In the first Saturday without a substantial college football schedule, college basketball will attempt to pick up the slack with a loaded slate of games. No. 1 Houston takes on No. 8 Alabama in the lone matchup between two top-10 teams, though two other games feature two teams currently ranked in the top 15 of the most recent Associated Press Top 25 Poll.
And those aren’t the only games with intrigue. Gonzaga and Memphis both head into the weekend hoping to generate wins that could help with seeding come Selection Sunday, while Kansas makes its first return to Columbia to play Missouri since the 2011-12 season.
An Arkansas team that just lost one of its best players, Trevon Brazile, is taking on a future SEC rival in Oklahoma, while North Carolina hopes to re-find the mojo that made the Tar Heels such a killer team last March Madness. And there is even another important Big Ten game to boot.
Here is a look at this weekend’s top games and our predictions for those contests.
