Hot, not as March roars in

March arrives this week, and with it the headlong plunge into madness that will culminate in the NCAA championship game April 2 in Atlanta.

It’s almost time to start looking for this season’s George Mason. (Here’s a hint: It’s not George Mason. The Patriots are 15-14 and coming off a 23-point loss to Northeastern.)

But first, here are our picks for the best and worst of the season so far.

Player of the year

1. Kevin Durant, Texas

2. Nick Fazekas, Nevada

3. Alando Tucker, Wisconsin

Hard to believe that in November the player-of-the-year talk was about Florida’s Joakim Noah and North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough.

Durant clearly deserves to become the first freshman ever to win a major national player-of-the-year award.

He has scored 30 or more points seven times, and 20 or more 23 times. He has 17 double-doubles, and began the week as the only player in the country ranked in the top five in scoring and rebounding, with averages of 24.7 points and 11.3 rebounds.

In the last 25 years, only eight players have finished in the top five in both categories in the same season -- David Robinson, Xavier McDaniel and Hank Gathers among them.

Durant, a lanky 6-foot-9 slasher who hits the boards more than Tracy McGrady -- the player he is most often compared to -- has made as many as five three-pointers in a game.

Texas Tech Coach Bob Knight made it clear he doesn’t care for the NBA minimum-age rule that could create a host of one-and-done players -- Durant could be a top-two pick in this year’s NBA draft if he comes out -- but he has called Durant’s performance this season “exceptional.”

He should: Durant had a 37-point and 23-rebound game against Knight’s team.

Fazekas plays in a lesser league, but his numbers aren’t terribly far behind. He averages 20.9 points and 11.4 rebounds for 26-2 Nevada, proving good things can happen to players who go back to school after testing their NBA stock and finding it wanting.

And hardly anyone is a better advertisement for a senior leader than Wisconsin’s Tucker.

Still, in a season when Ohio State’s Greg Oden was supposed to be the freshman of the year, no one in any class has been as good as Durant.

“Remarkable,” Texas Coach Rick Barnes said. “I don’t think in my wildest imagination I thought it would happen that way.”

Coach of the year

1. Tony Bennett, Washington State

2. Thad Matta, Ohio State

3. Seth Greenberg, Virginia Tech

The hiring of Bennett to succeed his father, Dick Bennett, might have made some people uncomfortable over nepotism issues, but no one can argue the point on merit: Tony might be better than his dad was, and his dad took Wisconsin to the 2000 Final Four.

Coaches around the Pacific 10 Conference say they knew Washington State wouldn’t finish last in the league as predicted -- Washington Coach Lorenzo Romar noted the Cougars swept his Sweet 16 team last season -- but no one predicted a season in which Washington State would rise to No. 9 in the Associated Press poll.

Ohio State’s Matta has the Buckeyes No. 1 in both polls with a freshman center and a freshman point guard -- Oden and Mike Conley Jr. -- and deserves enormous credit for getting them both to campus when many coaches made the mistake of assuming Oden would jump from high school to the NBA before the rule change, even though he insisted he was going to college all along.

Greenberg, the former Long Beach State coach now battling in the Atlantic Coast Conference, engineered a victory at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium and a sweep of North Carolina in the same season. Enough said.

Busts of the year

1. Louisiana State

2. Connecticut

3. Alabama

LSU lost Tyrus Thomas from its Final Four team but had Glen “Big Baby” Davis back, then plunged from No. 5 in the preseason poll to out of the rankings. The Tigers are 15-13, and a stunning 4-10 in the Southeastern Conference -- though they managed to upset defending NCAA champion Florida last week.

Connecticut, which lost to the NBA much of a team many believed should have gone to the Final Four last season, faked its way through an easy schedule to an 11-0 start but has gone 6-11 since, partly because A.J. Price hasn’t been the leader the Huskies needed at the point.

Alabama, No. 11 before the season, has been beset by the tragedies affecting Jermareo Davidson, whose girlfriend and brother died earlier this season, and injuries to star guard Ronald Steele. The Crimson Tide is 19-9, but only 6-8 in the SEC.

Pac-10 player of the year

1. Arron Afflalo, UCLA

2. Darren Collison, UCLA

3. Aaron Brooks, Oregon

Collison stepped into Jordan Farmar’s position at the point far better than it seemed reasonable to hope, and leads the league in three-point percentage and steals and is second in assists.

But Afflalo remains what UCLA Coach Ben Howland called “the heart and soul of this team” with his combination of big shots and defensive ability.

