Reflecting back on it, I can’t think of single thing that has changed more since the day I was born than the sport of college basketball. From the four-year player, to the prep-to-pro era and two or three different incarnations of the one-and-done, this sport continues to evolve, continues to change and repeatedly takes on a new look every few years.

To the detractors, they say that the sport will never be the same as it was 20 years ago.

Well, you know what I say to the detractors? I don’t give a crap what you think… I’m ready for some hoops!

And thankfully the hoops are ready for me too, as these next few days might also double as the single greatest college basketball kick-off week I can ever remember. From Michigan State-UConn to Kentucky-Maryland, the Champions Classic and Syracuse-San Diego State, I can’t ever remember a season starting with more quality games with more quality teams playing one and other than this one.

It’s also why it’s time to dust off one of my favorite columns of the year, my “50 Reasons to be Excited for College Basketball Season.” Sure the whole concept is a bit corny, and yes, the jokes aren’t as funny on paper as they are in my head.

But who cares? I’m ready to talk hoops!

Here are 50 Reasons I’m excited for the 2013 season.

If you asked me to describe how I felt when I heard the news that Jim Calhoun was retiring as UConn’s basketball coach yesterday, the best way I could put it is like this:

You know how when your grandparents get older, they start to get sick, and after a while you begin to prepare for the worst? You start to say stuff like, “Well, they had a good run” and “It’s just their time” and “This is all for the best.” I’m guessing most of you have experienced that, right?

If so, I’m guessing you’ve also experienced the other side of that too: That no matter how much you prepare yourself, no matter how much you understand it’s their time and you think you’re ready for what’s coming… when the time actually does come, you never actually are?

Well that’s how just about every UConn fan on the planet feels right now.

Calhoun is retiring?  Really? You serious? Oh man. Alright.

That’s the fans view, and admittedly I’m one of those of fans.

That also means that if you came here looking for a supposedly “unbiased” national view of Calhoun’s legacy, well, you’ve come to the wrong place. If you want to hear about Calhoun’s “complicated” legacy (which as someone who is more well-informed than most writing on Calhoun today, isn’t nearly as complicated as a lot of people think), you’re going to have to go somewhere else.

Instead, I’m going to give you the other side.

In the second half of the Under Armour Elite 24 video recap, we look at the following prospects: 2013 guards Conner Frankamp (committed to Kansas) and Tyler Ennis (committed to Syracuse) as well as top 2014 prospects Tyus Jones and Stanley Johnson.

Also, for other Under Armour Elite 24 coverage, be sure to check out:

Game Recap

Video Log 1 (including top 2013 prospects Julius Randle, Aaron Gordon, Rondae Jefferson, Kuran Iverson and Marcus Lee)

Full Video Archive on YouTube

Follow on Twitter

Now enjoy the second set of videos:

As was mentioned in my previous post, on Saturday, I was lucky enough to attend the Under Armour Elite 24 game in Venice Beach. For those of you who don’t know, the Under Armour Elite 24 is now in its seventh year, and brings together the top high school basketball players in the country. Most of the best players in the classes of 2013 and 2014 attended this year’s event, which was played last Saturday (and yes, as a graduate of the class of 2003, attending the event this weekend definitely made me feel old).

Anyway, while the story was on the game itself, I was lucky enough to grab a bunch of the participants and shoot some exclusive video that simply can’t be found anywhere else. Some players discussed what it meant to be at the event, where they were looking at college and a million other things.

Below are the videos, along with the names of the players, their information and also if and where they might be attending college in the fall of 2013. Because I shot quite a few videos, they will be broken down into two separate posts. So if your favorite high school player isn’t in this one, there’s a very good chance they’ll be in the next one.

Enjoy, and if you want to check out all the videos, you can get them on YouTube by clicking here.

This weekend, 24 of the best high school basketball players in the country got together for one of the most prestigious events on the summer circuit: The Under Armour Elite 24 game, in Venice Beach, CA. The game featured many players that college and NBA fans alike need to get to know, including 2013 prospects Julius Randle, Aaron Gordon, Aaron and Andrew Harrison, and top 2014 prospects Tyus Jones and Emmanuel Mudiay.

