Most appealing game (according to FanMatchTM): Belmont at Stanford. The Bruins (not those Bruins) beat the Cardinal 70-62 [76] in a rather odd contest. Stanford’s 6-7 Josh Huestis, who’s not exactly a shot-blocker, blocked eight Belmont shots which doubled his previous career high. Stanford’s Dwight Powell fouled out with 16:37 to go. That’s not a record, but it’s pretty unusual. Stanford’s 0.81 PPP would have been its second-worst performance last season, an encouraging sign for a Belmont defense that underperformed last season.
Major upsets (<15% win probability): There were two of them. First up, #199 Central Connecticut went (14%) to #72 La Salle and pulled off an 81-74 [69] win. Then, #346 Binghamton ended #236 Saint Peters’ undefeated season (did they succumb to the pressure?) with a 62-54 [64] win at home.
Crazy comebacks (<3% win probability): There were three of these. #222 Sacred Heart was down 14 with 7:42 to go (1.7%) against #138 Stony Brook, but the Pioneers scored on each of their last ten possessions, 24 points in all, to pull out a 64-62 win. #120 New Mexico State jumped out to a 41-19 lead at #151 Niagara, and still led 67-48 with 13:31 to go (2.7%) before a Niagara barrage pulled out an 86-83 win. Finally, #32 New Mexico was down five to #95 George Mason with 17 seconds left (2.6%), but got three-pointers from Kendall Williams and Tony Snell sandwiched around a Williams steal to pull out the 70-69 win.
Unbeatens remaining: 80 (9 fewer than yesterday). Your first 6-0 team is…Cal State Northridge, who deserve credit for jamming six games into the first ten days of the season.
Winless teams remaining: 40 (4 fewer than yesterday). Your first 0-6 team is…Maryland-Eastern Shore.
Other notable events: Among regulation games, Deshaun Thomas was the high scorer of the day with 31 points in Ohio State’s 77-66 [61] win over Washington. DeAndre Kane (33 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists) posted a triple-double, playing wire-to-wire in Marshall’s double-OT loss to Hofstra 103-100 [92]. He posted the equally rare (I think?) shot attempt triple-double, taking 13 2’s, 10 3’s, and 15 free throws.
Today’s top game: Play starts in Maui (log5 coming soon) and Shabazz Muhammad makes his debut for UCLA at the Barclays Center, but FanMatch says if you have to watch one game, make it the Paradise Jam final between evenly-matched UConn and New Mexico.