2018-19 Week 2 College Basketball Bracket Impact Games

We are on the lookout for 2018-19 Week 2 college basketball bracket impact games.

These are the games that will take place over the course of this week in college basketball that appear to have bracketology implications, either good or bad. Please note that our first official bracketology of the year is a month or so away, as we need to have much more than one-twentieth of the season played first.

In November, this is the time for non-conference play. Is your school winning the games against the doormats? Have they found a way to win in the tough games against other major-conference foes? You can’t make the 2019 NCAA Tournament in November, but you can cost yourself the opportunity. It’s never too early to start looking at games that matter, whether they’re for the “right” reasons or not.

Scroll down every day to see the daily update. We are citing RealTime RPI as a reference for RPI values on the dates in which the game was added to this running list.

2018-19 Week 2 College Basketball Bracket Impact Games: Sunday, November 11

Good Resume Wins

• Vanderbilt defeats USC (RPI: 74) on the road. Commodores’ RPI rank increases to 8th.

Bad Resume Losses

• None.

Daily Notes

The big names took care of business in the Sunday slate of games with a great deal of them being low-impact contests. Every ranked team defeated its mid and low-major opposition. Further, every major conference team won with the exception of USC against Vanderbilt.

2018-19 Week 2 College Basketball Bracket Impact Games: Monday, November 12

Good Resume Wins

• None.

Bad Resume Losses

• None.

Daily Notes

All ranked teams won their games on Monday. This included a close call by #12 Kansas State against the Denver Pioneers. The only major-conference teams to lose were Utah, who played at Minnesota, and Stanford, who faced #7 North Carolina. Luckily for teams who are playing for something down the line, all avoided catastrophe with the light portions of their schedules.

2018-19 Week 2 College Basketball Bracket Impact Games: Tuesday, November 13

Good Resume Wins

• Wisconsin defeats Xavier (RPI: 62) on the road. Badgers’ pregame RPI ranking was 31st.

Bad Resume Losses

• None.

2018-19 Week 2 College Basketball Bracket Impact Games: Wednesday, November 14

Good Resume Wins

• Michigan defeats Villanova (Ranked #8) on the road.
• Indiana defeats Marquette (Ranked #24) at home.

Bad Resume Losses

• Boston College loses to IUPUI (RPI: 221) at home.
• Notre Dame loses to Radford (RPI: 213) at home.
• Washington State loses to Seattle (RPI: 155) on the road.

Daily Notes

This was one of the most consequential days of the young season so far, with two teams picking up big resume wins and three power conference teams taking inexplicably bad losses. The most disturbing were Boston College and Notre Dame’s defeats to teams outside the RPI Top 200 at the time of the game. Not to mention, both were home games. The Eagles in particular have a slim margin for error and this is a significant setback for a program seeking their first tournament berth in a decade.

2018-19 Week 2 College Basketball Bracket Impact Games: Thursday, November 15

Good Resume Wins

• Connecticut defeats Syracuse (Ranked #15) on a neutral court.
• Iowa defeats Oregon (Ranked #13) on a neutral court.
• Davidson defeats Wichita State (RPI: 47) on a neutral court.

Bad Resume Losses

• None.

2018-19 Week 2 College Basketball Bracket Impact Games: Friday, November 16

Good Resume Wins

• Oregon defeats Syracuse (Ranked #15) on a neutral court.
• Loyola Marymount defeats Georgetown (RPI: 41) on a neutral court.

Bad Resume Losses

• None.

2018-19 Week 2 College Basketball Bracket Impact Games: Saturday, November 17

Good Resume Wins

• Oregon defeats Syracuse (Ranked #15) on a neutral court.
• Providence defeats South Carolina at home.

Bad Resume Losses

• Villanova loses to Furman at home.

Daily Notes

Furman’s RPI is pretty high right now, but let’s revisit that in November. It’s for sure the sort of loss you do not want to take, but Villanova at least has a buffer. They come into this season with a good team and as the defending national champions. Even with this loss, they are not a bubble team. The concern for them is that they lost twice this week and their season is off to a less stellar start than they expected.