Top 25 Matchups for Saturday, January 9, 2010
(13) Connecticut Huskies at (12) Georgetown Hoyas 12:00 PM ET (ESPN)
Connecticut is 11-3 on the season and all three of those losses have come against teams that are ranked or were ranked at one time. The Huskies lost on a neutral floor against Duke, a neutral floor against Kentucky and at Cincinnati, who is no longer ranked. The game against the Bearcats has been the only true road game this season for Connecticut and it is coming off back-to-back home conference wins over Notre Dame and Seton Hall.
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The Huskies went 9-1 last season in true road games so winning away from home is definitely not an issue.
The Hoyas have been a pleasant surprise this season as they came into the week ranked 12th with their lone loss coming against Old Dominion, the top team in the CAA. This was before Georgetown went to Marquette and lost on Wednesday to drop to 2-1 in the Big East. This is definitely a tough stretch as four of the next six games are against ranked opponents with three coming on the road at Villanova, Pittsburgh and Syracuse. In order to stay in the hunt, Georgetown needs to take care of business at home which sometimes is easier said than done.
(4) Purdue Boilermakers at (17) Wisconsin Badgers 1:30 PM ET (BIG10)
If you like defense, this game will be right up your alley. Purdue has looked very solid this season as it is off to a 14-0 start including wins over Tennessee, Wake Forest and West Virginia. The Boilermakers have won five straight games by double-digits and take their show on the road for just the third time this season. They had a huge come from behind win at Alabama and they opened Big Ten action with an 11-point win at Iowa. Purdue is ranked eighth in the nation in defensive efficiency and it is allowing only 39.1 percent shooting on the season.
Wisconsin looks to rebound from only its third loss of the season on Wednesday at Michigan St. The Badgers are back in the Kohl Center where they have been nearly unbeatable over the years. In Bo Ryan’s nine years as head coach, the Badgers have amassed a 129-10 (.928) record at home which is the third best winning percentage in the nation behind Kansas and Duke. Wisconsin is currently riding a 14-game home winning streak with the last defeat coming against these same Boilermakers. The Badgers have lost two straight to Purdue at home but no team has ever won three straight meetings at the Kohl Center.
(5) Duke Blue Devils at (20) Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 2:00 PM ET (ESPN)
Duke is riding a seven-game winning streak and it has tore through most of the competition during this stretch. The last loss, which is the only one this season, for the Blue Devils came at Wisconsin during the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. That happened to be the only true road game played by the Blue Devils so far this season making this the conference road opener. Duke is 1-0 in the ACC after smashing Clemson by 21 points last Sunday. The Blue Devils have won four straight in this series and they have also won 11 of the last 12 meetings at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
The Yellow Jackets may have been caught looking ahead to this game as it is coming off a loss at Georgia on Tuesday, their third defeat of the season. Georgia Tech lost its ACC opener this year at home in overtime against Florida St. The Yellow Jackets are built around defense and that is the key to stopping Duke. Only Dayton, Florida St. and Georgia, their three losses, have shot as high as 40 percent from the floor against the Yellow Jackets this year. Offensively, Georgia Tech has shot better than 50 percent in six of 13 games this season, compared to only seven times all of last season.
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