Welcome to the first ever Games To Watch article. This article will come out Monday-Thursday during the college basketball season. We will talk about important games that are on that night and also a few important SEC games that will be available to you. Your comments are welcome so please comment on what you think.
Around the NCAA
- Oklahoma (12-5, 3-2 Big XII) at Kansas (14-3, 3-1 Big XII)
This is easily the biggest game of the night. Oklahoma is coming off a blwout win over Oklahoma State on Saturday and is trying to find their 4th conference win. Buddy Hield has played like an absolute stud this year averaging 17.6 ppg. He will have to take control of the offense in Allen Fieldhouse tonight. Kansas is coming off their first conference loss of the season suffered at the hands of Iowa State in Ames on Saturday. Kansas’ defense has been poor this season and it will need to get better for the Jayhawks to win another conference title. Look for Frank Mason and Perry Ellis to have big games tonight.
My Pick: Kansas- It’s hard to pick against the Jayhawks in Lawrence, especially coming off a loss. Self will have them motivated and Oklahoma will get an angry Jayhawk squad.
2. Villanova (17-1, 4-1 Big East) at Georgetown (12-5, 4-2 Big East)
Villanova has bounced back well after the loss to Seton Hall as they’ve won 4 in a row since then. Traveling to DC tonight won’t be an easy task. Daniel Ochefu will have to find a way to be a force inside. Villanova is coming off a win over Penn on Saturday. Georgetown is riding high after their game-winning three against Butler. The Hoyas are holding onto a 5 game home winning streak and look to keep that going tonight. Georgetown C Joshua Smith will need to stop Ochefu inside for the Hoyas to pull the upset. Both meetings between these two teams last year went to Villanova.
My Pick: Villanova- I think Jay Wright will have his boys ready to go. This is a big road game that Villanova will be targeted
3. Albany (9-7, 4-0 Am. East) at Stony Brook (12-7, 3-1 Am. East)
Is Albany for real? That’s the major question here. Their biggest win this year would probably be at Yale. The Great Danes have Stony Brook, Hartford, and Vermont in 3 of their next 4 games so going 3-1 in that stretch would be huge. Stony Brook is coming off an absolute demolition over Maine on Saturday. Jameel Warney has been a monster this year as he leads the team in points and rebounds and is second in assists. Stony Brook’s only loss this year was to Vermont, which is not a bad loss as Vermont is unbeaten in the conference and has been the class of the America East for years.
My Pick: Stony Brook- They’re at home and I’m not completely sold on Albany yet.
Notable SEC Games
There are no SEC teams in action tonight but let’s take a moment of silence for the following things that happened on Saturday:
- Missouri’s late game meltdown against Tennessee
- Florida’s 24-game conference win streak snapped at Georgia
- Alabama- When the Kentucky train is rolling, get off the tracks
- Vanderbilt- The opposite of Florida-Georgia as they lost to a Mississippi State team that had lost 16 conference games in a row.
- Finally, the Arkansas defense. Ole Miss shot 56% from the field and 53% from three. You won’t won a lot of games when your team does that Mike.
