It was a lighter night of hoops for the most part, but the HBCU Classic at the Mohegan Sun Arena was the premier event of the night. Norfolk State blew out Alabama State, and Delaware State beat Grambling. It was not a good night for the SWAC favorites in Grambling. They could never get into any offensive flow outside of the first ten minutes and their star did not have a good game.
In other games, Georgia beat Buffalo by 51 points, Texas blew out New Orleans, and Saint Mary’s struggled at home to beat Merrimack. The mid-major ranks had a lot of great games. Utah Tech hit a bunch of threes in the last two minutes to beat South Dakota, UC Irvine beat Belmont in a high-scoring game, Grand Canyon blew out Chicago State, and Middle Tennessee beat Lipscomb.
In the conference games last night, both in the Horizon League and Ohio Valley had expected results. Cleveland State beat Oakland in the Horizon League. In the Ohio Valley, Morehead State beat UT Martin, Little Rock beat SIUE, Southern Indiana beat Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech beat Lindenwood, and finally, Southeast Missouri beat Eastern Illinois. The winner of that league will have the unfortunate 16 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Happy Friday of hoops. There are games on all day today and the HBCU Classic resumes. The Don Haskins Basketball Invitational is being broadcast on YouTube. There is Big East conference play, and a primetime game against two top 25 teams. Outside of that, there are a lot of games that are low to mid-major teams or games that will end in a blowout. Today is a great primer before heading into the last Saturday before the Christmas break. Picks and games for day 46, December 20, 2024, are below.
Winner | Loser |
|---|---|
Western Michigan | Valpo |
Texas A&M | Houston Christian |
Norfolk State | Grambling |
Illinois-Chicago | Seattle |
Penn | Rider |
Alabama State | Delaware State |
Saint Peter's | Delaware |
Yale | Akron |
Siena | Holy Cross |
Longwood | North Carolina Central |
North Texas | App State |
St. John's | Providence |
Cincinnati | Dayton |
UTEP | Jackson State |
BYU | Florida A&M |
LMU | Southern |
One game stands out above the rest and that is the game in primetime between Cincinnati and Dayton. The game is at a neutral site technically. It is being played in Cincinnati, but at a different arena than the Bearcats normally play. The crowd will likely be very pro-Bearcats. That game is between two top 25 teams, and Dayton struggled last time out against UNLV, but now has the opportunity for another quad 1 win. Cincinnati desperately needs another big-time non-conference win. This one will be fun.
Day 2 of the HBCU Classic today. The MEAC has a leg up on the competition as that conference won both games against the SWAC teams. Just some things to note about the games today. Alabama State didn’t shoot the ball well yesterday and that will likely change today. Norfolk State has never lost in the event and Grambling is much better than they are playing right now. They want to show that. Enjoy the hoops.