Memphis

Saturday brings about the biggest game in the history of the San Diego State (27-1, 12-1) program, which before the recent run of Steve Fisher has been an afterthought in southern California. BYU (26-2, 12-1) visits Viejas Arena with the winner taking a significant step towards not only the Mountain West's regular season crown but possible a one seed in the NCAA Tournament. Both have resumes that could merit such mention should the winner go on to win out, including the conference tournament (BYU is 8-1 vs. RPI Top 50, SDSU 4-1), but that's of little concern.

Saturday night's matchup between Illinois and Michigan State didn't set up to be the marquee meeting expected when the season began, but it definitely didn't lack for importance with both teams needing wins to ensure an NCAA Tournament appearance. And in a battle of seniors who needed to step up it was Kalin Lucas who came through, scoring 25 points in Michigan State's 71-67 win over the Illini.

The question going into Wednesday's matchup between rivals North Carolina and Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium was how the young Tar Heels would respond to the atmosphere. They responded quite well in the first half, scoring the first seven points of the game and leading by as many as 16 points before taking a 43-29 lead into the locker room. If anything the first half was a case of the more experienced Blue Devils being caught up in the moment, as getting away from the things they do best in addition to failing to truly compete inside landed them in the early hole.

Heading into Saturday's action the Arizona Wildcats were already up by a game in the Pac-10 standings thanks to their win over Stanford combined with Washington's loss at Oregon State on Thursday night. With a golden opportunity to make themselves the clear favorite to win the regular season title at their fingertips as Washington lost at Oregon earlier in the day, the young Wildcats took a big step in that direction in Berkeley. It's just hard to imagine that anyone involved realized just how much effort would be needed to do so.

Derwin Kitchen played arguably his best game as a Seminole and as a result Florida State picked up a win that serves as a good counter to that horrific loss at Auburn. Kitchen scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds while Chris Singleton added 18 points and played solid defense on Kyle Singler before getting into foul trouble in the second half in a 66-61 FSU victory. Kyle Singler led Duke with 20 points, 18 of those coming in the second half.

"I try to make him earn everything he gets. Like I said, he's got all of those accolades, but he's gotta come in and prove it."

- UNLV guard Tre'Von Willis on BYU's Jimmer Fredette in Tuesday's Las Vegas Sun

While a number of eyes will be fixated on the in-state battle between Memphis and Tennessee (and rightfully so), that matchup sits behind the Mountain West opener between BYU (14-1) and UNLV as the game of the night. Jimmer Fredette (24.1 ppg, 4.4 apg) has lit up just about every team he's encountered throughout his storied career but he and BYU have had their fair share of issues when taking on UNLV (12-2) at Thomas & Mack.

There should be little doubt as to what the game of the day is on Thursday with a Big 5 battle on the docket. Temple (9-2, 0-0 Big 5) makes the short trip to Villanova (10-1, 3-0 Big 5) with hopes of picking up their second win over a ranked Big East team this season, and they've got the horses to do so.

Thursday provided quite the test for Josh Pastner's Memphis Tigers, with the more experienced Georgetown Hoyas invading the FedEx Forum. While Memphis' competitive spirit can't be questioned their execution, especially on the defensive end, was of no match for the Hoyas who diced up the Tigers to the tune of an 86-69 win. Austin Freeman scored 24 points while Chris Wright added 19 and Julian Vaughn 15 points and 10 rebounds in arguably Georgetown's best showing this season in moving to 11-1.

There are some good matchups on the schedule for today, from Washington State and Baylor playing in the Diamond Head Classic to Oakland's Keith Benson taking on Ohio State sensation Jared Sullinger. But the best meeting may be that between Georgetown (10-1) and Memphis (9-1) at the FedEx Forum in front of what will be a raucous crowd. The Hoyas have already picked up one win in a hostile environment (despite it being a "neutral" court), beating Missouri in Kansas City in late November.