Some of the biggest programs in college football have seen changes right at the top this year. The odds to win the 2011 BCS Championship have altered as well, as there have been hirings, firings, and replacements, along with some surprise changes that could shake the entire core of the NCAA football betting world. A number of schools have made changes at the top in what has been a very, very interesting offseason. Here is the list of the schools that are heading in new directions with their football programs and their 2011 BCS Championship odds.

Akron Zips (+700000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): Akron has been a train wreck in the MAC for a number of years, and last season was no exception. The Zips went just 3-9 and just 2-6 in conference, and a 4-8 ATS record didn’t make many college football betting friends either. Now, there is a huge quarterback battle going on in Akron, as QBs Patrick Nicely and Matt Rodgers are both candidates for the job. Rodgers’ injury last year might’ve been the final straw to getting JD Brookhart fired. Rob Ianello, the new man in charge, has a long way to go to get this program back to the form that it was in back in 2005 when it won the MAC Championship.

Buffalo Bulls (+500000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): Without a doubt, Turner Gill was the most beloved coach in the history of Buffalo Bulls football. He really helped put the program on the map, especially two seasons ago when the Bulls upset the previously unbeaten Ball State Falcons to win the MAC Championship Game when no one gave them even the remotest of chances. If the name Jeff Quinn sounds familiar to you, think back to both Central Michigan and Cincinnati. Both of those teams lost Brian Kelly right before their bowl games. Quinn was the man in charge of both a bowl win for the Chippewas over Middle Tennessee in 2005 and last season’s Bearcats loss to the Florida Gators in the Sugar Bowl. Getting back to a bowl game would be a triumph for Buffalo, which fell a game short of eligibility last year.

Central Michigan Chippewas (+120000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): The Chippewas had a chance to really make some noise last year, the final season with QB Dan LeFevour. However, just as has been the case in quite a few instances when a legendary coach leaves a program, Butch Jones decided that LeFevour’s departure was the best time for him to try to move on to a big time coaching gig. Now, the Chippies are left with Dan Enos, the former running backs coach for the Michigan State Spartans. Enos has never been a head football coach at any level, clearly showing that CMU didn’t have a heck of a lot of options. No one wanted to be the man that followed Jones in Mount Pleasant, especially without LeFevour there to quell the pain of transition.

Cincinnati Bearcats (+15000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): Shame on Brian Kelly for leaving the Bearcats right before their bowl game after a perfect regular season and a Big East championship! The team made the right call by going after Kelly’s successor at Central Michigan, Butch Jones as a replacement. We already know that Jones knows Kelly’s system after taking over for him without missing a beat at Central Michigan, and several teams were eager to grab his services. Jones made a good call as well, as he knows that QB Zach Collaros might actually be better than the departed Tony Pike. Collaros can win this team the Big East title this year, which might immediately put Jones in line for an even better position.

East Carolina Pirates (+160000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): ECU was on the verge of something special with Skip Holtz in charge, but when South Florida came calling for the second generation coach, he had to move on to the bigger named school. Ruffin McNeill has been an assistant at Texas Tech for a number of years. Many thought that he would be a logical successor to Mike Leach, especially after guiding the Red Raiders to a 41-31 Alamo Bowl win over Michigan State last year. Will the spread offense work at East Carolina, though? It is certainly a huge shift from the traditional, “take care of the football and play good defense” mentality that Holtz had. There could be a bit of a transition period for the Pirates, but ultimately, McNeill should make a good director of the ship there.

Florida State Seminoles (+7000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): For the past three seasons, Jimbo Fisher has just been waiting patiently for Bobby Bowden to retire so he could take over command at Florida State. Truth be told, the Noles have been under Fisher’s watchful eye ever since he stepped foot in Tallahassee, so this might not be a huge transition for the garnet and gold. Fisher has transformed this offense into a train wreck from the Drew Weatherford/Xavier Lee days into one that is genuinely feared with QB Christian Ponder at the helm. It’s going to be fun watching this team grow once again, especially with the QB of the future, EJ Manuel already waiting in the wings. A defense still needs to be picked back up to get Florida State back on the map. Fisher has huge shoes to fill from the second winningest coach in NCAA FBS history.

