Weekend High Five:

• There are several stories today in the Detroit papers about the Pistons’ trip to Denver to take on Chauncey Billups and the Nuggets. Here’s the view from Denver on taking on former teammate Allen Iverson and Chauncey’s impact.
• Bonus coverage from the Rocky Mountain News: Lions’ head coaching candidate Todd Bowles interviewed with the Broncos and discussed his Lions interview with a reporter there.
• Michigan State takes on Kansas Saturday in a non-conference showdown that is exciting even though, for some reason, it takes place in the middle of the conference season. Delvon Roe will be ready. Meanwhile, Michigan still has a couple of days to recover the emotional drain of its dramatic win over Indiana (and travel adventures) before it hosts Iowa on Sunday.
• Just to be clear, when I say I don’t want the Lions to draft a QB, that doesn’t mean they’re allowed to draft a WR, either, with the top pick. Virtually any position besides those two. So you can ignore the news that Jeremy Maclin and Michael Crabtree have declared, unless they drop to the 5th round or so.
• The day when pitchers and catchers report to Lakeland is one of the warmest days of winter. Tickets go on sale tomorrow for the Tigers’ Spring Training games, which isn’t quite as exciting, but I’ll take what I can get.

Weekend schedule:

Friday, Jan. 9:

• NBA: Detroit at Denver, 9pm (Fox Sports Detroit)

Saturday, Jan. 10:

• College basketball: Kansas at Michigan State, 1pm (CBS)
• NHL: Buffalo at Detroit, 7pm (Fox Sports Detroit)
• NBA: Detroit at Utah, 9pm (Fox Sports Plus)

Sunday, Jan. 11:

• College basketball: Iowa at Michigan, 11:30am (BTN)