The Week Ahead

As we enter the first full week of 2009, conference play is already beginning to separate some of the pretenders from the contenders. Last week featured several marquee match-ups with teams attempting to send a message to the rest of the country that they are going to be in their respective conference race for good. This week continues that trend, with plenty of quality intra-conference battles as well as a couple of non-conference games. If nothing else, last week showed that no one was invincible – who will step up this week?

Monday

• Pittsburgh at Cincinnati (Monday, 7:00 PM, ESPN)
  
• Utah State at Louisiana Tech (Monday, 8:00 PM)
  
• Mississippi State at Western Kentucky (Monday, 9:00 PM)
  

Tuesday

• Notre Dame at South Florida (Tuesday, 7:00 PM, ESPNU)
  
• Minnesota at No. 4 Purdue (Tuesday, 7:00 PM, ESPN)
  
• Rhode Island at Akron (Tuesday, 7:00 PM)
  
• No. 19 New Mexico at San Diego State (Tuesday, 10:30 PM, Regional TV)
  

Wednesday

• No. 23 Wisconsin at No. 11 Michigan State (Wednesday, 6:30 PM, Big Ten Network)
  
• Memphis at No. 5 Syracuse (Wednesday, 7:00 PM, ESPN2)
  
• Charlotte at No. 14 Tennessee (Wednesday, 7:00 PM, ESPN FullCourt/Regional TV)
  
• Cornell at No. 1 Kansas (Wednesday, 8:00 PM, ESPN FullCourt/Regional TV)
  
• No. 13 Georgetown at Marquette (Wednesday, 8:00 PM, ESPN FullCourt/Regional TV)
  
• Wichita State at Missouri State (Wednesday, 8:05 PM, Regional TV)
  
• Northern Iowa at Southern Illinois (Wednesday, 9:00 PM, ESPNU)
  
• Seton Hall at No. 10 Connecticut (Wednesday, 9:00 PM, ESPN FullCourt/Regional TV)
  
• No. 7 Duke at Iowa State (Wednesday, 9:00 PM, ESPN2)
  
• UNLV at BYU (Wednesday, 10:00 PM, Regional TV)
  

Thursday

• Western Kentucky at South Alabama (Thursday, 6:05 PM, Regional TV)
  

Friday

• Butler at Wright State (Friday, 7:00 PM, Regional TV)
  
• No. 17 Washington at Arizona State (Friday, 10:30 PM, Regional TV)