Now that I have the basic technical stuff worked out... on to other topics. The biggest story of the year in the college game is Duke-UConn. Their first match-up was a good game -- both teams (especially Duke) were pretty nervous, but still some great play. And the biggest sub-story of the year is the Wade Trophy race: should it be Taurasi or Beard?

Nancy Lieberman says here that she thinks it's a very close race, but Taurasi has the edge right now. I think that's probably right. But I'm not sure I agree with Nancy's reasons. Nancy says Taurasi is better because she is playing with a bunch of young and inexperienced players. It's true that UConn's team is young, but are the players around Taurasi worse than the players around Beard? In other words, if Duke and UConn played without Beard and Taurasi, who would win? No way to know, but I think UConn would have the edge. They are young, but it's amazing how far they've come already this year. That was the really story of the UConn win over Duke -- UConn on Febrary 1 was a much better team than it was in November. Strother, Turner, Moore, Battle, and the rest have already turned into great young players. Credit their amazing basketball talent, and also credit Geno's coaching.

That's why, of late, Diana hasn't been pulling down as many points -- she doesn't need to, because she can rely on the others (plus, she's taken it easy lately on minutes to rest sore legs).

Still, I think that as of right now, D deserves the Wade. In large part, simply because she won on February 1. Beard made an amazing, almost single-handed comeback near the end.... but really, from the looks of it, there was no way Taurasi was gonna lose that game. She's good enough to control the outcome against the other top teams and other top players. She is the best player in the country.

But in the end, this really won't be settled till March Madness is over...