Sully's court

Boston Globe sports editor Joe Sullivan will provide weekly insights on men's college basketball until the champion is crowned at the Final Four in Atlanta.

Opening tip: Thoughts from Tuesday night's games>
Not exactly, the ACC-Big 10 challenge. Are this games necessary? Florida 83, Southern 27; Kansas 83, Dartmouth 32.

A team I could be wrong about: Maryland. Saw them against Vermont and wasn't that impressed. After Tuesday night's win at Ilinois, I'll have to take another look at the Terps. It also means I'll have to take another look at their 6-5 freshman point guard from Venezuela, Greivis Vasquez. He played OK the night I saw him but looks like he might be more than OK. He comes off the bench but definitely has some pizz-azz.

Random observations:
The five best freshmen I've seen so far (this will change throughout the season because we have seen everybody yet).

Chase Budinger, Arizona
Kevin Durant, Texas
Daquan Cook, Ohio State
Raymar Morgan, Michigan State
Matt Bouldin, Gonzaga.

The road trip UMass is on has to be the most unusual in the school's history: Jacksonville State of Alabama on Saturday night and Savannah State in Georgia Tuesday night. It's creative and it produced two victories.

Five on the rise
Arkansas: The Hogs, relying on great team quickness, won a decent, eight-team tournament at Disney World.

Marquette: The Fightin' McGuires have one of the best backcourts in the United States.

Wichita State: The Shockers proved they are authentic by winning at LSU.

UCLA: Bruins looked like a national championship contender by winning at Maui (and moved into my Final Four).

Butler: Unimaginable that the Bulldogs would beat Notre Dame, Indiana, Tennessee, and Gonzaga consecutively to win a tournament but they did.

Five falling
BC: Two bad losses (Vermont and Providence) make people doubt the Eagles.

LSU: Lost at home to Wichita. If it happened on the road or a neutral court it would be forgivable.

George Mason: Reality check for last year's Cinderella with losses to Wichita and Creighton.

Kentucky: The Wildcats return from Maui 1-2. At this minute, Tubby Smith is still the coach.

George Washington: The Colonials' 22-game regular-season winning streak ended Sunday.

This week's George Mason
How about Holy Cross? The Crusaders lost to Syracuse but they fought to the end. This could be a big year in Worcester.

Sully's rant
I'm so happy with exempt tournaments I've got nothing to complain about (unless you want to talk about bad offensive fouls).

This week's Final Four: Florida, Pittsburgh, UCLA, Ohio State
This week's National Champion: Florida