Game #138.  RTC Live is back in Seattle for another Pac-10 tilt; can the Huskies continue to show the dominance at home that they lack on the road?

In five Pac-10 home games, the Washington Huskies have dominated its competition by an average margin of victory of 22.2 points.  The road has been a completely different story, though, as the Huskies have gone 3-4 in losing to some of the same teams they’ve rolled up at home.  Tonight represents one of those situations, as Stanford visits Edmundson Pavilion a mere month after having beaten Washington in Palo Alto, 58-56.  It was, in fact, the only team that the Cardinal defeated during a three-week period in mid-January.  Since that time Johnny Dawkins’ team has come back to win three of four, including  an impressive thirteen-point road win at Washington State on Thursday night.  The Cardinal sits at 6-6 in league play, while Washington at 8-4 still has designs on catching UCLA and Arizona for the Pac-10 lead.  Given the way the Huskies score in bunches in Seattle, Stanford is going to need to bring its absolute best defensive game to have a chance tonight.  Join us for all the action tonight on a west coast edition of RTC Live.

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Game #136.  RTC Live is back in the WCC for a key road game involving the conference-leading St. Mary’s Gaels against an old rival.

In a key battle to determine second place — and perhaps first as well — in the West Coast Conference, league-leading Saint Mary’s (8-1) takes on third-place Santa Clara (5-3) at Santa Clara. Santa Clara, which revived its season with an 85-71 upset of Gonzaga on Jan. 20, needs a win to stay close to San Francisco (6-2). Saint Mary’s needs to navigate two games in hostile environments — tonight’s in the Leavey Center and Saturday’s at San Francisco — to keep its hopes alive for winning the first regular-season title in Randy Bennett’s 10-year tenure.

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Game #137.  RTC Live makes its first trip to the Pacific Northwest for a key Pac-10 game for both Washington and California.

Coming into this season’s Pac-10 race, the storyline on these two teams were headed in different directions.  Both were NCAA Tournament participants last year, with UW heading to the Sweet Sixteen and Cal making the Second Round.  The difference was that Washington returned everyone except all-around star Quincy Pondexter, while Cal returned nobody except all-around role player, Jorge Gutierrez.  The Huskies were expected to run away with the Pac-10 regular season race, while the Bears were expected to be in serious rebuilding mode.  It hasn’t quite worked out that way.  Washington comes into tonight’s home game having dropped three perplexing games in a row, while Cal enters Edmundson Pavilion having won four of five.  As it is, Cal is only one game behind the Huskies in the Pac-10 standings, while Washington at 7-4 doesn’t want to give up any more ground to UCLA at 7-3 or Arizona at 9-2.  Tonight’s game should be a very interesting one, as both teams have considerable reason to give it their all in this one.  Join us on RTC Live for all the action tonight.

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St. John’s has yet another opportunity to knock off a highly ranked team tonight when the Connecticut Huskies invade Madison Square Garden. The Johnnies have already beaten West Virginia, Georgetown, Notre Dame and Duke, an impressive slate of victories that has them knocking on the door of their first NCAA berth since 2002. With nine losses on the year however, wins are needed if the Red Storm are to indeed make it to the NCAA’s. St. John’s lost by seven to UCLA last Saturday, a game in which the Bruins got to the foul line 41 times to just seven for the Red Storm. St. John’s is a team that relies on interior scoring and getting to the line for most of their points and that could be difficult again tonight. Connecticut is strong inside, doesn’t foul often and rebounds the ball extremely well, averaging 41 per game. As for the Huskies, they’re coming a 61-59 win at Seton Hall on Saturday, a game in which they trailed by double digits midway through the second half. The Huskies clamped down on defense and held the Pirates to nine points over the final 14 minutes of the game. Star guard Kemba Walker, mired in an extended shooting slump, will look to get back on track tonight against a St. John’s team that doesn’t defend the perimeter all that well. Walker made the triple that gave the Huskies the lead for good on Saturday but still shot 7-19 in that game. St. John’s has been drawing good crowds at the Garden of late and we expect it to be another fun atmosphere inside the World’s Most Famous Arena. Be sure to follow along with RTC Live during this important Big East tilt tonight from NYC.

