Games of 12/28

[2livewu]

4 games, 4 home teams could equal 4 wins, but tomorrow is full of potholes.


Indiana State looks to split the season series with Belmont. Belmont can be excused for losses at an underrated Richmond, VCU and Kentucky (especially when they were competitive in all 3) but a current 3 game losing streak that includes a loss to South Dakota State and a blowout loss to Denver takes a lot of shine off that win against the Tarheels. The Trees must have this game.

Bradley squares off against a solid South Florida squad in Peoria. USF is 8-4 with 3 tough losses and a blowout at the hands of Oklahoma State. They don't have any signature wins, but they did beat Alabama at home by 2 and George Mason on the road by a bucket, something UNI couldn't do, for comparison. A winnable game, but the Braves are going to have to reverse course in their play to get the win.

Evansville gets 1-6 Grambling State on Saturday. This is a terrible GSU team that's only 1-1 in their non-D1 games this year. Their only D1 loss by less than 30 was a 23 point pasting at the hands of the TCU Horned Frogs. This should be a get well game for the Aces but one wonders if they'll suffer from some kind of Jackson State hangover.

Finally in the most interesting game of the day, Iona travels to middle Iowa to take on UNI. The Gaels are a little hard to figure out. Are they as good as the team that hammered George Mason and played KU tight for most of the game in Lawrence or as bad as the team that gave up 102 to a frankly bad St. Bonnies team and lost to Cleveland State and Nevada? UNI needs to win to rekindle the good feelings following the VCU win or risk the team and support sliding into mediocrity entering Valley play.

I'll predict the Trees open up a 20 point lead, watch it shrink to 3 but then surprise their fans by eventually blowing out Belmont by 15+.

Nothing tells me BU is sitting on a big game. I fear the Braves are sick right now, and I don't think USF is the cure. Bulls by 7.

The Aces cure their woes, for at least 1 night. Ballentine goes 13-16 and 11-11 at the line (in 37+ minutes) and the 5 Aces fans will again show up here and restart their claims that this is a different UE team and that WSU is overrated.

UNI....this game could go either way, but I do believe UNI is improving, especially at home. I think the Panthers get the win, perhaps impressively so. UNI by 10. But if they struggle with Iona's athleticism, it might mean a longer year in Cedar Falls than anticipated. I doubt many Panther fans thought 5-7 was possible when the season started.

[jackwagon]

Bruins
Bulls
Aces
Panthers

Hoping for 4-0 but 2-2 sounds right with the way this valley season is going.

[Ricardo del Rio]

4 games, 4 home teams could equal 4 wins, but tomorrow is full of potholes.


Indiana State looks to split the season series with Belmont. Belmont can be excused for losses at an underrated Richmond, VCU and Kentucky (especially when they were competitive in all 3) but a current 3 game losing streak that includes a loss to South Dakota State and a blowout loss to Denver takes a lot of shine off that win against the Tarheels. The Trees must have this game.

Bradley squares off against a solid South Florida squad in Peoria. USF is 8-4 with 3 tough losses and a blowout at the hands of Oklahoma State. They don't have any signature wins, but they did beat Alabama at home by 2 and George Mason on the road by a bucket, something UNI couldn't do, for comparison. A winnable game, but the Braves are going to have to reverse course in their play to get the win.

Evansville gets 1-6 Grambling State on Saturday. This is a terrible GSU team that's only 1-1 in their non-D1 games this year. Their only D1 loss by less than 30 was a 23 point pasting at the hands of the TCU Horned Frogs. This should be a get well game for the Aces but one wonders if they'll suffer from some kind of Jackson State hangover.

Finally in the most interesting game of the day, Iona travels to middle Iowa to take on UNI. The Gaels are a little hard to figure out. Are they as good as the team that hammered George Mason and played KU tight for most of the game in Lawrence or as bad as the team that gave up 102 to a frankly bad St. Bonnies team and lost to Cleveland State and Nevada? UNI needs to win to rekindle the good feelings following the VCU win or risk the team and support sliding into mediocrity entering Valley play.

I'll predict the Trees open up a 20 point lead, watch it shrink to 3 but then surprise their fans by eventually blowing out Belmont by 15+.

Nothing tells me BU is sitting on a big game. I fear the Braves are sick right now, and I don't think USF is the cure. Bulls by 7.

The Aces cure their woes, for at least 1 night. Ballentine goes 13-16 and 11-11 at the line (in 37+ minutes) and the 5 Aces fans, led by the Purple Teenager, will again show up here and restart their claims that this is a different UE team and that WSU is overrated.

UNI....this game could go either way, but I do believe UNI is improving, especially at home. I think the Panthers get the win, perhaps impressively so. UNI by 10. But if they struggle with Iona's athleticism, it might mean a longer year in Cedar Falls than anticipated. I doubt many Panther fans thought 5-7 was possible when the season started.

Fixed.

[isumvc1]

12:05pm Belmont @ Indiana State (ESPN3) can the Sycamores avenge their loss from the epic 2nd half collapse at Belmont earlier in the season?

1:05pm Grambling State @ Evansville can UE avoid another bad loss?


7:00pm South Florida at Bradley can BU end its' 5 game losing streak today?


7:00pm Iona @ UNI (ESPN3) can UNI bounce back after a disappointing game at UVA?

stay tuned......

[FearDaTrees]

ISU leads Belmont 57-52 w/ 9 to go.

[Wufan]

Sycamores up 10 with 30 seconds to go. Looks like ISUb gets the Valley off to a good start today!

[jturner38]

Sycamores 85 Belmont 73 Final

[Play Angry]

A nice win for the Trees.

[pocket aces]

The Aces win by 35. 96-61. Grambling is really, really bad.

[AndShock]

Why in the flying **** do 2 Valley teams have Grambling State on their schedule? Please tell me they were part of an MTE so I don't go insane. They play 7 OoC D1 games and the Valley has 2 of them. Grambling hasn't won a D1 game since March 3, 2012 and hasn't won an OoC game since November 22, 2010. No wonder this conference is in the crapper.

...Ok I actually looked at it. Having to play Loyola, Bradley, and SIU twice actually hurts SWOMO and Evansville more than playing Grambling. Smh

One more thing, Grambling is ranked #10 on the list of teams hurting WSU's RPI...#9 and #8? IUPUI and SIUE. None of those teams are even on WSU's schedule...Thank you MVC

Can we please join the Summit or something? At least I expect them to be terrible.