Ranking the Best Home-and-Home Matchups of the 2014-15 College Basketball Season
"Things will be different when we play at our place."
It's a statement that, in various forms, college basketball players and coaches have said over the years after a tough loss on the road against a quality opponent. Knowing that there might be a chance to avenge that defeat later on at home provides solace as well as motivation.
Sadly, though, with expansion giving us so many oversized conferences in Division I, the era of the home-and-home series is winding down.
Leagues with more than 10 teams tend not to play enough conference games to allow every school to both host and visit each other, leading to unbalanced schedules that put as much emphasis on whom you play rather than how you play.
Luckily, there are still plenty of great home-and-home conference matchups on the docket for 2014-15.
Take at look at the 10 best set for this season, then let us know which other home-and-home affairs are worthy of making this list.
10. Louisville vs. Virginia
1 of 10
Dates: Feb. 7 at Virginia; March 7 at Louisville
Louisville's move into the ACC makes an already-strong conference that much more ominous, and not just for the teams at the bottom of the league who have another power program to deal with.
Louisville's conference slate goes through a major upgrade from the American by trading Central Florida, South Florida and Temple for Duke, North Carolina and Syracuse.
It also means having to play twice against the reigning ACC champs, Virginia.
For Virginia, having a home-and-home against the Cardinals is just part of an overall harder league schedule. Critics of the Cavaliers' run to the regular-season title in 2013-14 noted how they went 16-2 yet didn't have to play at North Carolina or Syracuse because of the unbalanced schedule.
All the best can't face each other twice, but at least this matchup of defending champs—Louisville shared the AAC regular-season crown with Cincinnati—gets a double dose.
9. New Mexico vs. San Diego State
2 of 10
Dates: Jan. 7 at San Diego State; Feb. 18 at New Mexico
The Mountain West has established itself as one of the best non-power conferences in college basketball, one that earned an astounding five bids to the NCAA tournament in 2012-13.
And the two main reasons the league has gained such notoriety are New Mexico and San Diego State.
At least one of the schools has won or shared the regular-season title every year since 2008-09—they shared it with each other in 2011-12—and New Mexico has won the last three conference crowns after SDSU won the previous two.
Their games are always among the most hotly contested in the league each year, and last season was no different. Just one week after SDSU locked up the regular-season title with a 51-48 home win over the Lobos, New Mexico knocked off the Aztecs 64-58 in the conference tourney final.
8. Louisville vs. North Carolina
3 of 10
Dates: Jan. 10 at North Carolina; Jan. 31 at Louisville
The schedule-makers did no favors for Louisville with its debut in the ACC, as the Cardinals landed three of the top five finishers from last season as their home-and-home series.
While that might make their schedule tougher, it just means we get to see Louisville play more big-time games, including twice against North Carolina in its first eight ACC games.
Though only a little more than 500 miles apart from each other, Louisville and UNC have only met 12 times in their histories.
But the last came just last season, when they faced off in Uncasville, Connecticut, in the finals of the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament. UNC won 93-84, ending the 21-game win streak of defending NCAA champ Louisville.
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7. Nebraska vs. Wisconsin
4 of 10
Dates: Jan. 15 at Wisconsin; Feb. 10 at Nebraska
Neither school won the Big Ten last season—Wisconsin finished three games out of first place, while Nebraska was four back—but both squads were among the biggest surprises in 2013-14 for how they performed overall.
And both return almost completely intact lineups this year, meaning they'll both not only contend for the conference title but should be poised to make deep runs in the NCAA tournament.
Though they've only faced each other on a regular basis since Nebraska joined the Big Ten in 2011, it would seem like the Cornhuskers and Badgers would make for good rivals because of their relative proximity.
Nebraska won the only meeting last season, 77-68 in Lincoln on the final day of the regular season, but Wisconsin swept the series in each of the previous two seasons.
6. Duke vs. Syracuse
5 of 10
Dates: Feb. 14 at Syracuse; Feb. 28 at Duke
While Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim wasn't particularly happy at first with his school moving from the Big East to the ACC, even he has to admit that the Orange's inclusion in that league made for some great matchups last season.
The first ones that come to mind from 2013-14 are the pair of contests Syracuse had with Duke, both of which went down to the wire.
Syracuse downed the Blue Devils at home in early February, claiming a 91-89 overtime victory that became an instant classic, then the return game at Duke three weeks later managed to be just as good.
That 66-60 Duke win also included a controversial finish, with Syracuse's C.J. Fair getting called for charging with 10 seconds left in a two-point game. Boeheim then stormed onto the court to protest the call, resulting in his ejection and giving Duke extra foul shots to stretch the final margin of victory.
We can only hope this year's pair of matchups will be close to last year's, and with them only two weeks apart, any lingering feelings from the first game could pop up in the second one.
5. Florida vs. Kentucky
6 of 10
Dates: Feb. 7 at Florida; March 7 at Kentucky
As a 14-team league, each SEC team only has five home-and-home series each season. Florida and Kentucky have been the class of the conference for the last decade, so it makes sense that they get to face off twice in their respective quests to win the league.
Like last season, both meetings happen during the second half of the league schedule, as if those in charge of putting together the slate wanted to save the best for last.
Kentucky, with its overabundance of former McDonald's All-Americans and superstar recruits, has a good shot to be the No. 1-ranked team at the start of this season.
Whether the Wildcats are still in pursuit of perfection worthy of 40-0 T-shirts when they visit Florida in early February remains to be seen, but there's a very good chance the return visit in Gainesville on the final day of the regular season could clinch the SEC title for one or another.
4. Arizona vs. Stanford
7 of 10
Dates: Jan. 22 at Stanford; March 7 at Arizona
The Pac-12 used to have a true round robin when it was a 10-team league, but when Colorado and Utah were added, that meant some home-and-home series had to get scrapped to keep the league on its 18-game schedule.
That means the conference's two best teams of the last few seasons, Arizona and UCLA, will only play once this season (in Tucson) after last year only playing in Los Angeles during the regular season.
The Arizona-Stanford series has been retained for this season, though, just like last year. The Wildcats were unbeaten when they went to Stanford on Jan. 29, and they trailed nearly the entire game before rallying late to win 60-57.
A little more than a month later, Arizona clinched the Pac-12 regular-season title with a 79-66 win over the Cardinal.
3. Kansas vs. Texas
8 of 10
Dates: Jan. 24 at Texas; Feb. 28 at Kansas
The only major conference with a true round robin is the Big 12, which only has 10 schools so they can all play each other home and away.
That means there are plenty of chances to avenge an earlier loss, but none of those series is expected to have as much of an impact on the league race as Kansas and Texas.
Kansas has won the last 10 regular-season titles, but Texas adding 5-star center Myles Turner to an already-strong lineup has the Longhorns looking like a solid contender to challenge that run.
The Jayhawks went 14-4 last season in Big 12 play, but one of their losses was at Texas.
2. Michigan vs. Michigan State
9 of 10
Dates: Feb. 1 at Michigan State; Feb. 17 at Michigan
Even with both teams losing numerous stars from last year's squads, there's no lessening the importance of this in-state rivalry.
Michigan or Michigan State might not win the Big Ten this year, but they should both be in the mix, and each of their games will have the feel of a championship.
The series has taken on more of a national importance the last few years because both teams have been at or near the top of the Big Ten at the same time, which hasn't always been the case.
According to Sporting News' Bill Bender, between 1909-2011, only six games in the series occurred with both teams ranked, but over the past three seasons, all seven matchups—including Michigan State's win over the Wolverines in last year's Big Ten conference final—have paired ranked teams.
There won't be much time to stew on their first meeting in East Lansing this season, as the return trip is only 16 days later.
1. Duke vs. North Carolina
10 of 10
Dates: Feb. 18 at Duke; March 7 at North Carolina
The best rivalry in college basketball is one between Duke and North Carolina, teams that are almost always in the running for the ACC regular-season title.
They've won a combined 48 regular-season crowns and have often met more than twice in the season because of a conference tournament matchup.
UNC coach Roy Williams told ESPN.com's C.L. Brown that one or both teams would have to be "bad for a generation" for this not to be considered among the best rivalries in the game.
Now that the ACC has expanded to 15 teams, each school has home-and-home series with just four other league foes.
It would have been a shame to have these rivals face off only once a year, but it's a protected rivalry that will remain on all future schedules.
This isn't one of those series where playing at home has automatically led to success for that team, though. Including a 93-81 home win in March, Duke has gone 42-35 against Carolina at Cameron Indoor Stadium, but the Blue Devils have also won their last three games in Chapel Hill.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
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