This Saturday is going to be special when it comes to college basketball. It's basically early-season March Madness. Nine games are listed over 80 points in the ESPN BPI game ratings, which rank how good a game is projected to be. The Kentucky vs. Gonzaga game was a 96, if that gives you any indication of the slate of games college basketball fans are getting this Saturday.
Basketball analyst Andy Katz has ten games that he thinks will be fantastic to watch, and the one he says will be the best? Kentucky vs. Louisville. The Wildcats will be taking on their in-state rivals so that part isn't surprising. What is surprising is that it may not end up being as top-notch as it could have been had Louisville been at full strength. Or Kentucky, for that matter, which will certainly still be missing backup point guard Kerr Kriisa.
Saturday is going to be one of the best days of the @MarchMadnessMBB season: https://t.co/aSpcTCY0xR
— Andy Katz (@TheAndyKatz) December 9, 2024
The Cardinals are down two of their best players: star transfer guard Koren Johnson, who came from the University of Washington, and arguably their best player, Kasean Pryor, who is one of their bigs. The fact that it's a rivalry may propel it forward to being a tough battle regardless. These teams want to beat each other so badly that Louisville will be ready.
While it will be a great game, it's not even among the nine top-ranked games according to ESPN BPI. It is scored at 79.1. According to analytics, it will be the 10th-best game of the day. Katz has it way higher due to the nature of the game, but there could be more exciting games on the day.
According to ESPN, Gonzaga vs. UCONN is the top game of the day. It scores 96.5, followed by Tennessee vs. Illinois at 96.1, and UCLA vs. Arizona in third, scoring 90.6. It will certainly be an exciting day of basketball, and Kentucky vs. Louisville is the game to watch, according to Katz.