Saturday a hoops junkie's dream

Don't stray far from a TV on Saturday. You'll want to see as much college basketball as possible.

There are four matchups between ranked teams, a few conference titles on the line and massive amounts of games with bubble implications.

And did I mention the massive crowd that will be watching the primetime game?

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning. The day starts off pretty good, too.

Jack Dempsey/AP

Jimmer Fredette and BYU will have its hands full against New Mexico on Saturday.

No. 2 Kentucky (27-1 overall, 12-1 in the SEC) travels to Knoxville for what should be its most challenging game left on its schedule. (Noon ET, CBS) The question is, can No. 19 Tennessee hang with the Wildcats?

As Ken Davis writes, the Vols (20-7, 8-5) have been faltering the last few weeks, most of which stems from the Jan. 1 off-court incident that resulted in Tyler Smith's dismissal from the team.

The Vols are capable of big wins – they did beat No. 1 Kansas days after Smith's suspension – so it'll be interesting to see if they can run with John Calipari's young team, and if Wayne Chism can negate DeMarcus Cousins inside.

Other games to watch with a noon tip-off time: Notre Dame at No. 11 Georgetown (Irish still on bubble) and Michigan at No. 9 Ohio State (Buckeyes now Big 10's best team).

Get that remote ready.

The next slate of games opens with No. 21 Texas at No. 22 Texas A&M (2 p.m. ET ESPN), a game with two NCAA-tournament teams trying to boost their seed, and Cincinnati at No. 8 West Virginia. Anytime Bob Huggins faces his former school, it's worth watching (ESPNU).

At 3 p.m. ET, it's a rare watchable Pac-10 game when Cal plays host to Arizona State. The Bears (18-9, 10-5) can clinch a share of its first conference crown since Pete Newell was coaching. (That's 50 years ago for all us youngsters.) The Sun Devils (20-8, 10-5) will play spoiler. (FSN)

An hour later, No. 1 Kansas travels to Oklahoma State, which is desperate to boost its bubble status. Beating the Jayhawks (27-1, 13-0) would be ideal and also end KU's chance at a rare unbeaten conference season (4 p.m., CBS). Don't ignore Richmond at Xavier (ESPN2), either. They're tied atop the A-10.

But the best game during this time slot is on Versus.

When No. 10 New Mexico plays No. 13 BYU, it could go down as the biggest regular-season hoops game in Mountain West history. The winner takes the conference title and is headed for a No. 2 or 3 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Take a short dinner break, then get ready for the monster matchup of the day at 9 p.m. on ESPN.

With 34, 616 fans on hand to watch No. 7 Villanova play No. 4 Syracuse, some wonder if the actual game will match the surrounding hype, which is a fair question.

The Orange (26-2, 13-2) and Wildcats (23-4, 12-3) are the class of the Big East and this'll be their only meeting this season, barring a Big East tournament rematch. Both are Final Four caliber teams and capable of winning the NCAA tournament.

I'll leave the matchup analysis to Mike DeCourcy (this post is already long enough), and simply look forward to Saturday.

Are we sure March didn't arrive a few days early?

Mike Miller's also on Twitter, usually talkin' hoops. Click here for more.