The games
Nov. 29: Nebraska at USC
Dec. 3: Washington at Texas Tech, USC at Texas, Baylor at Arizona State
Dec. 4: Colorado at Oregon State
Dec. 5: Oregon at Missouri, Iowa State at California, Washington State at Kansas State
Dec. 6: Kansas at UCLA, Arizona at Oklahoma
Dec. 16: Oklahoma State at Stanford
Dec. 22: Texas A&M at Washington

Best game: Kansas at UCLA. Two of the top programs in history meet for the first time since UCLA knocked Kansas out of the 2007 NCAA tournament in a regional final. The Jayhawks have the edge in this one as they potentially enter the season as the No. 1 team in the country. KU senior guard Sherron Collins will be matchup trouble for the Bruins, who must replace guards Darren Collison and Jrue Holiday with inexperienced sophomores Jerime Anderson and Malcolm Lee.
The next best: Washington State at Kansas State, Texas A&M at Washington
Worst game: Nebraska at USC
Most lopsided game: USC at Texas
Upset alert: Oregon over Missouri
Predicted winner: Big 12 7-5 (Last season: 6-6 tie)
The buzz: The Pac-10's record in this challenge will be helped by Washington playing twice. USC is playing twice, as well. The Huskies, one of the two best teams in the league, will be favored on the road against Texas Tech and at home against Texas A&M. USC could get clobbered by Texas, but facing Nebraska at home is a good draw for the Trojans. ? Cal's questionable frontcourt will get a workout against Iowa State star forward Craig Brackins. The Cyclones might not win, but they could expose the Bears' forwards. ? Neither Washington State nor Kansas State made the NCAA tournament last season, but both should make the field this season. First-year coach Ken Bone and Cougars sophomores Klay Thompson and DeAngelo Casto will be tested on the road against an experienced Wildcats team that returns seven of its top eight scorers. ? In the "identity crisis game," Baylor visits Arizona State. The grind-it-out Sun Devils move on without James Harden. The up-tempo Bears will try to figure out if they will be the team that nearly won the NIT or the one that collapsed during Big 12 play. ? Arizona will have its first major road test under Sean Miller when it meets the Sooners in Norman. After playing in the Maui Invitational two weeks earlier, at home against UNLV on Dec. 2 and against the Sooners, Miller will have a good barometer as to how his first season will go.

Games
Nov. 30: Penn State at Virginia
Dec. 1: Maryland at Indiana, Michigan State at North Carolina, Northwestern at N.C. State, Virginia Tech at Iowa, Wake Forest at Purdue
Dec. 2: Boston College at Michigan, Duke at Wisconsin, Florida State at Ohio State, Illinois at Clemson, Minnesota at Miami

