If all you want for Christmas this holiday weekend is your two front teeth an incredible college basketball slate, then boy do I have some news for you: Santa (spoiler alert!) picked you for his nice list. Because Saturday presents an incredible day of action on the hardwood headlined by the annual CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta, which features ranked teams in each matchup and opportunities for both Kentucky and Ohio State to prove themselves after recent stumbles.Throughout the day and into the night, 12 ranked teams are in action Saturday — among them No. 22 St. John’s and No. 12 North Carolina — and there are three ranked-vs.-ranked matchups to boot. One of those is perhaps the game of the day on CBS at 5:30 p.m. ET between No. 8 Houston and No. 14 Arkansas. But we also have No. 6 Purdue vs. No. 21 Auburn and No. 3 Duke vs. No. 19 Texas Tech as part of the nightcap. And for those who are staying up late No. 1 Arizona tips at 11:30 p.m. ET (!!) vs. San Diego State.Like I said: a loaded slate.
Bracketology: Where Kentucky, North Carolina stand before CBS Sports Classic; conference champions projected
David Cobb
The college basketball experts made picks straight up and against the spread for some of the biggest games of the day Saturday. Those picks are below. Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook | All times ET
12:30 p.m. on CBS, CBSSports.com, CBS Sports App, Paramount+ Premium: Rick Pitino is 1-0 this season facing teams he previously coached (St. John’s beat Iona 91-64 last week) and I anticipate that record moves to 2-0 Saturday. This Kentucky team has looked listless on offense for most of the last month, and the Johnnies are starting to figure things out defensively at an opportune time. This St. John’s team has whiffed on most of its chances to score a signature win out of the gate — it is 0-3 vs. ranked teams so far — but the worm turns vs. the Wildcats here. Pick: St. John’s -2.5
3 p.m. on CBS, CBSSports.com, CBS Sports App, Paramount+…
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2025-12-20 03:15:15
