As part of our attempt to improve Rush the Court and make it the premier college basketball blog, we’re introducing a series of new features. Some will be daily (we’re bringing back our recaps on nightly action called After the Buzzer), weekly, and others will be a little more random (the Brandon Jennings Watch or the long-awaited RTC Prestige rankings). One of these features will be the RTC “Set Your Tivos” feature previewing the week ahead and giving our loyal readers a heads-up as they plan their lives around college basketball (all times EST). Without further ado, your Week 1 Set Your Tivos. . .

Normally, I would be going through a more extensive analysis of the day’s offerings, but this week the pickings are pretty slim so you’re essentially getting every game that I know is on TV.

Monday, November 10, 2008 – Presbyterian at #5 Duke, 7 PM (ESPNU): College basketball officially gets underway with a cupcake. While it will be interesting to see if Coach K has brought any new wrinkles into the Duke offense from Beijing, I don’t think he’ll be revealing it against Presbyterian. If you want to see if Duke has regrouped from its poor performance last March (barely beating Belmont and getting thumped by Joe Alexander and West Virginia), you’ll have to wait until Friday because this is going to be a beatdown.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008 – Michigan Tech at Michigan, 7 PM (ESPNU): The Wolverines are looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2007-08 campaign under former Mountaineer coach John Beilein. What is it with Michigan’s athletic department poaching all the coaching talent in Morgantown? If they have any shot of returning to respectability they should crush Michigan Tech. They should be able to do the latter, but I doubt they will be respectable this season unless you consider battling for a NIT bid respectable.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008 – Prairie View A&M at #4 UCLA, 10 PM (ESPNU): The big question for Ben Howland will be if he can guide the Bruins to Detroit for their 4th consecutive Final 4 (the last 3 ended with losses). This game will not answer any of the questions the Bruins have. Are you sensing a pattern here? So Bruins fans, enjoy the exhibition against a school that is most well-known for its incompetence on the football field.

Thursday, November 13, 2008 – Nothing. Catch up on the rest of your life since you’ll be busy until early in the morning on April 7, 2009.

Friday, November 14, 2008 – Toledo at #19 Florida, 6 PM (ESPNU): After a rebuilding campaign following their back-to-back national titles, Billy Donovan’s Gators look to rebound and make a run in March. Tonight will be a big first step in showing the nation they can do that even with the recent departure of last season’s starting PG Jai Lucas.

– Fairleigh Dickinson at #6 Pittsburgh, 7 PM (CBS College Sports All-Access): Our first look at one of the Big East powers, this won’t necessarily give us a good indication of how strong the Panthers will be this year, but it could be a potential 1 vs. 16 or 2 vs. 15 match-up in March.

– North Carolina Central at #24 Wake Forest, 7 PM (None): This may be the most interesting of the games tonight as Wake is a team with “tremendous upside potential” (see Brown, Hubie). Dino Gaudio managed to bring in the best recruiting class in the ACC (h/t to the late Skip Prosser) and will be poised to put a scare into some of the top teams in the country later in the year. This game may just give us a glimpse of how scary the Demon Deacons could be.

– Western Carolina at #2 UConn, 7:30 PM (ESPN360): The Big East favorites open up with a cupcake. Not much to see here. The Huskies won’t be at full-strength yet, but it shouldn’t matter. We’ll be interested to see if Hasheem Thabeet has progressed any since last season.

– Stetson at #8 Texas, 8 PM (ESPN Full Court & ESPN360): The Longhorns return 4 of 5 starters from last season’s Elite 8 team, but will have a big hole at the 1 with D.J. Augustin’s early entry into the draft. Rick Barnes will have to find a way to replace Augustin (last seen getting punked by Derrick Rose) in much the same way as he built last year’s team after the early entry of Kevin Durant (last seen leaving the city of Seattle in tears). If Barnes is able to pull that off, the Longhorns should have a good shot at a #1 or #2 seed. By the way, this game won’t give us any indication if that is the case.

– American University at #14 Oklahoma, 8 PM (ESPN Full Court & ESPN360): The Sooners are loaded this year and some are even picking them to win the Big 12. Blake Griffin will be leading the way, but will need solid support from diaper dandy Willie Warren and UCLA transfer Ryan Wright if they are going to challenge Texas. While Jeff Capel still has some work to do to match his predecessor’s level of success, we’re pretty sure he will be slightly less controversial. I’d watch this game more to see how good Capel’s new recruit and transfer are rather than using it as a gauge of how good his team is.

– Albany at #25 Villanova, 8 PM (Nova Nation All-Access):  A first look at Jay Wright’s team against a solid program from the Am East.  Will Wright go with the four-guard set that’s been rumored?  A lineup of 6’2 Scottie Reynolds, 6’1 Corey Fisher, 6’0 Malcolm Grant and 6’5 Corey Stokes wouldn’t get many rebouds, but would cause quickness mismatches all over the court.  Should be fun to watch. 

– Houston Baptist at #17 Marquette, 8:30 PM (Time Warner Cable Sports 32 locally in Wisconsin):  The seventh-year trio of Wesley Matthews, Dominic James and Jerel McNeal all return for the Warriors Golden Eagles, but Tom Crean doesn’t.  New coach and former assistant Buzz Williams has a talented, experienced team returning that probably should have made the Sweet Sixteen last year (but for the Lopez Roll).  In other words, he’s in a much better position than his predecessor will be this season several hours south down in Bloomington. 

– Detroit at #10 Purdue, 9 PM (ESPN360):  Purdue shouldn’t have much trouble with the team picked by RTC to finish dead last in the Horizon.  E’Twaun Moore and Robbie Hummell are worth sitting at home watching your computer on a Friday night, trust us. 

– Mississippi Valley State at #15 Arizona State, 10 PM (Fox Sports Arizona & Fox College Sports Pacific):  MVSU should be one of the better teams in the SWAC this year, but that doesn’t mean this will be a good game.  The more we think about ASU, the more we believe that they’re in for a big season.  James Harden is just that good, and Sendek has had enough time to get buy-in from his players for his system (which generally works). 

*h/t to Patrick Marshall (see below)