Now Is Time to Separate Men From Boys

It’s time for a conference call.

Eleven teams have survived into late December unbeaten -- Alabama, Butler, Clemson, Connecticut, Creighton, Duke, Georgetown, Illinois, Pittsburgh, St. Joseph’s and Wake Forest -- but nobody expects any of them to make it through the rigors of conference play unscathed.

With the old family squabbles just ahead, here’s a look at the landscape in selected leagues:

ATLANTIC COAST

Top team: Duke. The rather untested Blue Devils -- sorry, the UCLA game doesn’t count -- figure to get better. And they’re already No. 1 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll after Arizona’s stumble without Luke Walton against Louisiana State. Get to know freshmen J.J. Redick, Shavlik Randolph and Shelden Williams.

Troubled team: Maryland. The defending champions aren’t the same group that won the title, and they’re already 0-3 against teams currently in the rankings, with losses to Indiana, Notre Dame and Florida. But slow starts are nothing new to the Terrapins. “When we have a stretch like this, everybody thinks we’re going to go 8-20 or something ridiculous like that,” slumping shooting guard Drew Nicholas said. The Terrapins will manage to stay in the ACC’s upper echelon, but it’s hard to say where.

Intriguing team: North Carolina. Wake Forest and Clemson are undefeated and North Carolina State is another fringe top-25 team. But it’s the Tar Heels -- the team that did go 8-20 last season -- who bear watching as freshmen Rashad McCants, Raymond Felton and Sean May navigate their first ACC season.

BIG EAST

Top team: Pittsburgh. The Panthers are poised to spend some time at No. 1 in a season when no team is likely to hang onto the spot for too long. Point guard Brandin Knight leads five starters back from the top-10 team that was upset by Kent State in the Sweet 16. The Big East’s West Division is the stronger, with Pittsburgh facing challenges from Notre Dame and possibly Syracuse and Georgetown. The East should belong to Connecticut and its rebounder and shot-blocker, Emeka Okafor.

Troubled team: Miami. The Hurricanes are only 4-4 after going 24-8 last season, but Darius Rice remains a tantalizing talent.

Intriguing team: Notre Dame. That Irish sweep of Maryland, Marquette and Texas announced that Notre Dame basketball matters again. The only loss is to Creighton -- which might mean the Bluejays are really good.

BIG TEN

Top team: Is it Indiana, coming off a trip to the Final Four with its only loss so far to Kentucky, after Coach Mike Davis boiled over? Or is it Illinois, with freshman point guard Dee Brown helping Brian Cook and the rest of the Illini blow out North Carolina and Missouri?

Troubled team: Michigan. With a hunk of their history purged in the Fab Five NCAA scandal, the Wolverines haven’t been writing new chapters by losing to Central Michigan and Western Michigan, though they’ve recovered some lately. Note to UCLA: It would be a good idea to win this one Saturday at Pauley.

Intriguing team: Michigan State. Losses to Villanova and Oklahoma State raised doubts, but winning at Kentucky suggests this team might give Oklahoma a run Jan. 4.

BIG 12

Top team: Oklahoma. Kansas lost its claim, at least temporarily, with losses to North Carolina, Florida and Oregon. We’ll soon find out how good Oklahoma is, despite losing Aaron McGhee from their Final Four team: The Sooners, whose only loss is to Alabama, play top-25 teams Mississippi State and Michigan State in the next nine days.

Troubled team: Kansas. It’s a little bit of a stretch to say the Jayhawks are in trouble, but they are by the standards in Lawrence, Kan. The easy victory over UCLA helped ease the strain, but a good conference start and a strong showing against Arizona on Jan. 25 are important for a team once ranked No. 2 after reaching the Final Four last season.

Intriguing team: Texas Tech. Andre Emmett, the high-scoring star of Bob Knight’s Red Raider team, should challenge the Kansas and Oklahoma stars for Big 12 player of the year.

CONFERENCE USA

Top team: Marquette. Dwyane Wade plays like a pro and has scored 20 points or more in six of eight games. And under Tom Crean, a Tom Izzo disciple, Marquette plays defense and rebounds too.

