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…
Here’s a rundown on College Basketball Saturday, what’s on TV and what the implications are. We’ll go in chronological order through the TV schedule and conclude with a Sunday addendum, where there are still a couple big battles
The Super Bowl is in the books, and the sports calendar officially flips into the relatively quieter month of February. The Olympics will draw the attention of a lot of people, but here at TheSportsNotebook the subject that’s most interesting is the college basketball conference races. Our Notebook Nine, the nine points to focus on, will sweep through the nine major conferences in the country.
The bubble has been interesting all year in SEC basketball, and it’s no different in the conference tournaments. The SEC is one of four major conferences with semifinal action going, and they continue to have the most intrigue. 10th-seeded Vanderbilt knocked off Kentucky yesterday, perhaps pushing the Wildcats into the NIT. Ole Miss beat Missouri and kept their own hopes alive. Now ABC has to be kicking itself, because instead of a Kentucky-Missouri semifinal, they can show Vandy-Ole Miss to the nation at 3 PM EST. It’s anyone’s guess whether the Rebs are in or if they need to keep advancing. There’ s no doubt about the Commodores—it’s cut down the nets Sunday or go home.
There are four major conference tournaments pared down to the semifinals, and of the 16 teams playing, 15 are already safely in the NCAA Tournament. The outlier is Utah. The Utes, seeded 10th in the Pac-12 have won consecutive upsets against USC and Cal to reach the semis and now stand as the team all the bubble contenders have to watch and keep and eye on. And they’ll have an exclusive TV audience. The Utah-Oregon game is the final one of Friday night, tipping at 11:30 PM ET on ESPN. As we did yesterday, TheSportsNotebook will break down the rest of the daily sports docket, looking at it by TV timeslot, so you can decide which games to watch or sneak a peek at from the office.
Three conferences send their best teams onto the floor in college basketball’s tournament action. The Big East, Pac-12 and Big 12, all gearing for Saturday championship games are into the quarterfinals. It’s also all-day action in the Big Ten, ACC, SEC and Atlantic 10, which are in the preliminary rounds. So meaning no disrespect to some interesting NBA & NHL games, its college basketball that drives the daily sports docket right now. TheSportsNotebook will break it down by time slot, so you can pick the best games to watch tonight, or to cut away from work to check in on…
The Big East basketball race is coming down to the wire. Georgetown holds a one-game lead in the loss column on Marquette and Louisville, but a difficult final push for the Hoyas starts tonight. They visit Villanova (7 PM ET, ESPN2). The Wildcats are right on the NCAA bubble and desperate for a win themselves, having just coughed up consecutive games to Seton Hall and Pitt. The argument for Villanova is built around their success against the conference’s best—the Wildcats have home scalps against Louisville, Syracuse and Marquette. If ‘Nova can add Georgetown to that list, at a time when the Hoyas are the hottest team in the country, you would think it would seal the deal for an NCAA invite.
If you like college basketball, clear your Saturday schedule, because while there’s interesting games throughout the week, it’s the penultimate Saturday of the regular season that features big battles with possible conference championships at stake. So our walk through the week in TV sports will begin with the end in mind, as we start with all there is to look forward to on Saturday.
The week of the Harbaugh Family’s conquest of the American sports culture isn’ t limited to Sunday night’s Super Bowl in New Orleans (6:30 PM ET, CBS). Nope, before Baltimore and San Francisco tee it up, the extended family gets into the act. The sister of the Brothers Harbaugh is married to Indiana basketball coach Tom Crean, and his Hoosiers are not only in the spotlight on the weekend, but they have a Saturday night prime-time date with Michigan (9 PM ET, ESPN). You can block off about a 24-hour period where this entire extended family owns American TV sports.
After a weekend of intense college football, with conference championship, debates over the BCS and the final settling of the national title matchup, the time has come for the NFL to take center stage and basketball to get some increased prominence
The run of November marquee college basketball games begins on Friday with a tripleheader, including two games on military bases, with one of them over in Germany. For college basketball fans, it’s a time to start sizing up who can play, who can’t and who’s got the potential to grow into a March Madness force five months from now. For the average sports fan it can be tough to keep up with everything, as college football & NFL action tends to draw more attention. If you’re in that group of fans, but still want to key in some basics, here are the notable games coming up on the college basketball schedule between now and Thanksgiving week…