The first weekend of January has arrived, which means that conference play is upon us in earnest. League play will dominate the rest of the college basketball season, with a few notable exceptions, such as the Big 12-SEC Challenge. This is an excellent slate to start the intraconference portion of the college basketball season, with four games between top-25 teams, including one that features two of the top-10 teams in the country, at least according to the rankings.
In addition to looking at the highest-profile games every weekend, we’ll also highlight at least one important game from a smaller conference in an effort to sniff out this season’s Loyola-Chicago, should there be one.