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Here’s an aggregate of Top 25 basketball teams according to various national hoops gurus, thoughtfully compiled by Rush the Court. It’s never too soon to start speculating.

Sure, it’s a little early. But that doesn’t stop brave souls like Gary Parrish and Jeff Goodman from making their lists and sticking the Kansas Jayhawks at the very top. The other usual suspects are in play as well: UCLA, UNC, Duke, with Michigan State, Purdue, and ‘Nova also appearing high.

What makes KU’s prospects intriguing is that Bill Self is currently in the hunt for at least one more addition to an already-stacked recruiting class. For my money, he picks up #1 recruit Xavier Henry. Other recruits up for grabs after Calipari’s move to Kentucky include Lance Stevenson, John Wall, and maybe Daniel Orton. Pick up any one (conceivably two) of these guys, and you’re looking at a KU team that would be in “undefeated” conversations.

Let it be noted that the national AP player of the year (Blake Griffin) and the national AP coach of the year (Bill Self) are both from the same conference. And that conference is…cough cough…the Big 12.

Moreover, even though media pundits on the East and West coasts routinely ignore the Big 12′s toughness and strength of schedule, coaches are beginning to wise up.

Mike Anderson turned down overtures from Alabama and Georgia to ink a new seven-year deal at Missouri.

And Oklahoma’s Jeff Capel, one of the country’s hottest coaches, sought after for vacancies at Georgia, Virginia, Arizona and Memphis, is about to sign a new contract at OU instead.

Wake up, America. A new power hoops conference is rising. Fear us.

This guy is hilarious, and captures the reason I have Duke losing to Texas and North Carolina losing to Butler. If I had the time, I’d write a column just like this.

Picking against Duke just because you hate Duke is ridiculous — except that in this space in 2006, I correctly used that theory to pick VCU to beat Duke in the first round. And in 2007, I correctly used that theory to pick West Virginia to beat Duke in the second round. It is, in fact, my single most successful strategy over the past few years. So until I’m proven wrong, I’ll stick with the “hate” approach. (And, let’s be honest: It is SO much more fun that way. It’s hating Duke! It’s watching them lose! It’s earning office-pool points on your bracket for hating Duke and watching them lose!)

Worked for me the last couple years as well! Also, the bit about getting gunned down by your 3-yr-old rings true. Aidan always beats me, and his strategy is devised entirely of choosing the better mascot. Some things are just not right in this world.

For those of you hip enough to care about such things, I’ve started up the 2009 NCAA Tournament Bracket grist mill over at my other blog. In the days ahead, I will try (sort of) but likely not prevent the frenzied prognosticating from spilling over onto this site.

Several people lately have gently reminded me that I haven’t posted anything but basketball news on here lately, and since blogging is good for me as well as my readers (ok, debatable), I’ve resolved to write something of more substance soon. Until then…rock chalk…start planning your bracket strategy.