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Game #134.  It’s another battle of top twenty teams in the Big East tonight at Notre Dame.  What else is new?

In a battle that possesses major Big East implications, Rick Pitino takes his the #15 Louisville Cardinals to Notre Dame, Indiana, to take on Mike Brey’s #7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The Irish are currently in sole possession of second place in the Big East, while the Cardinals sit in third place, only a half game behind. Homecourt has been extremely kind to the Irish all season, as they remain undefeated at the Purcell Pavilion. The Cardinals have had their share of road woes in conference play with losses at Villanova, Providence and Georgetown. Notre Dame enters following a hard-fought home victory over Rutgers on Sunday afternoon. Louisville enters coming off their own tough win- a Saturday struggle at home versus DePaul. Rick Pitino’s squad will have a major boost, as leading scorer Preston Knowles will return to the lineup following his absence Saturday due to an ankle injury. Mike Brey’s squad, winners of five in a row, are led by Big East Player of the Year candidate Ben Hansbrough and the emerging senior forward Scott Martin. Knowles and sophomore guard Peyton Siva will look to lead the Cardinals to a huge road win, but nothing will come easy as the Irish will likely feed off a huge home crowd. If ND is able to grab an early lead, then it is reasonable to assume that the Irish will be in great shape to capture their sixth straight victory.

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Game #133.  RTC Live is at Cal to see surprising Pac-10 leader Arizona take on the equally surprising Bears this afternoon in Berkeley.

In a Pac-10 season that was essentially handed to Washington through the early going, Arizona has had something else to say about that conventional wisdom.  Coming into tonight’s game in Berkeley, Arizona is 8-2 in conference play while Washington is 7-3.  UW will play Oregon in Eugene this afternoon, and both teams have home-dominated schedules the rest of the way (Arizona with three; Washington with two).  If the Wildcats hope to keep a one-game lead until the rematch on February 19 in Tucson, today’s game is very important.  In typical Mike Montgomery style, Cal has overachieved its way to a 6-4 Pac-10 record at this point.  Behind Jorge Gutierrez and Allen Crabbe’s fine play, the Bears have not been a pushover despite losing all five starters from last season’s conference championship team.  Cal comes into this one having won four in a row, while Arizona is on the same number in its streak.  Something has to give today — will it be Derrick Williams again making his case as one of the top big men in the country; or will it be Cal reminding everyone that Montgomery gets the most out of his personnel year after year?  Join us this afternoon on RTC Live for all the action.

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Game #132.  RTC Live is back in north Jersey to see if Kemba Walker and UConn can get back on track after a rough couple of weeks.

Connecticut will look to avoid their third straight loss when they roll into New Jersey tonight to face Seton Hall. The Huskies lost two straight home games for the first time since 2007, falling to Louisville and Syracuse in a span of four days. They’ll try to right the ship on the road against a Seton Hall team that has struggled but has shown the ability to play with the big boys in the Big East. The Pirates are only 10-13 overall but did win big at Syracuse and have stayed in games with quite a few opponents until the final minutes. Jeremy Hazell is the leading scorer for Kevin Willard in his first season as the Pirates’ headman. Hazell missed 13 games earlier this season with a broken wrist and was the victim of a scary armed robbery attempt around Christmas. He hasn’t been the same since his return, averaging 15 PPG on 20.4% three point shooting. Kemba Walker, who was the early frontrunner for National POY, is in a slump of his own for Jim Calhoun’s club, shooting 30.7% from the floor over his last five games. The growth of freshman Jeremy Lamb has been promising, but Connecticut needs Walker to be on top of his game as we head down the home stretch of the season. Connecticut has dominated this series since the 1993-94 season. The Huskies have won ten straight games, 17 of the past 18 and 24 of the past 26 against the Pirates. Seton Hall’s last win over Connecticut was nearly ten years ago on March 3, 2001. Join us for RTC Live tonight and find out if the Huskies can get back on track and continue their domination of Seton Hall or if the Pirates can pull the upset and snap their streak of futility against Connecticut.

