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Well, NCAA Football Rivalry week means... not much if you're a Fighting Illini fan. Then there's the UH Warriors. They play Idaho. Definitely not our rivals.

College basketball couldn't have come soon enough. Sure, all of the big teams are playing cupcakes like Illinois (6) vs. Delaware St. or North Carolina (4) vs. Santa Clara. Wait a minute. Santa Clara beat UNC.

So, did anyone watch any games? I heard Matt Doherty (former UNC coach who recruited many of the players on the team) announced the UNC/SCU game. I wonder what that feels like. UNC was just ranked Sports Illustrated preseason #1. Maybe it's the jinx?

The Fighting Illini were rumored to have been one of the favorites for the preseason #1 but didn't get it. Oh well, it's a preseason ranking and we wouldn't want a jinx like that anyway.

Haha, someone told me NC State lost to Santa Clara, and I gave no thought to it....then on ESPNews I saw it was actually UNC. Not a very good start to the year for the supposed #1 was it? (Sorry, that was the Duke fan in me shining through there)

It should be a great season. A lot of good teams will have a shot to win it all. I watched pieces of the games between Miss. St. and Syracuse last night, as well as some of the Syracuse-Memphis game tonight. Syracuse is good, that much I can say based on the two games I've watched so far. We'll see how the other teams look when I see some more games.

I think the two most underated teams in the country are Michigan and NC State (even though they are my two favorite teams). NC State has Julius Hodge comming back and he was ACC play of the year last year. Also they have an amazing transfer from Gerogetown (I can't remember his name). Michigan won the NIT last year and they are now able to play in the NCAA. They have almost the whole team back I believe. Although the Big Ten will be tough this year but not as tough as the ACC.

Wait a minute. You're a Big Ten and an ACC guy? I'm looking for pure Big Ten fans here.

We've been getting our butts kicked in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge each year. I'm just waiting for the first time the Big Ten is able to chalk one up for the conference.

Michigan will have a good year. NC State will have a solid team but not really as highly rated as Michigan will be IMO. The ACC will be killer. UNC, Wake, Duke, Georgia Tech are all possible top 10 teams, while Maryland and NC State will be top 25 more than likely.

This ain't gonna be the year pal. You might match last year's outing though...

So you're saying the Big Ten's goal shouldn't be to win but to not regress?

With the power in the ACC this year, I'd say that would be a good goal to shoot for...eh, I should retract that statement before, 3 wins would be a moral victory, 2 (same as last year) would be a nice showing.

I would bet the farm on an ACC team winning the NCAA with WF, GT, NC, and Duke so I would have to agree with that.

Well, my Blue Devils took their first game this evening over Tennessee-Martin. The inside game looked strong as Williams and Randolph comined for 24 points and 27 boards. Redick and Ewing had 20 apiece. Freshman G Demarcus Nelson had 10 points and 9 rebounds in his debut. They looked good this first game, but we'll see how things go when the competition gets tougher. I'm just ecited to see the action heating up on the hardwood.

Shelden Williams is one player I wish decided to suit up in an Illini uniform. He'll be a great player for the Dukies this year.

Looks like Zona got upset. By Virginia. So does this mean every team from the ACC will make the Big Dance this year? As for Zona, it may be a similar situation to UNC. I know it's still early in the season but their current "team" has a bunch of talent. Then again, there's a reason why team is surrounded with quotes.

The ACC is good victory, I try telling you that but....

No, they won't all make it, they're not invincible, it was a case of UVa playing great in Charlottesville and knocking off an Arizona team that was a bit slow. That Singletary kid looks like he's gonna be a great player, so maybe Gillen can coaxe those guys to the NCAAs a few times. Arizona hasn't had very good chemistry lately like you said, when a bunch of guys start transferring, there must be some problem there.

As for Shelden, I agree. He's got the build that seems to work best in college hoops for a big man and he and Shavlik should, if they stay out of foul trouble, control the interior for the Blue Devils. I'm more excited at our prospects now than I was prior to the season. They've got a game tonight against Davidson on ESPN2...I look forward to seeing how much the guys have improved their games over the summer and how the freshmen are looking.

Does anyone understand the purpose of these games. Like I realize the major schools give the little guys a chance to play them but all it does is open them up to upset like that happened to UNC. There is nothing to gain and much to lose.

They're just filler mostly. But a lot of teams like to play the little schools in their region that they may have a small rivalry with, or teams that they feel might prep them well for say a first round NCAA game. Like Duke tonight, Davidson was an old Southern Conference rival, and they are in NC as well, plus they're the kind of team Duke would face in the early rounds of the NCAAs, so it's good preparation. Plus the little schools sometimes get paid to travel to the big team's court to play. It helps the little guy too because they get to gauge themselves against a premier team, which will help them in their conference, maybe provide some publicity if they're on ESPN, and should they pull off the upset, it'll help them a lot in their bid for the NCAAs should they have a great season but somehow now with their conference tourney.

I think it's mostly about money. The little guy gets more money and more exposure. The big guy gets an easy win and more time to gel together as a team before the conference schedule starts. Personally, I loved the 2000-01 season when Illinois played that brutal non-conference schedule. They ended up playing Arizona three times that season. Then there was Seton Hall who was ranked high when they played and the other Maui Invitational games. That was just non-conference. It's a lot more fun that way, even though you get a few more losses.