The NBA All-Star break runs a few more days, giving the spotlight to college basketball for the early part of the week.
Conference title races are tightening up. Teams are playing themselves on and off the bubble of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Ranked teams still can’t win on the road, it seems.
So which teams will solidify their tournament and conference title cases this week? There are several games scheduled with big-time implications, starting with a Big 12 showdown on Monday.
Highlighted games are men’s contests unless otherwise noted.
Rankings come from the Feb. 19 Associated Press polls.
Monday, Feb. 19
(6) Iowa State at (2) Houston, 7 p.m.
Virginia at Virginia Tech, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 20
Butler at Villanova, 6:30 p.m.
Iowa at Michigan State, 7 p.m.
VCU at UMASS, 7 p.m.
(1) UCONN at (15) Creighton, 8:30 p.m.
(11) Baylor at (25) BYU, 9 p.m.
Pittsburgh at Wake Forest, 9 p.m.
TCU at (23) Texas Tech, 9 p.m.
(19) San Diego State at Utah State, 9 p.m.
San Francisco at (18) St. Mary’s, 11 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 21
(8) Duke at Miami, 7 p.m.
(24) Florida at (13) Alabama, 7 p.m.
(16) Dayton at George Mason, 7 p.m.
Charlotte at Memphis, 8 p.m.
Providence at Xavier, 8 p.m.
Nebraska at Indiana, 8:30 p.m.
(17) Kentucky at LSU, 9 p.m.
Ole Miss at Mississippi State, 9 p.m.
(22) Colorado State and New Mexico, 10 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 22
Women
(14) Iowa at (4) Indiana, 8 p.m.
(18) Utah at (12) UCLA, 9:30 p.m.
Men
SMU at Florida Atlantic, 7 p.m.
(21) Washington State at (4) Arizona, 11 p.m.
Friday Feb. 23
Women
(11) Colorado at (7) USC, 10 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 24
(2) Houston at (11) Baylor, 12 p.m.
(8) Duke at Wake Forest, 2 p.m.
(25) BYU at Kansas State, 2 p.m.
Cincinnati at TCU, 3 p.m.
(20) South Carolina at Ole Miss, 3:30 p.m.
(10) North Carolina at Virginia, 4 p.m.
(13) Alabama at (17) Kentucky, 4 p.m.
Drake at Northern Iowa, 6 p.m.
(21) Washington State at Arizona State, 8 p.m.
(22) Colorado State at UNLV, 8 p.m.
Butler at Seton Hall, 8:30 p.m.
Gonzaga at Santa Clara, 10 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 25
Women
(18) Utah at (7) USC, 3 p.m.
Men
SMU at South Florida, 12 p.m.
Florida Atlantic at Memphis, 2 p.m.
VCU at St. Joseph’s, 4 p.m.
Minnesota at Nebraska, 6 p.m.
