NCAA Basketball: Overrated Kansas, dominant Virginia, and more takeaways

The first week of  NCAA Basketball conference play has produced plenty of exciting action and upsets. Here are the 8 biggest takeaways from this week’s games.

Conference play officially began everywhere this week and, with it, came some of the high-profile matchups that make the sport so great.

Following a week in which all of the top 10 teams stayed the same, the rankings will look very different next week. 10 different ranked teams lost including Nevada, who was blown out 85-58 by New Mexico to knock them from the ranks of the unbeaten.

That result is just the latest showcase of the parity that has reigned throughout the sport this year. Outside of the very top teams, everyone is extremely beatable – and that will make for an extremely exciting season.

However, the story of the week came out of Westwood when UCLA fired head coach Steve Alford. The Bruins were 7-6 and on a four-game losing streak after getting blown out by Liberty and, given the way they were playing, it was clear Alford was not in control of the team anymore.

A change needed to be made and the Bruins made it, turning to assistant Murry Bartow for the remainder of the season.

That change appears to have sparked a lifeless UCLA team. The Bruins are now 2-0 in Pac-12 play following wins over Stanford and Cal this week and – better yet – both wins came by double-digits. The Pac-12 is as up-in-the-air as any conference in the country. The Bruins have enough talent on the roster to win the league.

I don’t know if they’ll be able to maintain this level to play but it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch for the rest of the season.

And, no, I don’t think they should listen to Bill Walton’s advice and hire Barack Obama to be their next head coach.

What else did all of this week’s action tell us? Here are my eight biggest takeaways in this week’s Rauf Report.