Friday Look Ahead: UConn-Duke a marquee MSG matchup

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Mike Krzyzewski vs. Jim Calhoun on Friday afternoon, then Tom Izzo vs. Billy Donovan on Friday night. That's four men with a total of eight national championships facing each other. So if nothing else, be thankful for that.

Now let's do the Friday Look Ahead ...

In their 2004 Final Four meeting, Ben Gordon and the Huskies snuck past Nick Horvath's Blue Devils. (Getty Images)

Best game of the weekend: It's difficult to pair two more nationally relevant programs than Duke and Connecticut, which is why Friday's title game of the NIT Season Tip-off is must-see television. The No. 7 Blue Devils and No. 13 Huskies haven't played since April 2004, when Duke squandered an eight-point lead in the final four minutes and allowed UConn to advance to the national championship game. It was viewed as an epic collapse when it happened. But then Memphis blew a nine-point lead in the final two minutes of the 2008 national championship game, and now Duke's collapse seems amateurish by comparison.

Another interesting matchup: Even Thursday's impressive win over No. 19 Clemson couldn't get Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon to proclaim his team better than most anticipated. "How good are we?" Turgeon said. "I don't know." Asked if the Aggies are good enough to make West Virginia's Bob Huggins play Devin Ebanks for the first time this season, Turgeon just laughed. But we'll find out Friday when the Aggies play the No. 8 Mountaineers in the first semifinal of the 76 Classic.

Yet another interesting matchup: The Florida Gators have missed the past two NCAA tournaments at least in part because they never got much accomplished outside of the SEC. They beat Temple in the 2007-08 season, Washington in 2008-09. But Florida didn't beat any other nonleague schools that went on to make the NCAA tournament in either year, and that's why Friday's game against No. 2 Michigan State is huge, because it provides an opportunity for a nonleague win unlike any nonleague win the Gators have had since Lee Humphrey left campus.

Guaranteed to be a blowout: Tennessee Tech has already lost to Minnesota by 37, to Memphis by 33, and to Oakland by 21. So what do you think will happen when the Golden Eagles play Friday night at top-ranked Kansas ?

Guaranteed to be an upset: Minnesota looked darn good Thursday, so there's a decent chance this is stupid. But Portland was terrific in that win over UCLA, and I like the mood of the team. So what I'm saying is that I'm taking the Pilots ... straaaaaaight up! If they can beat UCLA by 27, surely they can beat No. 22 Minnesota by a bucket, right? Right?

Quincy Pondexter is off to a great start for the Huskies. (Getty Images)

Player trying to keep rolling: In the end, I think California will be fine. But the only Pac-10 team besides the Bears that appears to be a lock for the NCAA tournament is Washington, and a lot of that is because of Quincy Pondexter. The 6-foot-6 senior has been awesome to date. He's coming off a 30-point/15-rebound performance against San Jose State and is averaging 24 points and 12 rebounds for the 14th-ranked Huskies heading into Sunday's game against Montana.

Player trying to get rolling: Long Beach State was always at risk of finishing 0-3 in the 76 Classic based on nothing more than the strength of the field. But with Larry Anderson missing shots, it's practically unavoidable. The sophomore wing entered Thursday's game with West Virginia averaging 18.8 points. That's good. He was 0-of-3 from the field against the Mountaineers. That's bad. He must be better Friday against Clemson.

Three things you need to know

1. The Butler-UCLA tilt Friday is wild in that it's a 76 Classic consolation-round game, meaning either a preseason top 15 team (Butler) or a team that has made three of the past four Final Fours (UCLA) is guaranteed to drop to 0-2 in this event and play in the seventh-place/eighth-place game Sunday morning. Unbelievable.

2. Oklahoma will play in Saturday's fifth-place/sixth-place game of the Great Alaska Shootout (likely against Nichols State), meaning the best the Sooners can finish is fifth in a six-team field. They've lost twice in this event (to San Diego and Houston), three times overall (their other loss came last Saturday to VCU). Add it up, and OU is 2-3 with losses to a Colonial school, a WCC school and a C-USA school. So the transition from life with Blake Griffin to life without Blake Griffin clearly isn't going smoothly.

3. The record for triple-doubles in a season by a college player is four, and it's held by four people (including former California star Jason Kidd). I tell you that because Ohio State's Evan Turner has two triple-doubles in five games this season. He'll try for three in six on Saturday when the 17th-ranked Buckeyes play Saint Francis.

Final thought: Could Kentucky fill a 7,500-seat arena for a game 40 miles from campus?

What about North Carolina?

Or Indiana?

Or Kansas?

I ask because it was stunning to watch UCLA play in a mostly empty Anaheim Convention Center late Thursday, this despite the building being only 40 miles from campus. There weren't more than 1,000 people in the stands, which means the number of UCLA fans in attendance must've been in the hundreds. And I just can't imagine that ever happening to any of the other so-called prestigious programs.

UCLA has 11 national championships.

UCLA has made three of the past four Final Fours.

But it can't get 1,000 fans to travel 40 miles for a game?

Kentucky fans would drive farther than that for a John Calipari book signing.