Trying to make sense of the crazy bouncing ball

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I've been watching college basketball for a long, long time and there probably is no sport I enjoy more.

I'm pretty sure I've never seen a season quite as crazy as this one, with the No. 1 team losing pretty much every week, upsets upon upsets, crazy shots to win games (or send them into overtime), multiple OTs, etc.

Saturday's Louisville-ND game certainly was as wild as any I've ever seen. Guys who had done nothing all game long for ND all of a sudden started scoring in the most tense situations and Rick Pitino's boys found a way to lose a game they had won about a dozen times.

I used to gripe if Marquette won a game that was "too close for comfort." Given everything that's happened this season, though, I'll take any win over any opponent.

I've heard several theories to why this has happened -- early departures to the NBA, poor fundamentals, defenders being allowed to mug offensive players, the 3-pointer, etc. -- but none is exactly a new revelation. Every single one of those factors existed last season and two years ago and the season before that.

The only thing I can think of is that, for whatever reason, there are no dominant, superstar-filled teams. So anybody literally can win or lose any game.

Again, why that happened this year is anybody's guess. I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the ride.

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