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Weekend Preview: Five storylines to follow

Rick Ray

Mississippi State head coach Rick Ray signals a play to his team as they take on Marquette in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012, in Lahaina, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Eugene Tanner)

AP

Mississippi State and Loyola (IL) honor a game that should never be forgotten: In March of 1963, three years before Texas Western went and beat Kentucky for a national title with a team that included black players and earned themselves a spot in Hollywood history with the movie ‘Glory Road’, Mississippi State had to sneak out of their own state just for the chance to play Loyola in the NCAA tournament. At 8:00 p.m. on Saturday night, the two programs will pay tribute to that game on ESPNU. Dana O’Neil wrote a terrific story about the event on Thursday, and if this intrigues you, I would suggest you check out Kyle Veazey’s book on the game.

Is West Virginia going to be able to turn their season around?: The Mountaineers struggled at the start of the year, losing three of their first four games and looking like they were a long way from being a tournament team. But with three transfers in the fold, a slow start was to be expected. And after following up those losses with wins over VMI, Marshall and Virginia Tech, it looked like the ‘Eers might have actually turned their season around. That was until they lost to Duquesne.

So will WVU be able to compete for a tournament spot? They’ll get a chance to make a statement on Saturday evening when they take on No. 3 Michigan.

The Battle of Anthony Grant: Anthony Grant took over for Jeff Capel at VCU when he took the head coaching job at Oklahoma. Grant didn’t last long with the Rams, as he took over at Alabama when Mark Gottfried resigned in the middle of the 2008-2009 season. That opened up a job for Shaka Smart, who may have actually turned VCU into a better program than Alabama. Those two teams will take the floor at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.

Who is the best team in Iowa?: For my money, it is either Northern Iowa or Iowa, and it’s just our luck that the Panthers and the Hawkeyes happen to be playing on Saturday afternoon on the Big Ten Network. Northern Iowa is a tough, defensive-minded team with a couple of versatile big guys and one of the nation’s more underrated back courts. Iowa is a bit more uptempo and wants to score more than UNI. It should be an interesting contrast of styles. It’s also not the only game of the event, as Drake and Iowa State will be playing the same day in Des Moines in the Big Four Classic.

Indiana will be doing the same thing: Iowa’s not the only state that will be putting together a mini-state tournament. Indiana will do the same with the Crossroads Classic at Conseco Fieldhouse tomorrow afternoon. It kicks off with Butler taking on No. 1 Indiana and ends with Purdue and No. 22 Notre Dame tangling.

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.