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Highlighted Matchups for Monday, November 13

Highlighted Matchups for Monday, November 13
Nov 12, 2006, 11:30 pm
EXEMPT TOURNAMENTS

PRESEASON NIT

-BUTLER AT NOTRE DAME. Notre Dame had a very competitive team last season that must have set some sort of record for most games lost by less than six points to highly ranked teams. They’ve missed the NCAA Tournament the last three years and are trying to fight their way back into the picture. They blew out IPFW in their first game, but will get a much better game from Butler. This is an interesting game to the state of Indiana. The two schools are less than 100 miles apart.

-LAFAYETTE AT INDIANA. The winner of this game gets the winner of Butler vs Notre Dame. It’s Kelvin Sampson’s first official game as IU’s head coach, and if he wins it he’ll get the opportunity to face either Butler or Notre Dame in the quarterfinals. It’s a fairly big deal because they have a pretty good rivalry with Notre Dame.

-FORDHAM AT TENNESSEE. Fordham has made tremendous improvements over the past two years, but they probably aren’t up to Tennessee’s caliber yet. Bruce Pearl had an amazing season last year and a good showing in this tournament will give him a huge jump start to this season as well. The way the tournament is set up favors the Vols. They should be able to advance to the semis rather easily.

-UNC WILMINGTON AT BELMONT. The winner of this will likely face Tennessee. UNCW won the Colonial last year, but was eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. If they could go on a run in the NIT they’ll certainly earn themselves some national attention though.


CBE CLASSIC

-This is another tournament where four good teams are placed in four different regions along with three cupcakes.

-GEORGIA SOUTHERN AT DUKE. Georgia Southern will likely have a good year in the SoCon, but they are way overmatched in this one. Duke blew by Columbia in their first game and will likely beat Georgia Southern rather handily and advance to the semifinals.

-GARDNER WEBB AT TEXAS TECH. Texas Tech won their season opener rather easily and should improve to 2-0 today. The next one might not be so easy though.

-AKRON VS ARKANSAS LITTLE ROCK. Akron is a very good team who is favored to win the MAC. If they can get some quality wins in this tournament it will do wonders for their NCAA Tournament resume later on. In order to give themselves that chance they need to beat UALR though. If they can pull that off they’ll likely face Texas Tech in the quarterfinals. Akron faces Nevada later this season and they’ll also play in the Bracket Buster, but this tournament is one of the few chances they have to get some quality wins.

-IDAHO STATE AT MARQUETTE. Marquette struggled against a nondiv1 team in their first game, but still managed to win. They’ll certainly need to pick it up though. Still, they are the hands down favorite to advance to the semifinals out of this region.

-DETROIT VS MAINE. The winner will likely face Marquette. Brandon Cotton is a player to watch on Detroit.


BASKETBALL TRAVELERS CLASSIC AT WASHINGTON

-Nicholls State vs Washington
-Northern Iowa vs Pepperdine

Northern Iowa had trouble with Nicholls State. They were an NCAA Tournament at large team last year, but are rebuilding this year. If they can manage wins over Pepperdine and Washington though, they’ll be out of the gate quickly.


COLONIAL CLASSIC

-Illinois State @ Florida State
-McNeese State vs SMU

This is the second round of a round robin tournament. Florida State and SMU won their first games.


HIGHLIGHTED MATCHUPS

-LMU AT MISSISSIPPI STATE. Both teams come into this game 1-0. It could be interesting because LMU is likely to be one of the better teams in the West Coast Conference. They aren’t on Gonzaga’s level, but they should have a competitive team. Mississippi State is trying to get back to the NCAA Tournament after a one year absence. Beating an LMU team that could win more of it’s share of games before the end of the year is a step in the right direction.


BUY GAMES

-NORTHERN ARIZONA AT ARIZONA STATE. Northern Arizona is a favorite in the Big Sky, but they were blown out of the gym by Kansas the other night. Arizona State is much more beatable though, so don’t rule out the possibility of an upset. It is officially the beginning of the Herb Sendek era at Arizona State, and this would actually be a pretty good win for a team that’s trying to turn itself around.

-VERMONT AT BOSTON COLLEGE. Vermont looked good in their season opener, but struggled big time against Maryland in their second game. Their struggles could very easily continue against a BC team who appears to be much better than Maryland. A win for BC will get them to 2-0.

-MISSISSIPP VALLEY STATE AT CREIGHTON. Creighton is a terrific team who began the season in the top 25 and will likely remain there for most of the year. They shouldn’t have much trouble getting to 1-0 in this one.

-JACKSON STATE AT GEORGIA TECH. Georgia Tech won their first game easily and shouldn’t have a whole lot of trouble winning this one. Jackson State will be very good in conference play, but are way overmatched in this one.

-AUSTIN PEAY AT ILLINOIS. Illinois begins their season against 0-1 Austin Peay.

-NORTH DAKOTA STATE AT MINNESOTA. North Dakota State won their season opener against Idaho, but will likely be way overmatched in this one. It’s the season opener for Minnesota.

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