In the immortal words of the Black Eyed peas, tonight’s gonna be a good night.
There are 40 teams in action tonight, and more than half of them are likely to appear in the NCAA Tournament or seriously challenge for their conference’s automatic bid. We’ve got elite powers like Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio State in addition to upstarts that could make life miserable for those powerhouses, such as Vermont, Valparaiso and Cleveland State.
Here’s some of the top games to track tonight.
- Kansas State at Missouri, 7 ET. The Tigers are looking to solidify their case for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament in addition to inching closer to their first regular-season title in the 16-year history of the Big 12 Conference. It’s also their last chance before bolting for the SEC next season. K-State wants to keep the mojo rolling after beating Baylor last weekend.
- Illinois at Ohio State, 7 ET. Poor Bruce Weber desperately needs a win for his Illini, who have lost five straight and eight of nine. But Ohio State should be playing plenty mad after losing at rival Michigan on Saturday prime time. The Buckeyes need to win to keep pace with Michigan State.
- Vermont at Binghamton, 7 ET. Vermont needs to win to maintain a tie with Stony Brook atop the America East standings. A lot is at stake as the top seed — which is the Catamounts right now based on their win against Stony Brook — would host the conference title game if they get that far. For Binghamton, the Bearcats are down to three regular-season chances to avoid a winless season.
- Xavier at Massachusetts, 7 ET. Xavier needs to find a road win against a winning team — something the Musketeers haven’t done since early December at Butler — to avoid falling out of the Atlantic 10’s top four, which get a bye in the conference tournament. UMass, for its part, is looking to move into the top four and set itself up for a bid-stealing run in Atlantic City.
- North Carolina at NC State, 8 ET. This might be the last stand for the Wolfpack, which desperately need a quality win or two to add to their résumé. The best wins thus far are against Texas in Madison Square Garden and at Miami. A loss to hated rival UNC would mean the Wolfpack likely need to reach the ACC Tournament title game to pick up enough wins to warrant an at-large bid.
- Michigan at Northwestern, 8 ET. Will the Wolverines suffer an emotional letdown a few days after a massive upset of Ohio State? Michigan has just two road wins, and the Wildcats could really use another solid win to boost its NCAA Tournament chances.
- Kentucky at Mississippi State, 9 ET. The Wildcats are perfect in SEC play while the Bulldogs are fading fast after losing three straight to Georgia, LSU and Auburn. With Alabama’s lineup decimated by suspensions, this is Mississippi State’s last chance to pick up a quality win before the SEC Tournament.
- New Mexico at Colorado State, 10 ET. The Mountain West’s hottest team hits the road to play the Mountain West’s most desperate team. New Mexico is riding a seven-game winning streak into Fort Collins, including back-to-back wins against San Diego State and UNLV. The Rams haven’t won two straight since mid-January and need to hold court against the Lobos before facing San Diego State and UNLV in their next two games.
We take you coast to coast with news from around the college basketball nation.
In case you missed it somehow, Shabazz Napier delivered a stay of execution for UConn when he nailed a deep game-winning 3-pointer in overtime at Villanova, as Troy Machir notes at Ballin Is a Habit. Arguably, Napier got a little premature with his shot instead of waiting another second or two to guarantee his shot would be the last of overtime. But at least he had a better sense of the space-time continuum than his teammate Andre Drummond. As Machir highlights, Drummond decided that a rocket-launched shot from 94 feet away would be a good idea with six seconds to go. Ugh.
Maryland’s athletic director threw down the gauntlet at Georgetown, proclaiming that the Hoyas and Terps should play each other in all sports or not at all, writes USA Today’s Erick Smith. The two Washington, D.C., area teams haven’t met in the regular season in nearly 20 years.
Just a few days after getting ignominiously tossed from a place they used to call home, former NC State players Tom Gugliotta and Chris Corchiani will be honored during the Wolfpack’s game against North Carolina tonight, along with the rest of their 1989 teammates. That squad won NC State’s last regular-season ACC title.
The New York Times’ Ray Glier chronicles the tough choices Alabama coach Anthony Grant has made this season, sacrificing immediate success for sound principles.
Western Kentucky must be pretty impressed with Ray Harper’s plan for the future because the university has decided to ditch the interim tag and make former coach Ken McDonald’s replacement the official Hilltoppers coach, according to an Associated Press report.
Florida coach Billy Donovan delivered some good news to Gator fans Monday when he announced that guard Mike Rosario, who averages just short of eight points per game, should be back in the lineup against Auburn after missing three games with a hip pointer, according to an Associated Press report.
Steve Yanda blogs for the Washington Post that Virginia still might not have sophomore sharpshooter Joe Harris at 100 percent yet. But that’s better than senior center Assane Sene, who might not be back this season from his fractured ankle.
