As ESPN cut to a commercial following another Matt Jones triple in Duke’s 20-0 second-half run against Miami Saturday, the network made sure to promote the titanic showdown we will be treated to this weekend when No. 2 Kansas travels to Rupp Arena to take on No. 4 Kentucky.
Although commentators Jay Bilas and Dan Shulman likely harped on the matchup between the Wildcats’ freshman backcourt and the Jayhawks’ veteran guards a handful of times during the night, the buildup was necessary since the clash between two of the sport's bluebloods promises to captivate college basketball fans.
The top-five tilt will be the main course in a Big 12/SEC Challenge that looks poised to offer up a platter of unappetizing snacks this go-around. But despite the lack of marquee matchups in this year's edition, the merits of scheduling nonconference games this late into the season should be considered.
The idea to step out of conference play with the NCAA tournament on the horizon is not a completely new one. For 11 years, ESPN ran a full-day event known as BracketBusters—which pitted the top teams from non-Power Five conferences against one another before being discontinued after the 2012-13 edition.
College basketball would be wise to reintroduce the late-season matchups and even look to spread the nonconference tilts to the likes of the ACC, Pac 12 and Big East. For teams in underachieving conferences, the games would provide a final chance to build a resume and earn a potential at-large bid. For other teams, the matchups would provide a high level of entertainment for fans—especially when two of the premier programs—in the sport square off, and could help give clarity to the annoying debates about which conference is the nation’s best.
The ACC had its moment in late November during the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, which for most people is something that has thankfully been erased from their memories. As has been the case with the Champions Classic, early-season games tend to be sloppy, turnover-filled slugfests in which one or even both teams have yet to find their true identity.
Compare that to Saturday’s contest between two teams who have established go-to scorers and have gone to battle in nail-biting victories, and it’s easy to expect a higher level of play. As teams grow accustomed to the characteristics of their conference, the next week or two is the perfect time to offer a refresher and expose them to a different style that they could see come NCAA tournament time.
But lost in the shuffle of the Wildcats and Jayhawks’ matchup is another tantalizing contest this weekend between No. 12 Virginia and top-ranked Villanova. Although watching the Cavalier offense is as entertaining as watching paint dry, the game could help cement the ACC’s dominance and depth this season.
A win this weekend for Virginia could give the Cavaliers the resume-defining win that separates them from their ACC competitors. With the conference’s heavyweights continuing to beat up on one another, so much of what differentiates the teams on the seed lines in March could be nonconference victories.
A late January road win against a team in contention for a No. 1 seed would stick better for Virginia than anything Duke has accomplished so far this season. And with the Cavaliers and Blue Devils potentially jostling for seeding in March, Duke fans might want to tune in this weekend to see how Virginia fares.
Now figuring out the logistics of such unconventional games is certainly not easy. Playing within conferences often means shorter travel distances and more familiarity for coaching staffs to visiting arenas and facilities. Determining the matchups and which team will host the contest a year in advance is certainly complicated and it’s almost guaranteed that one program would have a gripe with the situation.
But it’s 2017 and airplanes still exist—it seems far-fetched to believe that the likes of Duke or North Carolina couldn’t work out a way to play a marquee nonconference game that could draw all eyes to their teams. Even in a down year, a loss in a high-profile nonconference game could become a positive in the recruiting cycle as teams that normally play on the East Coast could expand the regions in which they target high school prospects.
As the sports world prepares for the first weekend without a meaningful football game since early August, college basketball will certainly be front and center. But it could have even more attention and grab an even larger audience if it put more of its best teams on display late in the season.
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