The Bum's Top 25 College Basketball Previews For 01/28/17 !

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Preview: Ducks (19-2) at Buffaloes (11-10)
Date: January 28, 2017 9:30 PM EDT

BOULDER, Colo. -- Dana Altman is heading to the one Pac-12 Conference arena where he has never won.

Oregon's seventh-year coach is 0-4 at the Coors Events Center as the No. 10 Ducks (19-2, 8-0 Pac-12) visit Colorado (11-10, 1-7) on Saturday at 9:30 p.m ET.

"Hopefully, our guys will be ready to play," Altman said.

The Ducks lost 91-87 at Colorado last season, but none of Oregon's current players played in any of the previous defeats in Boulder.

"I understand that history, but this is this team and this year," said Oregon senior guard Dylan Ennis, a transfer who has never played at Colorado. "We are not expecting to go in there and lose again. I think everyone has the same mindset."

Oregon has won a school-record 17 straight games to move into a tie for first place in the conference with Arizona at 8-0.

The Ducks welcomed back junior forward Dillon Brooks for Thursday's 73-67 win at Utah. The 6-foot-7 Brooks, a preseason All-American who is among 25 contenders for the Wooden Award, scored a game-high 19 points after missing the previous game with a sprained foot.

"I felt good," Brooks said. "I was kind of a little out of shape after a couple days off, but I am ready to go for the grind."

Brooks was 7-for-15 from the field and had three assists, two rebounds, two blocks, and two steals.

"He practiced early in the week, so we knew he'd be ready," Oregon junior guard Casey Benson said. "It was awesome to have him back in there. He made a ton of plays and some tough shots."

Brooks leads the Ducks with 13.7 points per game and is one of five players scoring in double digits.

Senior center Chris Boucher, who has come off the bench during seven of eight games in conference play, is averaging 13 points and 6.9 rebounds to go with three blocked shots per game. Sophomore guard Tyler Dorsey is scoring 12.3 points per game while Ennis is at 11.3.

Junior forward Jordan Bell is averaging a career-high 11.2 points while leading the team with 7.5 rebounds per game. Benson has boosted his scoring in recent weeks to 5.2 points per game while making 11-of-14 3-pointers in the past four games.

"It is knowing you put the work in and then just letting it go," Benson said. "At the end of the day, it is just a game so you cannot let the pressure get to you and have fun. I want to enjoy the game. At the end of the day, if the shots go, it is awesome, and if they don't, then they don't. Just go out and play and have fun with it."

Colorado opened conference play with seven straight losses before defeating Oregon State 85-78 on Thursday.

"A win is a win and we'll take it," Buffaloes coach Tad Boyle said. "It is more of a relief than a celebration right now."

Senior guard Derrick White leads Colorado with 16 points per game. Senior forward Xavier Johnson averages 15.2 points and six rebounds while junior guard George King is at 11.9 points per game.

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Preview: Bulldogs (21-0) at Waves (6-15)
Date: January 28, 2017 10:00 PM EDT

Third-ranked Gonzaga is on the brink of two significant accomplishments for a program that is not in a Power 5 conference yet is traditionally competitive.

If the Bulldogs defeat Pepperdine on Saturday in Malibu, Calif., they are on track to become the nation's No. 1 team with top-ranked Villanova and No. 2 Kansas losing this week.

Gonzaga (21-0, 9-0 West Coast Conference) will tie its school record of 22 straight wins, set in the 2014-15 season. The winning streak is the longest in the nation and one those victories was a 92-62 rout in Spokane, Wash., on Dec. 29.

"This group has done an excellent job of focusing on the process and only things we can control," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said when asked about the potential record and No. 1 ranking.

An important stat that proves Few's team keeps its sights on the task at hand: The Bulldogs have played nine straight halves without trailing their opponent. They have not trailed in the last 184 minutes and 31 seconds.

"Our end goal is in March (during the NCAA tournament) to play our best basketball," said guard Nigel Williams-Goss, Gonzaga's leading scorer who is coming a 25-point, five-rebound, five-assist and no-turnover performance in a 79-43 win over San Diego in Spokane on Thursday.

"We have to get better each week."

?? Pepperdine (6-15, 2-7) is the next WCC opponent who will try pull off what seems to be an unachievable upset. Gonzaga is outscoring conference opponents by an average of 84.8 to 58.9.

Senior guard Lamond Murray Jr., an NBA prospect with Pepperdine, leads the WCC in scoring both overall (20.8) and in league games only (22.7). He is the fourth Wave to have scored 20-plus points in six straight games.

In the first game, Murray had 19 points and seven rebounds, and the Waves shot a respectable 45.5 percent from the field. Gonzaga won the rebounding battle 45-27, however, and outscored the Waves 20-3 in second-chance points.

The Waves are coming off achieving their largest margin of victory this season, a 78-60 triumph over visiting Portland on Thursday, behind 22 points and 10 rebounds by Murray. The win snapped a five-game losing streak.

"This is a huge game for us because of the mental side of it," Pepperdine coach Marty Wilson said. "It being a home game, it was important to show the urgency, the courage to do certain things."

