Game #5.  It’s off to the suburbs of Northern Virginia for RTC Live today, as the CAA looks to continue flexing some early-season muscle.

This is one of the more intriguing games of the weekend. Harvard may have lost Jeremy Lin — arguably the greatest player in school history — but they return enough talent and experience to be considered a contender for the Ivy League title. Scoff at that if you want, but Princeton, the Ivy favorite this season, just knocked off Rutgers on the road. The Crimson will head into this game short handed, however, as reigning Ivy rookie of the year Kyle Casey broke a bone in his foot in October and will not be available.  Like Harvard, George Mason is considered a contender, and not the favorite, to win their conference, but that doesn’t mean the Patriots aren’t a very good basketball team. They return all five starters from last season. And while last year’s group struggled to a 2-7 finish to the year, they were very much in the thick of the conference race for the majority of the season. Senior Cam Long and junior Ryan Pearson are the two players to keep an eye on for Mason.

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Game #2. We’re back in Lexington for Round Two of Calipari’s Young’in Brigade.

All is by no means lost, Kentucky fans. Four recruits out of last year’s top 70 will have to suffice for now. The NCAA’s decision on Enes Kanter has turned the Big Blue Nation…well, blue, and it’s conferred added importance on the more sizable Wildcats like Eloy Vargas and Josh Harrellson. John Calipari is left with a ten-man team out of which only nine will play major minutes. We know what he can do as a recruiter, but this year, more than ever, he’ll have to put his skills on display in managing such talent. The first official test comes at home against East Tennessee State, the team they beat in the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament. The Buccaneers return all five starters from that team, so this would seemingly be a good time to exact revenge. ETSU, however, will not have senior Tommy Hubbard, their scoring, rebounding, and steals leader from last year as he recovers from knee surgery. Still, they’ll bring four seniors and the core of a team that’s been to the Tournament two straight years, and because of that, this one might be more interesting than it appears at first glance. It starts at 7 PM, and we’ll start things up at Rupp Arena about 15 minutes before the tip. We hope you’ll join us.

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Game #3.  RTC Live makes its first-ever visit to Matthews Arena at Northeastern for a battle of two local  rivals with something to prove this season.

Crosstown rivals Boston University and Northeastern open their seasons at Matthews Arena. The overall series favors the Terriers who lead 71-66 after winning the last two matchups, including last year’s epic overtime battle. This year the Terriers should be favored to win as predicted champions in the America East Conference. Boston is a very young, talented team lead by preseason all-Atlantic East players John Holland and Jake O’Brien–who iced last year’s game for the Terriers with a turnaround jumper in overtime.  But don’t count the Huskies out. Northeastern will have homecourt advantage (not to mention they want to avenge last year’s loss), and Chaisson Allen is a very good player (he averaged 13.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game last season). The Terriers might be more talented, but they’re also very young and on the road. This should be a great game.

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Game #4.  RTC Live visits another new school tonight, enjoying the hospitality of upstate New York in a game between two regional rivals looking for answers.

Fresh off its third consecutive Ivy League conference title and a scintillating Sweet 16 run in last year’s March Madness tournament, Cornell’s Big Red takes a trip to the Capital Region to take on UAlbany’s Great Danes. Cornell welcomes new head coach Bill Courtney to the sidelines after the departure of Steve Donahue, the architect of much of Big Red’s recent success, who has since left to fill a vacancy at Boston College. Coach Courtney has his work cut out for him in trying to replicate Big Red’s 29 wins from last year. On the other sideline, UAlbany coach Will Brown hopes to rebound from a dismal 7-25 campaign, the worst season of his career to date. To do so, he will turn to the talents of sophomores Blake Metcalf and Logan Aronholt, who he named captains back in October. The America East Conference’s preseason poll slated the Great Danes to finish eighth in the conference, just ahead of UMBC, so Coach Brown faces a long road ahead of him in rebuilding the UAlbany brand to its 2006 form, which saw the Great Danes earn a trip to the NCAA tournament and a compelling near-upset of No. 1 seed UConn.

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We’re back with our third season of RTC Live, folks, and we are scouring the entire country for interesting games this year.  If you’d like for us to visit your school, shoot us an email at rushthecourt@yahoo.com, and we’ll do our best to get there.  RTC Live: College Basketball Nation’s Independent Live-Blog.  Join us for a bit tonight, or anytime throughout the season. 

Tonight Rob Dauster of Ballin is a Habit is on-site in College Park, Maryland, for a heckuva interesting game between two old coaching rivals.

Maryland beat their first opponent, Seattle, by 29 points on Monday, but it certainly wasn’t the prettiest game the Terps have ever played. They committed 27 turnovers, including 15 by their three main ball handlers in Adrian Bowie, Pe’Shon Howard, and Terrell Stoglin. That said, both Maryland and Seattle came into the game looking to play an uptempo, full court game. As a result, it devolved into nothing more than glorified AAU ball. Charleston will be a tougher opponent for the Terps. Predicted to finish second in the South Division of the SoCon, Charleston returns five of their top seven, led by a kid named Andrew Goudelock. I’m sure UNC fans remember who he is.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this game? Its being called by Jay Williams. That Jay Williams. In College Park. We’ll be sure to get there early to be sure that we get the crowd’s reaction when the former Dookie Williams enters the arena.

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