Thursday Lay-up Lines

As is always the case, Thursday night ends up being dominated by the Pac-10 conference. This week, the Washington teams are traveling to play the Oregon teams, while the SoCal teams are hosting the Arizona teams. FYI - one of the best investments you can make in the FoxSports package on your cable plan. I'm pretty sure you get the Big Ten Network and CBS College Sports network in the deal, and in total that's something like ten channels that air a lot of the good games that are out of the area (especially on the West Coast). Gotta go meet a repairman at my apartment, so we'll make this quick today:

• 9:00 PM: Washington State (9-6, 1-2) @ Oregon State (6-8, 1-3): It's inauguration week. Can Obama's brother-in-law pull off another upset?
  
• 10:00 PM: Washington (11-4, 2-1) @ Oregon (6-10, 0-4): If Washington wants to be considered a serious contender in the conference, these are the games they need to win.
  
• 10:30 PM: Arizona State (14-2, 3-1) @ USC (10-5, 1-2): The Sun Devils are one of the best teams on the west coast, while USC has been something of a disappointment this season. A win here could get USC's season back on track.
  
• 11:00 PM: Arizona (11-5, 2-2) @ UCLA (13-2, 3-0): You know the deal with Arizona this year - when Chase Budinger, Jordan Hill, and Nic Wise play well, Arizona is a good team. UCLA is always tough defensively, and I don't see the Wildcats getting going in Pauley Pavilion.
  

Outside of the Pac-10 games, the only really interesting game tonight is Wisconsin (12-4, 3-1) hosting Minnesota (15-1, 3-1). The Badgers and the Gophers are very similar this year in that they play tough defense and team oriented basketball. They are both well-coached and fundamentally sound, so expect some solid basketball to be played in Madison tonight. I think Wisconsin wins this one. Playing conference games on the road is always tough, but the Kohl Center is one of the toughest.

The rest of the games tonight:

• 7:00 PM: Purdue (12-4, 1-2) @ Northwestern (8-5, 0-3)
• 7:00 PM: UConn (14-1, 3-1) @ St. John's (10-5, 1-2)
• 8:00 PM: Middle Tennessee State (11-5, 5-0) @ Western Kentucky (10-6, 4-1)
• 8:00 PM: Xavier (13-2, 2-0) @ Rhode Island (11-5, 0-1)
• 8:00 PM: Butler (14-1, 5-0) @ Loyola IL (10-7, 2-3)
• 9:00 PM: UNC (14-2, 0-2) @ Virginia (7-6, 1-1)
• 9:00 PM: Santa Clara (7-11, 0-2) @ Gonzaga (10-4, 0-1)
• 9:00 PM: Loyola Marymount (1-16, 0-1) @ St. Mary's (15-1, 2-0)
• 9:05 PM: Fresno State (7-9, 0-2) @ Utah State (15-1, 2-0)
• 10:05 PM: Boise State (12-3, 3-0) @ Nevada (9-7, 2-1)