THE BROO VIEW with Ken Broo

We're on the verge of some big, big college basketball games this weekend. Xavier plays Saturday night at George Washington. The emerging landscape in the Atlantic 10 would suggest that Xavier needs to win this game if it wants to win the conference champioship. "GW" is just a game behind the Muskies and Rhode Island, who are both just a half game out of first

Indiana and Ohio State will both make the Tournament. But it's all about seeding. Ohio State has a Saturday game against Purdue....Indiana plays Illinois. And Kentucky's Saturday night game at Rupp against Florida will give the Wildcats a good indication if their recent solid play is for real. UK could play Florida three times this season, counting the SEC Tournament.

Finally at .500, Miami plays Ball State in Oxford and UC is trying to finish with dignity, having lost ten of its last eleven. The Bearcats are at Rutgers.

And there's an intriguing game in Athens, where the Ohio Bobcats take on Northern Illnois. Ohio is two games back of Akron in the MAC East. Akron has lost once in conference play, to Ohio. Northern Illinois is dead last in the MAC West, 5-17 overall.

A wild week for the Reds ended Friday without a wimper. But on Tuesday and Thursday, the Reds were spending freely. Between Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo, the Reds have invested $71 million over the next four years. Four year deals for pitchers can be dicey (see Eric Milton who only signed for three). But for quality arms, it's the price of doing business these days.

The Reds are paying a little more now, to avoid paying a lot more later. Harang still had two more years before becoming a free agent. But his arbitration salary could have increased to the nine million dollar range next off season. Arroyo still had two years to go before his current contract expired. He too, could be in that seven to nine million dollar range. As scarce as quality pitching is, and with the Reds trolling for even more, these deals make a lot of sense. But get this: the Reds payroll was just a little under $61 million in 2006. In 2007, six players, Ken Griffey, Jr, Eric Milton, Adam Dunn, Kyle Lohse, Harang and Arroyo will earn a total of $45.5 million.

If you're scoring at home, or just lonely, pitchers and catchers report to Sarasota one week from tomorrow. The first workout is Monday, February 19.