Best game: Michigan State at North Carolina. The Spartans hope the rematch of the national championship game and a game early in the 2008-09 season will be more in their favor. The Tar Heels beat them by a combined score of 187-135 in the two meetings last season. Michigan State has the edge in experience, but do the Spartans really want to see Tar Heels sophomore Ed Davis (21 points and 15 rebounds off the bench in two games) in a full-time role? The Spartans had a 2-0 edge against North Carolina in ACC/Big Ten Challenge games before last year's meeting.
The next best: Florida State at Ohio State, Illinois at Clemson
Worst game: Northwestern at North Carolina State
Most lopsided game: None, really
Upset alert: Boston College over Michigan
Predicted winner: Big Ten 6-5 (Last season: ACC 6-5)
The buzz: The Big Ten never has won the Challenge since it began in 1999. ? This season's Challenge doesn't lack for great coaching matchups: Roy Williams vs. Tom Izzo, Mike Krzyzewski vs. Bo Ryan, Al Skinner vs. John Beilein, Tubby Smith vs. Frank Haith and Gary Williams vs. Tom Crean. ? Duke's backcourt issues will be tested against the Badgers' duo of Trevon Hughes and Jason Bohanon. Jon Scheyer, Nolan Smith and early enrolling freshman Andre Dawkins are Duke's only scholarship guards, which means Kyle Singler will play more on the perimeter. Duke's big question plays right into the Badgers' strength. ? Boston College returns everybody except leading scorer Tyrese Rice. The Eagles will go up against a young but experienced Michigan team. ? One of the top matchups will be the frontcourts in the Purdue-Wake Forest game. The Demon Deacons' Al-Farouq Aminu elected to stay in school, and the Boilermakers' Robbie Hummel should be healthy after batting a back injury into the summer. Wake Forest's Tony Woods and Ty Walker, two five-star centers from the 2008 signing class, need to perform to expectations this season. One of their first major tests will come against Hummel and JaJuan Johnson. ? The Florida teams received tough draws. Both must replace their top players: Toney Douglas is gone from Florida State and Jack McClinton from Miami. Both Big Ten teams facing the Florida schools return all five starters off NCAA tournament teams. The Seminoles' Solomon Alabi could have a big game against Ohio State's frontcourt. ? Clemson's Trevor Booker, perhaps the ACC's best big man, will go up against a stout Illinois frontcourt of Mike Tisdale and Mike Davis. Clemson coach Oliver Purnell will get an idea of how his team will fare without guards K.C. Rivers and Terrence Oglesby when it faces Illinois' physical man-to-man defense. ? Bottom-feeders from both conferences could get a boost by playing winnable games at home: Virginia against Penn State, Indiana against Maryland, North Carolina State against Northwestern and Iowa against Virginia Tech. ? Duke is 10-0 in the Challenge. ? Georgia Tech is the only team from either conference not playing in the Challenge.

GAMES
Dec. 9: Georgia vs. St. John's, Kentucky vs. Connecticut (in New York)
Dec. 10: DePaul vs. Mississippi State, Syracuse vs. Florida (in Tampa, Fla.)

Best game: Kentucky vs. Connecticut. Kentucky will find out in a hurry where it stands in the national picture. The Wildcats play North Carolina in Lexington on Dec. 5 before meeting UConn four days later in Madison Square Garden. The key matchup will be between point guards John Wall of Kentucky and Kemba Walker of UConn. Wall is the nation's top freshman, while Walker, a key player off the bench last season, takes over for A.J. Price as the starter. The frontcourt matchup should be stellar, too, with the Wildcats' duo of Patrick Patterson and DeMarcus Cousins facing tournament hero Stanley Robinson. All three are All-America candidates. The game should be a major test of intangibles for both teams. Jim Calhoun will be looking for leadership and chemistry, while John Calipari will want to see how his standout freshman class performs on the big stage.
Worst game: Georgia vs. St. John's
Most lopsided game: DePaul vs. Mississippi State
Upset alert: Florida over Syracuse
Predicted winner: 2-2 tie (Last season: Big East 3-1)
The buzz: Other than Kentucky vs. Connecticut, this event is a dud. ? Syracuse-Florida would have been a good matchup in previous years, but not in 2009. And DePaul and Georgia won a combined three conference games between them. ? The Syracuse-Florida game will give Jim Boeheim and Billy Donovan a chance to size up their point guards after losing Jonny Flynn and Nick Calathes, respectively. Freshman Brandon Triche was named the Orange's starting point guard before he even stepped on campus. The Gators wish they had that kind of certainty. Diminutive sophomore Erving Walker, 17-year-old Israeli Nimrod Tishman or freshman Kenny Boynton are the candidates for the Gators. ? The biggest mismatch should be DePaul-Mississippi State. The Blue Demons went 0-18 in conference play last season, while Mississippi State should be stronger after winning the SEC tournament last season. Still, a matchup between the Bulldogs' Jarvis Varnado, the national leader in blocks, and the Blue Demons' Mac Koshwal, a double-double threat, will be intriguing. ? After one winning season in five years under Norm Roberts, St. John's could start to turn things around this season. A win over Georgia won't be a major boost to the RPI, but it could help the Red Storm in their quest to at least make the NIT.