Thursday's At-Work Guide Conference Tourney Guide: Five Games to Care About

If you feel overwhelmed by all of the “live box score” links on your respective sports webpage, you’re not alone.

Fear not the flashy gifs.  Basketball.org is here for you—kinda like your mom when you sucked at soccer.

Here are five games on Thursday that have instant "Field of 64" implications.

No. 8 Virginia Tech vs. No. 9 Miami—ACC (noon EST)

The committee could very easily banish the loser to the NIT.  Consider this a tryout. 

You know how ESPN likes to create things like "Rivalry Week" and "Bracket Busters"? 

This one could be called "Don’t Suck" presented by the sofa you’ll be watching the first round of the tourney on.

Louisville vs. Providence—Big East (noon EST)

On Tuesday, Depaul, which won as many Big East games as I had successful prom dates, upset Cincy. 

This robbed Providence of a formidable opponent against which to prove itself.  Could be a gift or a lemon, depending on your vantage point. 

We’ll call it a gift-wrapped lemon. 

Anyway, the Friars made lemonade out of their gifted citrus and dispatched the Blue Demons on Wednesday, setting up a must-win against top-seeded Louisville. 

A Cardinals' win will actually close the book on the Big East at-large discussion, forcing ESPN to talk about something else.

Wisconsin vs. Ohio State—Big 10 (2:30 p.m. EST)

Both of these teams should be in, but only the winner will know for sure. 

I hate Big 10 basketball, and I think they should flip a coin or play "capture the flag" to determine who is the least inferior.

Arizona vs. Arizona State—Pac-10 (3 p.m. EST)

Arizona likely needs to win this one to keep alive their streak of 24 consecutive seasons screwing up your bracket. 

I suggest Russ Pennell snag every free t-shirt he can get. 

Arizona State’s James Harden is really good and looks like Furious Styles. 

The last two sentences are unrelated.

Florida vs. Arkansas—SEC (9:45 p.m. EST)

A loss to Ark-in-sauce may give the committee the itch to leave Florida out, especially if South Carolina and/or Auburn win a few in the SEC tourney. 

If you’re still at work for this one, and you don’t have a shot in your pool anyway, you should let your wife do your bracket based on which mascots would make good pets.