College Basketball TV Schedule: Virginia-Syracuse Battle For The ACC

It’s the penultimate weekend of the college basketball regular season and the biggest game is on the ACC. First place is on the line with Syracuse-Virginia (4 PM ET, ESPN) going from Charlottesville. The Orange’s run at being undefeated and their two great games with Duke have dominated the headlines, but it’s UVA who is sitting atop the conference standings.

A Virginia win on Saturday clinches a tie for the conference title, with two opportunities to wrap up the crown outright. Syracuse would pull even with a win of their own. This game is the highlight of the college basketball TV schedule. Other games with significant conference championship implications include…

St. Louis-Virginia Commonwealth (6 PM ET, ESPN2): The Billikens still have a two-game lead in the Atlantic 10, but a road loss here could make the final week interesting. VCU is NCAA Tournament bound again.

Kansas-Oklahoma State (9 PM ET, ESPN): Gameday goes to Stillwater where the Jayhawks are going for an outright Big 12 title. Kansas has already locked up at least a co-championship and has games against Texas Tech and West Virginia—both below .500 in league play—up next week, so it probably doesn’t matter. But I’m sure Bill Self would like to get it done early and for the national TV audience.

Missouri State-Wichita State (2 PM ET, ESPN): What a year it’s been for college basketball in the Kansas-Missouri area. We’ve already touched on KU and St. Louis pushing for conference championships. And then there’s Wichita State, looking to reach 31-0 on Saturday.

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Louisville-Memphis (2 PM ET, CBS): Rick Pitino’s Louisville team kept themselves alive for the American title with last week’s big road win at Cincinnati. Now the Cards have to sustain in a tough road setting at Memphis.

That’s the best in college basketball on what I would consider a fairly quiet weekend. As a Big Ten fan, I’m looking forward to a Sunday trifecta of Wisconsin-Penn State (Noon ET, BTN), Purdue-Iowa (2 PM ET, BTN) and Ohio State-Indiana (4 PM ET, CBS), but those games are unlikely to affect the race for the conference title.