With the college basketball season in full swing, Matt Fargo takes a look at three big games you can’t miss this Saturday.

Wisconsin Badgers at Michigan Wolverines 2:30 p.m. ET

Wisconsin is the lowest of the five Big Ten ranked teams, but the Badgers are alone in first place. With a win, they can drop one of the five teams behind them by a single game further down the standings. Michigan is one of those teams and the Wolverines have quietly gone about their business this season with a 14-3 record that includes a 4-2 record in the conference. Surprisingly, they are not classified.

Wisconsin bounced back in a good way from last Saturday’s loss at home to North Dakota St. by venting its frustrations at Penn St. on Wednesday with a 29-point win. The Badgers have improved to 5-1 in the Big Ten, but four of those wins have come at home and Wisconsin is 1-3 on the road this season. The only win came in a thrilling game at Minnesota that the Badgers won on a field goal.

Michigan is coming off a win over rival Michigan St. on Wednesday and has now won three straight. Both conference losses came on the road to Iowa and Illinois, which are 23-0 combined at home, by a total of 12 points. The Wolverines are 10-1 at home this season with the only loss coming against UCLA in 17th place. After finishing last season with 12 losses in their last 13 games, Michigan is looking to avoid a similar ending.

Wisconsin has dominated this late-game winning streak in four of the last five meetings, including an 11-point win at Ann Arbor last season. However, the home team has won seven of the last eight meetings and Michigan is poised to continue that trend on Saturday. However, Wisconsin will be focused once again as last Saturday’s loss woke them up and the Badgers want to maintain their lead in the Big Ten.

Old Dominion Monarchs at George Mason Patriots 2:00 p.m. ET

First place will be up for grabs at Fairfax on Saturday as the two preseason favorites live up to their hype. Both teams have just one loss in the month of January and both sit atop the Colonial with 8-2 ​​conference records. A game and a half separates the top six teams in the league, so every game at this stage of the season matters and the teams that can pull off road wins will benefit when it comes time for the conference tournament.

Old Dominion overcame a halftime deficit at home against Drexel on Thursday and must now leave home where the Monarchs are 4-3 on the season. They have won three in a row away from home, all in dominant fashion, but this will be CAA’s toughest road test without a doubt. Road games against Georgia, Wisconsin and UAB have helped build up, but those first two were on neutral ground.

The Patriots are hot as they have won seven of eight games and their last three losses have been by a combined nine points. George Mason lost his second league game of the season last Saturday at NC-Wilmington, but bounced back on Thursday with a 23-point victory over William & Mary. The Patriots are 7-1 at home this season, losing only to Creighton in November in their home opener.

Game 1 was won by the Monarchs in dramatic fashion when they hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from 25 feet for the one-point victory. George Mason limited the Monarchs to just 32.2 percent shooting, but the difference was at the free throw line, as the Patriots had only eight attempts on the night. These teams have traded wins in the last eight meetings, which means the Patriots are next, but it certainly won’t be easy.

Texas Longhorns vs. Oklahoma Sooners 9:00 p.m. ET

Surprisingly, these are the only two teams ranked in the Big XII, but Oklahoma is starting to make some noise once again. These were the two preseason favorites and while Texas isn’t running away just yet, the Longhorns are doing everything they can to prove they’re the team to beat. His five wins in Big XII have been by an average of 26.4 points per game. The parity is evident as a game and a half separates nine teams between second and 10th place.

Back-to-back losses to Duke and Tennessee have recharged the Longhorns as they have won nine straight games with only one of them being decided by single digits. They are a perfect 4-0 on the road, including big wins at Iowa St. and Memphis, and all four wins have been by at least 11 points. On Monday, Texas beat a very good Oklahoma St. team by 34 points and is peaking, but it could be peaking too soon.

The Sooners have won three straight and six of eight with those two three-point losses combined against Nebraska and Missouri. Missouri’s loss was their only loss at home this year, where they are 8-1 on the season and have won 25 of their last 27 home games and 73 of their last 79. The Sooners had leads of at least seven points in all four. losses that prove even more that they have had bad luck along the way.

Texas had won five straight until the Sooners swept the season series last year, including a 16-point win at Austin. The Longhorns remember that loss as it was one of only two losses on their home floor. ESPN College GameDay will be in Norman for this game and it’s billed as the “WhiteOUT the Lloyd Noble Center” game, so this contest is obviously taking on special meaning for the home team.