Kansas Jayhawks (+35000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): Kansas had to think that last season was the year that it could really contend for a National Championship. However, Mark Mangino, who helped resurrect the program and turn it into a national contender in the first place, failed miserably, as he wasted the talents of seniors like Dezmon Briscoe, Kerry Meier, Todd Reesing, and Jake Sharp. Turner Gill was the hottest young coaching commodity on the planet, and KU was sure to snatch him up. He is already looked at as a hero in Lawrence, as very few of the players and even fewer of the alumni had any care for the way that Mangino treated his team at all.

Kentucky Wildcats (+50000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): Rich Brooks deserves a lot of credit for keeping Kentucky football relevant for a number of years. Still, it was time for him to go, as it seemed as though the program hit a peak under his direction. Head coach in waiting Joker Phillips is set to unleash his offensive talents on the rest of the SEC in a move that is probably going to take a few years to get perfected. The Cats are always going to be a second rate team in the SEC, particularly in the East, where programs like Florida and Tennessee will always be the hottest recruiting beds. Phillips has his work cut out for him to make the Wildcats more than Music City Bowl honorary members on an annual basis.

Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (+150000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): Here’s a team that wasn’t so certain that it was really changing coaches. La Tech was shocked when Derek Dooley left for Tennessee, and they had to scramble to try to replace him at the last second with most of the best coaching options already off the board. Little known Arizona offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes is the man that was suddenly put in charge on January 20th. He is bringing in a spread offense which will bring La Tech essentially into the 21st century of WAC football. This program has bigger problems, though… trying to figure out what conference it is going to be playing in once the WAC finishes falling apart.

Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks (+750000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): Mired in the middle of a bad conference for a number of years, the Warhawks are just trying to figure out how to get to a bowl game and to challenge the top teams in the Sun Belt. Signing Todd Berry made a lot of sense though, as he is very familiar with the system at Louisiana-Monroe having served under previous head coach Charlie Weatherbie as an assistant for two years. He has bounced around as assistants in other locations since 2005, but he’ll return to the Bayou and try to get the Warhawks on the map for the first time in the history of the school.

Louisville Cardinals (+50000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): Simply put, the firing of Steve Kragthorpe was an absolute must in Louisville. Kragthorpe single handedly destroyed the program that Bobby Petrino turned into a Top 10 program year in and year out in the Big East. Kragthorpe couldn’t find a way to win in the senior year of QB Brian Brohm, one of the most decorated players in the history of the school’s football team, and since then it has been all downhill. Charlie Strong comes in from Florida, where he will bring a spread offense that should at least spark a bit of promise for a program that has been dropped into the doldrums of the Big East for the past few years.

Marshall Thundering Herd (+140000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): Mark Snyder was one of the many coaches that were essentially forced out of their positions. Snyder wasn’t even allowed to hang around for the team’s bowl game, a 21-17 win in the Little Caesar’s Bowl over Ohio. John “Doc” Holliday has been the associate head coach at West Virginia for a number of years, and many are surprised that it took this long for him to land a head coaching job. The cupboard certainly isn’t bare at Marshall, and many think that Holliday can be the man that can bring this program back to prominence in its new conference, C-USA.

Memphis Tigers (+350000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): Simply put, Memphis is in terrible shape right now. The Tigers might not be favored in any game which they play this season, and if that’s the case, the prospects of a one or two win campaign is a real possibility. Former coach Tommy West blasted the program on the way out the door, which might cause us to never hear his name again. Larry Porter is going to be taking over, but even he knows that this is probably nothing more than a temporary stop before he gets fired as well. The Tigers are going nowhere fast, and unless the school pumps some more money into the facilities there, this program is closer to being gone than being relevant.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish (+11500 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): Notre Dame football has been on a steep decline ever since Lou Holtz retired. Coaches like Tyrone Willingham and Bob Davie helped wreck what was once one of the most proud programs in the history of college football. Charlie Weis didn’t help matters any either, though he at least took the team to a BCS game in his reign. Former Cincinnati HC Brian Kelly accepted the Irish position just days before his Bearcats tried to complete an undefeated season with a Sugar Bowl victory over the Florida Gators. Cincinnati’s players elected to play without their skipper, and the end result was a huge loss to mar an otherwise fantastic campaign. Kelly probably has three years to turn the Irish into winners.

