First this for Nos. 1 and 2

Memphis and Tennessee, currently ranked first and second, respectively, in the latest Associated Press college basketball poll, have some business to take care of before getting together Saturday.

The Tigers and Volunteers could be caught looking ahead to their awaited showdown when facing inferior opponents tonight.

Memphis, which is 25-0, visits Tulane, a school it has dominated through the years, while Tennessee, which has won 23 of 25, will play host to Auburn.

Able to escape last weekend against Alabama Birmingham, the Tigers have won 13 in a row against the Green Wave and haven’t lost at Tulane since the 1999-2000 season. Memphis will be the first No. 1 team to visit Tulane’s Fogelman Arena since Kentucky won, 85-68, on Jan. 12, 1959.

In two games last year, Memphis outscored Tulane, 166-100, including a 71-49 victory in the Conference USA tournament semifinals.

A loser of seven of 10 games in the Southeastern Conference, Auburn did end a three-game losing streak with a win at Mississippi on Saturday and has won three of its last seven meetings with the Volunteers.

Dallas will play its first game since the All-Star break and first since Jason Kidd rejoined his original NBA team when it visits New Orleans, the league’s biggest surprise during the season’s first half.

Kidd, whose trade from New Jersey was finalized Tuesday after more than a week of negotiation, may play this evening. If he does, the game would feature an intriguing matchup of point guards featuring the old (Kidd) versus the new (the Hornets’ Chris Paul).

New Orleans, which has won 36 of 51, went into the break on a roll, winning four in a row.

The two teams have split a pair of games this year. Dallas, which won all four games against the Hornets last season, won, 89-80, at home before losing, 112-108, in New Orleans.

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