Heading into the Second Season

Simply put, this has been an awesome year for college basketball. It seems like every time a new team was ranked No. 1 they lost. However, there were some things that people expected that ended the way it should:

-North Carolina stumbled a little because of its defense, but ended up winning the ACC conference as everyone predicted.

-Memphis went undefeated in Conference USA and inevitably will earn a No. 1 or No. 2 seed going into March Madness. They also have the clear cut number 1 recruiting class in the nation after getting a commitment from big man Demarcus Cousins.

-Louisville won the Big East which might surprise a few, but Pitt and Uconn will still get the number 1 seeds in the tournament...how is that for some irony.

-Gonzaga went undefeated in the WCC and after a shaky mid-season start, got their act together and seem to be hitting their stride at the right time.

-Duke again seems like it is not tough enough to make a serious run, although inserting Elliot Williams into the starting lineup has made a very big impact.

-The Pac 10 and SEC were down this year without a clear dominant team. Both need to pick it up in recruiting or they will continue to struggle in post-season play.

I was very surprised at the teams that struggled during the second half of the year. These teams have loads of talent and just couldn't string anything together when they got deep into conference play.

-Notre Dame, Tennessee, Baylor, Georgetown and Texas. Only Texas and Tennessee will make the dance simply because of the conferences being down this season. Texas, however, did string some nice wins together in UCLA and Villanova. Mike Brey keeps coaching, but I am wondering when ND will cut its losses and try and find a proven winner.

The conference tournaments should be fun this week and I'm hoping to get out to the Big East tournament either Wednesday or Thursday night. Bubble teams are rooting hard for schools like Memphis, Gonzaga, Xavier and others to win so a random teams like Southern Miss, San Francisco and St. Joe's doesn't steal an automatic bid.

Let the fun begin.