College basketball might suck this year

It it just me, or is this 2008-2009 season a major down year for regular season college basketball?

Though most people probably just say "college basketball has a regular season?!" since 2004-05, I've followed college basketball's non-March Madness portion pretty closely, and I don't think I can ever remember a duller stretch.

Because of so many teams and players, there are always going to be good stories -- the resurgence of Wake Forest has been cool, upsets abundant, the gauntlet kill zone that is Big East conference play, everybody loves Steph Curry and Blake Griffin. No qualms there. But in general, the whole season just feels sort of tired and stale. March can't some soon enough.

Thinking deeper into it, there are several reasons as to why this could be a blah year for hoops.

No undefeateds - Rooting against Illinois in 2004 was great. Memphis' run last year was cool. The second-coming of the Florida Gators probably should have done it. This year, UNC lost, and from there, everybody knew Wake Forest and Clemson had no chance to pull it off. The veil was pulled off immediately, and college basketball was probably worse off because of it.

Lower level of play? - 2004 had UNC and Illinois with stacked squads just tearing up college basketball. I hated that U of I team, but they probably played the best team basketball I've ever seen. The 2007 season had unforgettably loaded Florida (Noah, Horford, Brewer) and Ohio State (Conley, Oden) turning the game into borderline NBA quality of shooting and athleticism. Kevin Durant, too. With Rose in 2008, Memphis was one of the most telegenic teams I've ever seen. And you can't forget about last year's champ, Kansas.

The Big Ten - Our Midwest region is not helping matters. Yes, the conference is on an upswing this year, but have you watched the games? Jesus. I was at a national championship party for OU-Florida. During commercials, we flipped to the Big Ten Network to watch Iowa-Minnesota. It felt like fifteen minutes would pass before a team could even put one point on the board. Florida and Oklahoma were putting up points faster. Scoring is just painful in the NCAA sometimes. I think there was a 1-0 run in four minutes of actual game play. Just awful.

Duke is the No. 3 team in the country right now - And this isn't the dominating Duke of the past. This isn't even the slightly overachieving Duke from Shelden Williams/J.J. Reddick era. This Duke team lost to Michigan, kept the No. 1 ranking for a week, and boasts a 6'8'' post who's more swingman than center. And they're the No. 3 team in the country?! Ugh. This isn't even Duke hating (though it probably should be), it's just that this team is pretty emblematic of the year college basketball has had thus far. Some clear talent mixed with inconsistent play and glaring weaknesses.

Maybe it's all Tyler Hansbrough's fault. Seems he's been playing college basketball for six or seven years at this point. Maybe it's Brandon Jennings' fault. If he hadn't bypassed his freshman year of college and went to Greece, he could be on a potentially dominant Arizona team. With a sweet haircut.

All I know is UNC needs to turn it on, and turn it on fast. Or maybe we can put it on the shoulders of Hasheem Thabeet.

Regardless, even if this ship never gets righted, March Madness is usually a lock to be great.

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In keeping with the Bill Simmons tradition of out-of-context sexual quotes from Pittsburgh Steelers following a Super Bowl victory ("In some way, Jerome has touched every person on this team." - Hines Ward after XL), TUP did some digging to find a gem from XLII, and I think we were able to do it:

"We're just a bunch of little boys, fooling around in the living room,'' Troy Polamalu said.

Boo-yah.

(h/t: Peter King)

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Links

- SouthSideSox has the 2009 'probable' White Sox lineup

- LA Times with the Ten Best NFL Moments from the '08 season ... Brady's injury is number two on the list. Tells you all you need to know.