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Morning Coffee: Eastern Michigan, Gonzaga Shine. Upset Bids Thwarted by Others

By Parks Smith
Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Unfortunately, Ben Miraski is doing his best "Jingle All The Way" impression today trying to find a bootlegged Playstation 4. The good news is Ben sent me all the hot items in mid-major hoops that he wanted to hit on and said I can be your Barista this morning.

Here's the latest coast to coast from last night:

  • What has happened to St. Francis (NY)? They were the talk of the mid-major town to start off the year and now they find themselves at 5-5 and lost at home to Monmouth last night 73-58. This coming on the heels of a loss to a previously 1-6 Army team.
  • Evansville almost pulled off the upset bid at Xavier last night. The crazy part for the Purple Aces is that most of their production came off the bench in the form of D.J. Balentine (did you say Barry Smalentine?) and Egidijus Mockevicius. This might be a tough team in Missouri Valley play this year, but my biggest takeaway is I can't wait for Dan Bogle to be done with exams so I don't have to type out Egidijus Mockevicius any more.
  • Eastern Michigan has been playing well thus far this season, but the Eagles were in the midst of a three game skid. EMU moved to 6-3 last night by knocking off a hot UW-Green Bay team, who was coming off a win against Virginia. Our friends at Hustle Belt have a good look at the game.
  • I don't know who Greg Kampe was mad at when he put together Oakland's schedule for this year (or maybe the Grizz just have a bunch of bills to pay?), but it's been brutal. Oakland got beat down again last night by a power conference team, but the sad part was that Travis Bader didn't make a three. It was the first game in 62 affairs that Darth Bader didn't convert from beyond the arc.
  • #20 Gonzaga moved to 9-1 last night escaping Morgantown with a 80-76 win, the Bulldogs third straight over the Mountaineers. Will Maupin broke down the Zags performance last night.
  • Sooooo... Furman lost to Division II Mars Hill last night. I think this about sums up my thoughts from seeing Mars Hill earlier this year:

  • Campbell keeps making the coffee for all the wrong reasons. This time they fell to Division II Chowan in overtime. Chowan lost to East Carolina by 50 earlier this year and UNC Greensboro by 39. It's the second year in a row Campbell has lost to a non-Division I opponent, last year they lost to Rio Grande. My thoughts from last night again:
  • So maybe the real reason Ben is out this morning is because he covered the preseason Independent champions NJIT last night. Unfortunately the Highlanders (it won an Oscar for best movie ever) could not pull off the upset against Seton Hall.
  • So Z. Mason (41 points, 12 rebounds) and Jerrelle Benimon (17 points, 18 rebounds, 10 assists) got some national pub last night, but no one mentioned they played Hiwassee College and Central Penn. I gave up on finding Hiwassee's athletics website and I actually saw Central Penn play last year. They were an hour late because their bus got lost.

What's On Tap

North Dakota State (6-3) at Notre Dame (7-2), 7 PM, ESPNU
Bryant (6-4) at #3 Ohio State (8-0), 7:30 PM, Big Ten Network
Princeton (6-1) at Rutgers (4-6), 7:30 PM, ESPN3
New Mexico State (7-4) at #1 Arizona (9-0), 9 PM, Pac 12 Network
Denver (2-5) at Colorado State (7-3), 9 PM, ROOT

Fairfield at Belmont: CANCELLED! NOBODY GO!

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