Seriously, is this not the craziest college basketball season you’ve ever seen?
Top-ranked teams losing every week, upsets happening practically every day, nobody’s going to be able to stop Dick Vitale from hooting and hollering about how awesome this season is, baby.
Since Jan. 7, we’ve seen the No. 1 ranked team in the nation manage to lose a game after climbing to the top of the rankings every week. Duke lost to North Carolina State, then Louisville became number one just to lose three straight to Syracuse, Villanova and Georgetown.
Duke makes it to the top again, only to have a huge loss to 25th ranked Miami (Fla.), who is now third in the nation as of press date.
A huge Big Ten showdown with top-ranked Michigan going on the road only to lose to the Indiana Hoosiers.
The Hoosiers become No. 1, but even losing to Illinois early in the week didn’t shake them from being named the best in the nation.
This season has been nothing short of spectacular, and it’s got everybody talking, even on Eagle Radio’s “The Guy Show,” hosted by 20-year-old Eastern Michigan University junior Cameron Bonk.
“There has been no truly dominant team,” Bonk said. “There is no Kentucky of last year.”
It seems like that’s the case: There isn’t one team that everybody’s after.
It’s practically a battle royale, where everybody is as good as everybody else, and somehow there will be one team that can call themselves “champions” when it’s all said and done.
“Any team could win the big tourney at the end of the year and that is fantastic,” Bonk said.
As of now, eight of the top 10 teams in the nation have three or more losses, and nine out of the top 25 have at least five losses.
I know clichés are a no-no in journalism, but it has been nothing short of a dog-eat-dog world out there on the hardwood.
The best part about this season, for me, is looking at the schedule of upcoming games and wondering what the next big upset will be.
There are plenty to choose from, but Bonk was able to pick what he thinks the best upset of the year has been so far.
“Butler’s overtime victory at Indiana. Unbelievable game at an unbelievable environment,” Bonk said.
Overtime games are great. Double overtimes are double great. But what happens when a game goes into five overtimes?
“Best game of the season so far would have to be the Notre Dame
over Louisville [in the] five-overtime thriller,” Bonk said. “Great game and so many great finishes.”
The regular season is coming to a close and conference tournaments are right around the corner, which means the big dance will be on our television screens soon enough.
March, if these past five weeks are any proof of what’s to come, is bound to be a fantastic month for college basketball.
I wish you all the best of luck filling out your brackets next month, because you’re going to need it.
