With Northwestern sitting squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble, it's time for a new daily feature, in which I take a look at every game relevant to Northwestern's NCAA chances and tell you whom you should be rooting for.
Lots of games tonight and I'm busy with work, so some of these descriptions will be brief.
Xavier Musketeers at UMass Minutemen, 6 PM central, no TV as far as I know
Team to root for: UMass
Xavier is squarely on the bubble and can't afford losses to non-NCAA tournament teams like UMass.
Kansas St. Wildcats at Missouri Tigers, 6 PM central, ESPN2
Team to root for: Missouri
Kansas State is on the right of the bubble for now, and already beat #3 Missouri once this year, if they beat Missouri again they're in almost for sure.
Illinois Fighting Illini at Ohio St. Buckeyes, 6 PM central, ESPN
Team to root for: Ohio State
Illinois is all but dead after that #BEATEMDOWN against Nebraska on Saturday, but if they somehow complete a season sweep of Ohio State they'll be right back in the mix.
Bulldoggin' hos like them Georgetown Hoyas at Seton Hall Pirates, 6 PM central, ESPN3
Team to root for: Seton Hall, I guess?
Does the upside of Seton Hall potentially going on a run and making NU's win look better outweigh the downside of NU having to battle Seton Hall for one of the last spots? There was some debate in the comments of yesterday's post about this, and I honestly don't know the answer. In order to give an informed answer I'd have to analyze a lot of historical data on the committee and it's just not worth it for what will likely be a moot point anyway.
Miami Hurricanes at Maryland Terrapins, 7 PM central, ESPN3
Team to root for: Maryland
Miami is right on the bubble, a bad loss to Maryland would hurt their chances significantly.
North Carolina Tar Heels at N.C. State Wolfpack, 7 PM central, ESPN3
Team to root for: UNC
NC State is on the bubble, a marquee win over UNC likely puts them over the top.
Kentucky Wildcats at Mississippi St. Bulldogs, 8 PM central, ESPN
Team to root for: Kentucky
Mississippi State has been ranked for much of the season but they've now lost three in a row including bad losses to Georgia and Auburn and could be in bubble trouble. A win over #1 in the country would end their slide in a hurry.
New Mexico Lobos at Colorado St. Rams, 9 PM central, The Mountain (yes, thats a real channel, no, you probably don't have it on your cable provider)
Team to root for: New Mexico
Colorado State is a bubble team, a quality win over New Mexico would be great for them.
Oh yeah, and there's some game in Evanston tonight at 7 PM central that might be kind of important. The live blog will make its triumphant return.