A little January Madness

College basketball is at its full glory right now, with the teams solidly into conference play.

Right now by far the most convincing team in the country is Illinois. They have taken and beaten every challenger this year. They are really deep and really unselfish. I think their one weakness would be they don't have a take over the game type scorer. But all they do is beat everyone

North Carolina was my favorite coming into this season, and they really haven't disappointed. They had a bad loss early in the season and have looked scary ever sense. The finally did lose at Wake Forest, which is nothing to hang your head about. They have an incredible big three, any of whom can take over a game. Their weakness is depth. If Sean May gets into trouble, the team is in trouble.

Duke has been a mild surprise, having survived graduations and NBA leaps to start out the season 16-0 before getting whipped by a depleted Maryland team. Duke did play a weak schedule preconfrence, and will get proven out if they are for real or pretenders during a brutal ACC confrence run.

Boston College has been a huge surprise, now 18-0. They too have played a pretty weak schedule preconfrence, and their biggest test is Syracuse at home. They miss making the trip up to 'Cuse which is a huge advantage as they try to run the table.

Kentucky is another team that has responded well to players leaving and is 17-2, with one of those defeats coming to a one loss Kansas team in a thriller. Kentucky isn't very deep and I don't think they have a very good tourney team this year. They do play a hell of defensive game though that will give some teams fits.

Syracuse could be another team that makes a tourney run as they have some talent on their roster as well. Having one of the best 1-1 players and one of the best pure shooters in the country will be a big benefit, as it will be to have the wiley Jim Boehiem on the bench.

Kansas is a tough and deep team and could make hay in the tourney as well. They have great talent, but are prone to overlooking teams, losing to a far worse Villanova team, and nearly getting beaten by a bad Nebraska team. Self has got to get these guys mentally ready for the tourney.

There are a lot of other good teams out there, I'll post more as I see somemore of them before the Big Dance