Miami-Duke, Cuse-Louisville, Mich. State-Mich. highlight the weekend

Game of the Weekend: No. 5 Miami at No. 3 Duke (Sat. 6:00 p.m. ET, ESPN)

Some of the luster was taken off of this game when Duke lost to Virginia on Thursday night while Miami is coming off of a blowout loss to Wake Forest last Saturday. If Miami can’t compete with the Demon Deacons on the road, are we really supposed to assume they can compete with Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium?

Well, yeah, probably. Because the last time these two got together, Miami beat Duke by 27 points. And it wasn’t even that close. If that wasn’t bad enough, Miami did what they could to mock and make fun of Duke in the second half by slapping the floor on defense. You don’t think Duke is mad about that? They got embarrassed and shown up on the road by Miami?

Miami?!?

Even if Ryan Kelly doesn’t play and even if these two teams are “down” from where they were a week ago, these are still two good basketball teams with plenty of bad blood to go around.

Five more games you need to watch:

• No. 10 Louisville at No. 12 Syracuse (Sat. 12:00 p.m. ET, CBS): It seems like every team in the country that was supposed to be good this season has had a couple of weeks where they can’t seem to figure anything out. That’s been Syracuse for the last month. Teams have started playing them zone, and the Orange have been unable to figure out how to score against it. Guess what Louisville likes to play? We can only hope that this game will live up to the last time these two got together, when Michael Carter-Williams picked up a pair of steals in the final 30 seconds to beat the Cardinals.

• No. 21 Notre Dame at No. 22 Marquette (Sat. 2:00 p.m. ET, ESPN): The key matchup here will be in the paint. Marquette most important player has been low-post scorer Davante Gardner, but he’ll be going up against the Big East’s most physical post player in Jack Cooley.

• Wichita State at Creighton (Sat. 2:00 p.m. ET, ESPN2): It all comes down to one game. Wichita State and Creighton are tied for first in the Missouri Valley right now. They play on Saturday in what has become the MVC title game. That alone provides more than enough intrigue, but there’s more to it: the loser falls one step closer to the bubble. If, say, Creighton loses on Saturday and loses in the first round of the MVC tournament, there’s a chance they miss the NCAA tournament. And vice versa.

• No. 20 Butler at VCU (Sat. 12:00 p.m. ET, ESPN2): The two newest additions to the Atlantic 10 — and one of the latest departures? — square off in a battle for second place in the Atlantic 10 standings. It will be interesting to see how the Bulldogs’ back court can handle the pressure from VCU’s ‘Havoc’ defense. More importantly, Butler is three fluky wins away from being a borderline bubble team. Can they make a statement against the Rams?

• No. 9 Michigan State at No. 4 Michigan (Sun. 4:00 p.m. ET, CBS): Michigan’s potential to earn a No. 1 seed was put into serious jeopardy when they lost to Penn State on Wednesday night, giving up 84 points to the previously winless-in-the-Big-Ten Nittany Lions. The last time these two got together, Sparty won by 22 points, but that was before Keith Appling’s nosedive. Can the Wolverines get their revenge?

And what about the mid-majors?

• Harvard at Princeton (Fri. 7:00 p.m. ET, ESPNU)
• Loyola (MD) at Iowa (Fri. 7:00 p.m. ET, ESPN2)
• Northwestern State at Stephen F. Austin (Sat. 7:00 p.m. ET)
• George Mason at Delaware (Sat. 2:00 p.m. ET, NBCSports)

You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.