Watch Grid: 11/18-11/21

Remember how last week I said the Gavitt games were really propping up the quality of games? Well now we see what happens in a late November week with no inter-conference showdown or major preseason neutral site tournaments. Buckle up for (hopefully) the sleepiest Watch Grid of the season. Let's see if we've got any interesting games...

Monday, November 18th

Nope.

Tuesday, November 19th

Not really, unless you're a big believer in the Buccaneers.

Wednesday, November 20th

Still not much.

Thursday, November 21st

Hey, would you look at that: a game worth watching! The 2 vs. 3 game of the "2K Empire Classic Benefiting Wounded Warrior Project" features two teams heading in opposite directions after Texas tallied a huge road win at Purdue while Georgetown went out and got knocked around by Penn State. Meanwhile, the state of South Carolina provides almost the entirety of the rest of today's entertainment, as the Myrtle Beach Invitational and the Charleston Classic both kick off today.

And because of that, the Watch Grid cuts off here today, because we don't fully know the schedule for the rest of the weekend. This will be a theme this month as more preseason tournaments get going. Many of them involve matchups being determined one day in advance, and for some tournaments, those games will be pretty high on our watchlist. This week, I'll tweet out the rest of the weekend as the matchups become determined. Until then, enjoy not watching college basketball.

Watch Grid: 11/11-11/17

The Watch Grid returns for its first full week of college basketball action! This week doesn't have the day one fireworks of last week's schedule, but there are many good games sprinkled throughout the week, headlined by the Gavitt Games, as the Big East and Big Ten battle for indisputable definitive evidence of which conference is definitely way better. The good games will wake up eventually, but the week gets off to a sleepy start:

Monday, November 11th

Yeah, don't watch college basketball today. Read a book or something.

Tuesday, November 12th

Tuesday provides the widest variety of decent games. Readers of this page are probably mostly Michigan fans, and will care very much about seeing Juwan Howard's first game against a high quality opponent. After that, we get the Phil Knight Invitational, which I have decided to call the PK82. This will feature a fascinating first game, as Memphis's superstar James Wiseman appears to be continuing to play despite being ruled ineligible by the NCAA. That game will be followed immediately by Oklahoma-Oregon State, which will be your first chance to see the amazingly named TRES TINKLE, who has been playing for his dad Wayne Tinkle at OSU for what seems like a decade now, and does just about everything well for the Beavers. 

Wednesday, November 13th

Villanova will try to get back on track in the Gavitt Games after getting run off their home floor by Michigan last year. A big win for the Buckeyes could make a similar splash to the one the Wolverines enjoyed last season. Those two games aren't really all that related, I just wanted to reminisce on the fact that Michigan beat Villanova by 27 points on the road. Purdue-Marquette is the Kenpom darling game of the week, as the two unranked teams in the AP Poll are #9 and #15, respectively, to the computers.

Thursday, November 14th

First, Penn State-Georgetown will give us good insight as to how good those two somewhat mysterious teams are this year. Later, Michigan State-Seton Hall should be the marquee matchup of the week, as the Spartans try to get back on track after a heartbreaking (but not at all discouraging) loss in the Champions Classic. Cassius Winston v. Myles Powell should be a heck of a point guard duel. 

Friday, November 15th

The difficult conference schedules of West Virginia and Pitt make their game against each other pretty important from a resume-building standpoint, as both teams are looking at seasons that could fall off a cliff pretty quickly with a few losses. Later, Gonzaga will try to do their annual thing where they remind us all that they're still a major player in the national picture by beating a power conference team on the road, something they seem to do every year. 

Saturday, November 16th

Until college football ends, Saturdays are probably going to continue looking kind of like this. 

Sunday, November 17th

Marquette's big week continues to Madison, where they renew what has been one of the best non-conference rivalries in the country, after a wild one in Milwaukee last year that the Golden Eagles stole away in the final seconds. And if you're still in the mood for more basketball after all that, see if Florida can get back on track against a mediocre UConn team, after the Gators appear to be maybe not quite what we thought they might be in the preseason. Enjoy!

Watch Grid: 11/5-11/10

College basketball is back! This year, I'm debuting  a weekly college basketball watch grid, a concept inspired by (aka completely plagiarized from) the great Jason Kirk of Banner Society, who every week puts together a matrix of college football's most watchable games. I've decided to do the same for college basketball, with less of an emphasis on wackiness than Jason's and more emphasis on "will this game be close, interesting, or somewhat important?" Think of this page as your tour guide through the world of college basketball, every evening showing you where and when to hop on and hop off the bus. Let us begin!

Tuesday, November 5th 

While I long for the return of ESPN's 24 hour college basketball marathon to kick off the season, this year still has a very strong opening night, highlighted as always by the Champions Classic, college basketball's most reliable early-season hype generator. Rest assured, whichever team looks best tonight will enjoy lofty rankings and endless media coverage all season long. And this year it might not be unwarranted! The computers see the headliner MSU-UK matchup as a legit 1 vs. 2, and while the numbers aren't quite as high on Kansas as the humans, their opening act against Duke should be plenty entertaining.

Additionally, hipster fans of slow-motion swampball 54-52 brick fights will enjoy Wisconsin-Saint Mary's, who for some reason are playing in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in an arena called the Sanford Pentagon. I just really wanted to type that sentence.

Wednesday, November 6th

Three good-ish games in the later time slots, with the ACC for some reason going straight to conference games in the first game of the season. I gave the nod to the in-state non-conference matchup featuring two teams with pretty lofty expectations despite one featuring a first year coach and the other a freshman point guard. 

Thursday, November 7th

Don't watch college basketball today. Do something else with your time.

Friday, November 8th

Today we become world travelers! That early spot might not look like much, but the computers only have the Tigers as a 4 point favorite over Davidson, and the Wildcats knocking off a defending Final Four team would be quite the start to the young season. Then we start to get weird. Baylor and Washington decided to play a game out on The Last Frontier, followed by Arizona State and Colorado traveling 7,000 miles across planet Earth to play a game in Shanghai (in a game that is technically on Saturday morning local time, but for our purposes goes in the Friday grid). 

Saturday, November 9th

You should probably watch college football today instead, unless you're a big fan of one of the teams above. Also another game in the Pentagon, for some reason.

Sunday, November 10th

Pay no attention to the AP poll numbers today, because these two games are closer than you might think. Kenpom has UF-FSU as #12 vs #14, making this the most high profile matchup of the weekend. Finally, Arizona and Illinois are programs on completely different trajectories. Arizona will probably still win, but Illinois keeping it close could mean good things for a team hoping to make a big leap this year.

That's all for Week 1! Send me your feedback on Twitter if you think this is at all helpful, or if you have any suggestions on how to make it better. Enjoy the start of the season!