First Half of the Season...

Ahhh, the first half of the college basketball season is finally over and we are now into conference play. There are many things that stand out in my mind right now as I have watched HUNDREDS, yes, HUNDREDS of games throughout the first 2.5 months of the year.

North Carolina has the most talent in the country, period....however, THEY DO NOT DEFEND. They will not win the national championship if they continue to defend the way they are defending right now. Ty lawson and Wayne Ellington just can't stop penetration and has cost them two games....they are really missing Marcus Ginyard.

The Big East is by far the best conference as everyone has predicted and the depth in that conference is simply amazing. Syracuse, Pitt, Georgetown, Louisville, Notre Dame and Connecticut are all LEGITIMATE final four contenders with Villanova, Marquette and West Virginia as solid mid-level teams.

Stephen Curry has been all he has been talked up to be and so has Blake Griffin, but the surprise player in the country right now has to Jodie Meeks who just dropped 54 points on Tennessee while hitting 10/15 three's. Meeks is capable of taking Kentucky far in the tournament because Billy Gillespie teams always get better when March rolls around.

Memphis is not as good as last season which we already knew, but what we didn't know was who was going to play point guard and the Tigers have found their answer. Tyreke Evans has been phenomenal at the point and continues to make strides as the season gets older. Memphis beat Tulsa last night on an Antonio Anderson buzzer beater (the kid is straight clutch) and this was after shooting 11-25 from the free throw line (44%). How many teams would shoot 44% from the line and still win the basketball game? Not many is the answer.

Tennessee is really struggling right now and I LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF IT. Now maybe those Tennessee fans will quit thinking they are a top 10 team and just shut up and watch them derail. Bruce Pearl has loads of talent and is continually finding ways to get blown out on the road and at home. He is a poor man's John Calipari and will never make it as far. His organized chaos will not work in the NCAA tournament over a 4 game stretch. Teams are not going to turn the ball over 20 times 4 games in a row. You have to play defense if you want to win in March and this is something UT refuses to do and they will keep losing if this continues.

It should be a very exciting conference season and I will give a mid-conference update in 2-3 weeks. My pick to win the NCAA tournament is still the University of North Carolina, however, if they do not pick up their defense I will be completely wrong.