Feast Week is here. Sort of.
It’s gonna be a bit different from here on out it seems. Some teams have already wrapped up MTE play with Purdue making a statement at Baha Mar and some have tournaments yet
to go. USC is the league’s lone representative in Maui while several teams are in Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival, with a few tipping off Monday.
Here’s what to know about the slate.
Tennessee Volunteers vs Rutgers Scarlet Knights
- Time/TV: 1 p.m. ET on TNT
- KenPom Spread: Vols by 14
Rutgers has, uh, taken quite the tumble after suffering a remarkably bad 67-54 home loss to Central Connecticut, dropping them from 95th to 124th in KenPom’s efficiency rankings, the Big Ten’s lowest-ranked team. That’s pretty bad.
Steve Pikiell had quite a few things on his plate this season to rebuild this program into the factor it once was in the conference after a massively disappointing 2024-25. For one, he had to get back to the Knights’ hard-nosed defensive identity. For another, he had to produce at least a semi-reliable offense. Neither of those things have happened.
He’s brought winning conference records and his respectability to a long-suffering program during his time in New Jersey. He’s earned the chance to try and pull the program out of this mess, but he can’t afford losses like that.
Tennessee is one of the sport’s great programs right now and boasts one of its very best defenses. I don’t think this Rutgers group has much hope of producing against it.
Oregon Ducks vs Auburn Tigers
- Time/TV: 8 p.m. ET, 5 p.m. PST on TruTV
- KenPom Spread: Tigers by 5
Oregon has had a pretty weird season up to this point full of too-close-for-comfort games against competition that’s pretty inferior on paper. Despite no losses, the computers haven’t responded well to this tendency and the Ducks have fallen pretty far down KenPom’s rankings.
The Ducks need some sort of prove-it win. Auburn offers that opportunity, but it’s far from either a guarantee or a must-win game.
Oregon has leaned on its defense lately as the offense comes along, with only rival Oregon State cracking 70+. Auburn, led by Steven Pearl, has had its own close calls, but they came in the season opener and against Houston. The Tigers have been dominant outside of those two games and it’s hard to feel bad at all about coming within one bucket of beating a Kelvin Sampson team.
It’s hard for me to see the Ducks pulling this off, but it’s in the realm of possibility for sure and would be an early season statement to look back on.
USC Trojans vs Boise State Broncos
- Time/TV: 5 p.m. ET, 2 p.m. PST on ESPN2
- KenPom Spread: Trojans by 5
Troy gave USC a real spook the other night in the clash of the Trojans, with Eric Musselman’s group needing one of the wildest looking buzzer beaters you’ll ever see in a THIRD overtime to finally emerge victorious. Alright henceforth the Trojans are USC, no more Troy mentions.
Outside of that matchup, the Trojans have looked pretty good. The numbers are solid and they’ve won their other three games by 10+ up to this point. Also Troy’s a solid program! Anyway,
USC will look to avoid similar stress against Boise State which, well, lost to a Division-II team to open the season. So that’s not great. The Broncos have looked fine outside of that, for the most part, but uh wow. I don’t know about that.
Trojans should build an early lead and keep their foot on the gas.
UT Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros at Illinois Fighting Illini
- Time/TV: 8 p.m. on Big Ten Network
- KenPom Spread: Illini by 40 (yes, forty)
Illinois gave Alabama a good game at the United Center in Chicago, but Labaron Philon and the Crimson Tide proved too much in the closing minutes for the Illini’s late comeback attempt to bear fruit. That’s not at all a bad loss, but it’s an opportunity for an early season statement that’s slipped away.
Yes, Illinois beat Texas Tech at home. Then Purdue, another Big Ten contender, did it in the Bahamas by about one million points. The Illini should easily dispatch UTRGV though, so there’s that.
San Diego State Aztecs vs Michigan Wolverines
- Time/TV: 10:30 p.m. ET on TruTV
- KenPom Spread: Wolverines by 5
Here’s a funny one.
It’s Dusty May vs the man who ended his dream run to the Final Four with FAU a few years ago. That same man, Brian Dutcher, faces the program he was a longtime assistant at, winning a title in the process, before he and Steve Fisher were fired and went to San Diego State together. Dutcher was crucial in recruiting the Fab Five during his time in Ann Arbor.
As for basketball, Michigan has two high-major wins by a combined five points after entering this season with quite a bit of hype. It’s clear this is a team still figuring itself out, but it’ll be rough sledding against San Diego State, a program on par with the high-major level.
The Aztecs, as always, boast a great defense. If they can turn this into a grind, the Wolverines could be in real trouble.
UNLV Rebels vs Maryland Terrapins
- Time/TV: 11:59 p.m. ET (yes, really) on TruTV
- KenPom Spread: Terps by 2
Maryland narrowly survived an overtime scare against Mount Saint Mary’s at home, which isn’t great given the Mountaineers’ 1-4 record on the season. It’s clear the Terrapins are figuring themselves out some, especially without Pharrel Payne, but that’s a game that should’ve been won much earlier.
On the other side of this is, well, Josh Pastner, coaching UNLV exactly the way you’d expect someone to. The pace from his time at Memphis is back and turned up all the way, so if the Rebels get runnin’ this could be a troublesome one for the Terps.
Maryland’s defense has been better than its offense and it should be able to keep pace with UNLV on both ends of the floor, but it has to assert itself and force the Rebels to play the game on their terms.
