Last night was a huge night in the sport with a ton of teams bolstering their resumes and some hurting them. In addition to that it was a night for the officials. They lost control of one game leading to a ton of ejections and then in another game, the last five minutes were full of blown calls. That game you must feel for Duquesne as they were the recipient of numerous horrendous calls in that game and just flat-out blown calls.
Wisconsin is no longer undefeated in the Big Ten after losing to Penn State in State College. Purdue blew out Indiana at Assembly Hall. Xavier beat Butler, Cincinnati beat TCU. Samford has now won 16 games in a row after a win against Western Carolina. Kansas State got a huge win over Baylor to put them firmly in the NCAA tournament discussion. Dayton beat Saint Louis and BYU blew out Iowa State. Finally, New Mexico has now gotten their second huge win in their last two games with a win over Utah State.
Yesterday I went 21-10 in my picks. That brings my 70-day total to 2,002-761 overall. There is another packed day of games today and we are yet again on the Number 1 team in the country upset day. Outside of that game, there are a ton of games that are going to have NCAA tournament impacts especially in the Big East, Big Ten, Mountain West, and SEC. The ACC, Patriot, Southern, Sun Belt, American, Big South, Atlantic 10, Horizon League, Big 12, Missouri Valley, and Pac 12 are also in action tonight. Picks for day 71 January 17, 2024, are below.
Colgate over Army
Furman over VMI
Appalachian State over Georgia State
Creighton over UConn
Kentucky over Mississippi State
Nebraska over Rutgers
LSU over Ole Miss
Virginia over Virginia Tech
Miami over Florida State
East Carolina over North Texas
Longwood over SC Upstate
Presbyterian over High Point
Radford over Gardner-Webb
Holy Cross over Lafayette
Navy over Lehigh
Fordham over Davidson
Loyola Chicago over UMass
St Bonaventure over Rhode Island
Boston University over Bucknell
Wofford over ETSU
UNC Greensboro over The Citadel
Chattanooga over Mercer
Oakland over Youngstown State
Fort Wayne over IUPUI
Robert Morris over Detroit Mercy
Oklahoma over West Virginia
Texas over UCF
UAB over Tulane
Tulsa over UTSA
Illinois Chicago over Murray State
Southern Illinois over Bradley
Evansville over Valpo
Texas State over Louisiana
Southern Mississippi over Arkansas State
North Carolina over Louisville
Houston over Texas Tech
Auburn over Vanderbilt
Arizona State over UCLA
Belmont over Northern Iowa
Northwestern over Maryland
Providence over DePaul
Arizona over USC
San Diego State over Nevada
There are a lot of quality games today with huge NCAA tournament implications. Can Nebraska figure out their road woes and beat a Rutgers team that is a good matchup for the Huskers? That game is in Piscataway which will be a challenge for Nebraska.
Creighton has never lost to UConn when both teams are members of the Big East. Can the No. 1 team go down to a team from Nebraska two weeks in a row? That game is in Storrs. Creighton and UConn is the game of the day and most of the eyes will be on that game. The best mid-major game is the final game of the night between San Diego State and Nevada. The Aztecs are coming off a tough loss to New Mexico and Nevada needs to win to likely stay in the NCAA tournament field. A lot is going on today.