Thursday, December 29th

#202 Brown Bears (7-5) at #54 Northwestern Wildcats (9-2), 12 pm, BTN

#360 Delaware State Hornets (1-11) at #36 Penn State Nittany Lions (9-3), 1 pm, BTN+

#321 Alabama A&M Bulldogs (4-8) at #21 Ohio State Buckeyes (8-3), 2 pm, BTN

MaximumSam: Still waiting on a Eugene Brown appearance. However, Chris Holtmann made some comments that seemed to hint that Ice Likekele may be done with the team. I haven’t heard what is happening with him - there are comments out there that he is dealing with a tragic family issue, but details are murky. He has rejoined the team - he isn’t gone. He just isn’t playing. Very odd situation, and obviously we hope for the best for him.

#362 Florida A&M Rattlers (2-8) at #7 Purdue Boilermakers (12-0), 4 pm, BTN

MaximumSam: There are 363 teams in Division 1 college basketball. Somehow, the B1G is managing to play two of the bottom four today. FAMU managed to lose to Louisville! Ewww!

BoilerUp89: I would have strongly preferred that Purdue limit themselves to only three cupcakes and not play four. Hopefully the bench and walk-ons can get some minutes and the Boilermakers can begin to solve some of their three point shooting woes.

#32 Iowa Hawkeyes (8-4) at #96 Nebraska Cornhuskers (7-6), 6 pm, BTN

MaximumSam: Iowa tries to recover from the devastating, humiliating, soul crushing, Fran Frapping loss to Eastern Illinois. They head to Lincoln, where the Huskers have been pretty good. Their only loss at home is in overtime to Purdue. The Iowa injury situation is murky - currently I’m not sure if Kris Murray or Connor McCaffery will play. For Nebraska’s part, they are at home and facing a reeling team. Shoot your shot, kings. Torvik goes Iowa, 75-72.

BoilerUp89: The rumor was that they were both going to play tonight. We will see. Nebraska has to find a way to put some points on the board - shooting has been an issue. Can the Hawkeye defense cure Nebraska’s shooting issues? If so, the Cornhuskers can make a game of this.

#299 Central Michigan Chippewas (4-8) at #68 Michigan Wolverines (7-4), 6 pm, BTN+

#195 UMBC Retrievers (9-4) at #28 Maryland Terrapins (9-3), 6 pm, ESPNU

BoilerUp89: I’m fairly certain Maryland is just trolling teams they don’t like with their non-conference scheduling. Don’t let UMBC’s record deceive you. That’s the result of beating a lot of not good teams. Their best win is either Lafayette or Morgan State.

#285 Alcorn State Braves (3-9) at #219 Minnesota Golden Gophers (6-6), 7 pm, BTN+

BoilerUp89: Last opportunity for Minnesota to take a horrible, no good, very bad loss. So far the Gophers have been able to squeak out victories against their cupcakes. And the game has been cancelled due to travel issues for Alcorn State. Probably something to do with Southwest Airlines.

#351 Bethune-Cookman Wildcats (4-8) at #38 Illinois Fighting Illini (8-4), 7:30 pm, FS1

BoilerUp89: I thought these guys already played this year? Or was that Iowa? Or Indiana? All the I-teams look alike. Hawkeyes beat them by 31 and the Hoosiers by 52.