Every weekday, a panel of our college hoops experts discusses the biggest issues, trends and themes in and around college basketball.
Andy Katz: Tough call. If I have to pick one, I would go with Russell. The Buckeyes are clearly hinging on what he can deliver for them in key games. Trimble has been sensational for the Terps, too.
Eamonn Brennan: Yeah, that's a brutally tough question. Is it cheating if I say it's a tie? Yes? For as good as Trimble has been, the Terps do have other offensive options -- Jake Layman gets to the line, for example, and Dez Wells could handle slightly more of the offensive workload, etc. Without Trimble, Maryland wouldn't be nearly as good, but they wouldn't be bad, either. Ohio State's offense runs entirely through Russell, and without him the Buckeyes would be a mediocre offensive team with an unusually soft defense to boot. Russell it is, then.
Dana O'Neil: Because he has fewer weapons, it's Russell. That's not to say that Trimble isn't huge because he is, but if Russell is off offensively, the Buckeyes are in real trouble.
Katz: You have to make shots. You cannot attempt to play a typical half-court game against Kentucky. You must try to beat them back in transition, move the ball and make 3s.
Brennan: The thing about Kentucky is that it's not super complicated. You need to make perimeter shots, grab a few offensive rebounds, and try to make the Wildcats stagnant on offense, limiting easy looks and putbacks and lobs and the like. Unfortunately for the SEC, there is an extremely wide gulf between knowing an ideal game plan and actually being able to pull it off when all that size and skill is lined up against you.
O'Neil: Sure, force them outside to the perimeter and pray Devin Booker and Aaron Harrison have bad nights. Offensively, teams have to make shots and more, take care of possessions. Giving the Wildcats easy runouts will turn ugly quickly. That's all easier said than done, of course.
Katz: Doubt it. UCLA must show pride here. The Utes are the better team, but UCLA has to show well in some form. The Bruins cannot lie down.
Brennan: Over the past five weeks or so, Utah has played some of the best basketball in the Pac-12; UCLA has played some of the worst. Utah's defense destroyed UCLA's offense in the first game; Utah's offense is the Pac-12's most efficient thus far. The Bruins have no one to match up with Delon Wright (not that most teams do, but their inability is especially glaring). Oh, and whatever home-court advantage you might factor in tends to be nullified when no one actually cheers during the game. So, yeah.
O'Neil: I have no reason to believe otherwise. Utah, despite that ugly loss at Arizona, is wildly better and UCLA is a borderline mess. The Utes are very good defensively, as they showed earlier against the Bruins, and the Bruins aren't very good offensively, so that doesn't bode well. This wont be pretty.
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No. 16 Maryland at Ohio State, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN
Maryland has a three-pronged scoring attack in Melo Trimble (16.3 points per game), Jake Layman (14.3) and Dez Wells (13.6). But when one of them isn't connecting, like when Layman went cold in a comeback win over Northwestern, it isn't pretty.
Missouri's trip to Rupp Arena two weeks ago didn't go well for the Tigers as they shot just 27 percent from the field. As Missouri is one of the SEC's newest members, the teams have met only seven times, and Kentucky is 7-0 in those contests.
No. 11 Utah at UCLA, 10 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Not only is Utah 6-1 and tied for the Pac-12 lead, but the Utes are beating conference opponents by an average of 23.5 points per game. UCLA's 32-point loss in Salt Lake City didn't hurt that number. Will a return to Westwood be what the Bruins need?
Have you seen Jerian's (@thatgrant22) circus shot as the shot clock wound down?
— Notre Dame MBB (@NDmbb) Jan. 28, 2015Andy Katz and Seth Greenberg check in with newsmakers from around college basketball.