3-Pointers: 18-game leagues get conference play going

Sporting News' Mike DeCourcy analyzes what Monday's buzz means to college basketball. Eighteen and I like it This doubleheader should teach us something. At 7 Tuesday night, ESPN2 will provide the opportunity for all of us to watch unbeaten Kentucky torture another low-major victim, in this case 2-9 Hartford. At 9, Penn State will be at Minnesota in the Big Ten opener for both. So what lesson should we take from this? What a wonder the 18-game conference schedule has been. In 12-team leagues with 16-game schedules, they'll mostly be fooling around for a few more weeks—getting exercise and building up their won-loss records. In the Big East, Big Ten and Pac-10, they'll be playing important games this week against high-level opponents. Your No. 1 and No. 2 teams, Kansas and Texas, face Belmont and Gardner-Webb, respectively, on this particular evening. Meanwhile, fellow unbeatens Syracuse (at Seton Hall) and West Virginia (home against Marquette) will deal wi...