College basketball games this week: Top 10 games to watch, including Duke-VA Tech

The Christmas holiday will condense this week’s college basketball schedule, loading up all of Week 7’s big games by Thursday night.

Christmas is here and college basketball fans are certainly hoping for something nice from Santa after COVID delivered a big lump of coal to last week’s Super Saturday. Several of the week’s marquee matchups, including Tennessee-Memphis and Iona-Seton Hall, were scuttled due to COVID concerns within programs.

The threat of the virus hasn’t gone away just yet but there are still a lot of quality games on tap for this week’s college basketball schedule. All of the games listed here are on tap as of post time and it is also important to note that all of the big action is packed into the week’s first four days with the sport essentially going dark over the weekend due to the Christmas holiday.

Top 10 games on the Week 7 college basketball schedule

Davidson at Alabama – Tuesday, 12/21 at 7:00 p.m. ET on SEC Network+

Alabama head coach Nate Oats has always made it a point to schedule strong competition for the Crimson Tide and this game is no exception. Davidson is off to a good start in the A-10 and will get a shot at Alabama after Colorado State was forced to withdraw from the originally scheduled matchups due to COVID issues within their program.

Xavier at Villanova – Tuesday, 12/21 at 7:00 p.m. ET on FS1

This game is a big gut-check for Villanova, which got demolished at Creighton on Friday night to raise concerns about the upside of Jay Wright’s team. There are no easy games in the Big East this year and that certainly holds true here as a ranked Xavier squad heads to Philadelphia riding high on a season-long seven-game winning streak.

Delaware vs. Iona – Tuesday, 12/21 at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN3

This is a sneaky-good mid-major showcase at UBS Arena between Delaware, one of the front-runners in the Colonial, and Rick Pitino’s Iona Gaels. Both programs are off to fast starts, highlighted by the Gaels’ win over Alabama in Orlando last month, and could be potential Cinderellas to watch in the NCAA Tournament.

Kansas at Colorado – Tuesday, 12/21 at 9:00 p.m. ET on ESPN

This is the first true road game of the season for Kansas, which heads up to Boulder to take on old Big 12 foe Colorado in a good non-conference showdown. The Buffaloes are off to a 7-1 start at home this season and would love to add a win over the Jayhawks to their resume ahead of Pac-12 play.

UConn at Marquette – Tuesday, 12/21 at 9:00 p.m. ET on FS1

There are no easy games in the Big East this season, which UCONN learned the hard way by stumbling at home against Providence over the weekend. The Huskies hit the road here to take on Marquette, who have tested themselves in non-conference play and have already earned wins over Illinois (minus Kofi Cockburn) and West Virginia.

Murray State at Auburn – Wednesday, 12/22 at 6:00 p.m. ET on SEC Network

Auburn has as much talent as anyone in the SEC but they do have a tricky non-conference game on Wednesday night as they play host to Murray State. A co-favorite alongside Belmont in the Ohio Valley conference, the Racers already have an upset win over Memphis on their resume and could make a big name for themselves by taking down the Tigers on their home floor.

Louisville at Kentucky – Wednesday, 12/22 at 6:00 p.m. ET on ESPN

The battle for bragging rights in the Bluegrass State certainly looks better for Kentucky, which made a huge statement by demolishing North Carolina by 29 points on Saturday at the CBS Sports Classic in Las Vegas. This game is much more important to Louisville, which is coming off a loss to Western Kentucky and won’t have many opportunities to enhance its NCAA Tournament resume in a subpar ACC.

Arizona at Tennessee – Wednesday, 12/22 at 7:00 p.m. ET on ESPN2

This is the unquestioned game of the week as Arizona puts its undefeated record to the test against Tennessee in an outstanding non-conference matchup. The Volunteers will have an eight-day layoff ahead of this game thanks to the last-minute cancellation of the Memphis game due to COVID issues with the Tigers so it will be interesting to see how the break impacts Tennessee here.

Virginia Tech at Duke – Wednesday, 12/22 at 9:00 p.m. ET on ESPN2

Duke kicks off its ACC schedule here with a home date against one of the league’s trickier teams to judge, Virginia Tech. There is plenty of talent on the Hokies’ roster but they have underachieved to this point, although an emphatic 86-49 win over a quality St. Bonaventure team over the weekend should put the Blue Devils on notice.

Butler at St. John’s – Thursday, 12/23 at 6:30 p.m. ET on FS1

The past week hasn’t been great for St. John’s, which lost an ugly game against Pittsburgh with Julian Champagnie out due to COVID protocols and also lost an opportunity to pick up a signature win against Seton Hall with their game against the Pirates forfeited due to COVID issues within the Seton Hall program.

The Red Storm instead kick off their Big East slate with a visit from Butler on Thursday in a game that is much trickier for St. John’s if Champagnie isn’t cleared to return by game time.

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