The start of the Big East/Big 12 Battle is the highlight of the week on the men’s side, plus some notable rivalry games, too.
Congratulations to everyone who enjoyed Feast Week basketball, and I will have to note that I have not received any claims on my $1 bounty on watching every single game. I am somehow both disappointed and proud of all of you.
The highlights of this week start on the back half when the Big East/Big 12 Battle gets started for men’s basketball on Thursday. It is a little bit weird that the games are not contained into a single AP voting consideration week of action, but that’s what happens with it getting set up right after Feast Week. For example, as you’re reading this on Monday, Marquette has been off since Wednesday but Butler played yesterday afternoon. Gotta make all of that play together and make sense, etc., etc.
Let’s get to the highlights!
Wednesday, November 29 & Sunday, December 3: Providence Friars & Villanova Wildcats at Columbia Lions (10am Central, ESPN+ & 1pm Central, ???) — Yes, Columbia’s 3-4 record isn’t fooling anyone into thinking they’re a great team….. but three of their four losses are to Power 6 programs and Her Hoop Stats has the Lions as a top 50 team right now. Columbia already beat Seton Hall by 11 at Levien Gym, so this game will be an interesting measuring stick for both 3-2 Providence and 3-1 Villanova.
Wednesday, November 29: Seton Hall Pirates at #25 Princeton Tigers (6pm Central, ESPN+) — Speaking of Seton Hall losing on the road to an Ivy League team, hey, look, here’s Tony Bozzella taking the Pirates an hour down the road to visit an Ivy League team, and this one is a top 40 team in the country per Her Hoop Stats, and the AP voters have them in the top 25 after they beat #20 Oklahoma but lost to #19 Indiana in an event down in Florida over the weekend.
Thursday, November 30: #15 Creighton Bluejays at Oklahoma State Cowboys (8pm Central, ESPN2) — This isn’t the first Battle game, that’s Butler/Texas Tech, but this is the first one with a big question attached to it. Oklahoma State isn’t any kind of worldbeater this season, and there’s an argument that they’re worse than expected. However, this is Creighton’s first game since getting shelled by Colorado State, and well, to put it simply: A team with national championship aspirations as the season started can’t look awful two games in a row.
Friday, December 1: Xavier Musketeers vs #6 Houston Cougars (5:30pm Central, FS1) — Breaking News: Sean Miller’s good at this coaching thing. Per KenPom.com, Xavier has less than 10% minutes continuity from last season, largely because of the medical issues involving Zach Freemantle and Jerome Hunter. And so, even with this roster largely speaking never playing together before November 6th, they’ve looked like a perfectly competent NCAA tournament contender. Tangling with a team that’s a top 10 squad is a different situation, as their 12 point loss to Purdue shows, but now they get Houston at Cintas Center with a chance to make a statement.
Friday, December 1: DePaul Blue Demons vs RV Iowa State Cyclones (7:30pm Central, FS1) — I just want to use this game to point out that DePaul A) is 1-5 on the year, 2) has just one non-Power 6 team left on their schedule as of this publication, and D) has a 2.3% chance of going winless in Big East play… without actually losing a Big East game yet.
Friday, December 1: #4 Connecticut Huskies at #5 Kansas Jayhawks (8pm Central, ESPN2) — The rankings attached here do all the heavy lifting to explain why you should make time for this one. That, and Bill Self is probably still cranky at his team about losing to Marquette.
Saturday, December 2: #3 Marquette Golden Eagles at Wisconsin Badgers (11:30am Central, Fox) — This game was heavily veering towards not being a notable highlight of the week after UW got clanked by Providence at the AMP and they didn’t look so hot against Robert Morris. But now they’re coming off a Feast Week 24 point win against Virginia that has wildly revived Bucky’s odds of being pretty good this year. If you’re the type of person that cares about this thing: Shaka Smart’s done a lot of things in two-plus seasons at Marquette, but he hasn’t beaten Wisconsin. Yet.
Sunday, December 3: #11 Connecticut Huskies at #10 Texas Longhorns (2pm Central, ABC) — I don’t want to say that things are looking shaky for UConn in the wake of the news that Azzi Fudd will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury, especially since they’ve been playing without her since the NC State game. With that said, they looked real bad down the stretch in their loss to UCLA on Friday before fending off a late push by Kansas on Saturday, and this, on the road in Austin, is the only game they’re playing this week.
Sunday, December 3: #15 Creighton Bluejays at RV Nebraska Cornhuskers (3pm Central, FS1) — Hey, remember all that stuff we pointed out about Trey Alexander and the Bluejays having to go to Oklahoma State as their next game after getting shelled by Colorado State? Yeah, this is their followup to the OSU trip, and unlike the Pokes, the Huskers are having a nice start to the season with a 7-0 run out of the gate. We’re going to learn a lot about Creighton one way or another this week.
Here’s the full men’s basketball schedule for the week, although we’ll have to update that Villanova/Big 5 game later on.
Here’s the entire women’s basketball schedule for the week!