The NBA season is about halfway finished. All-star weekend is coming up this week, and it’s time to review the first half and look forward to the second half. The West should win the all-star game. The bench for the East, although it includes hometown favorite John Wall, is extremely weak. Then again, there is no defense played in the all-star game so I could be completely wrong. Looking ahead to the second half of the season, the Western Conference is packed with quality teams. Oklahoma City, Portland, and San Antonio are my favorites to earn the top-three seeds out West.

The East is less than impressive. Indiana and Miami will clearly battle for the top spot and, with my hometown bias, I am hoping the Wizards can pull out that three seed. Either way, the only two possible title contenders from the East are Miami and Indiana. I think the Heat makes it back to the championship for the East, and although I could see a number of teams from the West making it to the championship, I think Oklahoma City makes it out because Kevin Durant is playing out of his mind. Speaking of Kevin Durant, he is my pick for MVP. The race is between him and LeBron, but the way Durant has carried his team in the absence of Russell Westbrook shows his true dominance. The scoring streak he went on recently was unprecedented, and I think he can keep up his numbers throughout the whole season.

The college basketball season is a month away from selection Sunday, the most anticipated day in college basketball. The season has taken some interesting twists and turns so far. For starters, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels have been the most disappointing team in the country. They had high hopes going into the season to compete for an ACC title, but that is not going to happen as they sit in 6th place. They need a serious push in this last month just to make the tournament. Sticking in the ACC, Boston College is in their third year under coach Steve Donahue. They returned four-of-five starters from last year’s team and a number of other players off the bench. It was expected that they could make the tournament this year, but they sit at 6-15 and have almost no chance at making it.

Some teams to look out for are obviously number one Syracuse, who at 22-0 have the talent to finish the season undefeated, and Florida, who moved up to number three in the rankings this week and haven’t lost since December 3rd. Wichita State is also undefeated, and I could see them making a Final Four run like they did last year but not a championship run. If I had to pick an NCAA champion right now, I would pick the Florida Gators.