Precap 2/10 - UAB at UNT reviewed in the best game of the C-USA year, Louisiana - Southern Miss, and today's Dayton - SLU.

2/10

Recap

• North Texas - UAB

This game was going to be huge. We had a very hot UAB team and a very hot North Texas team. North Texas trounced UAB away the last time they met, but with the return of Jordan Walker, UAB has been a different team. Meanwhile, North Texas is on a 4-game win streak. This meeting, as expected, was all we could have asked for in a rivalry game. It was back and forth the entire game, some huge shots were hit, UNT’ Tylor Perry went off, carrying North Texas while UAB spread out the ball and scored from many spots. At the end of the second half, UAB was up one with a one-and-one and looked like they had the game in the bag if they hit their free throws, as UNT isn’t the best three point shooting team. But, Jordan Walker missed the first, UNT drove down the court down one, and North Texas’ Aaron Scott barely missed an and-1 floater with 2 seconds left. However, like usual rivalry fashion, Scott missed the first free throw and made the second, sending the game to 2OT. In 2OT, North Texas pulled ahead by 3 after Tylor Perry hit two clutch free throws. And as expected, UAB hit an open 3 to send it to 2OT. In the second overtime, it went very similarly. UAB was ahead at the start, but UNT ended up tying it up and getting ahead by 3 after two free throws. And, with 12 seconds left, Jordan Walker missed a 3 pointer to finally end this game. This game doesn't change my thoughts about UAB. However, it does prove to me that North Texas is a legit team with scoring options outside of Tylor Perry.

• Southern Miss - Louisiana

This was another HUGE rivalry game between the two best teams in the sun belt conference, Louisiana and Southern Miss in one of college basketball’s best environments at Southern Miss’ stadium. Last time they met in Louisiana, the Ragin’ Cajuns won pretty comfortably. However, their game against Southern Miss did not go the same. It was close in the first half, UL’s Jordan Brown was cooking, scoring 16 in the first half. But in the second half, Southern Miss pulled ahead early and did not let Louisiana catch up. They played well, and kept Jordan Brown from going too crazy. Louisiana just couldn’t cut it down. Looks like home court advantage in this matchup really means a lot. This just sets up perfectly for a potential conference final game between these two teams. However, it won’t be easy for them both to get there with teams like Marshall and James Madison standing in the way.

• Antoine Davis

In one of the most depressing games of the night, a hot Detroit Mercy team faced #2 Horizon League Milwaukee. I’m going to get straight to the point here - get Antoine Davis some HELP!!! He really scored 42 points and lost. This was just a sad game to watch. Detroit Mercy would literally just pass the ball to Antoine Davis and let him cook all game. He did cook, but you can’t beat a good team like Milwaukee with one player. I really want to see this team in the NCAA tournament, but they’ll need some other experienced scoring options to make it past the big 3 of Milwaukee, Northern Kentucky, and Youngstown State.

Preview

Fridays usually are the worst day of the week, but similar to last Friday, today has some interesting games to watch especially at the mid-major level

• Saint Louis - Dayton

We had to wait so incredibly long for this, but our preseason most anticipated mid-major matchup is here - Dayton vs. Saint Louis. These two teams were the preseason top 2 teams by a long shot, both were thought to be at-large bid likelies, and while Dayton was preseason #24 in the country, Saint Louis was the 5th team out of the top-25. Jumping to today, both of these teams have been eliminated from a potential at-large bid, and are not the two top teams in the A10, as VCU is currently in first place. However, right now, both teams have been playing their best basketball of the season. Dayton just beat first-place VCU, and Saint Louis is coming off two very close losses to Fordham and VCU. With Dayton at home, they’re expected to win this, but we’ll have to wait to see what happens in the biggest rivalry game of the year in the A10.

• Other notable mid-major matchups

We’ll begin by taking it to the MAAC, where we have an interesting tied 4th-place matchup in Quinnipiac - Niagara. We have two very different teams here. Niagara, who was picked to finish 3rd to last in the conference, is now fourth in the conference, is on a 4 game win streak, and is coming off a win against #3 Siena. Quinnipiac, who’s beaten #1 Rider and #2 Iona, is one of the best teams in the conference when at their best. However, they’re inconsistent, as they’re coming off a loss to formerly last-place Mount St. Mary’s. We’ll have to see which version of the Bobcats we’ll see in one of their biggest games left in the season.

Lastly, we have a game very similar to the SLU-Dayton game in that it’s between two of the top preseason teams. This game being preseason #1 Northern Kentucky vs. preseason #3 Wright State. Last season, in the conference final, Wright State beat Northern Kentucky by one to earn an NCAA tournament bid. So, they’ll try to get their revenge against Wright State, who has taken a bit of a step back, but is still dangerous nonetheless. If you want to see a big rivalry game with big implications, this one’s one to catch.