Rayno's three pointers
WEEKEND GAME TO WATCH
No. 7 North Carolina at No. 3 Virginia, 5:30 p.m., Saturday (ESPN)
Virginia might be undermanned with the statuses of both forwards Isaiah Wilkins (head) and Evan Nolte (toe) up in the air, but after losses to No. 15 Duke and No. 12 Miami in the past three games, the Cavaliers are desperate to get back on track. The Tar Heels are coming off a pair of strong victories over Miami and N.C. State, but they lost earlier this month to Louisville, Notre Dame and Duke and are trying to maintain their tenuous hold on the ACC. The game will likely have conference standing and NCAA tournament seeding implications on both sides.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
14 Games in which Xavier freshman and Lakeville North product J.P. Macura has scored in double digits after he scored 19 as the No. 5 Musketeers took down No. 1 Villanova on Wednesday.
0-3 The finish Kansas would have to have in its last three games to lose its grasp on what certainly looks like a 12th consecutive Big 12 title.
6-0 Wisconsin's record in its past six games decided by single digits after the Badgers' 67-59 victory at Iowa. Wisconsin went 0-4 in the four single-digit decisions before that.
FINAL THOUGHT
I won't lie. After Tubby Smith was fired from the Gophers and took a job down in Lubbock, I was among the many who wondered whether the one-time national champion had another surge left in him. But there's no denying he has infused Texas Tech with a different feel than the school has had at least since the Bob Knight era. The Red Raiders have rattled off five consecutive Big 12 wins — the only such streak in program history — bucking Smith's reputation at Minnesota for February crashes. And Texas Tech, which will have its first winning season since 2010, has crept up to a seven seed in CBSSports.com's mock NCAA tournament bracket. But the biggest tests yet to this momentum lie ahead. The Raiders have games at No. 2 Kansas and No. 14 West Virginia before wrapping up the regular season with a game at Kansas State.
