Your College Basketball Saturday Viewing Guide: December 2, 2017

FINALLY.

We’ve been reduced to just 16 college football games today, so there’s all sorts of free and clear television time to devote to a sport that REALLY matters: COLLEGE BASKETBALL!

We’ve got 17 games with a national television broadcast today, which is pretty great for a day that’s still pretty blocked up with college football conference title games. The only bummer part about the whole day is that it STARTS with the best game: Cincinnati vs Xavier. This has long been my favorite non-conference game in the country every year that doesn’t involve Marquette, and my interest in it has only grown over the past few years. I used to have to pretend to want Cincinnati to win because it was best for Marquette and the Big East. Now that we’ve switched sides of the aisle in the Queen City, I can cheer for MU’s conference AND against the Bearcats.

I suppose if you wanted to argue, Wichita State at Baylor is actually the best game of the day given the rankings of the teams involved, but that’s not a long-term rivalry taking place in one city. The good old-fashioned hate in the Crosstown Shootout matchup of #11 vs #21 trumps the higher profile nature of #8 visiting #16.

We’ve also go two more top 25 teams going on the road today and a third playing a neutral site game. #4 Villanova are playing in Philly, but in Saint Joseph’s barn, and #14 USC are visiting Moody Coliseum and SMU in Dallas tonight. There’s also #2 Kansas playing Syracuse down in Miami in part of the HoopHall Miami Invitational, so that’s fun.

Here’s your slate of games: