Wednesday Night:
MRI Performance yesterday: 12-6, 66.67%
MRI Performance this week: 33-23, 58.93%
MRI Performance for the year: 970-304, 76.14%
MRI Performance all time: 3782-1367, 73.45%

Georgia Tech at North Carolina- When you look at a game between the #2 and #4 team in the MRI, you wouldn't expect there to be this much of an advantage for one team. Still even on paper and through watching both these teams play so far this year, you can see why North Carolina should dominate the game, especially with Georgia Tech lacking the offensive skills of B.J. Elder. When Elder went down in the game against Kansas, Georgia Tech looked like a different team. Jarrett Jack attempted to do what he did when the same thing happened in the NCAA tournament last year. In that game, Jack was the driving force in the victory over the Jayhawks. He was impressive again this year, but wasn't able to quite take the Jackets to the win this time as Kansas and Keith Langford got hot near the end of the game to send it to overtime and to victory. Georgia Tech has been able to bounce back with great wins against Miami and Virginia to keep them undefeated in conference play. The shorthanded Georgia Tech will be taking on the amazing three pronged attack of the Tar Heels. Sean May will be quite a test for Luke Schenscher inside. Raymond Felton and Rashad McCants will have Jack's and Will Bynum's heads spinning as he tries to keep up. With the way that North Carolina was able to pull ahead and then put away Maryland on Saturday, they should be riding a high that it seems unlikely that Georgia Tech can stop. Schenscher will need to turn in the game of the year for his team and keep Sean May out of synch. Most importantly, he will need to move better without the ball, something that he was not doing well in the game against Kansas. Anthony Morrow will again need to be able to shoot well and give the Jackets another option on offense. Last, they will need to generate chances on the break and protect the ball. They don't have a lot of chance to match up well with North Carolina in a set game. They will need to keep running and hope that the Tar Heels get sloppy with the ball while protecting it themselves. MRI Predicts: North Carolina Confidence factor: 77.75%

Kent State at Western Michigan - Tonight's game in the MAC matches the top team in the East with the top team in the West. Seniors Ben Reed and Levy Rost lead a Western Michigan team which is looking to return to the NCAA tournament to avenge their loss to Vanderbilt. Both players have been very consistent. They are the top two players in both scoring and rebounding for the team. Reed hasn't been held under 10 points yet this year and went for a season high of 36 in the Broncos' last game against Akron. Rost is no slouch himself, scoring 31 against a Buffalo team which is also expected to contend in the very difficult MAC. Look for point guard Rickey Willis to feed these two consistently throughout the game. The Kent State Flashes will counter with a very balanced offensive attack including point guard DeAndre Haynes. Helping the all-MAC team candidate will be Kevin Warzynski and Jason Edwins. Both Edwins and Warzynski have been key in the previous two wins for the Flashes when Haynes has not shot as well. This will be a great guard battle between Haynes and Reed, one driving the offense through his ball handling skills, and the other through his dead eye shooting. If you want an advantage, there really isn't any definitive one for either team. The Broncos get the nod at home. MRI Predicts: Western Michigan Confidence factor: 53.37%

UTEP at Nevada - The two top teams in the WAC face off tonight in the first of their two meetings. Given the state of the league, only the winner of the conference tournament may get a chance to dance at the end of the season. Therefore, this game becomes even more important. Should one of these two teams establish itself as the strong leader now and then get upset in the tournament, this game could go a long way towards determining if they will get a shot at a second bid. Don't think that I am counting out Fresno State, Hawaii, and Rice just yet, but currently UTEP and Nevada are the only two teams who have the numbers to get to the dance. Sophomore Nick Fazekas and Kevinn Pinkney lead a strong inside attack for the Nevada Wolfpack. This will be countered by the equally good shooting attack of the Miners. Nevada is not a very good shooting team from beyond the arc. If UTEP gets ahead early, they may have a tough time catching them. If Nevada gets the lead though, look for UTEP to turn to their deep shooters like Miguel Ayala. He is 13-17 in the last three games from deep. This one comes down to which team's game get stopped early, the inside presence of Nevada or the perimeter shooting for UTEP. MRI Predicts: UTEP Confidence factor: 56.83%