NCAA Basketball: Colgate, Ohio among mid-major upset candidates
Through the first six days of the 2021-22 NCAA Basketball season, 14 high-major schools have lost to mid-majors. This is what makes college basketball special—the parody, the depth, and the continually closing gap between the traditionally elite and the perenially underrated.
Here are four matchups over the next week (Nov. 15-21) that jump out as me as potentially shocking upsets.
1. #19 UNC at Charleston
TV schedule: Tuesday, Nov. 16 – 8:30 PM ET, CBS Sports Network
Arena: TD Arena – Charleston, SC
North Carolina has played 12 true road games against mid-major schools over the past 10 seasons. As one of the elite programs in the country, they could easily avoid that as many major programs do. Not North Carolina. The Heels deserve major credit for scheduling these games. It’s not only great for these smaller programs, but it’s also great for the sport as a whole.
Tuesday’s matchup against the College of Charleston could be a prime example of why many larger programs stray away from scheduling these games. The Cougars are in their first season under Head Coach Pat Kelsey, who went 47-12 over the last two seasons at Winthrop. They have started this season 3-0, with wins over South Carolina State, Loyola (MD), and a dangerous Lipscomb team.
Charleston is led by senior forward John Meeks (17.7 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 3.7 ast, .549 eFG), a Bucknell transfer who is almost always a matchup problem due to his versatility offensively. Sophomore sharpshooter Brenden Tucker (16.7 ppg, .714 3P) has been the team’s primary backcourt scoring option to start the season.
As for UNC, the talent is clearly there, but the execution has not been through the first two games of the Hubert Davis era. The team’s opener against Loyola (MD) saw the Heels play with their food, letting Loyola stay within 10 points well into the second half before eventually winning by a comfortable margin.
UNC followed that up by sneaking out a win over Brown thanks to RJ Davis’ (16.0 ppg, 5.5 apg, .659 eFG) heroics down the stretch. Brown was picked to finish fifth in the Ivy League. They scored 50 points in the first half and were within three points with under a minute to go.
On paper, UNC is a top 20 team with three potential All-ACC players in Davis, Armando Bacot (15.0 ppg, 8.0 rpg, .812 eFG), and Caleb Love (17.5 ppg, 3.5 apg, .545 eFG)—a team that should be able to handle a road environment vs a team from the CAA.
In reality, the Heels’ will have to kick it up several notches from their past two performances to get out of Charleston with a win. At the very least this will be an up-and-down, high-scoring game that will be incredibly fun to watch.