December’s bloodletting prepares teams for Final Four

There’s only one time of year more fun than the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and Final Four. And that time is right now.

December is filled with the high-profile interconference matchups that let college basketball fans find out which teams are for real and which are pretenders to the throne.

The early returns have been favorable for UCLA, which lost in last year’s final to Florida. The Bruins are a consensus No. 1 in both the AP and USA Today polls thanks to their 8-0 start. The latest win was a 65-62 victory over Texas A&M last Saturday in the John R. Wooden Classic in Anaheim. It was the third win over a ranked team for UCLA this year.

Darren Collison and Josh Shipp

One of those ranked teams was then-20th ranked Kentucky. The Wildcats are on the other end of the December spectrum with a record of 6-3 heading into Saturday’s showdown with Louisville. Kentucky’s three losses all came to ranked teams (Memphis and North Carolina were the others) but if the Wildcats expect to contend for a national title, they’ll have to show they can beat quality opponents.

Georgia Tech has faced a similar fate in the early going. The Yellowjackets were ranked 19th when they lost to UCLA and are now unranked at 6-3. Georgia Tech did beat Memphis, which was ranked 12th at the time, but lost to unranked Miami and Vanderbilt - the kind of losses that can cost a team a tournament berth.

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