The coolest weekly smorgasbord of college hoops, courtesy of the tireless Corky England.

With the annual coaching turnover in Division I, it’s rare that a change – especially a controversial one – works out best for all parties, but that seems to be the case with Tubby Smith’s jump from Kentucky to Minnesota.

The Gophers are one of the stories of the early season, moving to 9-0 in D-I games after “upsetting” (vastly overrated) Louisville, which had a short, weather-impacted turnaround for the matchup in Phoenix over the week. Minnesota is extremely balanced and hard-nosed, and building off of last season’s unexpected Big Ten surge. PG Al Nolen has really improved his decision-making and everyone else is benefiting. The change of scenery to Minneapolis also has helped Smith, whose biggest flaw (lack of national recruiting desire) isn’t nearly the same problem at Minnesota, which is improving simply by recruiting better in its underrated home market (and hurting programs like Wisconsin in the process).

Things also are looking up in Year 2 in Lexington, where Billy Gillispie’s Wildcats have two non-conference wins far better than anything they accomplished last season before the calendar turned. These Cats defend very well and they have Patrick Patterson back, which helps make them one of the nation’s best teams at scoring from inside the arc. They also have explosive guard Jodie Meeks, who went for 76 points over a game and a half this past week. The one huge issue keeping the Wildcats back is turnovers. They’re kicking away more than one possession in every four, which is awful. Who thought they’d actually miss Ramel Bradley?

With the current states of the SEC and Big Ten, the Wildcats are a pretty good bet to be dancing in March and the Gophers have a fair chance, as well. At a combined 17-3 and on the upswing, this looks like a classic (and literal) definition of a win-win situation.

The Few, the proud, the maxed-out program: This is probably the most talented team in the Mark Few era at Gonzaga, but that doesn’t mean the Zags will even get to the second weekend of the NCAAs – a place they have been only once in the past seven seasons. Simply put, the WCC, as good as it’s getting, is a limiting factor. Much like Saint Joe’s in 2004, Gonzaga needs to be virtually perfect to get proper NCAA seeding and they don’t schedule that way in non-conference play because of the WCC-ness on the back end. Few basically has maxed out in Spokane. Arizona is sitting there and Oregon, his alma mater with Phil Knight’s open checkbook, may come open after this season. Can Few be happy as long-term Queen of the National Anthill? It’s nice to build a legacy, but that only really works when the program either has the resources to win it all in any given year (Smith, Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Calhoun, etc.) or no chance at all.

SWAC: Spending Weekdays Aggregating Cash: When is enough going to be enough with the SWAC’s blatant cash grabs at the expense of non-conference competitiveness (and the pride of its athletes)? Budget concerns will always be a part of HBCU athletics, but the past few years have gotten embarrassing on the court. Currently, the league is 5-81 in D-I games and also has lost seven times to non-DI opponents. This isn’t basketball at this point. It’s fundraising. The SWAC needs to take a look at what the MEAC has done – hire more ambitious coaches (even those with illegal $30,000 payments to recruits’ families have prospered), schedule more smartly, and recruit better by actually selling basketball instead of the HBCU niche, which has limited cachet in today’s market. It’s not easy in the deep South for black colleges, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least try. Or else move to Division III. Anachronistic, non-playoff football programs and bands can play there, too.

The Death Penalty Might Actually Help: Speaking of awful, it’s hard to be a worse program at the semi-major conference level than Conference USA’s SMU. The Mustangs’ only two wins this season are against transitional D-I Houston Baptist and SWACky Alcorn State, and they’ve handed SWAC member Arkansas-Pine Bluff its lone victory. The Ponies actually lost twice to SWAC teams last season, which is almost impossible. The Ponies’ football program at least has an excuse – it was never able to recover from its temporary disbanding in the ’80s for rampant cheating. Is it possible to fall any farther in hoops (without Dave Bliss-style drug raps on dead players) than Matt Doherty’s descent from North Carolina to this? It’s a shame the Dallas area doesn’t have any hoops talent to tap into to get the rebuilding process underway … oh, wait.

Caught Redbird-handed: After finishing second in the MVC last season but getting snubbed for the NCAAs mostly due to not having any significant non-conference work, you’d think Illinois State would have learned its lesson. Apparently not. Sure, the Redbirds didn’t expect to be 11-0 at this point (with a win at SMU!), especially with back-in-the-fold forward Bobby Hill still out injured, but if they don’t win the Valley auto bid, is the NCAA committee supposed to be impressed with wins over UC Santa Barbara and Illinois-Chicago? Despite its unbeaten record, ISU more or less needs to win the league’s regular-season crown to have legitimate NCAA aspirations. That’s not a thin margin for error. That’s an anorexic one.

Moneyballers: The Mountain West has two primary legacies to this point: 1) The cash-created spinoff from the 16-team WAC helped created the monstrosity that is the play-in game (A.K.A. the NEC-HBCU Challenge); and 2) It got the short end of the BCS football stick, as Boise State and Hawaii have CTC’d in the BCS in recent seasons. That doesn’t mean the league can’t ball, and this season could be the best in recent memory. Both BYU and UNLV are very good and very underrated. They’re going to be chased by a dangerous San Diego State team that can be imposing when Lorrenzo Wade is actually on the floor. And don’t ignore Utah, which out-Cinderella’d Boise in football and has a basketball team that seemingly can beat anyone (Oregon and Ole Miss) and lose to anyone (Idaho State? Southwest Baptist??!).

X marks the missing offense: Saturday’s obliteration at the hands of Duke wasn’t necessary to mention that this year’s version of top-10 Xavier isn’t the equal of last season’s Elite Eight squad, but it’s an easy device (especially after the fact). The X-men still have good balance and excellent team defense, but this season’s offense is comprised solely of complementary players. There’s no Josh Duncan to score or Drew Lavender to create or Stanley Burrell getting to the basket in transition. Unless someone emerges to raise the whole team’s level, the collective lack of potency will catch up with Xavier when it plays Top 25-caliber opponents who can score. Their biggest win this season, over Memphis, was against a team that can’t.

Odds and ends: Terrific bounceback for Syracuse at Memphis, without the suspended Eric Devendorf. And you didn’t believe in karma … The Big South standings, with VMI at 9-2 and Winthrop at 1-8, look upside-down. Equally confusing is figuring out whether it’s Travis or Chavis Holmes who is filling up the bucket for the hyper-tempo Keydets, who own a Rupp romp this season. … There are a lot of reasons to like Pitt, but teams that end up in low-scoring grinder games can be a concern come one-and-done season. Very few teams will match Pitt’s frontcourt muscle, but Levance Fields must stay healthy and perimeter scoring remains a concern for a team that consistently smacks into the Sweet 16 glass ceiling. … Don’t look now, but Wake Forest, ridiculously ranked 24th in the preseason, is unbeaten and No. 6 in the land. Two solid road victories will help this young team be ready for ACC play, where they legitimately could finish second.