-10 Kansas tonight after losing at Top-25 Arkansas three days ago.  We should get a better idea how good N.D. St. is when they come home to play Pacific on Sunday.

DoubleDipper wrote:UC Riverside, UP's opponent on the road on December 22, allowed LMU to score 52 points in the first half but then limited the Lions to just 27 points in the second half in the Highlanders 81-79 comeback win in LA.

LMU was up 20 at one point early in the second half. Mike Magpayo continues to do an outstanding job at UC Riverside.

Gonzaga/Michigan State, BYU @ SDSU, and Pepperdine @ Fullerton today besides the Pilots/PSU game. 3 out of 4 wins would be a great day for the WCC.

Dean Murdoch wrote:3 out of 4 wins would be a great day for the WCC.

2 out of 4 was the final tally. Pilots win the important game of the day and Gonzaga beat some crap team from the Big 10.

All four games were tied or within 1 point at the under-4 timeout. College basketball, baby!!

Sunday the Vikings traveled to Seattle U. The Vikings' shooting woes continued as they were 25% on 3P (6-24) and shot 33% overall. They lost 83-71 as the Redhawks were led by Cameron Tyson with 32 points and PSU transfer Paris Dawson with 18.  SU's next game is at Chiles on 11/19.

Former Pilot D'Marques Tyson is still coaching for SU. And their head coach Chris Victor was on the EWU staff 2015-2017 with Coach Legans.

Michigan St., who lost to GU by a point, beat #4 Kentucky in 2OT tonight.

Is it too early to check in and say I'm looking forward to you guys beating BYU on New Years Eve?

Zags down 10 at Texas at halftime. That's what 11 turnovers will do to you.

20 turnovers gets you down by 19 at the end.

Geezaldinho wrote:20 turnovers gets you down by 19 at the end.

In what was the Zags only true road game of the preseason, however, they do play Alabama about an hour from Tuscaloosa in Birmingham in mid-December.

Next road games for the Zags are not until at USF, SCU, and BYU back-to-back-to-back at the beginning of WCC play in January.

Perfect night for the WCC! Gonzaga loses, everyone else wins.

Utah State over USD in what was the best game of college hoops I’ve seen in a while. 91-89 in OT.

USD’s Eric Williams had 43 points in the loss

Dean Murdoch wrote:Utah State over USD in what was the best game of college hoops I’ve seen in a while. 91-89 in OT.

USD’s Eric Williams had 43 points in the loss

Utah St. is KenPom #48. USD is #150.

PAC-12 is really up and down, but more down. In the last seven days, Oregon lost to UC Irvine, Colorado lost to Grambling, WSU lost to Boise St, ASU lost to Texas Southern, Stanford lost to SDS, WSU lost to Prairie View, Cal lost to UCSD, USC at home beat Vermont by 2, Colorado lost to UMass, Utah lost to Sam Houston, and UW lost to Cal Baptist.

Also, Colorado beat #11 Tennessee, and ASU beat #20 Michigan.

up7587 wrote:PAC-12 is really up and down, but more down.

Admittedly, OSU is not up this year, but last night Portland St. beat them in Corvallis, 79-66.

PU, BYU, and SMC all won going away last night.

Gonzaga, despite their blowout loss to Texas four nights ago, are good, and they proved that tonight by dominating Kentucky before a sellout crowd in Spokane Arena, which is almost twice the size of the McCarthey Athletic Center at just under 12,000.

CORRECTION: I just leaned it was the largest crowd in Spokane Arena history for any event: 12,333.

GU started fast, led by 16 at the half and ended up winning by 16, 88-72.

Two nights ago, LMU came from 10 down at the half to beat Georgetown by 18, and tonight they overcame a significant deficit to beat Wake Forest in OT in Montego Bay, Jamaica, 77-75

Meanwhile, Central Florida started fast against Santa Clara and held on to win 57-50 in Nassau, Bahamas.

We seem to be trending towards a #2BidWCC, though USF and/or BYU could play themselves into early consideration with some big games scheduled this week.

Not looking good early for USF, they're down 11 at the half to Northern Iowa.

Dean Murdoch wrote:Not looking good early for USF, they're down 11 at the half to Northern Iowa.

Skilled and scrappy, the Dons came back to win, 75-69, in Kansas City.  Shabazz hits for 24.

For me, the game to watch will be USC and BYU in Nassau on ESPN2 on Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, SMC goes up against Vandy on ESPN2 in Anaheim, but I have no idea how good Vandy is this year.

Wednesday is also the day PU heads to Pauley Pavilion on the Pac-12 Network. Both the Waves and UCLA are among the top offensive teams this season, and both teams like to run. Could be a good one.

DoubleDipper wrote:

Dean Murdoch wrote:Not looking good early for USF, they're down 11 at the half to Northern Iowa.

Skilled and scrappy, the Dons came back to win, 75-69, in Kansas City.  Shabazz hits for 24.

Dons closed on a 21-4 run for the win. I really didn't see that one coming... although the stream was so bad, I really didn't see much of anything.

USF/Wichita today. Feast Week is fun.

Rough day for the WCC yesterday. UW over SMC in OT and BYU lost to Butler.

Lots going on around the conference today too with 7 teams in action. Four wins expected, anything over that would be a good day for the WCC.

Dean Murdoch wrote:Rough day for the WCC yesterday. UW over SMC in OT and BYU lost to Butler.

Lots going on around the conference today too with 7 teams in action. Four wins expected, anything over that would be a good day for the WCC.

Off to a good start. BYU beat Dayton in OT. LMU had a big 2nd half to beat Bellarmine, and Pilots won. USF lost their first game, at Davidson.

Meanwhile, in the PKI, Iowa State just beat UNC 70-65

Geezaldinho wrote:Meanwhile, in the PKI, Iowa State just beat UNC 70-65

With 4 minutes to go UNC lead by 7, 60-53. Outscored 5-17 at the end.