There doesn’t seem to be a dominant team in NCAA hoops this year… and I love it. The Opening Round of March Madness is only a month away (March 16th to be exact) so we thought now was a good time to start paying attention to college basketball (let’s face it, for the most part, the college basketball regular season blows).

At this point Kansas and Kentucky have separated themselves from the rest of the field, but only slightly. I say slightly because Kansas lost to Tennessee, and Kentucky lost to South Carolina. Those might have been decent road losses if we we’re talking college football, but losing to Tennessee and South Carolina in basketball? Not so great. Nonetheless they’re the top two teams in the country without question.

After Kansas and Kentucky you could shuffle the remaining 23 teams in a hat it’s so close. Villanova has been in the top 3 seemingly all year despite losses to Temple, Georgetown and UConn. Quite frankly, Scottie Reynolds & Co. don’t impress me at all. I do like Purdue, Syracuse, Kansas State, Ohio State ad Michigan State, and I believe they will all make runs deep into the tournament.

Duke is soft, West Virginia will struggle because of Bobby Huggins, Georgetown is perpetually overrated, and the rest of the teams in the top 25 just aren’t very talented.

In summary, and to be honest, my opinion doesn’t mean shit! I want to hear from y’all… who are the contenders and who are the pretenders? somebody out there has to know more about college hoops than me!

AP Poll as of Today (February 16th)

1.   Kansas

2.   Kentucky

3.   Villanova

4.   Purdue

5.   Syracuse

6.   Duke

7.   Kansas State

8.   West Virginia

9.   Ohio State

10. Georgetown

11. Michigan State

12. New Mexico

13. Gonzaga

14. Wisconsin

15. Texas

16. BYU

17. Vanderbilt

18. Butler

19. Pittsburgh

20. Tennessee

21. Temple

22. Baylor

23. Wake Forest

24. Texas A&M

25. Richmond

Last Saturday, Kentucky played Vanderbilt in Lexington, which usually isn’t news worthy. But on this particular day the Wildcats had a special guest fan sitting courtside… LeBron Raymore James.

So what exactly is the connection between James and Kentucky Basketball? Here’s the scoop…

LeBron’s good buddy and advisor, William Wesley, aka World Wide Wes, was with James at Rupp Arena on Saturday. Apparently World Wide Wes is also a good friend and advisor to John Calipari. WWW advises Calipari on the top high school talent in the country through his connections and associations with various summer camps and AAU teams. Basically, WWW is an unofficial scout for Kentucky Basketball now that Calipari is their head coach.

Some would call that cheating, but I believe Calipari is just a great networker with a better Rolodex than most college basketball coaches (remember, Calipari got a call from the President last week at well).

WWW is also tight with several other current and former NBA stars including Derrick Rose, Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson. WWW is not a household name, but in the basketball world, he’s the node that connects high school to college to NBA basketball (remember, Derrick Rose was a standout freshman at Memphis when Calipari was the coach there).

WWW is also an advisor and mentor for Kentucky’s superstar point guard, John Wall, who we’ve highlighted several times in the past. As a matter of fact we did a post about LeBron’s assessment of Wall as a player titled, “Lebron on Wall.” It’s worth noting that Wall had committed verbally to Memphis until Calipari left for Kentucky, which shows how influential WWW has been on Wall’s basketball career.

Back to LeBron.

I believe the reason the James gang was in Lexington was to evaluate Wall in person. I believe LeBron is interested in playing with Wall in the NBA and wanted to scout him in person. I won’t fuel the fire like I did with my post last November titled, “LeBron Staying in Cleveland? Ha!” but it seems odd that LeBron would be scouting a college player who the Cavs have no chance of acquiring. However, and yes I’m going there, the Net are projected to have the 1st pick in the draft and could easily snatch up LeBron and a few other highly-touted, unrestricted free agents, which would make them an instant contender. Also consider the fact that LeBron’s best friend, Jay-Z, is part owner of the Nets along with Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov. I would also be remissed not to mention that Z and Prokhorov have plans to move the Nets to Brooklyn soon. Just saying.

In addition to the WWW, Calipari and John Wall connections, LeBron has created a specially designed shoe just for the Wildcats. Kentucky and Akron (LeBron’s hometown) are the only two schools to get specially designed shoes (check out the shoes in the pictures below).

And finally, to close the loop, Calipari just hired Brandon Weems, who played with LeBron at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio. Weems became a graduate student manager for UK this year and remains extremely close to James.

So there you have it. LeBron’s connection to Kentucky basketball is vast and deep. He’s closer to UK than most of their biggest boosters. Like it or not, it’s gotta be good to be a Kentucky fan these days.

On Monday, Kentucky, the only remaining undefeated team left in college basketball, was ranked #1 in the AP for the first time since 2003. John Calipari and his young squad were flying high and with a weak SEC, it looked like the Wildcats might make it deep into February with an unblemished record.

And then Barack Obama called.

The leader of the free world called the team last night just minutes before an away game against South Carolina Tuesday night. The President thanked them for their efforts raising money for Haiti, which was certainly great PR for the Kentucky Basketball program.

Toward the end of the call, Obama wished Cal good luck in their season and predicted he’d see them in the National Championship in March.

Oops.

The Wildcats took the floor against the Gamecocks a 7 point favorite. Just another road win against an inferior team. A quick business trip. Another opportunity for Calipari to prepare his team for March.

Not so fast.

The Gamecocks started out hot and rode the energy of the crowd, never looking back in a 68-62 win over the Wildcats.

I won’t say that Kentucky lost the game because of Obama, but let’s just say Ol’ Bamer hasn’t exactly been red-hot lately. The Democrats lost a critical Senate seat in Massachusetts last week after Obama was unable to persuade voters. The loss of that seat effectively killed his hope for healthcare reform.

Now Obama is more or less a lame duck President with three years left on his term. Maybe he can become an odds maker when he’s done in the White House?

Probably not. It appears his ability to pick winners is worse than his ability to pass legislation.

Anything Obama touches lately turns to shit, so just hope he doesn’t become a fan of your team because they’re gonna be cursed if he picks them.