Now Begins the Madness!!

It was an exciting weekend in the college basketball world as we transitioned from the final week of the regular season into "Championship Week". We are starting to get a sense of what the tournament field may look like as teams jockey for position, evaluate their standings and prepare to make that last push in hope of achieving success in their conference tournaments.

Three of the one seeds look like their locked up as Kansas, Kentucky, and even in lieu of their loss to Louisville, Syracuse are basic shoe-ins to get the top distinction.The race for the fourth spot is still on in my opinion though many commentators seem to believe that Duke has it completely locked up. It seems that if Ohio State, West Virginia, Kansas State, or Purdue makes a run in their conference tournaments or if Duke loses focus and takes an early exit in the ACC tournament people may be singing a different tune.

As for the teams that had something to prove this weekend, I believe there may have been a big shake up on the bubble. With the hard pushes of Arizona State and Washington, the Pac-10 is looking to have a revival and hopefully get more than one team (Cal) into the Big Dance. Hopefully one or both of those teams can go deep in the Pac-10 tournament to prove that they are deserving of the nod. Louisville has also decided that it was going to go out fighting as Rick Pitino and his boys prepare to make their last stand through a run in the Big East tournament. Memphis also played its way into a firm spot inside the bubble with their victory over UAB and Tulsa. Illinois on the other hand is trending in the wrong direction and look to be playing themselves out of the tournament. Unless they can right the ship in the Big Ten tournament they may be on the outside looking in.

My Top Five:
1. Kansas
2. Syracuse
3. Kentucky
4. Ohio State
5. Duke
With a purposeful slight to the much hated Blue Devils though kudos to their embarrassment of their baby blue rivals as they slaughtered North Carolina on Coach K court.

For a quick breakdown of the implications of the major conference tournaments this week, I suggest you guys check out Thayer Evans' New York Times article as there is still a lot to be decided  as to who the 65 teams in the Tournament will be and where they will end up in the brackets.

March Madness begins NOW!