San Jose State Spartans (+800000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): There aren’t many programs that have been as inept as San Jose State in recent years. The Spartans really were never in a position to let Tomey, a legendary coach in West Coast college football go. However, he announced his retirement, which is leading way to Mike MacIntyre to come across the country from Duke, where he was the team’s defensive coordinator. Working on the defense would be a good start for the Spartans, as they were one of the worst ‘D’s in the land last year… Of course, they had one of the worst offenses as well. A couple home wins would be a huge triumph this season.

South Florida Bulls (+50000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): Jim Leavitt was the only head coach that the Bulls ever knew, even when they were just a tiny I-AA school just trying to make ends meet. However, amidst some off the field issues, the university decided to get rid of their head coach and sign Skip Holtz to replace him. The move made a lot of sense, as Holtz has been leading East Carolina up the ranks of Conference USA, the same conference that South Florida came out of from back in the day. With QB BJ Daniels and a host of returning starters, the Bulls might be the most BCS ready hire of the bunch, especially with a proven coach like Holtz on the sidelines.

Tennessee Volunteers (+50000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): The poor Volunteers finally looked to be heading in the right direction, as the family of Kiffins, Lane and Monte were finally starting to round this program into shape after several lousy years with Phil Fulmer in charge. Kiffin decided to bolt to USC when the opportunity arose this year in spite of the fact that the program could be in shambles. That left the men on Rocky Top scrambling. Though it wasn’t a sexy hire, Derek Dooley was about the only name that the Vols could come up with. No one is expecting this hire to work, and if someone better becomes available next year than a coach that was mediocre with a WAC school, expect Tennessee to jump on it.

Texas Tech Red Raiders (+17500 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): In one of the more bizarre stories in a very awkward offseason, Texas Tech fired Mike Leach following allegations surrounding one of his players. Leach is still sitting out this season to sure up some legal matters against the university, but hiring Tommy Tuberville was a huge coup for the program. The biggest question that is yet to be answered is whether Tuberville will let the Air Raid continue, or whether he will instead install a more run first offense which is similar to the ones used in the SEC where he came from at Auburn two years ago. Texas Tech was on the verge of being a real national power under Leach. Tuberville is expected to, at minimum, keep that up.

UNLV Runnin’ Rebels (+300000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): One of the two FCS coaches that took the jump into the FBS this year was Montana’s Bobby Hauck. Hauck takes over for Mike Sanford, who went just 16-43 overall in five years with the Runnin’ Rebs. Not only did Hauck have a lot of success at the FCS level, but he also coached under one of the great FBS coaches of our time as well in Rick Neuheisel both at Washington and Colorado. The Rebels might have themselves a real winner coaching them up, but reaching a bowl game would be a huge accomplishment for a program that has been a wreck since turning over its coaching staff the last time.

USC Trojans (No Line to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): Pete Carroll saw this one coming. He knew that USC was about to get hammered by the NCAA for recruiting violations which saw RB Reggie Bush lose his Heisman Trophy. Before the dust settled though, the university successfully conned Lane Kiffin into coming back to Southern Cal, the place which he became a highly coveted assistant coach just a few years ago. Kiffin is upset about the punishments, which make the Trojans ineligible for the National Championship or a bowl game for the next two years and costs the program a number of scholarships. Still, this is clearly a very, very talented team that could run the table… if it wanted to. It’s Kiffin’s job to make sure that his team is ready to play and isn’t worried about the fact that it won’t be in a bowl game this year.

Vanderbilt Commodores (+60000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): Bobby Johnson actually had the Commodores ranked for the first time in their history just two years ago, but since that point, they have fallen upon relatively hard times. He elected to resign just a few months ago, which was a shocking move to the program which he helped assemble. Assistant head coach Robbie Caldwell was immediately named the interim coach of the team, and just a few weeks ago, he had that tag removed. Still, Vandy isn’t going to be competing in the SEC East any time soon, and six wins would be a massive, massive triumph any year.

Virginia Cavaliers (+60000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): Be careful what you wish for, Cavaliers fans. UVA at least had a lot of great recruits coming to Charlottesville under former head coach Al Groh, and for quite awhile, it was a relevant team in the ACC. However, the Cavvies got tired of Groh and got rid of him this year, bringing in Mike London, a former assistant and the previous head coach of the Richmond Spiders, making London the other FCS coach to leap up to an FBS program as a head coach. However, the cupboard is entirely dry for Virginia. This could be the worst BCS conference school in the land this year.

Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (+900000 to win 2011 BCS Championship at 5Dimes Sportsbook): With the transition to the Sun Belt now fully complete, the Hilltoppers decided to go in another direction this season, firing David Elson after an 0-12 season in which the team really wasn’t competitive at all. Taggart is a WKU alumnus and has since been the running backs coach at Stanford. His key project? Toby Gerhart, who became one of the top running backs in the nation last year. The Hilltoppers hope that Taggart can bring just a shadow of respectability to this program over the next few seasons as they try to establish themselves as a legitimate member of the FBS.

Two rounds of the NCAA Tournament are now in the books, and here at Bankroll Sports, we’re giving all sorts of heck to the teams and players that were totally missing in action to cost their teams a shot at the National Championship.

Rap Sheet Picture of the Week

Kansas Jayhawks C Markieff Morris in disbelief after the #1 team in the land was bounced by an inferior Missouri Valley Conference foe.

Where else can we start than right at the top? The Kansas Jayhawks are going to be looked at as the biggest disappointment of this entire season. They were the #1 team in the land and the #1 overall seed in this tournament, and they knew that they were going to have to face a pair of mid-majors in this tournament before heading to the Sweet 16. It took a strong second half run for the Jayhawks to finally take out #16 Lehigh on Thursday, and it became increasingly clear that this was a squad that was disinterested with playing these small time inferior squads.

Enter the #9 Northern Iowa Panthers. If you want proof that this was an underachieving team, just look at how well the Jayhawks played when desperation finally set in. C Cole Aldrich looked like a man on a mission, and the defense was stifling down the stretch. But the great equalizer in this tournament, the three point shot, finally gave the Panthers a four point lead that they would never relent. Now, HC Bill Self has to answer a lot of questions about why team looked like garbage, and G Sherron Collins has to deal with criticism for shooting 0/6 from downtown in the team’s final game of the season. This was really, really inexcusable Kansas, and you know it.

However, the Jayhawks were the only disappointing group in the Midwest Region. The Georgetown Hoyas had to be considered a trendy selection to come out of this bracket, as they marched all the way to the Big East final before getting knocked off in the dying seconds by West Virginia. It didn’t take long to be bounced from the tournament that really mattered, though. Sure, we’ll listen to the fatigue factor thing, but let’s be realistic here. This first round debacle against the Ohio Bobcats was against a #14 seed who was a #9 in their own mid-major conference. No excuses. None whatsoever.

In fact, let’s just give a little bit of grief to the rest of the Big East. Remember when this league was supposed to have nine, ten, maybe even 11 teams in this tournament? Five of the eight teams were gone in the first three days of this tournament, and one of those teams that made it to the second round, the #2 Villanova Wildcats, nearly became the fifth #2 seed in the history of this tournament to lose to a #15 seed in the first round of the dance.

Here’s ranting on the Mountain West and the Atlantic 10 as well. Three days into the dance, and all four teams out of the MWC were already eliminated. Save watching Xavier in the A-10, watching this conference play ball in March Madness has been incredibly painful. Both the Temple Owls and the Richmond Spiders were crushed in their first round games by higher seeds.

Don’t mind the silence that you hear right now in the heartland of our country at this point. Normally, after a Kansas Jayhawks basketball game, you hear blue and red clad nut cases chanting in that slow, monotone, drone-like voice, “Rock Chalk Jayhawk K-U.”

If we slip the ‘A’ out of “chalk,” scoot the ‘K’ over a spot, buy an ‘E’, and change the ‘K’ in “KU” to a ‘P’, you can sum up this performance with our new saying.

Rock Choke Jayhawk P-U!

There are times that perception just doesn’t amount to reality. This wasn’t one of those cases. We all saw on Saturday afternoon that Kansas was one of the most talented teams in the nation. C Cole Aldrich looked like a man amongst boys at times, bullying his way through the paint like an enraged animal. Any time that HC Bill Self didn’t like what was happening on the court, he could bring in a new fresh set of five players if he wanted to and still have a solid looking club out there that was good enough to play with anyone in the nation.

Saturday’s shocking two-point loss to the Northern Iowa Panthers was simply a case of the magic (or if you will, the madness) of March.

Let’s step back for a minute and give a major thumbs down to the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, which punished Northern Iowa for some unknown reason by making it a #9 seed in the dance in spite of the fact that it won 28 games and the Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament titles.

