Cincinnati

AP Top 25: March 7th

There was the question about how BYU would get along without the suspended Brandon Davies, who was their third-leading scorer and leading rebounder before his dismissal. But while the early returns certainly don't look good, keep in mind the fact that New Mexico beat BYU in their first meeting with Davies on the floor. But they weren't beaten on the boards in that contest as they were tonight, as the Lobos out-rebounded BYU 45-29 on their way to an impressive 82-64 win at the Marriott Center.

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.

At the most the winner of tonight's game between Wisconsin (19-5, 9-3) and Purdue (20-5, 9-3) becomes the team with the best chance to catch Ohio State at the top of the Big Ten standings. But at the very least a win puts the victor in a good position to earn the two-seed in next month's Big Ten Tournament, a nice reward given the fact that the quarterfinal opponent will have played on the opening Thursday. Wisconsin looks to cap a season sweep of the series, and an important aspect of tonight's game will be their ability to put Saturday's win over Ohio State in the past and move forward.

It would have been extremely difficult to find many people who expected Wednesday's rivalry game between Texas A&M and Texas to be a blowout. But that's what happened in Austin as the Longhorns took control of the game defensively while also executing on the offensive end, winning by the final score of 81-60 and ending the Aggies' 13-game win streak.

While Saturday brings about the standard fare in regards to a full schedule offering a host of enticing matchups, the game of the day may be #12 Missouri (15-2, 1-1) making the trek to College Station. There await Mark Turgeon's Texas A&M Aggies (15-1, 2-0), one of the hotter teams in America but they've flown a bit under the radar since going 2-1 in the Old Spice Classic. The meeting between the Tigers and Aggies promises to be a battle of tempo, with Mike Anderson's squad looking to ramp things up while A&M is better suited for half-court play.

One of the most surprising teams in America has to be the Cincinnati (14-0) Bearcats, who remain undefeated after opening Big East play with wins over DePaul and Seton Hall. But that only gets you so far in the argument as to who the best team in the city is, a question that will get its answer on Thursday night when Xavier (8-4) comes calling in what's one of the more spirited rivalries in college basketball. Neither coach has to be particularly pleased with this game being played in early January as opposed to December but that won't diminish the focus for anyone involved.

The final day of 2010 gives college basketball fans the treat of watching one of the sport's most intense rivalries. Kentucky makes the trek up to the KFC Yum! Center to take on a Louisville squad that while ranked has been dealing with a number of injuries. The latest loss was that of forward Rakeem Buckles, who had surgery on a broken finger and will be out a few weeks while the digit heals.

Overall Rank: #87

 

I love Bob Huggins. I really do.

I covered his Bearcats as a sports writer for my college newspaper, the University of Cincinnati's The News Record. Thanks to him, I earned a free trip to exotic Minneapolis around this time of year in 1992, detailing UC's first Final Four appearance in 30 years.