Weekend what to watch on TV

*** all times pacific; add +3 for eastern time ***

This is a loaded Saturday with loads of good games! Tune up your VCRs, empty your TiVo and DVR hard discs, you are going to need the space :-)


Friday

Friday is usually an off day for "BCS" college basketball on TV, but there is one live game today, an in-state brawl as Iowa State meets Iowa on ESPN+, ESPN Full Court and Comcast Sports Net. Tipoff is at 5pm pacific / 8pm eastern.

Repeats: Zags at Washington State (good game!) on FCS, ASU at Minneesota (the first post-Dan-Monson game) on FCS, and N.Colorado at ASU.


Saturday
* 9am: Robert Morris vs Wagner on Fox College Sports
* 9am: George Mason vs Duke on ESPN. Prediction: George Mason. Rooting for: George MASON!
* 9am: Indiana vs Kentucky on CBS. Prediction: First one to 52 wins.
* 10am: Toledo vs Kansas on ESPN2. Normally a blowout, the mercurial Jayhawks are capable of losing this or blowing them out by 30.
* 10am: Illinois-Chicago vs Illinois on CSN, ESPN+. Prediction: Illinois by 40
* 11am: Wisconsin vs Marquette on ESPN. Prediction: Triple overtime
* 11:30am: Wooden Classic: Texas A&M vs UCLA on CBS. Prediction: Texas A&M in overtime
* 12pm: BYU at Michigan State on ESPN2. Prediction: Izzo by 10+. Trent Plaisted scores 20+ with 10+ rebounds
* 12pm: Nebraska vs Oregon on regional FSNs and Fox College Sports. Prediction: Oregon in a blowout
* 1pm: Cleveland State vs Ohio State on ESPN+, ESPN Full Court and CSN. Greg Oden's second game! Will he start? Will he get his first triple double? I say YES if he STARTS!
* 2pm: Georgia Tech vs Vandy on ESPN2. Prediction: Georgia Tech in a high scoring affair
* 2pm: Wooden Classic: George Washington vs USC on WGN (yes WGN!)
* 430pm: In My Own Words: Jamie Dixon of Pitt, on Fox College Sports
* 5pm: Southern Illinois at Western Kentucky on Fox College Sports. FCS has apparently picked up the satellite broadcast rights for Western Kentucky?
* 7pm: SCU at Pacific on CSN
* 8pm: Washington at Gonzaga on regional FSNs and Fox College Sports. Promises to be a great game judging from previous contents. Easily the game of the day imho. The Zags are smarting from the loss at sold-out Pullman. Will they lose two in a row to in-state rival? Washington has mostly stayed at home and played mid-majors so we don't really know how good they are. They have a tendency to fall behind and then make a comeback. If that happens in this game, will they be too deep in a hole to comeback? Prediction: Washington pulls the upset and wins in the tightly contested last 5 minutes of the game.
* ESPN Full Court games feature: Minnessota, Seton Hall, Texas Tech, Pitt, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Illinois. Some of these games are ESPN+ pickups, with Comcast Sports Net being one of the consumers of these.



Sunday
* 3pm ACC Sunday Night Hoops on FSN and Fox College Sports: Maryland at Boston College. Promising game. Prediction: BC in overtime
* 5pm LSU vs Texas in Houston, on ESPN. Promises to be a great game and a 2005 NCAA rematch to boot. Big Baby vs Kevin Durant in star power. Tack Minor vs AJ Abrams in size.
* Repeats: Nebraska vs Oregon on FSN/FCS, SCU-Pacific on CSN, CSF-UCLA on FCS, Bucknell-GeorgeMason on FCS and Zags at Washington State on FCS.


*** Save some of these games you don't plan to watch live, if you are hoops junkie! There is almost nothing on TV next week (Monday December 11 to Friday December 16). I kid you not, there's only one live game scheduled. They are student athletes you see. They have to study for their finals :-) But next there's plenty of action next Saturday and Sunday (December 16-17), including Kentucky vs Louisville, Pitt vs Wisconsin, Bob Knight trying to tie or break THE record, and Cincy vs Oden State (oops Ohio State).