A Six Pack For Tuesday

A look at the six most notable games on Tuesday's schedule:

Illinois at Purdue
The uber-balanced Illini (four players average between 12.2 and 11.6 ppg) earned a spot in our latest bracket thanks to their beatdown of Missouri last week. Now they get a crack at the Big Ten's best team (so far) in what would be a ginormous road win. Our friends at the Illinois message boards better not get their hopes up, though; the Illini haven't beaten a Top 10 team on the road in almost a decade.

Seton Hall at Syracuse
The Orange are already off to a great start, and it doesn't look like that streak is going to stop anytime soon. Syracuse opens up its Big East schedule tonight against the very beatable Pirates, and then play three more conference cupcakes (South Florida, DePaul, and Rutgers) before they have to face any of the league's big boys. The Orange also get Eric Devendorf back from his slapping suspension tonight; Jim Boeheim said he plans on using him off the bench for the time being.

UAB at Butler
The Bulldogs jumped into the Top 25 and jumped up to a nine seed (and rising) in our latest bracket by upsetting Xavier on the road last week. Now they host a Blazers team that at times looks like a tourney team (Arizona) and at times fails to show up (Louisville). Both of these teams play great defense, and it might be a "first to 60" wins-type game. Expect Butler to get to 60 first.

Clemson at South Carolina
The unbeaten Tigers (and K.C. Rivers specifically) looked great their last time out as they pounded Miami in their ACC opener. Now they begin a three-game non-conference interlude with what should be an easily winnable roadie at South Carolina. The Gamecocks are the most fraudulent one-loss team in the country; they only have one victory over a team with a winning record, and that win came against Jacksonville State in their season opener.

Oklahoma at Arkansas
The Razorbacks may have a gaudy record and some impressive offensive numbers (they're averaging over 80 ppg), but they've also played one of the weakest OOC schedules imaginable. Let's see how they fare against the Player of the Year front-runner and a Sooners squad that may be the best in the country defensively.

BYU at Tulsa
BYU dropped its first game of the season in heartbreaking fashion last time out against Arizona State, as an apparent game-winner by Charles Abouo was ruled to be released just after the final buzzer. That's the bad news. The good news is the Cougars get another crack at a good road win right away, as they head to Tulsa to face a dangerous Golden Hurricane squad which already has wins over Texas A&M and Missouri State.

Also receiving votes: George Mason at Dayton, Massachusetts at Houston, Siena at Holy Cross