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Top 10 college basketball games of the week: Arizona-Purdue, UNC-Kentucky and more – The Athletic
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Each week during the college football regular season, we ranked the 10 best, most interesting and most impactful matchups on the schedule, from early lackluster slates to title-altering showdowns. And as the calendar speeds toward bowl and holiday season, college basketball is also heating up, including an absolutely loaded lineup of games over the coming days.
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So let’s power-rank the top 10 (or 11) matchups in men’s college basketball over the next week, starting with a few honorable mentions and counting down.
(All tipoff times are Eastern, all rankings are via the AP Top 25, and all records are current at time of publishing.)
Honorable mention: Dayton vs. Cincinnati (Saturday), LSU vs. No. 19 Texas (Saturday), No. 15 Florida Atlantic vs. St. Bonaventure (Saturday), Vermont at Virginia Tech (Saturday), NC State vs. Tennessee (Saturday), Nebraska at Kansas State (Sunday)
These two will face off for the fourth time in the past eight years as part of the CBS Sports Classic, this time in Atlanta. The Buckeyes are coming off a narrow road loss to Penn State and are top-15 in offensive efficiency, according to KenPom, led by sophomore guard Bruce Thornton (18.5 points per game, 4.2 apg). It makes for an intriguing clash with Mick Cronin’s defensive-focused Bruins. UCLA dropped close ones to Marquette and Gonzaga before the latest loss to a mercurial Villanova, but the Bruins’ best win thus far is a one-point victory over UC Riverside.
Baylor has mostly cruised through the opening weeks of nonconference play on the strength of KenPom’s second-best offense, headlined by a dynamic backcourt featuring freshman Ja’Kobe Walter (14.9 ppg) and Toledo transfer RayJ Dennis (14.2 ppg). That should get tested with back-to-back tilts against Michigan State and Duke. Sparty is laboring out of the gate, under .500 with five Quad 1 losses and only a single Quad 2 win. Michigan State still has a stout defense, but slowing the Bears will be a challenge, even in what amounts to a home game in Detroit.
GO DEEPER
Men’s college basketball rankings: Tennessee, Oklahoma and Clemson are on the way up
Creighton’s lone blemish is a neutral-site blowout loss to ascendent Colorado State. The Blue Jays have been one of the most balanced teams in the country in the early going, led by a trio of experienced upperclassmen: Baylor Scheierman, Ryan Kalkbrenner and Trey Alexander, all of whom are averaging at least 15 points and 6 rebounds. The Crimson Tide has lost three of their last five, falling to Ohio State, Clemson and Purdue. They follow that with two more top-10 foes in Creighton and then top-ranked Arizona.
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Penny Hardaway has an older, transfer-heavy Memphis squad playing well thus far, led by St. John’s transfer David Jones (20.1 ppg, 6.6 rpg). Coming off a nice win over Texas A&M, the Tigers face a pair of ranked opponents. First is undefeated Clemson and star center P.J. Hall (20.1 ppg, 7.4 rpg) with four Q1 wins, followed by a one-loss Virginia team that entered the Top 25 rankings this week and looks like it’s back to playing smothering defense under Tony Bennett.
Marquette, the reigning Big East champ, is off to a strong start against a tough nonconference stretch, highlighted by wins over Kansas, Texas, Illinois and UCLA. The core of last year’s 29-win team is back and clicking, with guards Kam Jones and Tyler Kolek both averaging better than 15 points per game. Providence has started brightly as well under first-year head coach Kim English, though six of the eight wins are against Q4 opponents. A big home upset to kick off Big East play would go a long way to legitimizing the Friars.
No. 4 in the poll but No. 1 in KenPom, the Houston Cougars look Big 12 ready with a familiar suffocating defense and Baylor transfer L.J. Cryer leading the offense at 17.8 points per game on 40 percent from beyond the arc. The Coogs also have the sport’s longest active win streak at 10 straight victories, which Texas A&M will look to stamp out on Saturday in an in-state battle. The Aggies crashed out of the Top 25 after three losses in five to FAU, Virginia and Memphis but still have Wade Taylor IV (17.1 ppg, 4.9 apg) orchestrating a potent offensive attack.
I understand why so many of these early, nonconference games are either at neutral sites or part of multi-team events, but I appreciate that Kansas and Indiana scheduled a true, on-campus home-and-home. The Jayhawks bettered the Hoosiers in Lawrence last December and will be heavy favorites in their first true road game, led by Michigan transfer Hunter Dickinson (19.4 ppg, 12.6 rpg) and Kevin McCullar Jr. (19 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 5 apg) and with wins over Kentucky, Tennessee and UConn. Indiana was humbled by UConn and Auburn but is 2-0 in Big Ten play, including a Q1 road win over Michigan.
You know it has to be a ridiculous lineup of games if North Carolina vs. Kentucky is third on this list. It’s the nightcap to Ohio State-UCLA, with the Tar Heels aiming to bounce back from a loss to UConn and the Wildcats still chastened by that home loss to UNC Wilmington. RJ Davis (21 ppg) and Armando Bacot (15.9 ppg, 11.9 rpg) lead a veteran, top-heavy North Carolina, while Kentucky has eight players averaging at least 23 minutes and seven averaging double-digits in points. UNC leads the all-time series 25-17, though Kentucky is 3-1 against the Tar Heels in the CBS Sports Classic.
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Those in the Eastern Time Zone may need a power nap to stay up for this one, but it figures to be worth it. The white-hot Huskies travel to Seattle to face a Zags team that just lost to Washington on the road and faltered early against Purdue in its only other Q1 opportunity. The Bulldogs, with five players scoring in double figures, get a pseudo home game against a UConn squad on a full week of rest that’s helmed by guard Tristen Newton (17 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 6.1 apg) and forward Alex Karaban (15.6 ppg, 6.2 rpg).
A top-three matchup … streaming only on Peacock? In this economy??? Welcome to the future, at least as far as Big Ten basketball is concerned. For those of you not well-versed in watching Premier League action or binging “The Office,” you will need to purchase a subscription to Peacock to watch this clash of titans in Indianapolis. Both squads rank in the top three of the AP poll and KenPom. Arizona and North Carolina transfer Caleb Love (14.1 ppg) have ripped through the likes of Duke, Michigan State and Wisconsin. Purdue and 7-foot-4 colossus Zach Edey (24.8 ppg, 10.8 rpg) have wins over the Zags, Tennessee and Marquette. Might as well grab the tablet and fire up that Peacock app — you’re gonna need multiple screens anyway.
(Top photo of Caleb Love: Christopher Hook / AP)
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Justin Williams covers college football and basketball for The Athletic. He was previously a beat reporter covering the Cincinnati Bearcats, and prior to that he worked as a senior editor for Cincinnati Magazine. Follow Justin on Twitter/X @williams_justin Follow Justin on Twitter @williams_justin