Either way, I was lucky enough to attend both the dunk contest and three-point shootout on Friday as well as the game Saturday.

Here are 10 takeaways, plus some extra thoughts I had on the game…

(One semi-important note: All the video you see in this post, was shot exclusively by me, and that is exclusively my goofy voice in the background. To see all the videos, feel free to check them out here on YouTube. I will also be posting the remainder in a separate post on this site later today)

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Of every radio show going right now, the Max Kellerman and Marcellus Wiley show based in Los Angeles is far and away my favorite. I heard it once driving around LA last spring, and from that point I was hooked. I now download the podcast every day and listen to it at the gym, which is ironic, if only because I couldn’t care less about Los Angeles sports. The show is that good though.

Anyway, Kellerman is far and away my favorite, one of these guys who makes you think about sports in ways that you never have before. Well, one of my favorite theories of his is actually on sportswriters, and how most of them are woefully under qualified to do their jobs. The way Kellerman puts it, “They don’t have the mental aptitude to think critically” about sports biggest issues.

The example that Kellerman always uses is on the voting for Major League Baseball’s MVP’s. To put it as simply as I can, his argument goes a little something like this: Too many voters (aka those dumb sportswriters) spend too much time looking at a team’s win-loss record, and then base their MVP vote on that. So for example, last year Ryan Braun won the NL MVP over Matt Kemp, in large part because Braun’s team (the Brewers) made the playoffs and Kemp’s team (the Dodgers) didn’t. The way Kellerman sees it, sportswriters used the playoff berth to somehow justify giving the MVP to Braun, when in actuality, his team was just better. Had the sportswriters actually thought about the issue beyond the surface level, they would’ve seen that it was actually Kemp who was more valuable to his team.

Anyway, I’m guessing I’ve probably already lost you by now, and if I haven’t, you’re probably wondering why the heck I’m talking about some radio show that you don’t care about. More importantly, you probably want to know what the heck the first three paragraphs of this article have to do with the subject matter of this article today.

Well, the reason I mentioned Kellerman, is because over the last week we’ve seen the exact opposite of Kellerman’s theory on sportswriters come to life. If anything, national writers and media pundits have actually been overanalyzing one of the biggest stories to hit the wires this week. That story, SMU’s pursuit of Larry Brown as its next head basketball coach.

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It’s hard to believe, but it was a little over a year ago that I wrote one of my favorite articles ever, “A Goodbye to Kemba Walker.” I’ll always be a UConn fan before I am a writer, and Kemba’s good-bye letter reflects that. It’s not some pre-packaged puff piece, but heartfelt and through the eyes of a fan.

Well, one year and a few days later it’s time to write another letter, as another key cog in the 2011 championship team leaves Storrs. Alex Oriahki isn’t departing for the NBA, but instead transferring, and will spend his final year of college at Missouri. And while Oriahki doesn’t leave UConn with the acclaim, hardware or statistical resume that Kemba did, he was just as important to the 2011 title run as Kemba, or anyone else on UConn’s roster. Simply put, UConn wouldn’t have won the title without him.

So as Oriahki gets set to depart, and spend his last year of college ball at Missouri, I only thought it was appropriate that I gave him a final good-bye as well. His college career might not be over, but his time at UConn is.

Here goes…

Dear Alex-

When I wrote Kemba his good-bye letter last year, I opened it with the following two paragraphs. They went as follows:

So word on the street is that you’re leaving UConn, huh?

Can’t say that I totally blame you. Actually, I take that back. I can’t think of one good reason you should come back to UConn. Well, unless you enjoy the sorority parties and 15 degree January nights that much. Really, looking at this thing objectively, I can’t remember a college basketball player with less reason to come back to school for another year.

