Wednesday, Dec. 30th in College Basketball

Several good games on Tuesday night. Purdue trailed to Iowa at the end of the 1st half but the tide was turning even before that point and the Boilers shut them down in the 2nd. Syracuse fell behind early to Seton Hall, tied it up at halftime, fell behind again, then took the lead and never looked back, winning 80-73. Jeremy Hazell can only do so much by himself. West Virginia, meanwhile, trailed almost the entire game vs. Marquette and needed a Desean Butler fadeaway 18-footer with 2 seconds left to beat the Golden Eagles. The lesson? It's never easy to win on the road in conference, even if you're a top 5 team. The other three undefeated teams, Kansas, Texas, and Kentucky, all won with relative ease. In other games, New Mexico took down Texas Tech at home to rebound from their first loss of the year. More good conference games on tap tonight:

Game of the Night:

UConn at Cincinnati: I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of Big East games featured in this blog. Anyway, Cincinnati is one of those teams that appears to be squarely on the bubble at the moment, and you know they're going to be on the bubble at the end of the year. Cincy will have plenty of chances to get statement wins, but starting off on the right foot is always important. I believe the Bearcats are stout enough defensively that they can slow down UConn. What I worry about is Cincy's offensive abilities. Deonta Vaughn was supposed to get better with the addition of Lance Stephenson, but that hasn't happened. Yancy Gates is solid but not spectacular. The wild card is Stephenson. He has the tools to become a great player, but he needs better shot selection. Those factors mean UConn will probably win a slow-paced game.

Pick: UConn 65, Cincinnati 56

Others:

Baylor @ Arkansas: Baylor is a bubble team at this point, but probably needs this game to really be serious about making a tournament run.

South Carolina @ Boston College: Both teams need a signature win... and, well, this one will have to settle for now.

Northwestern @ Illinois: Guess which team is ranked? No cheating... Okay, it's the Wildcats. After 40 years. Congratulations, NW.