Basketball is here right on time

Believe it or not, tonight basketball will be played, and it is arriving right on schedule. The NBA season may still be locked out, but college basketball has arrived just like it always has and always will. There can be debate about whether this clockwork reliability is a good thing for the athletes or not, but today my eye is blind. Today I am excited for basketball. And you should be too. Because this season is a perfect storm for college basketball.

"The show must go on" is a popular cliche, and I feel a similar sentiment is appropriate for basketball fans this year. The NCAA is in a perfect position to capitalize on the lack of NBA basketball, and the lockout also provided the means to impress these new viewers. Many of the best players from this past NCAA season chose to forego the NBA draft and stick around for another college season (instead of being drafted and playing in All-Star pickup games). Like movie theaters who need more help during the busy summer blockbuster season (busy because kids are out of school and can go to the movies) and find it because kids are available to work because they are out of school. It's a win-win cycle for the NCAA.

Not since 2007-2008 has there been so much returning talent mixing with outstanding newcomers. The names from back then will be familiar: Derrick Rose joined Chris Douglas-Roberts. Kevin Love met Darren Collison. Cole Aldrich went along for the ride with a stacked Kansas team. The Baby Tar Heels featuring Hansbrough and Lawson grew up a year. Michael Beasley put up numbers we didn't think freshmen could attain (and really paved the way for Kevin Durant the following year). Die hard fans of college basketball remember the '07-'08 season for its breaking of sanctified conventional NCAA tournament bracket-picking wisdom: All 4 #1 seeds never make it to the Final Four. Except in '08 they did. What is more, they were also the same 4 teams who were the top 4 in the initial AP AND USA Today pre-season polls. Suffice it to say, the whole organization was stacked, but especially at the top.

This season, with the eyes of NBA-starved basketball junkies upon it, should be similar. There is a definite consensus of teams at the top. Defending champion Connecticut loses it's heart and soul (and 1/3 of it's offense) in Kemba Walker, but replaces him with 2 top 10 recruits (DeAndre Daniels and Andre Drummond) and (barring ineligibility) an under-the-radar player in a similar mold (Ryan Boatright). Everyone else who mattered is back (including pre-season 1st team All-American Jeremy Lamb). Kentucky brings in one of the greatest freshmen classes of all time (4 top-20 players including 3 of the top 7) to join a few returning sophomore studs (Doron Lamb and Terrence Jones). Pencil me down for wary of the loss of Jorts and a lack of beef in the middle, though. North Carolina returns a few "could-have-been" lottery picks (Harrison Barnes, John Henson, and Tyler Zeller) while adding a top 10 talent (James McAdoo), and finally finding stability at its PG position post-Lawson in the middle of last year (in the assist-happy hands of Kendall Marshall). Last, but not least, Ohio State returns some people's player of the year from last year (Jared Sullinger) along with two other talented rising sophomores (Aaron Craft and Deshaun Thomas) to go along with one of those "How does he still have eligibility left?" guys (William Buford). They also add a top 10 recruiting class, but have to replace 3 strong leaders and role players (David Lighty, Jon Diebler, and Dallas Lauderdale).

Will all 4 of these teams make it to the Final Four? Probably not, because the stacked nature of the association this year applies to other teams as well. Syracuse, Duke, Baylor, Vanderbilt, Louisville, Florida, and a host of other teams are also extremely talentedl. But they could. And it will be fascinating to watch them try.