See bottom of the post for the Official RTC Star System.
Week five begins with a pair of great games on the east coast. Tonight we get Washington against #11 Marquette in New York City, and on Wednesday Arizona will travel to #12 Florida. Here’s a quick look at both games.
Washington vs #11 Marquette – Tuesday, 6:00 PM PST on ESPN (***)
- All of a sudden Washington finds itself in a new situation. After dropping two of their last three games, the Huskies come into the Jimmy V Classic with zero expectations. They have the talent to pull an upset, but poor offensive performances against mediocre defenses lately has me on the fence. The Huskies have looked confused, and at some points just plain bad, against average defensive teams like Nevada, so what is going to happen tonight when they face one of the best defensive teams in the nation? Marquette likes to play over on pick-and-rolls and push the opposing big men away from the basket, so expect this to be a very physical contest. Look for Darnell Gant and Aziz N’Diaye to be huge in this game. If they can enforce their will and get good looks in the paint, Washington has a good chance of winning this one.
- This game will go one of two ways. Either Marquette is just going to come out and dominate the Huskies, or Washington hits their outside shots, gets some good looks in the paint, and is in position to win it at the end. I see the latter happening, but Marquette is just too good to lose this one.
Give me the Eagles by five.
Arizona @ #12 Florida – Wednesday, 4:00 PM PST on ESPN (****)
- This is the highlight of the week. The Wildcats come in with a 6-2 record, but the two losses came against Mississippi State and San Diego State. Arizona definitely has the talent to compete with Florida, but can they pull off the win on the road? The Wildcats could use the strategy that Northern Arizona used on them last Saturday: grind out the offensive possessions. Florida loves to run, shoot, and score (they are fourth in the nation with 87.6 PPG), and if the Cats can limit their possessions like Syracuse did against the Gators on Friday, this game should be close for all forty minutes. On defense, the Wildcats’ main goal will be shutting down junior guard Kenny Boynton. Boynton is averaging 19 PPG so far this season, and it will take a joint effort by Kyle Fogg and Nick Johnson to limit his touches behind the arc.
- Like I said above, the Wildcats are going to have to find a way to slow down the Florida offense. I think they will do that, but it doesn’t matter how great your defense is if you can’t make any shots on your own end. Expect the Gators to jump out to an early lead and take the lead into halftime, with Arizona making a mini-run to begin the second half. From there Arizona stays within striking distance, but the Gators remain in that comfortable 7-12 point lead range until the end.
The Official RTC Star System
***** – quit your job and divorce your wife if that’s what it takes to watch this game live
**** – best watched live, but if you must, tivo and watch it tonight as soon as you get home
*** – set your tivo but make sure you watch it later
** – set your tivo but we’ll forgive you if it stays in the queue until 2014
* – don’t waste bandwidth (yours or the tivo’s) of any kind on this game