NCAA Weekly Dish - 01/28/06

With the college basketball season in full swing, Matt Fargo takes a look at three big games on tap that you cannot miss this Saturday. Wisconsin Badgers at Michigan Wolverines 2:30 PM ET Wisconsin is the lowest of the five ranked teams from the Big Ten yet the Badgers are alone in first place. With a win they can knock one of the five teams that trail them by a single game down further in the standings. Michigan is one of those teams and the Wolverines have quietly gone about their business this season with a 14-3 record including a 4-2 mark in the conference. Surprisingly, they are not ranked. Wisconsin bounced back in fine fashion following a loss last Saturday at home to North Dakota St. by taking its frustrations out on Penn St. on Wednesday with a 29-point win. The Badgers improved to 5-1 in the Big Ten but four of those wins came at home and Wisconsin is just 1-3 on the road this season. The lone victory came in a nail biter at Minnesota that the Badgers won by a field goal. Michigan is coming off a win over rival Michigan St. on Wednesday and has now won three straight games. Both conference losses came on the road at Iowa and Illinois, who are a combined 23-0 at home, by a total of 12 points. The Wolverines are 10-1 at home this season with the lone loss coming against 17th ranked UCLA. After finishing last season with 12 losses in their last 13 games, Michigan is looking to avoid a similar finish. Wisconsin has dominated this series of late winning four of the last five meetings including an 11-point victory in Ann Arbor last season. The home team has won seven of the last eight meetings however and Michigan is poised to continue that trend on Saturday. Wisconsin though will be focused once again as the loss last Saturday woke it up and the Badgers want to keep their hold on the Big Ten lead. Old Dominion Monarchs at George Mason Patriots 2:00 PM ET First place will be on the line in Fairfax on Saturday as the two preseason favorites are living up to their billing. Both teams have just one loss in the month of January and both sit atop the Colonial with 8-2 conference records. A game and a half separates the top six teams in the league so every game at this stage of the season is important and the teams that can pull out road wins will benefit come conference tournament time. Old Dominion overcame a halftime deficit at home against Drexel on Thursday and now must hit the road the where the Monarchs are 4-3 on the season. They have won three straight away from home, all in dominating fashion, but this will be the toughest CAA road test hands down. Road games against Georgia, Wisconsin and UAB have helped in the preparation but those first two were on a neutral floor. The Patriots are hot as they have won seven of eight games and their last three losses have been by a combined nine points. George Mason dropped its second league game of the season last Saturday at NC-Wilmington but rebounded on Thursday with a 23-point win over William & Mary. The Patriots are 7-1 at home this season, losing only to Creighton way back in November in their home opener. The first meeting was won by the Monarchs in dramatic fashion as they hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from 25 feet to pull out the one-point victory. George Mason held the Monarchs to just 32.2 percent shooting but the difference was at the free throw line as the Patriots had only eight attempts on the night. These teams have swapped wins over the last eight meetings meaning the Patriots are next but it certainly won't be easy. Texas Longhorns at Oklahoma Sooners 9:00 PM ET Surprisingly, these are the only two ranked teams in the Big XII but Oklahoma is starting to make noise once again. These were the two preseason favorites and while Texas isn't running away with it yet, the Longhorns are doing their best to prove that they are the team to beat. Their five Big XII wins have been by an average of 26.4 ppg. Parity is evident as a game and a half separates nine teams between second and 10th place. Back-to-back blowout losses against Duke and Tennessee has recharged the Longhorns are they have won nine straight games with only one of those being decided by single digits. They are a perfect 4-0 on the road including big wins at Iowa St. and Memphis and all four of those wins have been by at least 11 points. On Monday, Texas blew out a very good Oklahoma St. team by 34 points and is peaking but it could be peaking too soon. The Sooners have won three straight games and six of eight with those two losses being by a combined three points against Nebraska and Missouri. The Missouri loss was their only loss at home this year where they are 8-1 on the season and they have won 25 of their last 27 home games and 73 of their last 79. The Sooners held leads of at least seven points in all four losses proving even more that they have had tough luck along the way. Texas had won five straight meetings until the Sooners swept the season series last year including a 16-point win in Austin. The Longhorns remember that defeat as it was one of only two losses on their home floor. ESPN College GameDay will be in Norman for this game and it is being billed as the "WhiteOUt the Lloyd Noble Center" game so this contest is obviously taking on special meaning for the home team.