Monday's Pregame Beat

7:00 pm: UConn @ Villanova: To say UConn has been struggling lately would be putting it mildly. After a disastrous performance against Cinci extended UConn's slump to eight losses in their last 11 games, Jim Calhoun blew up at reporters during the post game press conference insinuating that his team had given up on him and the season. Now, just two days later, the Huskies head to Philly to take on a Villanova team in sole possession of first place in the conference and currently ranked third in the country. Not an easy task.

But I like this matchup for UConn. Where UConn struggles the most is in their half court offense. The biggest knock on Villanova this season is their half court defense. Villanova likes to play an uptempo game, which suits the Huskies well. And for the first time in a long time, UConn may actually have the best big men on the court. That said, any matchup advantage that the Huskies may have will be nullified if they put forth the effort they did against Cincinnati.

8:00 pm: Virginia @ Maryland: The Terps headed into Saturday's showdown in Durham as the second place team in the ACC and playing as well as anyone in the league, but after getting drubbed by 21 points, things are looking a little bleaker this week. Maryland has a tough six days in front of them. Just two days after the loss at Duke, Maryland gets UVa at home tonight, travels to NC State on Wednesday, and then will play Georgia Tech in the Comcast Center on Saturday. Do the math, and that's four games in eight days, a difficult task for anyone, let alone an ACC team trying to solidify a trip to the dance.

UVa, on the other hand, just needs to start collecting some notable wins. They struggled in the non-conference portion of their schedule, losing to Penn State, Stanford, Auburn, and South Florida, which put them in a very difficult spot if they had any intention of earning an at-large bid.

9:00 pm: Kansas @ Texas A&M: Kansas played as well as they have all season last week, but I'm still not convinced this team is as good as they can be yet. Granted, with Xavier Henry rediscovering his jump shot it is a step in the right direction, but I'm still waiting to see Sherron Collins, Cole Aldrich, and Tyshawn Taylor really prove why they got as much hype as they did over the summer. That said, this is still a team that has just one loss on the season and is three games ahead of everyone else in the Big XII. Not a bad problem to have.

Texas A&M, on the other hand, is playing as well as anyone in the conference right now. They are currently second in the Big XII and on a four game winning streak, having beaten Texas Tech twice, Baylor, and Missouri on the road during that stretch. They have some good size, play a physical brand of basketball, and have one of the most underrated players in the country on their team in Donald Sloan (18.1 ppg). Kansas better come to play tonight, or they may be walking out of College Station with their first Big XII loss.