This week's can’t-miss college games
By MATT SEVERANCE
Put away that TV guide, here are the best games to watch this week as we come down the home stretch of the regular season. Check back on Friday for a look at the weekend action.
Pittsburgh at Connecticut (Monday, 7 p.m., ESPN)
Huskies guard Jerome Dyson will be out tonight and possibly the rest of the season. Dyson, the team’s second-leading scorer (13.2 points), has a torn lateral meniscus in his right knee.
Dyson admits it’s doubtful he comes back this year. Senior Craig Austrie started Saturday’s win over Seton Hall and shot 2-of-10 for six points.
Connecticut has won 13 games in a row, its longest in-season streak since the 1998-99 national championship team. UConn center Hasheem Thabeet had career highs in points (25) and rebounds (20) in the win over Seton Hall.
The last time these two teams met, Feb. 2, 2008, Pitt big man DeJuan Blair (13 points and 13 rebounds) outplayed Thabeet (six points and seven rebounds).
Michigan State at Purdue (Tuesday, 7 p.m., ESPN)
MSU coach Tom Izzo gave his players a few days off after MSU had played five games in 13 days. It’s not yet clear if starting forward Raymar Morgan will play against Purdue. He has been ill since mid-January and hasn’t played in the past three games. Morgan did say after the Michigan game last Tuesday that he was prepared to play if needed, and he did dress.
Purdue also has an ailing star in Robbie Hummel, but the preseason Big Ten Player of the Year did play in Saturday’s win over Iowa. The sophomore forward had just two points in his first game since Jan. 31 because of a stress fracture in his back. Purdue is 7-1 in Big Ten games in which Hummel plays and 1-3 when he does not. Hummel said after the game he was pain-free and was 100 percent sure he would play against the Spartans.
Providence at Louisville (Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., ESPN2)
The Friars are squarely on the NCAA bubble and are residing among the last four in on ESPN’s Bracketology page. A win here would assure a .500 record in the Big East and probably guarantee Providence a spot in the Dance.
Providence has struggled against ranked teams this year, going 1-4 (the lone win vs. Syracuse) while allowing an average of 91 points per game. In fact, in the past three versus ranked teams, PC has allowed 94 points to each.
The Friars are 4-3 ATS on the road this year and are one of just three current NCAA teams to have four active 1,000-point scorers (joining North Carolina and Marquette).
Washington at UCLA (Thursday, 11 p.m., Fox Sports Net)
The Huskies, who have won three in a row, would be in great shape to win the Pac-10 regular-season crown with a win at Pauley. Saturday’s 84-72 loss at Arizona was the Bruins’ second in a row. UCLA has won the past three Pac-10 titles but is a game-and-a-half behind the Huskies.
UCLA fell behind by 18 points in the first 20 minutes against Arizona, its biggest halftime deficit since the start of the 2005 season. And it was only the second time this season that an opponent had scored more than 80 points against UCLA.
Bruins coach Ben Howland, following that loss in Tucson, called this matchup with UW "the biggest game of the year for us."
The Huskies won the first game with the Bruins this season, 86-75.