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Weekend Preview: Five Storylines

Miami v North Carolina

CHAPEL HILL, NC - JANUARY 10: Kenny Kadji #35 of the Miami Hurricanes gets tangled in the net as he defends a shot by James Michael McAdoo #43 of the North Carolina Tar Heels during play at Dean Smith Center on January 10, 2013 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

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Who is the third best team in the ACC?: I think that it’s pretty safe to say that Duke is the best team in the conference, followed by NC State. Those two will square off at noon on Saturday. But that’s not what’s important heading into this weekend. We already know what we’re going to get out of those two teams this season, and any result that comes with Ryan Kelly sidelined will have an asterisk next to it.

Who is the best of the rest? Is it Miami, who just went into the Dean Dome and beat North Carolina but also lost to Florida-Gulf Coast? Is it Florida State, who has losses to Mercer and South Alabama and a win at Maryland this week? Is it UNC or Maryland after all? At 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, the Heels visit Tallahassee, where they were embarrassed a season ago. At 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, Miami plays host to the Terps. I think we’ll know a lot more about all four teams come Monday morning.

Some Pac-12 clarity: UCLA is playing their best basketball of the season right now, sitting at 3-0 in the conference and finally getting the kind of production out of Shabazz Muhammad and Kyle Anderson that we all expected. But they will be visiting Colorado on Saturday afternoon in a game that should be able to tell us two things: Is Colorado a serious contender in the conference? And is UCLA tough enough to win on the road?

We should also get a good gauge on both Arizona State and Oregon. The Ducks are still unbeaten in the league after handing Arizona their first loss of the season on Thursday night, but Arizona State is also without a loss. The Sun Devils went into Oregon State and knocked off the Beavers on Thursday. They will play Sunday night at 9:00 p.m.

Shaking out the Big East: There are two games early on Saturday that will help clear some things up about the conference. The first is Georgetown’s 11:00 a.m. tip at St. John’s. The Hoyas have had all kinds of issues scoring the ball this season, but now those struggles are starting to seep into the defensive side of the ball. This is the kind of thing that JT III needs to fix immediately if Georgetown wants a real chance at being competitive in the league. But both Marquette and Pitt are looking for answers as well. The Golden Eagles are 2-0 in the league, but they won two close games at home. Pitt is 1-2 in conference play, but the ‘1' was an undressing of Georgetown in which the Hoyas simply rolled over and died.

First place in mid-majors on the line: There are a pair of games on Saturday afternoon that will determine who will be sitting in first place. Northeastern and Towson, surprisingly enough, are both 3-0 in the CAA right now. They square off at noon. When that one is over, Hartford will trek down to Stony Brook to put their undefeated America East record on the line.

Bob Huggins takes on his old team: At 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Huggy Bear and West Virginia will be taking on No. 18 Kansas State in Morgantown. The matchup itself should be interesting enough -- WVU used a 13-0 run at the end of regulation to force overtime at Texas and keep their tournament hopes realistic -- but don’t forget about the importance of KSU to Huggins’ career. They gave him a chance after he was fired by Cincinnati.