HC Ben Jacobsen’s crew won each of their MVC Tournament games by at least 15 points. They slammed Old Dominion in BracketBusters and destroyed Siena in a BracketBusters rematch game from a year ago this year as well. Yes, losing to DePaul, Evansville, and Bradley were all unsightly losses, but what more did you expect from this team?

They played fantastic defense all season, allowing a grand total of one opponent to reach the 70-point plateau against them, and they won 12 games by at least 15 points this year.

I know the logic… Play somebody.

Guess what? The Panthers just played somebody… and won.

That point aside, let’s not belittle the performance that this team put up over the first three days of this tournament. G Ali Farokhmanesh not only nailed the three pointer on Thursday that buried UNLV, but he also dropped four more three balls on the Jayhawks and scored 16 points in the upset on Saturday. F Jordan Eglseder, who hit a grand total of one three point basketball all season dropped two threes on KU as well. The team turned over the Jayhawks 15 times and stayed competitive in the rebounding battle at just -5.

That being said… C’mon Kansas. You’re Kansas.

Maybe we should’ve known that something was wrong with the Jayhawks when they were pushed for at least a little while by #16 Lehigh on Thursday night. Tournament teams in general shouldn’t be struggling with the Mountain Hawks, especially when you’re the #1 overall seed in this tournament.

At the outset of this tournament, everyone was asking the question whether it was going to be Maryland or Michigan State that was going to get murdered by the Jayhawks in the Sweet 16 and whether it was going to by Ohio State or Georgetown falling in the Elite 8.

Self was the one man that knew what he was getting into, as he immediately pointed out UNI as a potential trap game on his squad’s road to Indianapolis.

He was ready. His team wasn’t.

The Panthers jumped out to a 10-2 run and really never looked back, controlling the game’s tempo by slowing down the Jayhawks to a plodding effort.

During that whole game, it was only a matter of time before the Jayhawks went on a run, just like they did against both Texas Tech and Texas A&M in the Big XII Tournament. Someone was going to wake G Sherron Collins or one of the other many stars on this team up.

Collins shot just 4/15 from the field and 0/6 from downtown for the game.

The run was never really complete. The choke job, however, is finished.

The Jayhawks are #1 in the land no more, and though it’s clear that Northern Iowa is no normal #9 seed, this is still a case of a team that just didn’t give its best effort in a do-or-die situation.

Welcome to March Madness, boys and girls. The fun is only just beginning.

The college basketball season is starting to pick up full steam and is picking up a lot more attention now that college football regular season is in the books. One of the common themes around the nation is that there is a ton of new and rising talent on the hardwood making big names for themselves heading into 2010. Among the headlines this season, we like to point out a group of guys that are shaping out to be a very good class at the point guard position. Of course not to get the confused with shooting guards, these are the guys directing the game and opening up opportunities for their players. Sometimes they do not post the big numbers as do the scorers, but they are equally as valuable. We bring to you a look at the Top 10 point guards in college basketball based on what we have seen thus far in the year.

Be sure check back as we will break down the top 10 shooting guards in our next preview…

#10 – Greivis Vasquez (Maryland Terrapins)

Greivis Vasquez got off to a terrible start this year, but has turned that around over the past few games. Vasquez averaged just 7.5 points through the first 4 games of the year, but has rallied averaging 17 points over the past 5 games. The Maryland Terrapins senior have averaged over 17 points in his last two seasons and is carrying a solid mark of 5.8 assists per game this year. The problem with Vasquez is that he is very inconsistent and just shooting 35% on the year. However, the biggest problem is that he has a big problem with ball control as he has given up 32 turnovers in just 9 games and that part of his game must change.

#9 – Devan Downey (South Carolina Gamecocks)

Devan Downey is a feisty little guy that has not gotten off to a great start this year, but is an excellent player. Downey has carried South Carolina over the last two year’s despite any big success as a team. Downey averaged 20 points, 5 assist, and led the SEC with 3 steals per game last season. Downey is currently averaging 17.6 point per game which is not bad at all considering he has struggled a bit in his most recent outings. However, he still has a good chance to reach 2,000 career points and flirt with 500 assist for his career. Keep an eye on this guy as his stock will rise before all is said and done.