Troubled team: Cincinnati. It’s hard to tell which way the Bearcats are going. They blew out Oregon but followed that by losing to Clemson.

Intriguing team: Louisville. After his team won the last four games by an average of almost 33 points, Coach Rick Pitino scheduled two-a-day practices -- even on Christmas Day -- heading into Saturday’s showdown with Kentucky. Pitino isn’t the only former Wildcat zeroed in on this game. Center Marvin Stone, who transferred last season, recorded double-doubles in his first two games as a Cardinal leading into the Louisville-Kentucky game.

MISSOURI VALLEY

Top team: Creighton. The Bluejays are really the only MVC team to talk about -- and the only team to beat Notre Dame. Kyle Korver’s bunch is a proven NCAA threat after upsetting Florida in the first round last season.

For what it’s worth, the Jeff Sagarin computer ratings for USA Today recently put Creighton at No. 1. That seems a stretch, but the Bluejays aren’t to be taken lightly.

MOUNTAIN WEST

Top team: It’s wide open, now that Wyoming’s Marcus Bailey is out for the season because of a knee injury. Brigham Young, Colorado State, Nevada Las Vegas, Utah and Wyoming all have hopes.

Troubled team: New Mexico. The only good news lately is extraordinary: Guard Senque Carey, partially paralyzed for a time after an on-court fall, is walking again.

Intriguing team: San Diego State. By March, the mix of players who originally signed elsewhere -- Evan Burns from UCLA and Travis Hanour from Arizona among them -- might be a real threat.

PACIFIC 10

Top team: Arizona. The Pac-10 lacks the depth of recent years, with Arizona and Oregon clearly a step ahead of everyone else. The Wildcats were gutty without Walton, edging Texas on big plays by Jason Gardner, then coming from 15 down in the second half against Louisiana State before losing by one.

Arizona can’t weather the Pac-10 without Walton, but he is expected back from his ankle injury soon.

Oregon, despite its confounding blowout loss to Cincinnati, appears to be the only team to challenge Arizona -- and the biggest game is early, when Arizona plays at Oregon on Jan. 2.

Troubled team: UCLA. It’s too obvious to discuss.

Intriguing team: Stanford. Who can figure out the Cardinal? Stanford beat Xavier and Florida, then lost to North Carolina, Montana and Richmond -- the last two at home.

A telling game will come Saturday against Gonzaga.

SOUTHEASTERN

Top team: Alabama. Former UCLA assistant Mark Gottfried’s team ascended to No. 1 in the Associated Press poll for the first time in school history after Arizona’s loss to Louisiana State.

Troubled team: Florida. The Gators have a fabulous freshman in Matt Walsh, but they needed overtime to beat Miami and had to rally from 10 down to beat Charleston Southern.

Intriguing teams: LSU, Georgia. LSU knocked Arizona from the unbeatens and has a find in former junior college player of the year Jaime Lloreda, a Panamanian.

Georgia is on the rise now that center Steve Thomas has returned from academic ineligibility.

WESTERN ATHLETIC

Top team: Tulsa. Since the start of the 1999-2000 season, Tulsa has won 90 games -- second in the nation behind Duke’s 100. Cincinnati is third with 89 and Gonzaga has 88.

Guard Jason Parker has been leading the way for a team that has lost only to Kansas.

Troubled team: Texas El Paso. Already struggling, UTEP has lost senior forward Roy Smallwood for the season because of a knee injury.

Intriguing team: Hawaii has been receiving votes in the ESPN/USA Today poll.

WEST COAST

Top team: Gonzaga has been a puzzlement. Guard Blake Stepp has excellent scoring ability and the front line is versatile.

The Bulldogs have lost to Indiana, Kentucky and Georgia -- no shame in those -- but more shockingly, needed overtime to defeat Washington and Washington State and had to come from behind against Eastern Washington.

Troubled team: Pepperdine. The Waves once looked like an NCAA tournament team, but health concerns have wiped out that promise. Forward Glen McGowan is out for the season because of a blood clot in his arm, and center Will Kimble is out for the season because of a heart condition likely to end his career.

Intriguing team: Gonzaga -- despite San Diego’s early bid with an upset of UCLA that no longer looks so remarkable.