We’re at the midway point for the NBA season. It’s All-Star weekend and the playoff push is about to begin. The Eastern Conference is a two team race between the defending champions, the Miami Heat, and the Indiana Pacers. The 8th seed for the Eastern conference, the Bobcats, don’t even have a winning record.   Every other team in the conference is basically irrelevant.  Miami is four games behind the Pacers for 1st place with a 35-14 record. Even though the Pacers are leading the pack in the Eastern Conference, they have split their two games with the Heat with two more games to come. In local news, the Wizards are hovering around .500 and are on track to make the playoffs for the first time since the departure of Agent Zero, Gilbert Arenas.

Unlike the Eastern Conference, the West is a much tighter conference and is seeing much higher level of play.  More than half of the teams in the West have a winning record, which will make for a competitive post-season. Leading the West is the 41-12 Oklahoma Thunder. The Thunder, Spurs, Trail Blazers and Clippers are hot on their trail, though. Any of these teams could take the first seed come May.  Conference play within the West will be great in the second half of the season.  I think it will be a rematch of the finals from 2012. The Thunder look great and Maryland native Kevin Durant seems unstoppable.  Similarly, the Heat will be able to pick up steam in the post-season and will beat the Pacers in the conference finals. The Heat will three-peat after beating the Thunder in six games.

In college-ball there is about a month left before Selection Sunday and 64 teams will be fighting to punch their ticket to the dance. There are a lot of familiar faces in the AP rankings including Duke, Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State, Louisville, Syracuse Florida and Kansas. Only two teams remain undefeated, ‘Cuse and Wichita State. Undefeated at 23-0, Syracuse still has a tough ACC schedule and it is unlikely that they will remain undefeated.  Wichita State has a cupcake schedule and has a good chance of running the table, though.

Although Maryland looked like it had a promising team at the beginning of the year, they have played awful throughout the season and, unless they perform better against ranked opponents and do well in the ACC tournament, it is unlikely that they’ll be picked for the Tournament. I hate to say it, but everyone better look out for Duke in the tournament

I’m not sure about Drew, but I’m already studying to make my March Madness bracket. Warren Buffet is offering $1,000,000,000 to anyone who makes a perfect bracket. That’s billion with a CAPITAL “B”. March Madness is near, and I’m pumped.