John Clay's Sidelines

Here are your hoops on the tube tonight:

• Michigan State at Michigan (7:00-ESPN): Could be a huge game in the Big 10 with Michigan State and Illinois tied atop the Big 10 at 4-1 and Ohio State and Michigan right behind at 4-2. Michigan is coming off a home loss to Iowa. The Wolverines are expected to get Jon Horford back from injury, but probably not tonight.
• Georgetown at DePaul (7:00-ESPN2): Quick turnaround for Georgetown, which beat St. John’s 69-49 on Sunday. At 4-2, the Hoyas are in a five-way tie for third in the Big East behind Syracuse (7-0) and surprising Cincinnati (4-1). DePaul is 1-4 in the league after falling at Louisville on Saturday.
• Auburn at LSU (7:00-ESPNU): If LSU has any hope of being an NCAA Tournament team, Trent Johnson’s club must take care of visiting Auburn. LSU is coming off back-to-back road losses at Alabama and Arkansas. After tonight, it travels to Florida and Mississippi State. Auburn won its first league game, beating Ole Miss in double overtime on Saturday.
• Iowa at Purdue (8:00-Big 10): Fresh off a 75-59 win over Michigan, Fran “I’ll Slam A Chair If I Want” McCaffery leads Iowa into West Lafayette to meet the Boilermakers. Purdue is coming off tough 67-62 loss to visiting Wisconsin.
• Arkansas at Kentucky (9:00-ESPN): The host Cats will be looking for their 46th straight home win, their 45th at Rupp Arena. In fact, John Calipari has never lost in the friendly confines as the UK coach. First-year Arkansas coach Mike Anderson is 1-1 against the Cats as a head coach. His UAB team upset top-seed Kentucky in the second round of the 2004 NCAA Tournament. Arkansas wants to run, run, run. Note: Brad Nessler, Jimmy Dykes and Shannon Spake comprise the broadcast team tonight.
• Maryland at Florida State (9:00-ESPNU): Can the Seminoles build off the devastation they threw down at North Carolina last Saturday, winning by 33? Leonard Hamilton’s team has won two straight in ACC play. Maryland has won nine of its last 10, but not against the strongest of schedules.

To the chagrin of UK Hoops fans, there’s no TV coverage today of Kentucky’s 3 p.m. visit to South Carolina to face the Lady Gamecocks. You will have to rely on tweets from our very own Jennifer Smith, who is in Columbia to provide coverage, and the smooth sound of Neil Price and the IMG Network.

As for the tube, if you’re watching the Giants-Packers NFL playoff game on FOX, you might want to DVR the 4:30 p.m. Indiana-Ohio State basketball matchup on CBS from Columbus. Indiana won the first matchup in Bloomington. At 6 p.m., Duke travels to Clemson on ESPNU.

Click the continue line for today’s TV chart.

Continue reading ‘Indiana-Ohio State tops today’s hoops on television’

Happy Osborne

It’s a high-noon showdown in K-town as Kentucky visits Tennessee on ESPN. That’s the local highlight of Saturday’s schedule. But there ae some other interesting viewing possibilities:

• Following the Cats and Vols on ESPN, you can root for Leonard Hamilton and Florida State to upset visiting North Carolina.
• At 2 p.m. on ESPNU, you can see just how bad Pittsburgh is, with the Panthers playing at Marquette.
• At 6 p.m. on ESPNU, Murray State puts its unbeaten record on the line when it faces Tennessee Tech. With Happy Osborne as an associate head coach, Tech is off to a 3-1 start in the OVC.

Around here, the tube hightlight of the night is No. 9 Kentucky meeting No. 6 Tennessee tonight at 7 p.m. a sold-out Memorial Coliseum and Fox Sports South will be on hand. Dave Baker is the play-by-play man with Debbie Antonelli handling the color duites.

As  for the men, a couple are worth paying close attention. At 8:00 on the Big 10 Network, Tubby Smith and his struggling Minnesota Golden Gophers (0-4 in the league) travel to Indiana to face Tom Crean’s red-hot Hoosiers. Meanwhile, at 9 p.m. on ESPN2 you can scout Kentucky’s next opponent, Tennessee, as the Vols travel to Starkville to play Mississippi State.

The lineup:

• 6:00 – James Madison at VCU – ESPNU
• 7:00 – Tennessee at Kentucky (women) – Fox Sports South
• 7:00 – Wisconsin at Purdue – ESPN
• 7:00 – Clemson at Boston College – ESPN2
• 8:00 – George Mason at Drexel – ESPNU
• 9:00 – Virginia at Duke – ESPN
• 9:00 – Tennessee at Mississippi State ESPN2
• 10:00 – Loyola-Marymount at Pepperdine – ESPNU
• 10:30 – Oregon at Arizona State – Fox Sports Ohio

Tonight’s Kentucky-Auburn game is on the SEC Network at 8 p.m. Dave Neal is handling the play-by-play with former UK assistant coach Joe Dean, Jr. providing the color.

No. 1 Syracuse plays Villanova at 7 p.m. on ESPN2. At 9 p.m. on ESPNU, you can watch former UK coach Billy Gillispie lead Texas Tech against his former boss, Bill Self, and Kansas.

Tonight is my last night this week subbing for the vacationing Larry Glover of Larry Glover Live.

I’ll be on from 6-8 p.m. on WVLK-590 in Lexington.

We’ll have my colleague Jennifer Smith to talk some UK women’s basketball and UK football at 6:35.

We’ll have Jeff Drummond for his regular nightly appearance at 7 p.m.

The numbers are 859-253-5959, toll free 1-877-777-0590, and *590 on your AT&T Wireless phone.

(AP photo)

It’s not the best game on the tonight’s TV schedule, but it’s not the worst.

(I’ve been watching too much 30 Rock lately, which includes Alec Baldwin saying, “We’re not the best people.” And Tina Fey answering, “But we’re not the worst.” And then both in unison: “Grad students are the worst.”)

Continue reading ‘College basketball schedule on television tonight’