It’s #1 vs. #2 in the Sun Belt West tonight at Magness Arena, as things start getting real in conference play. Denver vs. Arkansas State might not be the Mid-Majority’s Game! Of! The! Night! (despite my dreams to the contrary), but it’s the G! O! T! N! in our hearts. Mike Jarvis, coach of the Sun Belt’s only other undefeated squad (Florida Atlantic), calls Arkansas State “one heck of a team,” and like the Pioneers (once 2-9, now 9-9), the Red Wolves are on something of a roll (10-10 after a 1-6 start). Denver is favored by a mere 2.5 points, which means Vegas believes this would basically be a pick-em game on a neutral floor. The “other” Pioneer Post, which I increasingly suspect is written in large part by robots (but I digress), calls the game “a Sun Belt bout of epic proportions.” That’s perhaps a tad overdramatic (if not oxymoronic), but we’ll go with it! It’s gonna be EPIC!!!
But the epic G! O! T! N! I! O! H! isn’t all that’s on tap tonight in the mighty, mighty Sun Belt. No-sir-ee, we’ve got a full slate of hot! hot! hot! SBC action, including some games with big implications for the Pios. If all three home teams win in UALR @ FIU, NTEX @ ULM, and of course ARST @ DEN, the Pioneers would have a three-game lead in their division by night’s end. (By contrast, if the all three road teams win, Denver would have just a one-game lead over a trio of teams — with games coming up against all three between now and February 5, and two of those three on the road.) Also, can Western Kentucky finally win an SBC game? And which of the SBC East’s three-loss teams will win the ESPN3 game, and stay nominally alive in the race to catch those 6-0 Fighting Jarvises of FAU?
(By the way, if I sound sarcastic above, I don’t mean to. I’m just feeling a bit punchy and silly. I’m genuinely excited about tonight’s game, though! My mental transition from covering a disastrous season to covering one with real potential again is just about complete. Hopefully tonight doesn’t screw that up!)
Anyway, DU’s tipoff against Arkie State is at 7pm MST. I’ll be at Magness, watching from press row and live-tweeting, as per usual. And unlike some previous scattered, multi-topic liveblogs during DU games, we’re going to try to stay (mostly) on task tonight. All of my tweets, and tweets at me, will display in the Cover It Live window below. So will tweets from anyone on Kyle Whelliston’s Sun Belt list. Meanwhile, to keep us abreast of the broader mid-major picture, any tweets by @midmajority, or at him, will also appear, as will tweets by @bbstate (final CBB game scores) and @pixlvision (links to games that are watchable online).
The liveblog will start started at 2:00 PM MST. The evening’s first SBC game, UALR @ FIU, tips at 5:00 PM. That’s also approximately when Bally and I will be leaving downtown and heading over to DU.
You can join in the conversation by tweeting something “@brendanloy“; it’ll appear below. You can do this using the reply window at the bottom of this post. (NOTE: After the first tweet, you will need to retype “@brendanloy” in the window for each subsequent tweet.) OR, you can comment using CoverItLive’s built-in commenting system. I have to approve your comment before it will appear, though, so there may be a delay; tweeting at me is faster.
[game over, tweet box removed]
This is the Pioneer team we were hoping to see – 68% from 3 point land and making life difficult for the rest of the SBC.
Very exciting streak these guys have put together to save a season that was spiraling down to a season spiraling up….
After the game, Joe Scott expressed the concern that shooting percentages are subject to the law of averages, and they clearly aren’t going to shoot like this every night. What really impressed him was the defense, which held an Arkansas State team that Scott insists is still “one of the best teams in our league, even though they didn’t play like it tonight,” to 36 points. The offensive fireworks made the margin lopsided, but the defense won the game.