The Waves are banking on the win over Portland and the atmosphere at a sold-out Firestone Fieldhouse to get it in the right frame of mind to challenge Gonzaga.

"With this momentum and the crowd we should have, I think it will be a good game," said forward Chris Reyes, a transfer from Utah who is averaging 14.4 points and 8.1 rebounds a game.

The Bulldogs may also be road-weary playing their fifth game in 10 days. Jordan Mathews, a transfer from California, said Gonzaga actually welcomes the busy stretch.

"As long as we don't have to practice, I'm fine with it," said Mathews, who had 15 points in the first game against Pepperdine.

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Preview: Gaels (18-2) at Broncos (12-10)
Date: January 28, 2017 11:00 PM EDT

Saint Mary's players and coaches know they cannot afford any missteps as they work their way toward their Feb. 11 rematch with Gonzaga.

Saturday's road game against improving Santa Clara is a potential pitfall for the 21st-ranked Gaels, who hope to earn at least a share of the West Coast Conference regular-season title for a second straight season.

The Gaels (18-2, 8-1 WCC) cannot afford to look ahead. They cannot overwhelm opponents with athleticism, instead relying on precise execution at both ends of the court. If they lose their focus against any opponent it could result in a deadly second conference loss.

"We're trying to win a league championship," said Gaels forward Calvin Hermanson, "but we've got to play one game at a time."

That sports cliche reflects the paradox Saint Mary's is facing: To catch Gonzaga, the Gaels cannot think about Gonzaga.

"It's a challenge staying locked in one week at a time, one game at a time," Saint Mary's coach Randy Bennett said, "and our guys are doing a pretty good job."

The Gaels return all five starters from the squad that beat Gonzaga in both regular-season meetings last season, but Saint Mary's lost twice to fourth-place Pepperdine and once to third-place BYU, dropping the Gaels into a first-place tie in the final 2016 standings.

Santa Clara (12-10, 6-3) is certainly a team that could derail Saint Mary's title hopes, especially at the Leavey Center.

The Broncos have won four of their past five games, losing only to Gonzaga in that stretch, and they are coming off Thursday's impressive 76-68 home victory over Brigham Young that moved them into a third-place tie with the Cougars.

That win ended the Broncos' 14-game losing streak to BYU, which had not lost to Santa Clara since Dec. 2, 1972. It also avenged a 30-point loss to BYU in Provo, Utah, in the teams' first meeting this season.

"We got out, we pushed the ball, everybody was looking for each other, and we made the extra pass we weren't making the first time we played BYU," said Broncos guard Jared Brownridge, who leads the team in scoring at 18.8 points per game.

Because of injuries, the Broncos had only seven players available for Thursday's game, and two of them fouled out midway through the second half.

"Injuries continued this week and on top of that we lost our front-court players with lots of time left in the game and so we almost had to reconfigure ourselves on the fly with the lineup that we've only played with a few minutes this season and then again only very special end of game situations," first-year head coach Herb Sendek said. "Our guys once again showed tremendous resilience."

Santa Clara's top four scorers are still healthy, and one key player who has returned from injury is sophomore guard KJ Feagin. He missed the first 12 games with a broken foot, but is averaging 13.8 points in his 10 games this season. Feagin scored 16 points against BYU, and the Broncos are 7-3 with Feagin available.

Brownridge is the team's star, however. He scored at least 20 points in each of Santa Clara's past five games, including 25-point efforts in the most recent games against Loyola Marymount and BYU.

He will be handful for the Gaels, who relied on their defense to beat San Francisco 66-46 on Thursday in Moraga, Calif.

Saint Mary's, which is second in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 57.3 points per game, limited the Dons to 29.2 percent shooting and 16 points in the second half when the Gaels broke open a tight game.

"Once we came out of the second half with a lot of energy, we played pretty good defense," Hermanson said.

Center Jock Landale leads the Gaels in scoring (16.6 points per game) and rebounding (9.5), but the offensive stars against San Francisco were Hermanson and Emmett Naar, who scored 18 points apiece and combined to make 6 of 10 3-point attempts.

The challenge for Saint Mary's is to maintain that level of play on the road.

"There's a lot of pressure and you have to block all of that out and focus on being as good as you can be at every game," Bennett said.

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UNC's Pinson out Saturday at Miami
January 27, 2017

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) Ninth-ranked North Carolina won't have swingman Theo Pinson for Saturday's game at Miami because of an ankle injury.

The school announced Friday that the versatile junior won't play after rolling his right ankle during Thursday's win against Virginia Tech. The school says there's no timetable for Pinson's return and doctors are still evaluating the injury.

Pinson didn't play after leaving during the first half, though team spokesman Steve Kirschner said at the time it was for precautionary reasons. Pinson later returned to the bench in street clothes.

Pinson missed the first 16 games after October surgery for a broken bone in the same foot. He is averaging 6.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists in six games for the Tar Heels (19-3, 7-1), who lead the Atlantic Coast Conference standings.