Particularly if you live in an SEC zone, where #1 Florida is playing recently ranked Vanderbilt. I don't know much about Vandy, but apparently they've been on quite a roll of late, and their main scoring threat to watch is Derrick Byars.
All four of the Top 4 teams are playing tonight (those teams being Wisconsin, UNC, and Ohio State). Wisconsin is playing Indiana, who has been palying some decent ball of late, but they rely heavily on their big men, which against a touch Wisconsin interior defense will probably not help them here. If I were to watch to this game, I'd look for one big streak, early in the second half that puts this away from the Badgers. It is in Indiana, so if the game stays close, you can look for Hoosier pride and home-cookin' to have an effect. Wisconsin needs to put it away early.
UNC and Ohio State have pretty weak competition tonight in Miami (Fl) & Purdue respectively. A loss for either would embarrassing. You may look at Purdue's 14-7 record and think I'm being harsh, but they are 2-5 in the Big 10 (and the Big 10 is having a down year).
There are some other intriguing match-ups outside of the Top 5, of course--lots of teams that just exited the Top 25 playing teams that just entered it.
You've got a Big 12 Game of the Week type affair with Texas Tech and Texas going at it. Worth watching, particularly if you haven't seen Kevin Durant play yet. Greg Oden at Ohio St. as the Second Coming of Patrick Ewing is getting a lot of play this year, but fellow freshman Durant is the more complete player right now. He's lean, rangy, tall (6' 9") with great smarts on the court, and leads Texas in Scoring and Rebounds. He's like the Second Coming of Kevin Garnett (minus a couple of inches + time in college).
Some of the SEC teams with Questions to Be Addressed are playing tonight--LSU and Alabama. Both have been streaky at best of late, and both show signs of being "solved" by particular defensive schemes. Alabama got housed by Auburn earlier, and it was in no small part because they couldn't rebound against Auburn, and couldn't get the 3 point shot going (something they rely upon). LSU needs to figure out who can help them besides Glen Davis. Should be an intriguing game, if not the prettiest of sights.
Finally, the West Coast game is probably Stanford and Gonzaga. Gonzaga's out of the 25, and Stanford is in. This doesn't seem right to me--maybe 10 years ago, this would have made sense. It doesn't now. Stanford is enjoying some of that reflected Pac-10 glory, and Gonzaga has stumbled in their own lightly respected conference. Both teams are winning of late--Stanford with impressive win on paper over USC, and truly impressive win over UCLA. Gonzaga is back to slapping around the rest of the WCC. Gonzaga is highly motivated to beat a team from a major conference, and Stanford is highly motivated to show that their recent success isn't a fluke. Stay up late and drink beer and watch this game.
1 comment:
that gonzaga-stanford game was fun...double OT fun.
Post a Comment