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Game #130.  RTC Live is back at BYU for another superb Mountain West matchup in Provo.

It is another episode of the Jimmer Fredette show on Saturday afternoon as BYU takes on UNLV. The Runnin’ Rebels are looking to get back into the mix in the Mountain West. UNLV currently sits at 5-3, two games back of 7-1 BYU and SDSU. UNLV is on the right side of the bubble when it comes NCAA Tournament time, but a win in Provo could mean great things for their seed selection. In the two teams’ first meeting this season sophomore Anthony Marshall scored a season high 26 points for UNLV, but it was not enough as BYU won 89-77 in Las Vegas. In that game UNLV “held” The Jimmer to just 39 points. With UConn’s Kemba Walker fading Fredette is in the driver’s seat for the NCAA scoring crown, and with a couple more attention grabbing performances the National Player of the Year award is not out of the question either. Can Jimmer drop 40? 50? Or will UNLV steal the spotlight?

Note: BYU doesn’t allow live-blogging so our correspondent will provide updates at each television timeout during the game.

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Game #131.  RTC Live is back in Eugene with its interesting court design to see if the Huskies can get back on track after a shocking loss Thursday night.

The suddenly slumping Washington Huskies are coming into Eugene to face the now-hot Oregon Ducks in a fierce rivalry game. The Huskies have lost two games in a row  to regional rivals Washington State and Oregon State, while the Ducks have won four of their last six games to sneak back up to .500, while playing what is arguably their best stretch of basketball all season. The Huskies won the teams’ first matchup in Seattle nearly a month ago, but since that game, Washington and Oregon sport identical 4-3 records, and Oregon has since defeated all three teams to which Washington has fallen. The Huskies are led by diminutive guard Isaiah Thomas and British pivot Matthew Bryan-Amaning, arguably the most talented inside-out combo in the Pac-10. The Ducks are led by undersized redshirt senior power forward Joevan Catron, who is the team’s scoring, rebounding and emotional leader. Thomas gutted the Ducks for 20 points and nine assists in the teams’ first matchup, but had nine points on 2-for-11 shooting and committed seven turnovers against Oregon State on Thursday. Catron had 20 points and 10 rebounds in Seattle, and scored 17 points to lead the Ducks in their shellacking of the Cougars on Thursday night. The game is also a homecoming of sorts for Washington forward Terrence Ross, who eschewed his home-state Ducks for their hated rival Huskies and torched Oregon for 25 points in his first game against the team. Given the bad blood between the schools, a Kevin Love-like reception at Knight Arena would not be wholly unexpected. Join us Saturday afternoon to follow the rivalry game from Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene.

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Game #129.  RTC Live visits Boston College for this ACC matchup between two teams that need a win to stay at the top of the middle of the pack in the ACC.

With half of conference play behind us, the NCAA Tournament is right around the corner, and it’s safe to say there are plenty of at-large bids to be won.  Boston College and Virginia Tech are two schools with something to prove, as they fight to get off the bubble.  Despite playing a much more tasking nonconference slate, Virginia Tech has no quality out of conference wins (though Penn State is edging towards that category).  They do have a solid win at Maryland to hang their hats on, but an ugly loss at Georgia Tech that makes up for it.  Boston College actually has a pretty good resume with a win over Texas A&M on a neutral site that might be able to mitigate two losses to the Ivy League.  The problem is the Eagles’ losses are piling up after skidding to a one and four mark over their past five games.  Reggie Jackson has dropped from a quiet contender for ACC Player of the Year to just another player during the stretch.  The Eagles will need a more inspired effort from him going forward.  On the other side of the floor is another great guard, Malcolm Delaney.  He’s been terrific since Seth Greenberg started playing him off the ball more, and trails Duke’s Nolan Smith slightly in points and assists.  Containing Delaney and Jeff Allen for Boston College and keeping Jackson in his mini-slump for Virginia Tech will be the keys to winning this game, which is a must-win for both teams’ at-large hopes.

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