Sunday, January 6th Highlighted Match-ups

HIGHLIGHTED MATCH-UPS

-XAVIER AT AUBURN. Xavier has blown out Kansas State and Virginia in back to back games, but did so at home. The Musketeers are still looking for their first true road win. Auburn is 9-2 on the year, but has built up that record against a weak schedule. They need to defeat a quality opponent in order to get their resume up to par.

-NORTH CAROLINA AT CLEMSON (ACC). This is the conference opener for both teams, and it should be a good one. Clemson has just one loss, but this is clearly the best team they’ve faced so far. The crowd should really be amped up for this one. North Carolina has been playing outstanding basketball and looks to be the best team in the country. They are competing for a #1 seed, which would mean playing first/second round games in Raleigh and regional games in Charlotte. A game like this is the kind of win that can help them get it.

-CORNELL AT DUKE. Cornell should make quite a bit of noise in the Ivy League, and has a good shot at winning it, but not today. Duke should win in a blowout.

-BUFFALO AT KENT STATE (Mid American). Kent State is coming off a blowout loss to North Carolina, but that isn’t too damaging considering how good North Carolina is. They can still play their way into consideration for an at-large if they can dominate the conference.

-NORTHWESTERN AT OHIO STATE (Big Ten). The Buckeyes appear to be hitting their stride and should be able to improve to 11-3 and pick up a conference win at home today. They’re coming off a win on the road against Illinois in a game where they looked pretty good.

-PITTSBURGH AT VILLANOVA (Big East). Injuries have really hurt Pitt and they’re down to just nine scholarship players. It will be interesting to see if they can still play at a high level as shorthanded as they are. Nova is coming off a rather surprising loss to De Paul and will fall to 0-2 in league play without too many OOC wins to fall back on, so this could be viewed as a rather pivotal game for them as well.

-MARQUETTE AT WEST VIRGINIA. West Virginia had been playing great basketball, but they’ve dropped two games in a row and could really use a quality win to build some momentum back up. Marquette is coming off a blowout win against Providence, but they haven’t faced many quality teams away from home so it will be interesting to see what they do in this one.