Wednesday Lay-up Lines

Great night for TV watchers everywhere. Not only are there seven excellent games on tonight, but it is also Wednesday, which can only mean one thing: New episode of Lost!! It is the only show on television that can keep me from checking scores, blogging, checking emails, texting, etc. while it is on. I know I'm a college hoops junkie, and I also know that I pretty much have no clue what is going on in the show, but 9-10pm on Wednesday nights are what gets me through my week.

Back to the point, the best game on tonight is Duke (19-2, 6-1) at Clemson (18-2, 4-2). If you like pressure defense (not the kind where you defend in the back court, but the kind where an offensive player has a defender in his jock every second of the game), then this is the perfect game for you. Clemson runs a "40 minutes of hell" type press, which can be very effective at times but can also be broken easily when they aren't moving well in it. When that happened against Virginia Tech last week, Clemson also proved that they are able to defend in the half court, using a stifling man-to-man defense that held the Hokies to 21 points the last 15 minutes. Duke runs one of the best man-to-man defenses in the country, where they pressure the ball handler, over play the wings, and switch all exchanges on the perimeter.

Clemson may be at home, but I still think that Duke is too tough for the Tigers. The Blue Devils tend to struggle against teams that are bigger and more athletic than them (ahem, Wake Forest, ahem), but Clemson just isn't all that big. I am not completely sold on Clemson just yet. If they want to beat the Blue Devils, KC Rivers and Trevor Booker will both need to play well. But more importantly, Demontez Stitt is going to need to handle Duke's defensive pressure without turning the ball over or forcing the issue offensively.

The rest of Wednesday's hoops:

• 7:00 PM: West Virginia (15-6, 4-4) @ Syracuse (17-5, 5-4): Big game for two teams stuck in the middle of the pack in the Big East. Syracuse has been struggling of late, as they battle injuries (Andy Rautins' ankle, Arinze Onuaku's knee) and intensity issues. They have lost three in a row and four of their last five. Syracuse can put up a lot of points, but WVU is excellent defensively. They also crash the boards very hard. If WVU wants to pull this one out, they will need to keep Jonny Flynn and Eric Devendorf from getting penetration while also avoiding settling on jumpers.
  
• 7:30 PM: Wake Forest (17-2, 4-2) @ Miami FL (14-7, 3-5): Miami has yet to show why they were a tournament team last year, and why many people picked them as a sleeper in the ACC. Currently, they are coming off of a loss at the hands of Maryland, a team that got beat at Duke by 40 and is currently a team in turmoil, with their legendary coach in a bitter, public dispute about recruiting at MD. You will get to see a great match-up of scoring guards in Jeff Teague and Jack McClinton.
• 8:00 PM: Villanova (17-4, 5-3) @ Providence (14-7, 6-3): Villanova is coming off of one of the biggest wins in school history as they knocked off Pitt last week. Providence is a much better match-up for the Wildcats as the Friars are also a perimeter oriented, three-point shooting team. The key in this one will be Dante Cunningham - if he can have a big game and stay out of foul trouble, Providence doesn't have the size inside to slow him down.
• 8:30 PM: Minnesota (18-3, 6-3) @ Michigan State (17-4, 7-2): Michigan State is coming off of a loss at the hands of Penn State in which Raymar Morgan barely played due to walking pneumonia. He isn't expected to suit up tonight either. This is huge for Minnesota, who is looking to jump into a tie for first place in the league. The Gophers, who have one of the best defenses in the country, held Illinois to just 36 points their last time out. Even without Morgan, I would expect the Spartans to win this one, especially after losing to Penn State at home on Sunday.
• 9:30 PM: Missouri (18-4, 5-2) @ Texas (15-5, 4-2): The Tigers run one of the toughest presses in all of college basketball. The strength of this Texas team is their front court and their defense, not their point guard play. I see the length of Mizzou's defenders giving Justin Mason, Dogus Balbay, and AJ Abrams all kinds of problems. Prediction? Upset.
• 10:30 PM: USC (15-6, 6-3) @ UCLA (17-4, 7-2): After starting out the season so terribly, USC had made a run and is now just one game behind UCLA and Washington for the Pac-10 lead. The Trojans have gone to a smaller line-up of late, but so has UCLA. As well as the Trojans are playing, and as low as my opinion of the Bruins is, I still think UCLA takes care of business at home if they keep Taj Gibson in check offensively.

Other games to make note of:

• 7:00 PM: Boston College (15-6, 5-3) @ Virginia (7-10, 1-5)
• 7:00 PM: Dayton (20-2, 6-1) @ Richmond (12-8, 3-3)
• 7:00 PM: George Washington (6-12, 0-6) @ St. Joseph's (12-8, 5-1)
• 7:00 PM: Northeastern (15-6, 10-1) @ William & Mary (6-15, 1-10)
• 7:30 PM: LSU (17-4, 5-1) @ Georgia (9-12, 0-6)
• 7:30 PM: Notre Dame (12-8, 3-6) @ Cincinnati (14-7, 4-5): Who would have thought that Notre Dame would need this win much more than Cincinnati?
• 7:30 PM: Utah (14-7, 5-2) @ TCU (13-8, 4-3)
• 8:05 PM: Tennessee (13-7, 4-2) @ Arkansas (13-6, 1-5)
• 9:00 PM: Texas Tech (11-10, 1-5) @ Oklahoma State (13-7, 2-4)
• 9:00 PM: Texas A&M (17-5, 3-4) @ Oklahoma (21-1, 7-0)
• 9:00 PM: Memphis (18-3, 7-0) @ Southern Methodist (6-13, 1-6)
• 10:30 PM: Nebraska (13-7, 3-4) @ Colorado (9-11, 1-5)