Sunday's Pregame Beat

Only four games you are going to want to pay attention too today:

3:00 pm: Villanova @ Temple: Villanova is one of the best teams in the country, but Temple hasn't been bad. They come into this game at 6-2 with their two losses being nailbiters to fellow Big East foes St. John's and Georgetown. Temple likes to play at a much slower pace than Villanova, which means that the Owl guards Juan Fernandez and Ryan Brooks are going to be important in how well they handle the Wildcat press. It should be fun to watch Lavoy Allen and Antonio Pena, two of the more underrated big men on the east coast, go at it inside.

6:45 pm: Rhode Island @ Boston College: BC will be looking to bounce back from a loss to Harvard, but the Rhody Rams are pretty good this year. They are coming into this game at 7-1 with wins over Providence and Northeastern, which aren't quite NCAA tournament wins. A win at BC may be.

7:00 pm: Cincinnati @ Xavier: This rivarly flies under the radar, but it is as fierce as any in the country. Xavier is down this year, but they have a couple of big bodies inside, and Jordan Crawford has the talent to go for 25 in any game (but he is also just as likely to score 5 points and go 2-15 from the floor). Cincinnati is a big, physical team, but they are still waiting for Deonta Vaughn and Lance Stephenson to really figure it out. This will be a good test.

9:05: New Mexico State @ UTEP: So how much is Derrick Caracter going to play?