I'm sure when Bruce Pearl and Thad Matta first agreed to play this odd non-conference game on Jan. 13, it seemed like a real good idea. With both teams smarting from losses this week (Ohio State fell by three points at Wisconsin, Tennessee lost by one at Vanderbilt), they must be wondering what they were thinking. I really like the Buckeyes in this one, and not just because the game is in Columbus. For all the intrigue about Greg Oden, I still think Ohio State is at its best on the run, and a full-court end-to-end game is the only style Tennessee knows how to play. The Vols have also reverted to their old habit of looking to outscore people instead of trying to stop them. They are allowing opponents to shoot 45.4 percent from the floor and 34.1 percent from three-point range, which ranks last and 10th, respectively, in the SEC.

If you want to understand the beauty of conference season, ask yourself the following question: What is top-ranked North Carolina's best road win of the season? The answer is easy, because the only road game the Heels have played all year was Dec. 22 at Saint Louis. (They won by 21, by the way.) We'll find out what they're really made of these next two weeks, when they play six of eight on the road, including a delicious date at Arizona in two weeks. UNC may very well win the national championship, but it's easy to forget this is still a young team still going through a lot of adjustments. Virginia Tech will need to control the tempo, especially with Roy Williams still playing 12 guys, and you can be sure Tyler Hansbrough and Brandan Wright will take advantage of the Hokies' soft interior. But Virginia Tech showed in its upset at Duke that it has some tough, athletic guards who know how to win. I say the Hokies steal one here.

The Bruins have had all week to stew over their two-point loss at Oregon last Saturday. That's bad news for USC. UCLA will also have to play this one without its second-leading scorer, 6-5 swingman Josh Shipp, who's out with a hamstring injury. That's bad news for the Bruins. The Trojans, who have three wins over ranked teams (Wichita State, Washington and Oregon) in their past five games, have gotten a big boost from the return of junior guard Gabe Pruitt, who was academically ineligible the first semester, and they have an emerging star in 6-9 freshman Taj Gibson (he's third in the Pac-10 in rebounding at 9.3 per game). Plus, they're playing UCLA for the first time in their brand new Galen Center, which should really be hopping now that football season is over. All of these factors should add up to a USC win -- and yet I can't quite pull the trigger. It's just too hard to imagine UCLA losing twice in a row.

I hope the scoreboard operator gets a good night's sleep, because these teams could very well score 200 points between them. Oregon will benefit from Malik Hairston's return from a heel injury, but the Ducks have historically been a much weaker team on the road than they are at McArthur Court. Arizona may be the best offensive team I've seen in years -- in fact, I can't remember the last time I saw a team make shots in a tough road environment the way the Wildcats did at Washington on Jan. 4. Even the oft-maligned Mustafa Shakur has been stroking it to the tune of 53 percent from the floor and 42.9 percent from three-point range, up from 42.3 percent and 33.3 percent last season.

I would like to say with conviction that these are the two best teams in the Big East, but after Georgetown's loss at home to Villanova on Monday night, I'm not so sure. Georgetown goes into most games with a clear advantage at center with Roy Hibbert, but that will not be the case against Pitt and Aaron Gray. As for the guards, well, if the Hoyas committed 22 turnovers at home against 'Nova, what are they going to do in a tough road environment against a far superior team? I notice not too many people are talking about Pitt as a national-title contender (my guy Grant Wahl left the Panthers out of his Magic Eight), but as sophomore point guard Levance Fields continues to emerge as a Carl Krauser-esque leader, and as the Panthers get more production from their deep bench, I promise they will start popping up around the water cooler.