The college basketball season is half over and people are barely starting to pay attention.  The conference races are starting to shape up, and the best teams are coming into focus.  So how come very few fans really care yet?  Because March Madness breeds January Just-Waiting.  We're all just waiting on the tournament. 

Complain as we must about college  football, it clearly has the most meaningful regular season of any sport.  Lose and your season may well be over.  The NCAA basketball tournament, on the other hand, will be taking teams from the major conferences that will struggle to .500 records and not come close to winning 20 games.  So right now, with my Hogs sitting 1-3 in the conference, I don't even have to panic yet.  Just put together a nice run at the end of the season and they'll make the dance.  Even if they stink all year, they could put it together in the conference tournament and snag the automatic bid.  Not likely, but possible. 

So, rather than worry about the top 25 or other such meaningless things, I'll just state some observations I've made about the season so far.

1.  Florida is the team to beat.  Sorry, Wisconsin fans but the Gators would spank you.

2.  Kevin Durant is better than Greg Odom.  If you haven't seen the kid from Texas play, he's sensational.

3.  The Pac 10 is far and away the best conference, with the SEC a distant 2nd.  This bodes well for the Pac -10 come tourney time.  The West coast teams will be battle tested and hard to beat.

4.  Coach of the year so far -Tubby Smith.  Kentucky has very average talent, but they're playing great.

That's it.  Wake me up in about a month when games start to really matter.