Last night was another one of those nights for teams ranked in the top 10. Those teams ran into good teams on the road and were not able to come out with victories. Northwestern had a big bounceback win against Illinois in Evanston. Illinois had previously beaten Northwestern by 30 a few weeks ago. Alabama beat Auburn in Tuscaloosa. The Auburn Tigers still do not have a quad 1 win this late into the season. Maryland rallied to beat Iowa in Iowa City at the buzzer, Washington State beat Utah, Nevada beat Colorado State and finally, UTSA got a buzzer-beater to beat Tulane.
There were some top 25 teams who held serve. Iowa State beat Kansas State at Hilton. Marquette beat DePaul and Florida Atlantic beat Rice. There was one game that huge implications on the bubble and that was Providence beating Seton Hall in New Jersey. It was a win Providence had to have. The other key result from last night was St. John’s blowing out Villanova in Jamaica. Those two teams should still make the tournament but St. John’s is far safer than Villanova at the moment. Samford lost to Furman which ended their 17-game winning streak. That was the longest winning streak in the country.
Yesterday I went 33-14 in my picks. That gives me a 78-day total of 2,202-860 overall. There is a large number of games today but if you are looking for Power 5 games then you are going to have to wait a while for the Pac-12 to start. Otherwise, it is a lot of low and mid-major games today to get us ready for the weekend games. America East, Northeast, CAA, Sun Belt, Atlantic Sun, American, MAAC, Horizon, Summit, Conference USA, Ohio Valley, WAC, Pac 12, West Coast, Big Sky, and the Big West are all in action today. Picks for day 79 January 25, 2024, are below.
Campbell over Elon
Central Connecticut over Fairleigh Dickinson
Maine over Albany
Stony Brook over Monmouth
Appalachian State over Georgia Southern
UMass Lowell over Vermont
North Florida over Bellarmine
North Texas over SMU
Hofstra over William & Mary
UNC Wilmington over Northeastern
Delaware over North Carolina A & T
Drexel over Towson
Charleston over Hampton
Saint Peter’s over Rider
Florida Gulf Coast over Lipscomb
Wagner over Merrimack
Long Island over Stonehill
Sacred Heart over St Francis Pa
Youngstown State over IUPUI
Cleveland State over Wright State
Green Bay over Oakland
Northern Kentucky over Fort Wayne
Bryant over NJIT
New Hampshire over Binghamton
South Dakota State over Kansas City
Eastern Kentucky over Jacksonville
Stetson over Austin Peay
Louisiana Tech over UTEP
Quinnipiac over Mount St. Mary’s
Little Rock over Lindenwood
Grand Canyon over Stephen F. Austin
Cal Baptist over Texas Rio Grande Valley
Milwaukee over Detroit Mercy
Oral Roberts over Omaha
St Thomas over North Dakota State
Abilene Christian over Utah Tech
Tarleton State over Southern Utah
Western Kentucky over Florida International
UT Martin over Southeast Missouri State
Eastern Illinois over Tennessee Tech
South Alabama over UL Monroe
Louisiana over Arkansas State
Oregon over Arizona State
Gonzaga over San Francisco
Western Illinois over Southern Indiana
Denver over South Dakota
Sam Houston over New Mexico State
Sacramento State over Montana State
Northern Arizona over Idaho
Eastern Washington over Northern Colorado
Santa Clara over Pepperdine
LMU over Portland
Northridge over Bakersfield
Fullerton over Cal Poly
Long Beach over UC Irvine
UC San Diego over UC Riverside
Portland State over Montana
Arizona over Oregon State
Saint Mary’s over Pacific
Hawaii over Santa Barbara
There are a ton of games today and some of the games have a lot of intrigue. UMass Lowell and Vermont are both undefeated in the America East and the winner of that game is going to be in the driver’s seat for home court advantage in the America East tournament. That is unless the third undefeated team in that league the Bryant Bulldogs have anything to say about it.
Drexel is undefeated at 7-0 in the CAA and travel to Towson. That is a tough game for the Dragons, but I do have them winning. Eastern Washington is undefeated in the Big Sky, and they have a huge challenge tonight against Northern Colorado. The winner of that game is in first place in the Big Sky. Saint Mary’s is the other undefeated conference team, but they play Pacific and will likely win going away in that one. The nation's leading scorer Tommy Bruner is in action for Denver tonight.