College Hoops Weekend Preview

There are some intriguing and big games coming up this weekend. Just about the majority of them will have a heavy impact on the conference standings.

Analysis and Predictions
There's one non-conference game that sticks out most to me and I have been anticipating this game from the beginning of the season. UNC-Arizona will square off this Saturday in which will have Final Four implications. The deep and experienced Wildcats will get their shot at the young and highly touted Tar-Heels.

This is a great matchup as both teams love to get up and down the floor. I love the point guard matchup between Tywon Lawson and Mustafa Shakur. But this is where Arizona has the advantage with Shakur, as UNC's Lawson hasn't played in a hostile environment or an experienced team quite like this away from home. The other matchups will be interesting as well with Wayne Ellington guarding Jewann McClellan, Reyshawn Terry on Marcus Williams, and the freshmen on freshmen matchup of Brandan Wright on Chase Buddinger. But the matchup of Tyler Hansbrough and Ivan Radenovic will be very intriguing. Radenovic is a very good defender, but Hansbrough should be able to out physical him inside.

The Tar-Heels weakness will be their perimeter defense. They've had some lapses at times and they definitely showed that they can give up the long ball vs V-Tech. But if Arizona has a terrific shooting night, Zona will walk all over UNC and will win by atleast double digits. But this matchup will be won on the defensive side, both teams are very potent on the offensive side but whoever can come up with stops and force turnovers will come out on top.
The Pick: Arizona 82 UNC 77- Arizona will win because they're playing at home and UNC's young guns haven't played in this big of a game all year outside of Chapel Hill.

Another matchup which will have a big impact on the SEC East race is Tennessee vs Kentucky. Tennessee is a very good shooting team but not having the SEC's leading scorer Chris Lofton will hurt, very badly. Kentucky is improving but they have stuggled at times. The Wildcats have a very balanced attack with Randolph Morris leading the way and with Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley on his side. Kentucky needs to be more consistent on both sides of the court if they want a chance to win the SEC. This will be a big game for them to be able to get things going in the right direction. Meanwhile, Tennessee will need to pick up it's game without their main man and they can't always rely on the long ball. Tennessee will struggle but can easily stay in this game with their strong defense.
The Pick: Kentucky 70 Tennessee 63

The late Sunday matchup between Boston College and Duke will tell us which team is ready to step up as the ACC team that will challenge UNC. Boston College has had some on and off the court problems all year long that's been effecting their game drastically. They just can't seem to get things going as expected. BC has been way too inconsistent. Although they do matchup very well with Duke, playing at Cameron Indoor Stadium will not be an easy task. I like the matchups with first of all Jarred Dudley going at it against Josh McRoberts. Dudley should be able to handle McRoberts well but needs a lot of help from his teammates. I also like the Tyrese Rice-Greg Paulus square off. Paulus has not been his normal self but it's pretty much been the same with Rice.

With the recent departure of Sean Williams, Duke has an edge in the front court. Also depth will factor into this game as Coach K will continue to sub as the game goes on to tire and wear down the Eagles. It's hard to pick Duke in this but BC just can't seem too play well, especially on the road.
The pick: Duke 74 BC 67

Other Predictions:
Wisconsin 75 Iowa 60
UCLA 79 Stanford 71