17 Games To Watch This Weekend

• Azubuike24

  

  One of the best weekends of the year for college basketball fans. Here's a look:
  
  Friday
  
  Northern Iowa 71, Old Dominion 62 - Awesome win for UNI without their best player. Definitely a fun way to start the weekend watching this one.
  
  Cornell 79, Harvard 70 - Cornell is now a win at home against Princeton away from winning the Ivy League assuming they don't fall to anyone else. Everyone else on their schedule is under .500.
  
  Saturday
  
  Butler 70, Siena 53 - Big win for Butler as they are playing for seeding, and they did it without Willie Veasley. Siena has had a great year, but it's MAAC Tourney or bust.
  
  Florida 64, Mississippi 61 - Has the recent choking of Billy D's Gators gone by the wayside? They have won back to back games this week including a big win here over Ole Miss, who is likely NIT bound after going 0-2 at home this week.
  
  Murray State 75, Morgan State 66 - Murray is now 26-3, and are inching closer to that magical 30-win mark. Nobody has ever been left out with more than 29 wins.
  
  West Virginia 75, Seton Hall 63 - The Hall fought hard to comeback, but it wasn't enough and WVU puts a dagger into Seton Hall's slim NCAA chances.
  
  Oklahoma State 82, Baylor 75 - Nice win for OSU, they are really on the right side of the bubble now. Baylor is still going to be a tough team to place, despite their record they do have 5 Big 12 losses.
  
  Xavier 81, Charlotte 67 - Looks as if Charlotte is playing their way out of the NCAA discussion as they really weren't ever a threat to win this one against X. The Muskies have the inside track on the A-10 title.
  
  Maryland 76, Georgia Tech 74 - Maryland still in the ACC title hunt, and at 6-7 in the ACC, Tech is still going to likely get an NCAA bid, but they are one of those teams people always seem to think are better than they really are.
  
  UTEP at Tulsa - Both fighting for the C-USA title, the Miners have the lead over Tulsa and Memphis and have already beaten both. Must win for Tulsa, who is likely out of the NCAA's for now. This is a chance for a quality win for both.
  
  Illinois at (4) Purdue - The Boilers are on fire since losing 3 straight, and despite Illinois falling to OSU Sunday, they still have Big 10 title aspirations if they win this one.
  
  (2) Kentucky at (17) Vanderbilt - Vandy is the only SEC team who can challenge UK for the regular season title and have won 4 straight over the Cats in Nashville. A win for Vandy gives them many of the tiebreakers and they have a much easier schedule remaining. A win for the Cats gives them a 2-game lead with 4 left and a sweep on the Dores.
  
  Wichita State at Utah State - There are other good bracket buster games, but this one is great. Two teams with outside chances of at-large bids is why. There are 3-5 other BB games between teams capable of winning their tournaments, but this is the best outside of the 2 main ones (UNI/ODU and Butler/Siena).
  
  Sunday
  
  (11) Ohio State at (9) Michigan State - Big Ten title implications all over the place in this one. Bigger game for OSU if they have any hope, but it's still one of the biggest games of the year in the conference.
  
  (3) Villanova at (19) Pittsburgh - After winning at Marquette, Pittsburgh can make this a great week with a win at the Pete over Nova. Nova leads the Big East, but has Syracuse waiting in the wings a week away, so they can't stumble in this one on their route to a possible #1 seed.
  
  Marquette at Cincinnati - Maybe an elimination game as the loser can't really afford to lose another, especially not to the other. Marquette rose up, but suffered a huge loss at home to Pittsburgh. Cincy won at UConn but fell to USF earlier in the week.
  
  Virginia Tech at (6) Duke - The top 2 in the ACC square off, and the surprising Hokies, winners of 5 straight and 8 of 9 in the ACC can shock the world with a win. If they can pull it off, they have the schedule to win the ACC.
• swamisez

  

  Vandy UK is the marquee, and probably the only game I will watch outside of the Blue Devils.
  
