Looking At The College Basketball Landscape

I have not posted in about ten months so this time feels right. Much has change in the past year, most notably the fall of North Carolina (this season is just a blip) and the resurrection of Kentucky under John Calipari. The elite teams in the country are Kansas, Kentucky, Villanova, Syracuse, and possibly Purdue and Michigan State (if Kalin Lucas can get healthy again). Let's take a quick cruise through the BCS conferences as they stand today before the Rivalry Week games kick in.

ACC: POY and COY may both come from Maryland. Greivis Vazquez torched UNC yesterday and the Terps, sitting second behind Duke, look great despite the rumors and chatter that Gary Williams may be on his way out of College Park. His team has responded and they look great. COY is not a lock for Williams because UVA coach Tony Bennett has made a smooth transition from Pullman to Charlottesville. His slowdown tempo may not win over high school All-Americans but his tempo produces success. It's also easy to look good when you have a dynamic talent like Sylven Landesburg.

Big Ten: On paper this was supposed to be the year of the midwest. The big physcial brand would reign supreme. That's not the case anymore. The only quality teams are Purdue, Michigan State, and Wisconsin. Bo Ryan always has teams that come in with low expectations and all he does is win, especially at home. The big shock is the mediocrity of Michigan. Hoops experts were saying that John Beilein's teams do well in his third season. With Manny Harris and Deshawn Sims, he has two all-conference players. That hasn't been enough. Indiana is slowly coming back while Minnesota is full of off-the-court problems.

Big East: The Big East is down right? All that talent left. Thabeet, Blair, Flynn, Young, Clark, and Cunningham. The conference just reloads and finds new stars, notably Syracuse's Wes Johnson, Pittsburgh's Ashton Gibbs, and the best unknown major conference player; South Florida's Dominique Jones. This year the conference has several lock bids in Syracuse, Villanova, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, and Georgetown. Connecticut lost too much talent last year and has been an inconsistent team. Not many people thought SU would be in the position they are now, tied for first in the conference. The game of the year will take place before a sold out Carrier Dome crowd on Feb. 27 when Nova takes on Syracuse.

Big 12: Kansas has the most talent in the country and has to be the favorite for the national title. With Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins, they have arguably the best PG-C combo in all of basketball. Texas was a team that should have been a top-five team all year but they have been hot and cold. They were touted because of depth but Rick Barnes' club has a serious problem. Their best defensive team can't score and the best offensive team can't guard anybody. The wildcard teams are Baylor and Kansas State, who both have excellent guard play as well as solid post scoring.

Pac 10: This conference is down, big time. They will only get one bid in the NCAA Tournament. UCLA lost too many players early in consecutive years and are behind. Arizona's program had to be built again by Sean Miller (who has them in second place). Washington and Cal were the class of the west until Harper Kamp went down for Cal and when U-Dub opened up conference play 1-3. No need to bring up the East Coast Bias, the Pac-10 is just plain bad this year, from top to bottom.

SEC: All Kentucky all the time. John Wall and Demarcus Cousins are touted as top five draft picks once they leave UK (On a side note: do they even go to class? No need too because they are turning pro anyway). Outside of the Cats, Bruce Pearl's Tennessee club has moved past the shocking news that star Tyler Smith was dismissed after a traffic incident. They have been playing well as of late but the boys from Rocky Top don't have much left in the tank. Vanderbilt has been solid but nobody really cares about them anyway. The SEC is a football conference, except in Lexington.