Around the League / UNT Opponents

[Censored by Laurie]

ECU moves to 7-1 with a blow-out win over North Carolina A&T. Rice lose in OT to Hofstra to fall to 5-2. 

ECU might be pretty solid...4 double-figure scorers, including pre-season all AAC pick RJ Felton at 21ppg. 

[greenminer]

Around the American 11/30/2024

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[greenminer]

current standings

[greenminer]

Around the American (12/1/2024)

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[Censored by Laurie]

MTSU beats UAB 76-69. 

MTSU is solid, ranked just above UAB in KenPom heading into this game, but I still don't know what to make of UAB. pre-season pick to win the AAC, now 4-5, and without really a quality win. 

Rice beats Iona to go 2-1 in their tourney...including a win against Arkansas State. 

Minnesota beats Bethune-Cookman (sheesh, thanks)...Oregon State beats UC-Davis

[Censored by Laurie]

basically heading into December, I think this is a pretty good way to look at the league, KenPom through 12/1 games in ():

Tier 1 - Memphis (31) - I know everyone will be quick to point out their collapse last season...I suppose it could happen again, but this team looks built different. they'll head into December ranked while presumably no one else will even receive a vote. 

Tier 2 - UNT(66) ; Wichita State (88) - both schools have quality wins over Big 10, WCC, A-10 and MVC schools...nothing really to blink at too much in their losses. 

Tier 3A - Rice (164) ; East Carolina (123) - call this the over-achieving tier. Rice has a good win now over ASU...hung tough with Florida State. ECU has yet to play an actual road game and their loss looks pretty mid, but 7-1 is 7-1 so far. 

Tier 3B - FAU (105) ; UAB (137) - call this the under-achieving tier. FAU look like Memphis last season...a solid collection of talent that isn't playing as a team...case in point, they went 52-26 to lose by 2 to FGCU. I don't know what to make of UAB. still, despite early struggles, both these will be tough Ws

Tier 4 - Temple (114) ; South Florida (138) - both just look solid if unremarkable. both have some testers in December and it'd be a big benefit to the conference if they can pick up some good wins.

Tier 5 - Tulane (226) ; Charlotte (204) ; Tulsa (215) ; UTSA (263) - there's very little to like here. nothing approaching a quality win and each with some pretty bad loses. I almost just made a separate tier for UTSA, but I'll be kind for now since the resumes here all look so similar. UTSA goes to Cali to play St. Mary's Tuesday and then to Fayetteville for ranked Arkansas on Saturday (who made their schedule?)...so once they get drubbed by 30 in each, maybe they'll earn their own tier

[GMG_Dallas]

2 hours ago, Censored by Laurie said:

Oregon State beats UC-Davis

Underrated win in my opinion. They're 3-4 but have just 1 bad loss. I say bad because I don't know much about Norfolk State. Otherwise UC Davis has the 11th ranked scorer in the country and could make some noise come conference play.

[Greendylan]

16 hours ago, Censored by Laurie said:

MTSU beats UAB 76-69. 

MTSU is solid, ranked just above UAB in KenPom heading into this game, but I still don't know what to make of UAB. pre-season pick to win the AAC, now 4-5, and without really a quality win. 

Rice beats Iona to go 2-1 in their tourney...including a win against Arkansas State. 

Minnesota beats Bethune-Cookman (sheesh, thanks)...Oregon State beats UC-Davis

I really think that MTSU, UCI, and Drake will be the non-power-conference teams that will be big topics of conversation in March (outside of the usual suspects).

[Censored by Laurie]

6 minutes ago, Greendylan said:

I really think that MTSU, UCI, and Drake will be the non-power-conference teams that will be big topics of conversation in March (outside of the usual suspects).

first NET rankings just came out...good shout on Irvine, they're up to 24...I haven't seen much about them. 

MTSU at 126, 3rd in C-USA...Drake 45 topping the MVC. 

I'll do a deeper dive at some point this week...but of note Utah State is 14. 

[greenminer]

Around the American (12/2/2024)

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[greenminer]

current standings

Edited December 2 by greenminer

[Greendylan]

Tulane is really struggling.  Just lost their 4th in a row and have been beaten by both of the other New Orleans area schools on their schedule. 

[greenminer]

Around the American (12/3/2024)

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[greenminer]

Roadrunners might lose ugly tonight.  SM's is up there with Utah St as 2 of the best MMs, and overall T20, programs in the country.

[Censored by Laurie]

14 minutes ago, greenminer said:

Roadrunners might lose ugly tonight.  SM's is up there with Utah St as 2 of the best MMs, and overall T20, programs in the country.

St. Mary's just beat USC 71-36. their only loss is to Arizona State...whose only loss is by 8 to Gonzaga. 

UTSA is gonna get drubbed tonight. hang a banner if they keep it to 30

Edited December 3 by Censored by Laurie

[Censored by Laurie]

I'm actually quite interested in this ECU game tonight...enough to maybe watch the first half or so.

UNC-W doesn't suck, but ECU should be a step above...if they could move to 8-1 heading into a game with what looks like a pretty mid South Carolina team (lowest NET in the SEC), they'd have a pretty light schedule heading into conference.

[NT80]

Back to basketball ladies....

UNCG is up on High Point  59-54 with 8 minutes left.

ESPN+

High Point has a 6-10 and 7-footer playing.

 

[Censored by Laurie]

bad night. 

ECU loses bad...at home. RJ Felton goes 1-12 with 5 turnovers. could read that as a fluke, or maybe that ECU is pretty spare.

High Point loses to UNC-Greensboro...who again, don't look awful...but a W would've helped our resume

UTSA, down 14 at the half storms back to force OT against an infinitely better program. I'm gonna assume St. Mary just started coasting and let their guard down

USF barely beats 1-7 Stetson

Evanston lost. McNeese lost. 

AAC looking like a 1 bid league again.
 

[meaniegreenie]

4 hours ago, NT80 said:

Back to basketball ladies....

High Point has a 6-10 and 7-footer playing.

They've got 4 guys 6'10" and above, but only averaging a few points per game.   Hopefully they aren't able to take advantage of it against us and have a big game.

Their top scorers are:

D'Maurian Williams 6'3" G  16 ppg
Kezza Giffa 6'2" G 16 ppg
Kimani Hamilton  6'7" F  13 ppg

Edited December 4 by meaniegreenie

[greenminer]

around the American (12/4/2024)

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[greenminer]

[greenminer]

Honestly, would really reallyh like to see Tulsa pull this one out tonight.

The rest of these matchups should be pretty good Ws.

[greenminer]

 

[greenminer]

FINALS thus far:

FAU over FIU
Charlote beats Livingstone
Shockers beat Alcorn State handily

....barring some miracles, Memphis is probably beating LaTech and Cowboys are gonna bury Tulsa.  Golden Hurricane down by 21.

[greenminer]

Around the American (12/6/2024)

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