By Miles Park ’16, Staff Writer

This year’s college basketball season is well underway, with many exciting games already in the books. While many casual fans only tune in for March Madness (the NCAA tournament), the college regular season is also remarkably entertaining. The average college season is only about 28 games as opposed to 62 in the NBA. “The shorter season adds excitement to each game”, says Villanova fan Dylan Flanagan ‘16. The shorter season makes each game so much more important and the players are more well rested and energetic when the end of the season rolls around.

Another unique element of college basketball is the atmosphere. As Elias Neibart ‘16 put it, “each game is so exciting because of the energy of the crowd that transfers to the players.” All relevant college teams have thousands and thousands of rowdy, loud college students filling their stands and screaming throughout the game. Nowhere is this excitement more present than in the Duke and Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Duke fans are appropriately named the “Cameron Crazies” and this year, like most others they will have plenty to cheer for. Since taking over as the head coach in 1980, Coach Mike Krzyzewski (pronounced zhə-zhev-ski) has built a perennial powerhouse while winning over 75% of his games. The #4 Blue Devils have impressed on the way to a 5-0 start and are heavy favorites in the ACC and should be major national title contenders come March. The nation’s top recruit and projected top 5 NBA pick, center Jahlil Okafor, is extremely talented and should be a national player of the year candidate and a player to watch.

Elsewhere, the Kentucky Wildcats once again enter the season as the #1 team in the country and national title favorites. Under mega-Coach John Calipari, Kentucky has become the New York Yankees of College Basketball. Like the Yankees Kentucky has a huge and fiercely loyal nationwide fan base but are hated resented and loathed by nearly everyone else. As Duke fan Jordan Nachwalter ‘16 so eloquently put it “I hate Kentucky”. Under Calipari, Kentucky has consistently had ridiculous amounts of resources and talent that they have effectively become a common enemy to every other team. This year’s Kentucky is so talented it’s almost unfair. Calipari once again brings in a star-studded recruiting class headlined by New Jersey native Karl Anthony Towns. Towns and the other 3-star recruits join Kentucky’s returning stars, including twin brothers Aaron and Andrew Harrison, to give Calipari a remarkably deep and talented roster. Early in the season Calipari has experimented with using two 5-man platoons to incorporate all 10 of his stars into the game plan. While the strategy has been met with mixed reviews, the results are undeniable. Last week, Kentucky absolutely thrashed #5 Kansas in a 72-40 demolition. Was this the game that signified the beginning of the end of Kansas’ 10-year reign atop the Big 12? And while the early results are encouraging will Kentucky finally live up to its immense potential?

These are only two of the thousands of questions that will be asked and answered throughout this year’s season. In the era of the “one done” (elite college players who leave for the pros after 1 season) there is an incredible amount of turnover in college basketball. Each year new stars and teams rise to take the place of the departed. With 351 schools in 32 conferences there will be riveting games and exciting storylines each and every week. While no one can really predict the season’s results, we know it will be a fun ride.