TheSpread.com

In The Pac 10 Race

Behind its home-court dominance, Stanford remains very much in the Pac-10 title race.

The eighth-ranked Cardinal look to win 15 home games in a season for the first time in school history and boost their conference title hopes Thursday against Washington, which hasn't won at Maples Pavilion in 15 years.

Trying to Stop The Irish

Rick Pitino spent the better part of three days breaking down videotape of teams trying in vain to stop No. 17 Notre Dame.

The Louisville coach went bleary-eyed watching teams try zone, man-to-man and a myriad of ``junk'' defenses that desperate coaches sometimes experiment with - Pitino included - when attempting to disrupt an opponent's offensive flow.

Looking to Bounce Back

Purdue has had more than enough time to regroup from its first loss in more than a month.

The 16th-ranked Boilermakers look to bounce back from their most recent defeat in their first action in eight days when they host Minnesota in a Big Ten matchup on Wednesday night.

Something to Prove

A year after a late-season collapse sent Duke to rare first-round exits from both the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament, the Blue Devils are out to prove the same thing won't happen again.

A convincing non-conference win its last time out was a start, but No. 7 Duke will look to end a two-game losing streak in ACC play and regain a share of first place in the league when it hosts Georgia Tech on Wednesday.

Recent Struggles

If Kansas is unable to win its fourth straight Big 12 conference championship, its recent struggles away from Allen Fieldhouse will be the reason why.

The sixth-ranked Jayhawks try to bounce back from another disappointing road defeat as they look to avoid losing their third straight game away from Lawrence when they play Iowa State on Wednesday.