Saturday Roundup

Just one game on the books last night as UConn used a combined 41 points, 25 boards, and 8 blocks from Jeff Adrien and Hasheem Thabeet to beat Fairfield 75-55. Nothing too exciting.

On Saturday, there is a decent schedule of games to look forward too. The best of the day is probably at 4:00 when West Virginia heads to Columbus to take on the Buckeyes. Ohio State is playing a man down as David Lighty is out with a broken foot for at least another month. Regardless, it would be a huge win for the Mountaineers, who are still looking for a marquee win on their tournament resume (right now their best win is at Mississippi).

I like West Virginia in this one. Alex Ruoff (who is coming off of a 38 point performance against Radford) and Joe Mazzulla are back and healthy, which makes WVU such a better team offensively. The key will be the battle on the glass, specifically how well the Buckeyes keep the Mountaineers from getting second shots. Ohio State has not played all that difficult of a schedule, but is only out rebounding their opponent's by an average of 1.2 boards per game and give up 11.5 offensive boards a game. The Mountaineers are not huge, but they have a ton of 6'7"-6'9" guys that can jump out of the gym and are really aggressive going after o-boards.

The rest of the games tomorrow:

• 12:00 PM: Miami FL (7-3) @ St. John's (9-2)
• 2:00 PM: Washington State (8-3) @ LSU (9-1): Both teams could use the win to boost their tournament resumes. The best win between the two teams is Washington State's win over a mediocre Mississippi State team.
• 4:00 PM: UAB (8-3) @ Louisville (7-2): Chance for a confidence boosting win for the Cardinals. UAB only has six scholarship players right now, but the trio of Lawrence Kinnard, Paul Delaney, and Robert Vaden are good enough to keep them in most games.
• 4:00 PM: IUPUI (7-4) @ UMass (4-6): Two teams that struggled early but have really been playing well of late. Jaguar freshman Alex Young is for real.
• 5:00 PM: Michigan State (8-2) @ Oakland (8-6)