Game-Planning 2: A Six-Hour Basketball Saturday

Tomorrow is Saturday, which, for the past three months, has meant nothing but college football. Tomorrow, however, signals the start of some great college basketball action available every Saturday from the comfort of your recliner. What to watch? When to watch? I've got you covered.

Two Great Games But You'll Only See One

#22 Michigan State vs. #5 Texas

At two o'clock on CBS, most viewers in the southwest, midwest, and far west will be watching Raymar Morgan (17 points, 6 rebounds) and Michigan State take on A.J. Abrams (21 points) and Texas. The Longhorns are obviously favored but with good reason. They have impressive wins over Villanova and UCLA; their lone loss came at the hands of a very good Notre Dame squad.

Michigan State, on the other hand, lost to Maryland and North Carolina (embarrassingly) in the comfort of their home state. The Spartans' biggest win to date has been Oklahoma State. This game, on the road in Austin, seems to be a little too much for them to handle. Their best shot at winning is getting the inconsistent Morgan involved early to get him going. Kalin Lucas also needs to have a big game to offset the Texas backcourt a little bit.

Finally, Michigan State needs to win the rebounding battle. The point guard for Texas, Gary Johnson, is even averaging six per game. Damion James needs to be boxed out perfectly every single trip down the floor because anytime he isn't, he'll get the ball.

Personally, I seriously doubt Coach Izzo's somewhat-inexperienced squad can do all that in their first tough road game of the season. Texas will win this one by about ten or twelve points.

#7 Xavier vs. #6 Duke

For everyone living on the east coast, this game will be available at two o'clock as well on CBS. This particular matchup will be played in East Rutherford, New Jersey, between what should be a mixed crowd of Dukies and Musketeer fans.

Xavier has very good size in their scorers which should cause matchup problems for Duke's defense. Even more worrisome, it could lead big scorers like Kyle Singler (17 points) and Jon Scheyer (13 points) to the bench with foul trouble.

The Musketeers do not, however, have anyone that can match the size of 7-1 Brian Zoubek, who is having a very good year with averages of seven points and five rebounds per game. Xavier will also have to deal with the stingy defense of players like Nolan Smith, Greg Paulus, and Lance Thomas.

I wouldn't expect Coach K's team to put up 80 tomorrow because defense will be the key. They do not necessarily want to push the pace too much on a team that averages 72 points per game. I would expect them to slow it down a little bit and be prepared both mentally and physically after the wake-up call sent by Michigan earlier this month.

Xavier, for a mid-major, is far from untested this year despite what some may think about their 9-0 record. They have wins over the Big East's Cincinatti, the ACC's Virginia Tech, and last year's national runner-up, #12 Memphis. For those reasons along with the size on the perimeter, I'm picking Xavier to steal one from Duke.

Two More Great Games Yet Only One for Your Viewing Pleasure

After watching one of those games, don't even change the channel because coming up next will another great set of games.

#2 UConn vs. #8 Gonzaga

This game, starting at four on CBS, is a "rebound" game for the Zags, after being upset by Arizona earlier in the week. Those in the northeast and far west should get this one. Connecticut is just looking to preserve their unblemished record and get a solid win to add to their tournament resume.

The Huskies may have wins over ranked opponents such as Miami and Wisconsin, but no team will play them tougher in their non-conference schedule than Gonzaga. The "Battle in Seattle" will be played at a neutral location before a crowd that will certainly be pro-Bulldog.

UConn boasts a team with a great starting lineup and solid depth. Seniors A.J. Price (9 points, 4 assists) and Jeff Adrien (14 points, 9 rebounds) combine with juniors Jerome Dyson (15 points) and Hasheem Thabeet (15 points, 12 rebounds, 4 blocks) to form one of the best groups of upperclassmen in the entire nation, which is nice to see amidst all the players leaving after just one year to join the NBA ranks.

Mark Few's team, however, is a mix of the young and the old. The "old" is their point guard Jeremy Pargo, wingman Matt Bouldin, do-it-all guard Micah Downs, and big man Josh Heytvelt. The "young" refers to sophomores Austin Daye and Steven Gray, who combine to average over 20 points per game for the Zags.

The home crowd along with some payback for the loss to Arizona and a good shooting day could spell trouble for UConn. I'll take Gonzaga in the upset victory.

#20 Davidson vs. #18 Purdue

For the other four o'clock CBS game, Purdue will look for a way to stop Stephen Curry with those living in the midwest and south tuning in. Much has been made about the superstar Curry, but not so much regarding his underrated supporting cast.

Andrew Lovedale (14 points, 11 rebounds) is the perfect complimentary big man to Steph, while Barr and McKillop (the son, not the coaching dad) can stroke it from deep off penetration. Junior Steve Rossiter also contributes six points and seven rebounds and is a vital role player for the Wildcats.

Purdue is a shaky team right now. They lost two straight to ranked opponents in Oklahoma and Duke and haven't played a formidable foe since then. For them to win, their defense has to step up tremendously. They gave up 87 points to Oklahoma and 76 to Duke; that cannot happen if they want to beat Davidson, a team that has scored at least 70 points in all but one game.

Coach McKillop simply needs to have a good game out of Lovedale and Curry with contributions from the rest. I can't imagine that not happening; Davidson will win, and Purdue will fall even farther in the minds of many hoops followers.

No Regional Coverage; Everyone Sees This One

At the conclusion of either the Davidson/Purdue or UConn/Gonzaga game, flip the channel to ESPN for one last game between two ranked opponents.

#11 Syracuse vs. #21 Memphis

At Memphis, the Orange will continue to play among controversy being generated by guard Eric Devendorf, who could be out of college basketball altogether by the end of January. Can they look past that and focus on the game? That remains unclear. They weren't able to do it when they were upset by Cleveland State though.

The Tigers are still rebounding from the losses of Chris Douglas-Roberts, Derrick Rose, and Joey Dorsey. They have yet to establish a go-to scorer at the end of games and struggle mightily to put points on the board at times. Due to this, Coach Cal has made some minor changes to his offense, making the scouting report on Memphis even more difficult.

Of the five games in this article, this could be the closest one that goes down to the wire. Each team has their obvious strengths and weaknesses so it will come down to who can execute. And, honestly, who can you trust more: the inexperienced Tigers or the more-experienced-yet-still-inexperienced Orange? I'll take Syracuse because it won't be about who makes the least mistakes, but more about who doesn't make the most.

That's all, folks. Have a nice day and enjoy your college basketball; it's the best basketball there is.

Game-Planning Record This Year: 2-1

To contact this writer, you can email him at marchmadness14@gmail.com.