Friday, November 08, 2013

November 8th, 2013 Morning News: OPENING DAY!

OPENING DAY: It's here. Finally. The first game is Eastern Michigan taking on Division III Albion at noon eastern time. The first game between a pair of Division I teams tips off at 1pm eastern time, between Army and Air Force. For a brief preview of the most prominent games of the night, click on yesterday's Morning News post.

Best Vegas Line: Georgetown-4.5, and it's not even close. I know that Oregon is ranked higher than Georgetown in the human polls, but in my view that's way off. Georgetown is my preseason pick to win the Big East and I rate Oregon as a bubble team. So I'd like Georgetown-4.5 if these two teams were fully intact... and Oregon is going to be without star Dominic Artis for 9 games. So give the points and take the Hoyas.

Best Game Under The Radar: Boston College at Providence. Boston College is a sleeper team, in my opinion. I have them sneaking into the NCAA Tournament as a 12 seed, in fact. And while Providence has some good talent, they lack depth and are unproven, and seem to be a bubble team as well. So this is our first Bubble Battle of the season. A key to look for is whether Kris Dunn will be healthy enough to play after suffering another shoulder injury. Considering how long last year's shoulder injury kept him out, there were fears that he'd be out for a long time again, but the coaching staff is claiming he has a chance of getting on the floor tonight.

Sleeper Game: Weber State at BYU. These intra-Utah games are always fun, with great crowds. And this will be an interesting test for both teams. My latest bracket projection has BYU as an 11 seed and Weber State as a 13 seed (earning the Big Sky's auto bid). It will be fun to see if Tyler Haws has taken his game to another level this season. I still have high hopes for him as a potential All-American someday.

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