Welcome to March.

College basketball’s best month has arrived, and, boy, did it deliver immediate dividends.

The opening of the college basketball season garnered a little more buzz this season, even if some of the key games didn’t go as planned.

Even if the aircraft carrier games -- two of which were canceled and one was postponed -- didn’t go off without a hitch, the effort was in the right place. Teams like Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan State and Connecticut were in early action in key games, a trend that will continue with ESPN’s tipoff marathon beginning Tuesday morning at midnight.

The Big 12 may be one of the most interesting leagues from top to bottom in 2012-13, but the smart pick at the top remains, as always, Kansas.

The Jayhawks have won at least a share of the last eight Big 12 regular season titles, including the last four outright. Thomas Robinson is gone from Lawrence, but Bill Self again has stars ready to emerge.

College football season hasn’t begun, but here at Athlon we’re already hard at work in thinking about the 2012-13 basketball season. Believe us, the season will be here before you know it.

The Big 12’s trade of Missouri and Texas A&M for West Virginia and TCU appears to be a small downgrade as far as basketball is concerned.

One of the unfortunate truths of the latest wave of conference realignment is the overwhelming focus on football.

As a result, basketball and other sports have been of secondary concern in some circles. In others, such as at Butler and VCU and in the Horizon, Colonial and Ohio Valley, basketball is the primary engine of revenue. Almost every league in some way has been impacted by the dominoes of realignment.

2012 NCAA Tournament

EAST REGION
Boston

Top Two – Syracuse (1), Ohio State (2)