First Blog of the season!!

Conference games have now been under way for a couple weeks now, and just like every year we have a bunch of surprises.

ACC - this is one of the most odd years in the ACC one could call it a very top heavy conference with only two teams that are a Lock to make the NCAA tournament. Then behind the Big two (Duke & UNC) you have all of these other schools vying for what I think is two more At-large bids. The fight is on between, Clemson, Miami, NC State, and Boston College. The problem with all of these schools are that they can only produce wins on their home courts, and everyone knows that if you can't win on the road, then you might as well stay home from the NCAA Tourney (should be a very interesting final month in the ACC).

The Big Ten - one of my favorite conferences is having a nice solid year. Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Purdue will likely come out of this conference and make the NCAA Tournament. This conference is very intriguing to me, unlike most conferences, every single game that is played is a low scoring defensive fest, which come tournament time is exactly what you need!! Watch out in the NCAA tourney for this squad from Michigan State, when they are firing on all cylinders, they are a tough team to beat.

SEC - a crazy conference very similar to the ACC of this year except there is really only one solid team Tennessee!!! Florida looks great record wise, but when it comes to SOS (strength of schedule) they are towards the bottom in the entire nation. Kentucky one of the biggest disappointments in the nation this year looks a lot better then its record says. Tremendous win against Tennessee surely will fire up this squad, and make me a believer that they could possibly win the SEC conference Tourney (wow what a surprise that would be). Lets give the SEC a little time and see what we can make of this conference in two weeks.

Big 12 – KANSAS is the state to be in, in this conference!! You have the nations power house in The Jayhawks, and then you have the nations best player in Michael Beasley (this guy might be the best college ball player I have ever seen!!). Other then Kansas you must look towards Texas who has been struggling as of late after starting the season amazing, same said for the Aggies of A&M much like Texas they have been faltering as of late (besides the big win the other night). At the beginning of this year I said to a couple buddies WATCH OUT FOR BAYLOR!! More than half way through the season I still stand by this statement, as the nation begins to learn about these BEARS.

Big East – This along with the Pac-10 might be the best conference in all of college basketball. Any time you see people talking about a possibility of 11 teams from one conference making the NCAA Tournament is pretty amazing. Any night you can see an upset. With Georgetown taking the early conference lead with only 1 loss they seem to be the front runner, but in my eyes they are the 2^nd best team in this conference. Louisville when they are healthy might be one of the best teams in the country, give them a little more time and you will see that they will definitely do some damage in the post-season. Over the next month I can see this conference having some big twists and turns, and we will find out who the real teams in this conference actually are.

Pac-10 – Probably the best conference in all the land! Take away Oregon State, and this conference is like a round robin tourney all season long. A road win in any conference is incredible, but a road win in this conference is like gold!! Hell make that Platinum (just ask USC after they knocked off UCLA in Polly Pavilion). This conference is an every man for it self war, within about 2 weeks though, I think we will see who the top runners are.

Mid Majors & Small Conferences - Who knew that the Atlantic 10 would be producing 6 solid teams which could possibly make the NCAA tourney WOW! DRAKE DRAKE DRAKE, and oooo yea did I mention DRAKE. What a year for this team! In the Missouri Valley conference the home of mid-major powerhouses, it has been a one man show. GO DRAKE and keep up the good work. Of course it couldn’t be a year of college basketball with out Butler of course, a weak conference but a great team, not to mention a starting line-up that hasn’t lost much from the sweet sixteen team from a year ago (who gave the Gators all they could handle in the tourney). Then on a whole new level is from small Conference USA are the MEMPHIS TIGERS!! Boy do I love this team, I love them so much that I bet on them to win the Tourney before the year even started. This is one of the best teams I have seen play college basketball ever! A run and gun offense, paired with an amazing defense calls for some damage. Blowing out their opponents one after another. Not to mention usually bombarded with cupcakes on their non-conference schedule, they picked it up this year and played in my eyes the toughest non-conference schedule in the entire NCAA’s.

Lets hope that this next month is exciting and I will be back to you shortly with some more thoughts.

-MAXX