College Hoops Cheat Sheet: Reveal Weekend

We have passed the midway point in February. Selection Sunday is just over a month away. The best part of the college basketball season is right around the corner. It’s sink or swim time on the hardwood.

Some bubble teams are fading, other teams are surging, and the best squads in this sport are finding that extra gear. Another pivotal weekend in college basketball has arrived, and KSR is here to preview the full menu.

Let’s get after it.

The Slate

Villanova at Georgetown	7:00pm ET (Friday)	CBS Sports Network
VCU at Saint Louis	7:00pm ET (Friday)	ESPN2
New Mexico at San Diego State	10:00pm ET (Friday)	FS1
Wake Forest at No. 21 Virginia	Noon ET	ESPN2
Texas Tech at No. 10 Iowa State	Noon ET	ESPN+
Penn State at Nebraska	Noon ET	Big Ten Network
TCU at Kansas State	Noon ET	ESPNU
Texas A&M at No. 15 Alabama	Noon ET	ESPN
No. 17 Creighton at Butler	12:30pm ET	FOX
Texas at No. 3 Houston	1:00pm ET	CBS
Florida at Georgia	1:00pm ET	SEC Network
Fordham at No. 16 Dayton	1:30pm ET	CBS Sports Network
No. 19 BYU at Oklahoma State	2:00pm ET	ESPN+
Arkansas at Mississippi State	2:00pm ET	ESPNU
No. 9 Duke at Florida State	2:00pm ET	ESPN
Virginia Tech at No. 7 North Carolina	2:00pm ET	ACC Network
No. 20 Wisconsin at Iowa	2:15pm ET	Big Ten Network
No. 4 Marquette at No. 1 UConn	3:00pm ET	FOX
LSU at No. 11 South Carolina	3:30pm ET	SEC Network
Miami at Boston College	4:00pm ET	ACC Network
Cincinnati at UCF	4:00pm ET	ESPN+
No. 6 Kansas at No. 25 Oklahoma	4:00pm ET	ESPN
No. 14 Illinois at Maryland	5:30pm ET	FOX
Syracuse at Georgia Tech	5:30pm ET	The CW
Utah State at Colorado State	5:30pm ET	CBS Sports Network
No. 22 Kentucky at No. 13 Auburn	6:00pm ET	ESPN
Vanderbilt at No. 8 Tennessee	6:00pm ET	SEC Network
No. 12 Baylor at West Virginia	6:00pm ET	ESPN2
Louisville at Pittsburgh	6:30pm ET	ACC Network
DePaul at Providence	7:30pm ET	FS1
Fresno State at Boise State	7:30pm ET	CBS Sports Network
NC State at Clemson	7:45pm ET	The CW
Michigan State at Michigan	8:00pm ET	FOX
Missouri at Ole Miss	8:30pm ET	SEC Network
Arizona State at Arizona	9:30pm ET	FS1
Colorado at USC	10:00pm ET	ESPN2
Nevada at UNLV	11:30pm ET	CBS Sports Network
Wichita State at Charlotte	Noon ET (Sunday)	ESPN2
No. 24 Florida Atlantic at South Florida	Noon ET (Sunday)	ESPN
Loyola Chicago at Rhode Island	Noon ET (Sunday)	CBS Sports Network
No. 2 Purdue at Ohio State	1:00pm ET (Sunday)	CBS
Northwestern at Indiana	3:00pm ET (Sunday)	FS1
Memphis at SMU	4:00pm ET (Sunday)	ESPN
Seton Hall at St. John’s	5:00pm ET (Sunday)	FS1
Rutgers at Minnesota	6:30pm ET (Sunday)	Big Ten Network
Utah at UCLA	7:00pm ET (Sunday)	FS1

Top 10 Games

1. No. 4 Marquette at No. 1 UConn
2. No. 22 Kentucky at No. 13 Auburn
3. No. 6 Kansas at No. 25 Oklahoma
4. Texas Tech at No. 10 Iowa State
5. New Mexico at San Diego State
6. Utah State at Colorado State
7. Seton Hall at St. John’s
8. Texas at No. 3 Houston
9. Texas A&M at No. 15 Alabama
10. No. 17 Creigton at Butler

Big East Showdown

The game of the weekend will occur on Saturday afternoon when No. 1 UConn hosts No. 4 Marquette. Danny Hurley’s team is again a top-notch national championship contender and currently looks like the team to beat in 2024. After a breakthrough season, Shaka Smart might have the hottest team in college basketball. Marquette has not lost in a month reeling off eight consecutive conference wins.

Marquette is two games back of UConn in the Big East standings and likely needs this win to make a serious run at the regular season conference title. We all know how great UConn is, but Marquette point guard Tyler Kolek is one of the best players in college basketball. The former George Mason transfer is shooting 41 percent from three and ranks inside the top 10 nationally in assist rate.

Get to FOX for one of the best matchups of the year.

Kentucky’s recent results on the Plains have not been pretty

Kentucky has a strong history against Auburn on the hardwood. The Wildcats lead the all-time series 97-23. John Calipari won his first eight meetings against the Tigers. However, things changed when Bruce Pearl arrived on the Plains.

Kentucky has continued its dominance at Rupp Arena, but winning at Neville Arena has been difficult. In the last six meetings at Auburn, Pearl owns 5-1 record versus Kentucky with three consecutive wins at home. Four of the contests have been ranked vs. ranked matchups. The current trends do not favorite the Wildcats despite the long history of winning against Auburn.

Will that change on Saturday evening?

Road blues

Kansas is still dominant at home. The Jayhawks own head-to-head wins over Houston and UConn. Bill Self’s team also beat Kentucky and Tennessee on a neutral floor. At their best, this looks like another legitimate Final Four contender.

But the road games have been ugly.

Kansas is currently 2-5 in true road games. The only wins against Indiana and Oklahoma State. Neither of those is pushing for an NCAA Tournament bid. Self’s team has three sub-60 losses on the road dropping games to UCF, Kansas State, and West Virginia. This team struggles away from home.

On Saturday, Kansas will head to Norman to face Oklahoma for the final time ever as the Sooners are scheduled to join the SEC next season. At 7-5 in conference play, the Jayhawks could be playing early at the Big 12 Tournament if this team doesn’t start collecting some road wins.

Oklahoma has a chance to hand Kansas another road loss on Saturday.

Bubble Watch

These are the bubble games to monitor over the weekend.

• Villanova at Georgetown
• Wake Forest at No. 21 Virginia
• Penn State at Nebraska
• No. 17 Creighton at Butler
• Arkansas at Mississippi State
• Nevada at UNLV
• Northwetern at Indiana

Villanova needs wins. A loss to lowly Georgetown would be a bad development for head coach Kyle Neptune. The same goes for Wake Forest who is on the outside looking in, but Virginia’s resume isn’t exactly great. Nebraska is in no position to be taking home losses to Pen State. Butler has a great opportunity to get a big home win versus ranked Creighton. Mississippi State needs to take care of business at home. Northwestern and Nevada both have some tricky road conference games.