Friday Lay-up Lines

11 ranked teams will be taking the court for the first time tonight. While most of these teams are going up against patsies, there are some upsets to be on the look out for.

8:00 PM: American @ Oklahoma - American is a senior laden squad returning their top four scorers from a team that gave Tennessee all they could handle in the first round of the NCAA's last year. The Eagles have a bunch of guys that can shoot, led by Garrison Carr, and they will need to be shooting well if they plan on knocking off Blake Griffin and the Sooners.

8:00 PM: Stetson @ Texas - Stetson returns their top seven players and all five starters from a team that went 11-5 and tied for third in the Atlantic Sun, the same conference that Mercer (beat USC), Belmont (beat Cincinnati), and Gardner-Webb (beat Kentucky) play in. Texas will be learning how to play without DJ Augustin, which means that they will be trying to transition both AJ Abrams and Justin Mason to the point.

Other Top 25 teams in action:

• 6:00 PM: Toledo @ Florida
• 7:00 PM: Fairleigh Dickinson @ Pitt
• 7:00 PM: UNC Central @ Wake Forest
• 7:30 PM: Western Carolina @ UConn
• 8:00 PM: Albany @ Villanova
• 8:30 PM: Houston Baptist @ Marquette
• 9:00 PM: Guilford @ Davidson
• 9:00 PM: Detroit @ Purdue
• 10:00 PM: Mississippi Valley State @ Arizona State

Other games you might want to make a note of:

• 3:00 PM: East Tennessee State vs. Temple - The Owls take on the Buccaneers in the first round of the Charleston Classic in a game that will pit two of the best seniors you've never seen play - Courtney Pigrim of ETSU and Dionte Christmas of Temple.
• 7:00 PM: Oregon State @ Howard - Craig Robinson, Oregon State's head coach and the brother-in-law of Barack Obama, will be coaching his first game in, of all places, Washington DC.