Led by the dominating and always aggressive Tyler Hansbrough, the UNC Tar Heels easily demonstrated (better yet, affirmed) why they are the number one team in the nation right now. After advancing to the Maui Invitational Championship game, the Tar Heels easily dismantled the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame by a score of 102-87. A comfortable victory like this over a contentious team like Notre Dame is indicative that this will be yet another quality season in the already impressive history of the UNC Tar Heels.

Let me give this a try. Uh, Lo Xavier es muy bueno y lo Memphis es muy mal. Memphis non gana. These were undoubtedly the cries of the many Xavier fans down in Puerto Rico when the Musketeers defeated the Tigers 63-58 on Sunday night. The Tigers (4-1) were unable to convert on many of their field goal opportunites against the stingy Xavier (5-0) defense. This loss comes especially disheartening after the powerful performance the Memphis maintained last year, ending as runners-up in the National Tournament.

Derek Kellogg is a new coach in the NCAA Basketball organization. Not only is he a new coach, but he is the coach of his former team at the University of Massachusetts.  Kellogg will be facing off against his former coach in Memphis tonight and so we shall see if student has become teacher, or if the teacher still has a few tricks up his sleeve.  This early in the season, it’s not yet completely clear which team is better overall, but it is supposed to be a good game. NCAA Men’s Basketball just started up this last weekend, but this game, UMass vs. Memphis seems to be the main event for the early part of this week. UMass has been a consistently good team, and Memphis has been decent as well over the last few years, so either way, it should be a very interesting game.

Connecticut is looking to remain perfect in their home stadium of Gampel Pavilion during the months of November and December. Tonight they will attempt to keep that impressive stat alive when they face off against Western Carolina. This will be the first ever meeting between the two schools, however. So perhaps Western Carolina may have a few tricks up their sleeves. Get full NCAA basketball coverage at ncaa.com.

The #14 Tennessee Volunteers have lost a big point guard for this year. Daniel West has been ruled academically ineligible to play this season.  He had taken summer school classes to make sure that there would be no issues, and he had cleared multiple hurdles along the way.  But yesterday, the coach announced that West will be unable to play for the team this year. He didn’t discuss anymore specifics, out of respect for West’s privacy, but he did say it was disappointing for both the coaches and the player, as well as sophomore West himself, of course.  The team is expected to do well this year, but there are several players who are out for the year or for awhile with injuries. This certainly doesn’t help.

According to the preseason coaches polls, the UNC Tar Heels are the unanimous favorite and have garnered the number 1 ranking for the second year in a row. With returning All-American and team standout star Tyler Hansbrough, it’s really no surprise. The Tar Heels dominated the competition last year and though they ultimately pulled up short in the NCAA Tournament, that does not detract from the high level of play they demonstrated. Most likely, it will only add to their fire this year. Get full college basketball updates at NCAA.com.

Why don’t we talk about NCAA Women’s Basketball more often?  It’s not that we’re sexist or anything.  We just don’t hear so much about it.  And the women’s professional league just doesn’t get that much coverage in comparison to the NBA.  That should probably change, but for the moment I’m going to do my part and today’s blog will be about the women’s game.  The preseason polls just came out, all 6 of them, and I personally find them a little hard to figure out. It’s not that they’re complicated, there’s just too many different divisions, as far as I can tell.  There’s the Big Ten, and the Pac-10 and the Big 12.  Gosh, it’s just hard to figure out.  However, the polls are out.  Naturally, North Carolina, Purdue and Ohio State seem to be high on them.  Take a look at them and see for yourself!

There are many rivalries in the college sports world and one of the biggest is that between Standford and Cal.  A few years ago, the Standford basketball team had a coach named Mike Montgomery.  He had coached there for several years and found it to his liking.  He was also talented at it.  Then during his time helping train the US national team, he got intrigued in pro-basketball. He decided to give it a shot, and he didn’t have to go far, because he got a great offer from the Golden State Warriors.  The last two season he spent with the warriors, trying to bring them back into the win column.  Unfortunately, he was unable to do so and left the team to go back into college coaching; he also wasn’t pleased that the team had gone looking for other coaches without telling him. So now he’s coaching the Cal Bears and he’s enjoying it much more.  Look for that team to improve this year!

The North Carolina Tar Heels are 2-time defending ACC champions and have made it to the Final Four several times in recent years.  This year they are expected to win the ACC again, with many of the experts and sports writers feeling good about the team.  They have returned the core of the team that went to the Final Four last year and improved the team as well.  This means, that they are in good shape to win it all again.  Last year, they held the top ranking for all but six weeks.  This year they hope to change that, by holding it for even longer.  They have returned 6 of their best scorers from last year and have acquired some new talent as well.  Watch this team to be very impressive again this year!

The Duke Blue Devils have the best winning percentage in the NCAA tournament (.748).  They started 22-1 last season and were ranked #2.  They have made it to the Elite Eight round 21 out of the last 22 seasons.

These are high expectations for anyone.  For this year’s team it’s worse: the last two seasons have ended very badly for the Blue Devils.  With pressure and hopes so high, it’s easy to imagine how tough it will be for the team this year. But coach Mike Krzyzewski has realized this and is trying to calm his players down: “These kids have to play for themselves. They can’t play for the past of Duke basketball.” In addition to the change in attitude, the team also brought in McDonald’s All-American guard Elliot Williams during the offseason. He will be added to the strong guard combination of Greg Paulus and Jon Scheyer to improve the team’s performance, not only in the regular season, but also into March.