Saturday is a busy day for college basketball. On any Saturday during the season, there can be well over forty games on your TV. Unfortunately, many are completely unwatchable. Every Friday, FanHouse puts together a handy guide of the best choices on how to spend your Saturday on the couch watching college basketball.
This is not a great Saturday lineup. That will happen. You can't have the great Saturdays without some duds. It isn't that there aren't some good games, but the non-competitive or uninteresting matchups dominate. It's a good Saturday to nap during the day games and plan to stay up late.
The Duke-Clemson game on Wednesday had some of the writers over at FanHouse a little peeved. Was it right for Clemson to rush the court after beating a foe that it hasn't topped in 22 meetings? It had been a long time since Clemson stood a chance against the Blue Devils, but the Tigers are currently ranked No. 10 in the nation. We tossed the question out to our college basketball "experts" and here is what transpired.
Purdue has noticeably struggled in games where Robbie Hummel has been forced to sit because of back troubles. The Boilermakers dropped games to Penn State and Ohio State without the preseason Big Ten Player of the Year. Without Hummel playing, Purdue has been killed on the boards.
With Hummel, Purdue was considered to be the one team that could challenge Michigan State for the Big Ten title and make a good run in the NCAA Tournament. Without him, they are a flawed middle-of-the-pack team in the conference.
It looks like Purdue is going to try and have it both ways. It was revealed that Hummel has a hairline fracture in his L-5 vertebra. It is something he can play with, as long as he can tolerate the pain.
Cal became the story in the Pac-10 following that conference-opening win in Seattle. There was even some wondering if the Golden Bears would be able to challenge for the league title. Then the bottom fell out.
Cal stumbled in recent weeks, losing four of its last five games since beating Washington. The Golden Bears look rather pedestrian while being swept by the Los Angeles schools over the weekend. A tournament bid, which seemed like an almost certainty in coach Mike Montgomery's first season in Berkley became a little less certain.
The West Coast Conference had a banner 2008, getting three teams into the NCAA tournament. But any hopes of the WCC being a multiple bid conference this season evaporated as quickly as Portland's halftime lead on Thursday night.
Last year's Cinderella, San Diego, lost at Santa Clara on Thursday night in a battle of the conference's most disappointing underachievers. Let this be a lesson to all of you coaches who achieve success in your first year. Take the money and run. Bill Grier probably wishes that he did.
That left Portland holding the conference's lone hope to challenge Gonzaga. And it happened ... for a half.
A losing streak which was unheard of in Wisconsin during the past decade has now ended. Six losses ago, the Badgers were 3-0 in Big Ten play. Thursday night they moved to 4-6, with a quality win over a very strong Illinois team.
Marcus Landry and Jason Bohannon worked the inside-outside game, to the tune of 36 combined points, to lead the Badgers. Bohannon was money from outside, hitting six of his seven three-point attempts, while Landry worked the paint for most of his 16 points.
There is a SportsCenter commercial with Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt where Kenny Mayne fires off puns that use the coach's name and team, only for Summitt to respond that she's got "this coaching thing down pat."
I concur.
Thursday night, Summitt became the first Division I coach, men's or women's, to reach 1,000 wins as her Volunteers beat up on Georgia 73-43.
With just over a month in the books and most teams having played about half their conference schedule, let's check out the big boys of the Midwest. We're seeing a slight upheaval when it comes to traditional powers, as Indiana and Wisconsin sit in the bottom third of the standings, Northwestern is respectable, and Penn State is in the mix toward the top.
At this point, the conference is very balanced, and much stronger than it has been in recent years. They have a shot at seven bids for the Big Dance, but six is the more likely number.
We've covered -- rather extensively, actually -- the level to which Clemson embarrassed Duke Wednesday night in Littlejohn Coliseum. But still, nothing really sums it up the game quite like Trevor Booker's monster dunk on both Kyle Singler and Brian Zoubek. Enjoy.
Saturday is a busy day for college basketball. On any Saturday during the season, there can be well over forty games on your TV. Unfortunately, many are completely unwatchable. Every Friday, FanHouse puts together a handy guide of the best choices on how to spend your Saturday on the couch watching college basketball.
Purdue has noticeably struggled in games where Robbie Hummel has been forced to sit because of back troubles. The Boilermakers dropped games to Penn State and Ohio State without the preseason Big Ten Player of the Year. Without Hummel playing, Purdue has been killed on the boards. 
Cal opened its surprising Pac-10 campaign with a thrilling triple overtime win over Washington a few weeks ago. 
The West Coast Conference had a banner 2008, getting three teams into the NCAA tournament. But any hopes of the WCC being a multiple bid conference this season evaporated as quickly as Portland's halftime lead on Thursday night.
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There is a SportsCenter commercial with Tennessee women's basketball coach 
With just over a month in the books and most teams having played about half their conference schedule, let's check out the big boys of the Midwest. We're seeing a slight upheaval when it comes to traditional powers, as Indiana and Wisconsin sit in the bottom third of the standings, Northwestern is respectable, and Penn State is in the mix toward the top. 
