Looking Ahead at Saturday Night's Action

Are you ready for a beautiful Saturday evening that is filled with some great match up's all around the wonderful world of sports? As great (or funny and lame) as it may sound, these are the type of nights and weekends that I absolutely live for -- especially in the fall when we have a bunch of them going on at the same time!

While most will be glued to college football and watching the Conference Championship games, which I will be as well, but only from time-to-time, my main focus will be on Blues hockey and Bulls basketball. Earlier in the day, Mizzou hoops escaped with a narrow win at the Zou, and UCLA proved they were officially back when they knocked off the top-ranked Kentucky Wildcats on the road inside Rupp Arena -- as 12-point underdogs, no-less -- talk about impressive, eh? Here is a quick preview for tonight's games, as well as a quick recap of the Mizzou win as well:

Frankie Hughes finds his stroke; Missouri beats Western Kentucky, 59-56
The last time the Tigers were on the court, they were upset by North Carolina Central in a game where they set the all-time record for the lowest shooting-percentage of all-time at Mizzou Arena -- they weren't letting another upset take place today though. Frankie Hughes scored 18 points while Kevin Puryear added 12 himself and Mizzou held on for a 59-56 win over the Hilltoppers. Just like their loss on Monday though, it wasn't the prettiest game in terms of shooting, as they shot just 30-percent from the field, but despite going with a bucket for the last seven minutes, the defense buckled up and they knocked down some crucial free throws late. Russell Woods (10 points, 8 rebounds) and Willie Jackson (6 points, 5 rebounds) combined for 16 points and 13 boards, and were a force down-low all night. With the win, Mizzou improves to 4-3 on the season and will host Miami (Ohio) on Tuesday night (7 pm tip-off, ESPN3) -- in what will be their last game before hosting 16th-ranked Arizona at Mizzou Arena next Saturday.

Blues look to stay hot; host the Winnipeg Jets at the Scottrade Center
(Winnipeg Jets at St. Louis Blues -- 6:00 pm Central Time -- FOX Sports Midwest)
The Blues will be looking to stay hot tonight when they host a Central division foe, the Winnipeg Jets, inside the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. In their last contest, on Thursday night, the Blues improved to 3-0 on their current five-game home stand after they beat the Tampa Bay Lightning by a score of 5-4. Vladimir Tarasenko netted his third career regular season hat trick in the contest and  helped the good guys improve to 11-1-2 at home, as well as 7-1 over their last eight games overall. Jake Allen will be getting a rest in this one as Carter Hutton has been confirmed as the starter, per Jeremy Rutherford via Twitter. The Jets, who have won four games in their last 10, currently sit in sixth in the Central division and is coming off a 6-3 to Edmonton on Thursday night. This will be the first time this season that the Blues have seen the Jets' star rookie, Patrik Laine, who has scored 15 goals in 26 games so far in his first NHL campaign. Game time is set for 6 pm Central Time, with pre-game set to start at 5:30 pm Central Time on FOX Sports Midwest.

Bulls looking for second straight win when they visit Dallas for show-down with Mavs
(Chicago Bulls at Dallas Mavericks -- 7:30 pm Central Time -- WGN Television)
Less than 24 hours after pulling off the win against Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Bulls will finish off the back-end of their back-to-back with a match-up against the struggling Mavericks in Dallas. As reported via TheScore, Dwayne Wade will not be with the team as Head Coach Fred Hoiberg is giving him the night off as he didn't travel with the team. The Bulls enter the contest at third in the East, owning an overall record of 11-7. As for Dallas, who is dead-last in the entire league, let alone the West, owns a record of 3-15 and have two straight losses. Despite their bad record though, they have been hit pretty hard with the injury bug and will be without Dirk, Seth Curry and JJ Barea in this contest. The Bulls are currently 3.5 point favorites per Vegas, in what looks like it will be a pretty good game. The tip-off is set to take place at 7:30 pm Central Time and can be televised on WGN -- pre-game is scheduled for 7:00 pm Central Time.