Take out the last sentence, and I can’t think of a better way to open this letter to you. I’m sad to see you go, but given everything that’s going on at UConn right now, I can’t think of many good reasons for you to stay. We all know you had a tough junior year, UConn is ineligible for the 2013 NCAA Tournament and Missouri offers you the opportunity to play right away, for a team that’ll likely start the year in the Top 10. For all the things you love about Storrs (which I’m sure include off-the-court indulgences like D.P. Dough and Ted’s), it’s time for you to move on to the next chapter of your life. Don’t listen to any of the idiots on Facebook or Twitter giving you a hard time. This is the right move. It just might take some of us some time to get over it.

I still remember the night Andre Drummond committed to UConn.

Unlike so many other high school superstars, the declaration didn’t come via a big high school press conference, but instead on an otherwise quiet summer night, via an announcement on Twitter of all places. And really, that timing was the most surprising part of all; not just because it happened in the summer, but in the summer of 2011. Drummond had elected to give up an extra year of prep school, and enroll in college immediately. Like, that day.

My buddy Tyler called me that night, and the conversation basically went like this:

Tyler: You sitting down?
Me: Yeah, what’s up?
Tyler: We got Drummond.
Me: What? That’s awesome!
Tyler: No, you don’t understand. We got Drummond right now. For this year.
Me: WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?

And really at this point, it’s all a blur. As best I remember, I proceeded to throw the phone in the air, run around and hug strange family members that I otherwise wouldn’t even consider talking to under most circumstances. At least that’s the way I remember it.

Wait, we got Drummond?

I mean for real… WE GOT DRUMMOND?

It was going to be a good year.

*****

As I begin to sit back and reflect on Monday night’s National Championship game, and the 2012 Kentucky Wildcats as a whole, I realize that there is no right way to start this article. No perfect words to capture one of the most dominating teams in recent college basketball history, a breathless collection of basketball skill and talent, which had plenty of heart and mental toughness too. There’s no easy way to explain their overall significance to the fans that adore them, and to man whose legacy they helped forever alter.

There is no right way to start discussing the Kentucky Wildcats, so let’s just begin by getting the obvious out of the way: The University of Kentucky Wildcats are your 2012 college basketball National Champions. There is no more waiting. There is no wondering. Kentucky won their eighth National Championship on Monday night, and will be hanging another banner in Rupp Arena.

The game itself though was just a part of the story, the end to the means of an incredible journey. I’m not sure if that journey started in 1998 with Kentucky’s last title, in 2009 when John Calipari was hired, or if it started somewhere in between. What I do know however is that the story of the 2012 Kentucky Wildcats alone isn’t what makes them so darn fascinating. It’s also the story behind the story too.

Hello, and welcome to the 3,211th National Championship Game preview you’ll read today. I’m Aaron Torres, and while I can’t give you any inside analysis, what I can promise you is this: Below, is the least dumb game preview you’ll read all afternoon.

What do I mean by “least dumb?” Well, it’s simple really.

For whatever reason, most reporters seem to be centering their title game previews on a couple of really idiotic storylines. The first is of course, the “rematch” between John Calipari and Bill Self, a game which couldn’t be any less of a “rematch” if it were played on the moon. I mean seriously, how exactly is this a rematch? Each guy has coached about 200 games since they met up in San Antonio in 2008, not one player who’ll play tonight played that evening, and umm, last time I checked, John Calipari has CHANGED JOBS in the last three years. So unless Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Anthony Davis come out in uniforms that say “Memphis” tonight, or Mario Chalmers magically regains some eligibility, this will not be a rematch. Just a game between two great basketball programs.

The other dumb storyline is at least a little more plausible, and that’s that Monday night’s game is a rematch of a game played earlier this year.

Yes, that’s true, since technically these two teams did play in the second game of the year, on November 15. Then again, do you realize how long ago November 15 was? November 15 was so long ago that Tim Tebow had just started his fourth game for the Broncos. It was so long ago that Alabama and LSU had played for the first time just weeks before (never mind the rematch that came two weeks later). And it was so long Kim Kardashian had just filed her divorce paperwork two a couple days before that game. How many guys has she dated since then? Like 30?

In other words, November 15 was a long time ago and these two teams couldn’t be any more different today than they were then.

So what’s changed since then? And more importantly, what are the real keys to tonight’s game?

Here are 13 that I’ll be keeping an eye on.