Missouri

#11 Gonzaga vs #6 St. John's

#11 Marquette vs #6 Xavier

#11 Missouri vs #6 Cincinnati

#11 USC/VCU vs #6 Georgetown

With three NCAA Tournament tickets assured of being punched (that number becomes four if Princeton wins at Harvard in a crucial Ivy League tilt), it makes sense to touch on each of those games as opposed to the usual daily preview. The title game in the Atlantic Sun provides a matchup of the prohibitive favorite taking on the underdog, a storyline that usually doesn't come into play for another two weeks.

This point in the season offers many at-large candidates the opportunity to boost their resumes with another big win before going into conference tournament play. But having the chance and taking advantage of it are two entirely different things, and this was on full display Tuesday night. Baylor went on the road to Oklahoma State with a chance to simply show that they were effective at staying out of their own way...didn't happen.

Well, someone has to go to the NCAA Tournament. But there are more than a few teams who either don't value the importance of making a statement at this point or are willing to roll the dice on Selection Sunday. Wednesday was one of those nights, with a number of teams squandering opportunities to either bolster their causes or avoid stubbing their toe in contests they should win. Boston College qualifies, as they fell behind Miami at home by as many as 21 points before rallying back, ultimately losing 73-64.

Despite some solid opportunities still left on their schedule the Baylor Bears (17-9, 6-6) need to rattle off some wins in a hurry thanks to an overall resume that lacks bulk in addition to some eye-opening losses. The most recent result was a 78-69 loss at home to Texas Tech, which doesn't qualify as a statement that Scott Drew's team wants to make at this point in the season. Tonight brings about the challenge of solving the Missouri (21-6, 7-5) press, and the way in which the Bears have protected the ball at times this contest has the potential to get out of hand if they aren't careful.

Missouri played one of their best offensive halves of the season in the first half on Monday night, making 57.7% of their shots and scoring 42 points. But they were down four at the break thanks to the combination of suspect defense and superior execution by the Kansas Jayhawks. And as the Tigers slid closer to their season average in regards to field goal percentage Kansas got even better offensively, making 66.7% of their shots in the second half to win going away 103-86.

"Rivalry Week" tips off on Monday night, featuring an important Big 12 battle between Missouri (18-5, 4-4) and border rival Kansas (22-1, 7-1). While the Jayhawks have lost just one game the entire season (Texas at home), Mike Anderson's Tigers are stuck in the middle of the Big 12 standings (3rd-10th are separated by one game in the loss column) and could use a win like this one to further boost their standing in regards to NCAA Tournament seeding.

The Syracuse Orange made their way to Hartford knowing that head coach Jim Boeheim had never lost five consecutive games at any point in his illustrious career. But if that wasn't a heavy burden for this group to bear they had to deal with silly rumors of possible point-shaving (something that began as a message board joke became a "story" that some media outlets thought credible for a short period) Tuesday night. But the Orange took care of business, especially on the defensive end, as they beat the Huskies 66-58 to end their skid and get back on the right track.

While there are a number of good games on the schedule for Saturday the best matchup may not come until the evening deep in the heart of Texas. Rick Barnes' Longhorns (17-3, 5-0) have been outstanding for much of the season, having won 11 of their last 12 games with the defeat being by one point. But they'll encounter a stiff test in regards to both talent and style as a Missouri (17-3, 3-2) squad that needs a win to remain in the Big 12 title conversation visits the Erwin Events Center. Both squads are solid defensively but they do things in different ways.

While games tend to have their fair share of dueling spurts and runs, few can match what was seen at the Petersen Events Center on Monday night. Pittsburgh sprinted out of the gates, scoring the first 19 points of the game with Nasir Robinson providing nine of his career-high 21 points during that stretch. But the better teams are able to answer and that's exactly what Syracuse did despite playing without leading scorer Kris Joseph (head injury), going on a 17-0 run to close to within two points with 6:03 left in the half.