#8 – Kemba Walker (Connecticut Huskies)

Kemba Walker is a guy that understands what it takes to be a point guard. He runs the Huskies offense very well and gets the ball to the right guys. Walker had a decent freshman campaign averaging 9 points and 3 assists per game, but he should improve those numbers a good bit this year. Walker has already had a couple big performances this year and is averaging 5.6 assists and 15 points per game not to mention shooting 50% from behind the arc. He has hinted that he can be a big time player, but may need to develop into a bigger scoring threat before he can really show all his potential.

#7 – Jon Scheyer (Duke Blue Devils)

Blue Devils senior guard Jon Scheyer may like some of the god gifted ability as some of our other guards on our list, but makes up for it with a great knowledge of the game and accurate shooting stroke. Scheyer is the only guy outside of Kyle Singler that returned to the Blue Devils roster this season that had quality playing time last year. So far Scheyer 16 points per game and a very solid 5.3 assists. Another interesting aspect that is growing attention is the fact of how well Scheyer handles the ball. Scheyer has just 5 turnovers in the Blue Devils first 8 games which should have Coach K pleased.

#6 – Nic Wise (Arizona Wildcats)

Despite a disastrous 4-5 start by the Wildcats, Nic Wise has continued to play well. Wise has posted 16 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game this season. The Wildcats senior is one of those guys that just goes out and puts up consistent numbers while rarely having any horrible performances. At the end of last year, Wise scored at least double digits in 14 of his last 15 outings. Wise also sports a career 3 point percentage over 40% which will help his draft status at the end of the year if he continues to play well.

#5 – Jerome Randle (California Golden Bears)

Jerome Randle is a 4 year starter that has reached his prime for the Golden Bears. In fact if California was among the top teams in the nation, Randle may be a household name. Randle not only led the team averaging 18 points last year; he also leads the team this season averaging nearly 20 points per game. Not only is Randle have an excellent touch of the ball, he really finds ways for his guys to get high percentage shots and carries a 5 assists per game average. It is also worth mentioning that Randle leads all of college basketball averaging 93.5% from the free-throw line.

#4 – Scottie Reynolds (Villanova Wildcats)

Scottie Reynolds is a guy that for some reason or another has not received a ton of praise in the national spotlight. Not to say he has not been given credit, but perhaps not as much as he deserves. Reynolds got really hot at the end of last year as has recently started getting hot again. On the year, the Wildcats senior is averaging 16 points, 4.2 assists, and 2 steals per game. Add to the fact Reynolds has scored at least 22 points in each of his last 3 outings, he may be a reason Villanova is another Cinderella type story again in March.

#3 – Kalin Lucas (Michigan State Spartans)

Kalin Lucas holds the top point guard spot in the Big Ten and his importance to the Spartans success is critical. Lucas now in his junior year is averaging 17 points per game with 4.5 assists. Lucas also not known for posting tremendous scoring numbers has shot the ball well this year especially behind the arc where he has knocked down 44% through his first 9 games. It was the Spartans last year who made a late charge in the NCAA Tournament capturing a shot at the National Title before falling to North Carolina. It was also Lucas has knocked down right at 20 points in both of the big games against Connecticut and Kansas during the tournament. Lucas has proved time and time again he is the guy to carry the Spartans when they need it as he will be for the rest of the year.

#2 – John Wall (Kentucky Wildcats)

John Wall is without any doubt the biggest impact freshman in the country and heads up an amazing group of youngsters at Kentucky that could contend for a National Title in John Calipari’s first year as coach. Wall has averaged 18 points per game and ranks 4th in the nation with 7.1 assists per game. Wall has the frame for like a small forward at 6’4, but excellent ball handling skills and ability to slice to the lane quickly. It also is worth mentioning that he has had some great performances against top notch competition like North Carolina and a season high 25 points in a 3 point win over Connecticut. Known a year ago as the #1 recruit in the nation, Wall is on his way to becoming the #1 player in the nation. The freshman has had a great start, but let’s let him prove he can keep it going.

#1 – Sherron Collins (Kansas Jayhawks)

Sherron Collins entered the season as the number 1 point guard in the nation, but he is feeling a lot of pressure from John Wall. However, Collins is an experienced senior that has proven himself in the big games and there is still a long season to be played. Collins is a following a junior campaign in which he averaged 19 points and 5 assist per game even though he is just averaging just 13 points and 4 assist through his first 9 games this season. The thing is that Collins has not had to do much yet this year with Xavier Henry shooting the ball so well, but expect that to change as the season progresses. Also, Collins is still the most complete point guard at this time and understands the game at the college level better than anyone.