Have you been busy frost proofing your garden? Have been out watching the last few vestiges of the youth soccer season slowly die? Maybe the last Wednesday of the baseball season has drawn your eye (and how could it not?). Any road, we've got the latest on the college basketball scene right here.
Andy Katz and Eamon Brennan break down the teams we shouldn't sleep on this year. It's a fine list, but is anyone really sleeping on Belmont? A team that goes 30-5 and returns nearly the entire squad isn't a really bold pick as a potential upstart.
Our esteemed president was even less bold with his announcement of who he thought were two teams to watch. Duke and North Carolina, Mr. President? I guess with the head of state making proclamations like this, Belmont might actually surprise some people.
A bit closer to home, the A10 has a new tournament venue. Last year's final in Atlantic City failed to draw even 6,000 people, so the conference organizers looked elsewhere. Beginning in 2013, Brooklyn will host the annual showdown for the automatic bid. New York should be a tremendous place to have Xavier on display. Fordham coach Tom Pecora called it "the rebirth of college basketball in New York." While that is more than a bit unfair to the Big East tournament, it does capture the spirit of the announced move.
If you aren't sick of realignment stories yet, and we've tried to spare you, there's an interesting one here in a mailbag with Eamon Brennan. Brennan lists Xavier as one of the teams he would select if compiling a sort of "best of the East" conference. The other names in that pool are very much teams President Obama picks.
And I'll leave you with this gem from Coach Mack. If any of you still aren't on Twitter, you're missing stuff like that every day.