Week 1: BTPowerhouse Big Ten Game of the Week: The Pitinos Battle It Out

College basketball will tip-off its season this weekend and there are a bunch of great games on the slate.  Though many perceive the first few weeks as largely being composed of battles between teams ranked on different sides of the college basketball world, that's not necessarily that true anymore.  Plenty of teams from major conferences will be battling it out and the Big Ten looks to have a nice lineup of games this weekend itself.  This will be the first in a weekly set of posts that will break down the top game in the Big Ten over the coming week.  With that, let's look at the Game of the Week:

Game Of The Week:

Minnesota vs. Louisville: Though there are a decent chunk of solid games happening during the opening weekend, this was easily the selection for the top game of the weekend.  To start, you have Rick Pitino facing off against Richard Pitino.  Not only is this a matchup that can excite the general public, but it's going to be fun to watch two teams with relatively similar styles battle it out with coaches from the same family tree.  Will one team have an advantage?  Did somebody share too much info on a particular lineup?  They're all going to be fun storylines to watch for this game.  Then on the other side of this one is the fact that both of these look like good teams.  Louisville is should be a player on the national scene and Minnesota looks like they should be in NCAA Tournament contention.

Honorable Mention:

George Washington at Rutgers: This is a game that will probably sneak up on a lot of people since it's going to be played on Sunday, but this is a game that should get fans to turn their heads.  Rutgers is projected by many for another down year, but George Washington is currently rated as #61 on KenPom and is coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance last season.  Last year, George Washington beat Rutgers 93-87 at home despite a big performance from Myles Mack, but this year, Rutgers will get the game at home.  This game could be very telling about whether Rutgers has improved from last season.

Michigan State at Navy: Though this game doesn't look particularly interesting on paper - MSU is rated 291 spots higher on KenPom - this should still be an entertaining game.  Admittedly, a lot of the interest in this one will be due to events off the court, but Tom Izzo and the Spartans have been engaging in "patriotic" games to honor the veterans the last few years and every single one has been cool.  The game will probably not be too competitive, but it should still be a cool event to honor the troops.

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(Note: This post only covers the opening weekend until Tuesday, November 18th.)