Friday Look Ahead: Hoyas take center stage again

All week we've heard questions about the ankle.

Will he play?

If so, how effective will he be?

And can you believe it has come to this?

The latest news is that he watched practice Thursday, and that he's still listed as day-to-day. So it remains unclear whether Michigan State's Kalin Lucas will play Saturday at Illinois, but I'll do my best to keep you updated.

As for Dwight Freeney, I have no idea. But the Colts still have Peyton Manning, and that's probably good enough, right?

Either way, let's do the Friday Look Ahead ...

Best game of the weekend: Must be fun to be a Georgetown fan (Wednesday's home loss to South Florida not withstanding) considering Saturday will mark the third time in four weekends that the Hoyas have played a top 10 team. Three weeks ago it was an 82-77 loss at No. 2 Villanova, then last week it was an 89-77 win over No. 10 Duke, and now it's a rematch with Jay Wright's Wildcats Saturday at the Verizon Center. It would be great for Georgetown if President Obama showed up given that he served as a good-luck charm last weekend, but it's more crucial that Chris Wright make an appearance. After hitting eight of nine shots against Duke, he missed seven of 10 against South Florida, and that's the difference between a great win and a bad loss.

Another interesting matchup: Two of the nation's traditionally best non-BCS programs -- Gonzaga and Memphis -- will meet Saturday at FedExForum with both teams coming off impressive wins. On Wednesday night, Wesley Witherspoon scored 29 points to push Memphis past UAB, then Matt Bouldin scored 20 on Thursday to lead the 17th-ranked Zags to a 76-49 blowout of Portland. It's worth noting that Gonzaga is 0-3 all-time at FedExForum, but only two of those losses were to Memphis. The other was to North Carolina in the Sweet Sixteen of last season's NCAA tournament.

Yet another interesting matchup: The first of two meetings between Baylor and Texas A&M takes place Saturday, and both teams are playing well. Baylor, ranked 20th in the AP, backed its perception-changing win at Texas with an 84-63 victory over Iowa State this week. Meantime, Mark Turgeon's Aggies just snapped Missouri's 32-game home winning streak, and now they'll try to extend their own home winning streak to 16.

Guaranteed to be a blowout: Those who predicted LSU would greatly miss Marcus Thornton, Chris Johnson and Garrett Temple from last season's 27-win team could not have been more correct because the Tigers are now halfway to a winless SEC record. They're 0-8 in the league after Thursday's loss to Tennessee. Now they have John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and the rest of the fourth-ranked Kentucky Wildcats coming to town Saturday, and that's not the recipe for avoiding 0-9.

Guaranteed to be an upset: UNLV lost by double-digits at home to Kansas State in December, then by four points at home to Utah last month. Still, the unranked Rebels will top No. 12 BYU on Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center. If it happens, we'll have a three-way tie for first in the Mountain West standings between BYU, New Mexico and UNLV (assuming New Mexico beats San Diego State on Saturday).

Player trying to keep rolling: Devan Downey isn't the most efficient player in the country, but he might be the most fun to watch. He's averaging 33.0 points in South Carolina's past three games -- a last-second loss to Florida, a win over Kentucky and a win over Georgia. Up next is Saturday's trip to Tennessee. The 14th-ranked Vols should be OK. But if Downey gets going, watch out.

Player trying to get rolling: Xavier Henry remains Kansas' second-leading scorer, but his production and the role he plays in crunch time are way down lately. It was difficult not to notice Henry glued to the bench for most of the end of KU's win at Kansas State last weekend, and he wasn't a factor late in Wednesday's win at Colorado, either. After reaching double-figures in points in 16 of his first 18 games, Henry has now been held to single-digits in four straight outings. Sure, the top-ranked Jayhawks are good enough to beat Nebraska on Saturday without him. But can they win a national title with little from Henry? I don't think so, which is why it's crucial that Henry figures out a way to do the things it requires for Bill Self to keep him on the court when it matters.

Three things you need to know before you go

1. A loss by North Carolina on Sunday at Maryland will send the Tar Heels into next week's game with Duke on a three-game losing streak, which is just as stunning as the ACC standings. Who would've ever believed that Maryland and Virginia would spend the first week of February tied for second in the ACC while UNC would be tied for last in the win column?

2. There are still two winless teams in college basketball. Bryant is 0-23 heading into Saturday's game against Central Connecticut State. Alcorn State is 0-22 heading into Saturday's game at Jackson State.

3. The nation's best uncommitted senior (Brandon Knight) and one of the top juniors (Austin Rivers) will play against each other Friday night on ESPN2. Maxpreps.com ranks Knight No. 1 in the Class of 2010. He's still considering Kentucky, Kansas, Florida, Miami and Connecticut. MaxPreps.com ranks Rivers No. 3 in the Class of 2011. He's technically committed to Florida, but Duke remains a player in his recruitment. Friday's tip-off is set for 7 p.m. ET.

Final thought: The Pac-10 is just as terrible as it was weeks ago, but it remains kind of interesting considering four teams -- UCLA, Arizona, California and Arizona State -- are tied atop the league standings. No Pac-10 team has more than six conference wins; everybody has at least three. So there is no good way to predict how this thing will develop, but it's going to make for an exciting Pac-10 tournament.

Nine schools competing for one bid, one school punching a ticket to the NCAA tournament, everybody else likely reduced to NIT hopes. It'll be like the Big Sky tournament in a lot of ways -- only real difference being that it'll take place in a bigger arena with higher-paid coaches.

On one hand, it's depressing.

On the other, more exciting than usual.