  I see Vandy really playing well at home, but UK pulling it out late.
  Duke should get a home W against VaTech. Thank god we don't play them at Cassel.
• Mulva

  

  I think William and Mary (19-7) @ Iona (19-8) could be a very good game tonight too.
  
  Iona has wins over Creighton and Providence, took Baylor to OT and only lost to Florida State by 5.
  
  William and Mary has very good wins over Richmond, Wake, Maryland, VCU, and in their past 2 games Northeastern and George Mason.
  
  If they hadn't suffered crippling losses to Harvard (87-85 on a 3 pointer at the buzzer in Triple Overtime), and UNC Wilmington (62-61 on a tip in with 3.4 seconds left) they would be in great shape to get into the NCAA at 21-5 (12-4). As it stands now they'll probably have to win the CAA tournament, but they're definitely a dangerous team.
  
  I put a little wager on Cornell to beat Harvard straight up tonight, so here's hoping they come through on the road.
• Azubuike24

  

  I could have included other games too.
  
  William & Mary/Iona
  Northeastern/Louisiana Tech
  Nevada/Missouri State
  Fairfield/Vermont
  Akron/Virginia Commonwealth
  Morehead State/Illinois State
  Western Carolina/Kent State
  Charleston/George Mason
  Pacific/New Mexico State
  
  However, I figured I'd stick to the games involving teams who do have a chance at an at-large bid and need to win their bracket buster game. Regardless, I love this weekend as much as any all year. It's the third best weekend of the basketball season behind the first weekend of the NCAA Tourney and Conference Championship Weekend.
• swamisez

  

  catching myself watch Carolina try to throw one away at Conte Forum
  
  57-53 Eagles with 9 mins left
• reclegend22

  

  BC starting to pull away.
  
  There's always this, Heel fans:
  
  
  
  
  
  Carolina would move to 14-13 with a loss today, and slide behind BC for the 10th spot in the ACC. I actually might be rooting for Carolina to win a couple down the stretch, if only for the Heels to get back into the eight or nine slots in the conference, as Duke would play the winner of the old "Les Robinson Invitational" (the 8-vs-9 matchup in Thursday's ACC Tournament first round) if the Blue Devils win the ACC cloth race. I want Carolina a third time.
• Azubuike24

  

  Murray State is really impressive, they are pulling away from Morgan State.
  Florida and Mississippi coming down to the wire.
  Seton Hall has made a furious comeback to cut the WVU lead to 4.
  
  A few upset alerts, Temple trails St. Joe's by 2 and St. John's leads at USF by 11, both in the late 2nd half.
• Azubuike24

  

  Temple is going to pull it out against St. Joseph's in OT.
  South Florida isn't so lucky losing to St. John's by 16 at home.
  
  The Big East bubble teams are really hurting. Notre Dame, Seton Hall and South Florida have really killed their chances this week. Marquette didn't help themselves losing to Pitt, and now play at Cincy tomorrow. Cincy and Connecticut have huge games, UConn today at Rutgers and Cincy hosting Pitt.
  
  Louisville is the only one looking very solid.
• CinciX12

  

  Xavier up 31-22 against Charlotte at the half. This would kill Charlotte's NCAA hopes.
• FairwoodKing

  I'm an MAC person, so I will watch Akron and Kent play.
• Mulva

  

  Oklahoma State is up 7 on Baylor. Would be a huge win for them with the next 3 games being @ Texas, Kansas, @ Texas A+M.
• Azubuike24

  

  Tennessee holds on against South Carolina on the road. Big wins today for Florida and Tennessee, they play Tuesday night in Gainesville.
  
  Louisville in a battle with DePaul in Chicago.
• Azubuike24

  

  UTEP crushing Tulsa by 17 nearing halftime. Randy Culpepper is going off again. UTEP is really playing lights out as of late winners of 9 straight.
• Mulva

  

  Culpepper is an explosive scorer. UTEP is a team capable of making a Sweet 16 run next month if he gets hot.
  
  Mississippi State survives LSU on a 3 with 5 seconds left. Probably would have crushed their at-large hopes.