A view of doom at the top

By Jonathan Lowe Sports Central Columnist

The holiday season has always given people much to cheer about. Turkeys headline an aching stomach full of food dishes. Presents fill up the space under some innocent (or just fake) pine tree. Let's not forget those who will drink and party into the dawn of January 1, 2004.

Then we have the inevitable, time-honored tradition that fills people with all the emotions in the Crayola box, from angst-ridden red to sad sack blue and rose-colored glasses pink ... the college basketball upset.

The season started about one month ago, and the best teams in the country are trading more spaces than Paige Davis and crew. Kentucky is the fourth team in the last four weeks to spend time at the number one spot in at least one of the nation's two polls.

How did we get here? First, take a really good Georgia Tech squad, then add a team with a tree as its mascot playing on its coast, sprinkle in a dose of Billy Donovan's hair gel for that downward slide, and you have the recipe for "Tubby at the Top" sponge cake.

Who knows how long the 'Cats will stay on the top rung, as a feisty Indiana team lies in wait on Saturday. You know what, though? It shouldn't be any other way.

That's what makes the college hardwood so exciting. In the early portion of the year, only a few teams can get away without suffering a loss. Several factors have to key in just right throughout the season to get a team in the direction for a tournament push by February.

Certain circumstances are humongous when it comes to early season upsets. Truth is, people never know how new faces will work out until they play. In basketball, benches become mighty short when injuries and suspensions kick in. Then there are the star players who can't step up and the sloppy games where Podunk Community College would give any top team a run for its life.

If you need proof about some of these key components, just look back to last year's Final Four participants. Start with the pains and aches of injury. Although the Kansas Jayhawks made it to the championship game, they missed a huge presence in the post as Wayne Simien's timely bruises kept him off the court.

Next, there were the star players. Dwayne Wade of Marquette and T.J. Ford of Texas ended up playing their last collegiate games on that fateful Semifinal Saturday. But one man couldn't finish the job alone. When the efforts of names such as Travis Diener, Robert Jackson, and Royal Ivey faded, so did the hopes of the fans for these teams.

In the end, it was the transfers and frosh who made the ultimate difference. Travis Diener from Marquette and Jeff Graves of Kansas made their entrances onto the college b-ball scene during the tourney, but they couldn't outlast the team with the most amount of new faces last year. The Syracuse Orangemen, with freshman sharpshooter Gerry McNamara, frosh point man Billy Edelin, and some other freshman. Some tall guy, name sounded sort of like ... caramel. Eh, must have been no good since he isn't there this year. Anyway, these bright additions made youth the ultimate master in a sport where experience is as important as breathing.

Figuring these components into the equation shows why early upsets will happen not only this season, but for every one following it until the end of time. And admit it, it wouldn't be the same if the fans couldn't yell "overrated" at least once every week.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.