It’s officially the first weekend of the college basketball season with college football fully in the rearview mirror, which means even Ohio State Buckeyes fans can pivot their attention from a long-desired national championship to sweating out the NCAA tournament bubble. We ring in college basketball’s newfound spotlight with an absolutely loaded weekend of games, featuring a pair of top-15 showdowns and key games that will shape conference races as we inch closer to March.
Here’s a look at the men’s basketball games to pay attention to this weekend.
No. 21 Michigan Wolverines at No. 11 Purdue Boilermakers, 8 p.m. ET Friday (FOX)
Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind., should be electric for this battle of Big Ten contenders Friday night. Undefeated Michigan State has set quite a pace at the top of the conference, but the Wolverines and Boilermakers are knocking on the door. This matchup pits two of the best passers in the country: Purdue star point guard Braden Smith, who ranks third nationally in assists per game, and Michigan point forward Danny Wolf, a potential first-round NBA draft pick who wows scouts with his playmaking ability as a 7-footer. Beyond that matchup, keep an eye on how Purdue’s smaller front line deals with Michigan’s Vlad Goldin, who’s averaging 26 points per game in his last four contests.
No. 9 Kentucky Wildcats at Vanderbilt Commodores, 2:30 p.m. ET Saturday (ESPN)
A week ago, Vanderbilt upset in-state rival Tennessee, producing a wild court-storming scene. Do the Commodores have another storm-worthy performance up their sleeve? Knocking off Kentucky would be a huge step toward Vanderbilt punching its ticket to the NCAA tournament in Mark Byington’s first season in Nashville. The Wildcats bounced back convincingly from all four losses in Mark Pope’s inaugural campaign, but have work to do on the defensive end. Kentucky has the lowest-rated defense in SEC play, giving up an average of nearly 89 points per game so far against conference opponents. Fixing that will be essential to a deep run in March.
No. 2 Duke Blue Devils at Wake Forest Demon Deacons, 4:30 p.m. ET Saturday (ESPN)
Duke hasn’t been tested often in ACC play, with a perfect 8–0 mark and an average margin of victory of 23 points. The Blue Devils could at least get pushed Saturday in Winston-Salem, N.C., against a surging Wake Forest team that has won six straight. Wake’s defense is one of the stingiest units in the country, thanks in no small part to versatile forward Tre’Von Spillers, who figures to draw the assignment of guarding Cooper Flagg. Keeping the score down will be a must for the Deacs given how offensively challenged Wake has been at times this season, ranking 356th nationally in three-point percentage at just 28.1% from distance. But with a raucous home crowd on their side and one of the best shotmakers in the country in Hunter Sallis on its roster, Wake might be able to pull the upset if it can hang around with the Blue Devils’ supercharged offensive attack.
No. 7 Houston Cougars at No. 12 Kansas Jayhawks, 6:30 p.m. ET Saturday (ESPN)
Houston, the last remaining undefeated team in the Big 12, is rounding into form in the same way most Kelvin Sampson teams do: by dominating defensively and on the boards. Combine that usual recipe with a roster that is shooting nearly 39.9% from distance (ranked No. 7 nationally) and you have a national title contender seemingly hiding in plain sight. Given Kansas’s renewed focus on the defensive end, this might not be the most aesthetically pleasing game of the weekend, but it might be the best one overall. The Jayhawks’ hopes of keeping up in the crowded Big 12 title race may hinge on protecting home court here.
No. 6 Tennessee Volunteers at No. 1 Auburn Tigers, 8:30 p.m. ET Saturday (ESPN)
As if this top-10 showdown between arguably the two best teams in the SEC wasn’t good enough already, we get the added story line of Bruce Pearl hosting the school he spent six years at the helm of and took to the Elite Eight in 2010. Auburn will almost assuredly be without national player of year candidate Johni Broome as he continues to recover from an ankle injury sustained earlier this month, but so far the Tigers have navigated his absence rather smoothly. A big reason why: Auburn has made 10 threes in each of its two games without Broome, pivoting to a more perimeter-oriented attack without their star big man. Keeping the hot shooting up might be a challenge though against a Tennessee team that defends the three better than any team in the country, a big reason the Vols are off to a 17–2 start.
Saturday
Sunday
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