Brooks is Oregon’s big-shot player -- and leads the Pac-10 in scoring at 18 points a game, half a point ahead of Afflalo and less than a point ahead of USC’s Nick Young.

‘Turnaround’ coach of the year

1. Gregg Marshall, Winthrop

2. Bob Huggins, Kansas State

3. Bobby Cremins, College of Charleston

Marshall took the College of Charleston job last year, then reneged and went back to Winthrop, doing what is known in South Carolina as “pulling a Bobby Cremins.”

Then Cremins -- remembered for reneging after taking the South Carolina job when he was at Georgia Tech -- took the College of Charleston job.

Winthrop, whose only losses are to North Carolina, Maryland, Wisconsin and Texas A&M;, is 26-4 and hoping to land in the NCAA tournament by either winning the Big South tournament or being selected for an at-large berth.

Cremins’ Charleston team is 20-10, and hoping to win the Southern Conference tournament to make the NCAA field.

Huggins, the former Cincinnati coach, has Kansas State on the NCAA bubble despite playing most of the season without freshman standout Bill Walker.

Worst use of team gear

Police reports obtained by the Spokane Spokesman-Review newspaper regarding the drug-possession arrest of Gonzaga player Josh Heytvelt allege that officers found several muffins containing hallucinogenic mushrooms in a 2006 “Battle in Seattle -- Gonzaga University” backpack with Heytvelt’s name and jersey number embroidered on the front.

Conference of the year

1. Atlantic Coast

2. Pacific 10

3. Southeastern

The Pac-10 lost some of its early sparkle with Arizona’s home loss to North Carolina, Washington’s loss at Pittsburgh and UCLA’s loss at West Virginia, although the Bruins’ loss was without Collison in the lineup. Stanford’s victory at Virginia was a plus, but this debate will best be settled by what happens in the NCAA tournament.

(Crummy) teammate of the year

Illinois guard Jamar Smith was charged with drunk driving after leaving the scene of an accident, abandoning injured teammate Brian Carlwell -- perhaps believing he had died, according to authorities in Champaign County, Ill.

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The Times rankings

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Robyn Norwood’s college basketball top 25:

*--* Rk Team (Rec.) Comment 1 UCLA (25-3) We’re not homers. We just agree with the RPI on this one. 2 OHIO STATE (26-3) The guess is Buckeyes might not win rematches vs. North Carolina, Florida. 3 KANSAS (26-4) Jayhawks’ lead-blowing reminds us of team’s recent tournament struggles. 4 NORTH CAROLINA (24-5) Question is, will the Tar Heels live up to their ability? 5 WISCONSIN (26-4) Losing at Ohio State by one is not so bad, but losing Brian Butch is bad. 6 FLORIDA (25-5) Remember, Gators faltered in February in NCAA title season too. 7 TEXAS A&M; (24-4) Josh Carter’s 51.8% three-point percentage is the best in nation. 8 MEMPHIS (25-3) Lack of competition and 62% free-throw shooting are concerns. 9 GEORGETOWN (22-6) The Hoyas beat Pitt, then stumbled at Syracuse. 10 WASH. STATE (23-5) It seems so odd: crucial late-season games in Pullman. 11 PITTSBURGH (25-5) Center Aaron Gray’s recovery from ankle injury is helping the Panthers. 12 NEVADA (26-2) Wolf Pack is only playing for seeding in WAC tournament. 13 SO. ILLINOIS (25-5) Lowery, 34, was youngest coach in NCAA tournament last two years. 14 DUKE (22-7) Freshman Jon Scheyer has been bright spot for the Blue Devils. 15 TEXAS (21-7) Durant is only one of four freshman starters for the Longhorns. 16 VIRGINIA TECH (20-8) Hokies are in three-way tie for first in the ACC with Carolina and Virginia. 17 NOTRE DAME (22-6) Freshman point guard Tory Jackson helped pull off win over Marquette. 18 USC (21-8) Defensive field-goal percentage is still an impressive 37.9% 19 OREGON (22-7) Tajuan Porter is the Pac-10’s best free-throw shooter at 92.3%. 20 MARQUETTE (22-8) Golden Eagles have lost four of five going into game against Pitt. 21 VANDERBILT (19-9) Kevin Stallings is a good choice for SEC coach of the year. 22 BUTLER (26-5) Wright State tied Butler for the Horizon League regular-season title. 23 MARYLAND (22-7) D.J. Strawberry, Darryl’s son, is ACC player of the week for second week . 24 LOUISVILLE (21-8) Pitino’s Derby hopeful got hurt, but he has a horse in this race. 25 WINTHROP (26-4) A 16-game winning streak is worth a nod.

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