The best weekend of the men's college basketball regular season -- maybe the best weekend of the past several regular seasons -- is upon us, with four matchups between top-10 teams highlighting the schedule.
No. 4 Houston travels to No. 8 Kansas in the biggest test of the Cougars' young Big 12 career (Saturday, 4 p.m. ET, ESPN); No. 7 Duke takes the short drive to No. 3 North Carolina for the 49th top-10 meeting between the two teams (Saturday, 6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN); No. 5 Tennessee is in a bounce-back situation at No. 10 Kentucky (Saturday, 8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN); and No. 6 Wisconsin looks for a marquee win when it hosts No. 2 Purdue (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, CBS).
(If only the Big East could have scheduled one of the two meetings between No. 1 UConn and No. 9 Marquette for this weekend!)
Interestingly enough, the schedule calls for rematches of all four of these games on the final weekend of the regular season -- though the teams might not all be in the top 10 by that point. So, this weekend gets the edge as "the best college basketball weekend ever" for now.
This weekend also means the top of the AP poll will look very different come Monday, depending on the outcomes of these four games. So where will each of these games be won? Which teams have the advantage at either end of the floor? We reached out to opposing coaches who have played each team to break down the keys to the games.
No. 4 Houston Cougars at No. 8 Kansas Jayhawks
Houston's biggest edge: While the Cougars' defense gets most of the credit for their consistent success in recent years, opposing coaches pointed to their offensive rebounding as potentially the biggest factor on Saturday. They rank No. 6 nationally in offensive rebounding percentage -- and No. 1 in Big 12 play -- and they've ranked in the top five in that category in each of the past four years.
On the other side, Kansas ranks in the middle of the league in defensive rebounding and really struggled on the glass against West Virginia and Cincinnati.
"[Houston's] rebounding is relentless. It cannot be simulated," one coach said. "It happens so fast. They're trying to make the shot obviously, but their best offense is sometimes, 'just throw the ball up there and go get it.'