College Basketball Viewing Guide for Feb. 15

The end of football season with Sunday’s Super Bowl left college basketball with a spotlight largely to itself — and Big Monday came up short again.

But I’m going to choose to be optimistic for once and credit the underwhelming Monday night slate to a combination of Valentine’s Day and tonight’s schedule being absolutely loaded.

In fact, the Feb. 15 college basketball docket is downright overwhelming, so I will not waste any more time with an intro.

Wake Forest at Duke
7 p.m. ET - ESPN

Although losing some of its luster, the result of a loss Saturday to an up-and-down Miami team, Wake Forest comes into Cameron Indoor Stadium as one of this seaosn’s surprise stories.

Steve Forbes, who contributed to the impressive rise of the Southern Conference while at ETSU, has the Demon Deacons with 20 wins already and likely in the NCAA Tournament field. Another quality win certainly wouldn’t hurt, and there’s not as many opportunities for one as in a typical ACC season. That raises the stakes somewhat on Tuesday’s visit to Cameron.

This season has had an interesting pecking order as far as contending teams go, with none beyond Auburn or Gonzaga really looking like juggernauts. A second tier follows them with teams like Baylor, Arizona, UCLA, Villanova that feel as though they could as easily lose in the first weekend as reach the Final Four. Duke is part of that tier.

In the Blue Devils’ case, a key reason is the weight freshmen carry. Paolo Banchero looks like a top 5 NBA draft pick, and both Wendell Moore and AJ Griffin shoot from outside effectively, but Duke isn’t unbeatable by any measure.

Jake LaRavia, Wake’s best defender, is an interesting matchup for Banchero.

Villanova at Providence
8 p.m. ET - CBS Sports Network

I have been on the Ed Cooley bandwagon for years now, and this Providence team may be his best. At least, that’s what the 21-2 record indicates, yet the analytics H A T E the Friars.

Providence comes into a top 10 showdown with perennial Big East pace-setter Villanova ranked just 47th in KenPom and 30th in NET. The former hardly guarantees a team an at-large bid, say nothing of the No. 2 seed PC would be if the selection committee seeded based on AP ranking.

Thus, Tuesday’s home game against Villanova feels like as much of a statement opportunity as a program can have when ranked in the top 10 in mid-February. It’s also the first of two matchups between the two in the closing weeks of the regular season, with the Friars visiting the Main Line on March 1.

Jared Bynum is an outstanding playmaker running point for Providence and the matchup with Collin Gillespie could shape Tuesday’s encounter.

But really, what has defined PC this season has been its defense.

The Friars are holding opponents to less than 46 percent shooting inside the 3-point arc and a hair over 31 beyond it. Combined with a methodical offensive tempo, Providence is the kind of team that can grind an opponent down.

Wisconsin at Indiana
9 p.m. ET - ESPN2

Ahead of Saturday’s loaded slate, I noted Rutgers’ visit to Wisconsin as a prime opportunity for a bubble team to strength its case. The Scarlet Knights delivered, beating the Badgers at their own game with a physical defensive approach that frustrated the hosts.

Wisconsin now has losses to Illinois and Rutgers in the last two weeks with a tough stretch coming up against suddenly hot Michigan, at Rutgers and against Purdue. Traveling to face an Indiana team that, like Rutgers over the weekend, needs a resume win is another tough test for the Badgers.

The Hoosiers were riding high after the win over Purdue, sitting at 14-4 and looking like a lock for the NCAA Tournament. Now they have three straight losses amid a bevy of absences from the lineup, including an ugly defeat against Northwestern.

Trayce Jackson-Davis and Race Thompson are a formidable defensive duo on the interior, but Indiana’s struggling with perimeter play as a result of Rob Phinisee’s plantar fasciitis.

Indiana doesn’t have a perimeter defender in the vein of Rutgers’ Caleb McConnell, which has to be welcomed news for Johnny Davis. Davis was forced into four turnovers and scored just 11 points on Saturday.

Kentucky at Tennessee
9 p.m. ET - ESPN

Kentucky takes a six-game winning streak into Knoxville on Tuesday, and the Wildcats are playing some of the most fun, exciting basketball in the nation right now.

This year’s Kentucky team feels like one of the least hyped I can remember, certainly in the Calipari era, which I attribute to being light on the typical one-and-done flavor. But it’s precisely for that reason I believe this is may be the team best equipped for a national championship run since the 2015 bunch.

The veteran presence of West Virginia transfer Oscar Tshiebwe is invaluable. Tshiebwe may well be this year’s Naismith Award winner.

Of course, it’s Kentucky, so there has to be at least one elite frosh. TyTy Washington fits that bill.

Tennessee’s a tough place to play, and the Vols are arguably Kentucky’s toughest challenge for the home stretch of the regular season. Going by KenPom, UT is the highest-ranked remaining opponent at No. 10.

I admit that when Tennessee hired Rick Barnes, I raised my eyebrows. He coached teams at Texas that wildly underachieved given the talent he had on roster. When his the 2018-19 Vols broke through to the Sweet 16, I remained skeptical. Was this a dead-cat bounce, as another former Texas Longhorns coach, Mack Brown, seemingly experienced in 2020 at North Carolina?

But no, Barnes does indeed have Tennessee cooking. With the experience the Vols have in key contributors like Josiah-Jordan James, Santiago Vescovi, John Fulkerson and the elite skill set of freshman Kennedy Chandler — who reminds me some of Wake Forest-era Chris Paul — this bunch has Final Four potential.