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Thursday’s Pregame Shootaround: Loaded day of conference tournament action

UConn Maryland Basketball

Connecticut’s Shabazz Napier (13) shoots against Maryland’s Shaquille Cleare, left, during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Friday, Nov. 8, 2013, in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

AP

GAME OF THE NIGHT: No. 18 Memphis vs. No. 21 UConn, 8:00 p.m., ESPNU

This is one heck of a quarterfinal matchup in the inaugural American Athletic Conference Tournament that pits the only matchup of the day between ranked teams. Memphis will have the homecourt advantage playing in its hometown, even though they are the No. 5 seed, and they’ll look to avenge being swept in the regular season by the Huskies. UConn, meanwhile, has struggled on the offensive end down the stretch as they’ve failed to crack 70 points in their last six games. The last time the Huskies cracked 70? An 86-81 overtime win over Memphis on February 15th.

RELATED: Is your team in the field of 68? Check our latest Bracketology

THE OTHER GAME OF THE NIGHT: Oklahoma State vs. No. 10 Kansas, 3:00 p.m., ESPN2

The Cowboys have won five out of six games -- including a 72-65 home win over Kansas -- since the return of Marcus Smart and they’ll look to keep that momentum going in this Big 12 quarterfinal matchup. Oklahoma State looks like a different team in these last few weeks after their nearly devastating mid-season swoon, and a win over Kansas would continue to build momentum going into the NCAA Tournament. Kansas, meanwhile, will see how they fare without center Joel Embiid in the lineup once again and it will be interesting to see how Andrew Wiggins plays after his monster performance against West Virginia. Whether Wiggins has a huge game or not, Kansas needs more consistency from its guard-play, as Naadir Tharpe, Frank Mason and company were soundly outplayed on both ends of the floor in the loss to West Virginia last Saturday.

RELATED: Conference Tournament schedules for every league

WHO’S GETTING UPSET? Florida State vs. Maryland, 12:00 p.m., ESPN

This would be an upset only in the sense that Florida State (18-12) is still fighting for a potential at-large bid while Maryland is playing the role of spoiler. The Terps (17-14) are playing some decent ball down the stretch as they’ve beaten Virginia Tech and Virginia and have close losses to Clemson, Duke, Syracuse and Virginia. Maryland also knocked off Florida State the last two times these teams played in February. The Seminoles need all the wins they can muster at this point in the season and they had won three consecutive games before a double-digit loss to Syracuse. It’s tough to get a read on this Florida State team this season and their inconsistent play could come back to bite them in this one.

Get to know all of the NCAA Tournament’s automatic bids here.

MID-MAJOR GAME OF THE DAY: Ohio vs. Akron, 6:30 p.m., ESPN3

A really solid battle in the MAC as Ohio (23-10, 11-7) and Akron (20-11, 12-6 MAC) square off in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament. These two teams split in the regular season as Akron has won three straight games while Ohio has won four straight games and is also playing some good ball entering the conference tournament. It’s not very common to see a battle of 20-win teams in a mid-major quarterfinal, but both of these teams could use a win like this to propel them to the tournament title and NCAA Tournament bid. Buffalo, Toledo and Western Michigan might have something to say about that, but the MAC is pretty deep with teams that could win the conference tournament.

(MORE: Browse through all of our conference tournament previews)

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW

1) The Big 12 quarterfinals are easily the best top-to-bottom matchups of the day as West Virginia (17-14) takes on Texas (22-9), Baylor (22-10) faces No. 17 Oklahoma (23-8) and Kansas State (20-11) battles with No. 16 Iowa State (23-7) besides the aforementioned Oklahoma State and Kansas showdown.

2) While No. 3 Villanova and No. 14 Creighton should get by Seton Hall and DePaul, respectively, in the Big East quarterfinals, an interesting potential play-in game is brewing as St. John’s (20-11) takes on Providence (20-11) at 2:30 p.m. Both teams sit squarely on the bubble and the loser’s bubble would likely burst. Marquette (17-14) and Xavier (20-11) in the nightcap at MSG is also an enticing matchup.

3) Not to overlook our friends on the West Coast, the Pac-12 quarterfinal slate is also tremendous. Utah (21-10) will be looking for a major boost to its tournament resume with a win over No. 4 Arizona (28-3), UCLA (23-8) and Oregon (23-8) will square off in a great matchup, while bubble implications occur as Arizona State (21-10) takes on Stanford (20-11) and Colorado (22-10) matches up with Cal (19-12).

4) The SEC has some bubble teams playing in the quarterfinals as well as Missouri (21-10) takes on Texas A&M (17-14) and Arkansas (21-10) battles South Carolina (13-19). A win likely doesn’t do much good for either team, but a loss would be potentially devastating to an at-large bid.

5) The Conference-USA quarterfinals will be one to monitor today as Southern Miss and Louisiana Tech still battle for at-large bids while fighting for the automatic birth, as well. Southern Miss (26-5) has a challenging game with UTEP (23-9) while Louisiana Tech (25-6) will take on Charlotte (17-13). It’s worth noting that Southern Miss and Louisiana Tech tied atop the league standings at 13-3 with Middle Tennessee (23-8) and Tulsa (18-12), who also have quarterfinal matchups today.

THE REST OF THE TOP 25:


  • Rutgers vs. No. 5 Louisville, 3:00 p.m.
  • Utah State vs. No. 8 San Diego State, 3:00 p.m.
  • UCF vs. No. 13 Cincinnati, 7:00 p.m.
  • Fresno State vs. No. 20 New Mexico, 9:00 p.m.
  • Purdue vs. No. 24 Ohio State, 2:25 p.m.
  • Houston vs. No. 25 SMU, 1:00 p.m.

NOTABLES:


  • Penn State vs. Minnesota, 6:30 p.m.
  • Northwestern vs. Iowa, 8:30 p.m.

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