Hartford's Schedule One Of the Toughest In Nation

The data doesn't lie. The University of Hartford has the fourth-toughest non-conference schedule in the country. And at 5-7 entering the America East season, that tough scheduling is what has kept the Hawks in the top echelon of the RPI rankings. The average RPI of Hartford's opponents through last week is fourth in the nation and the overall winning percentage of the Hawks' opponents is .6879 (108-49), the second-highest in the country behind only Illinois.

Vermont is America East's second-ranked team in both RPI and strength of schedule. The Catamounts' schedule is the 27th-toughest among the 340 Division I teams with their opponents having a .6226 winning percentage.

The information above is from Collegiate Basketball News' weekly RPI report. This is the latest America East RPI rankings:

America East - 19th of 32 conferences
Hartford - 54
Vermont - 111
Boston U. - 124
UMBC - 157
Binghamton - 217
New Hampshire - 288
Albany - 307
Stony Brook - 314
Maine - 319

Tonight's only action is Binghamton at Cornell with tip-off at 7 p.m. It is the Bearcats' final non-conference game of the season. There are just two more non-league contests remaining: Dartmouth at New Hampshire on January 13at 7 p.m. and the nationally-televised Pink Zone game pitting Marist at Hartford on February 15 at Chase Arena.