Love ‘em:
1. Indiana: These days it’s hard to fight for the Cream and Crimson because the glory is waning, but they are still my first love in college sports. The addiction began as I would trek across the yard to my grandparents’ neighbors house to watch sports on their satellite dish. They were big Hoosier fans and had a nephew who played on IU’s 1953 National Championship team.

2. Western Carolina: My alma mater’s hoops team hasn’t fared much better than their pigskin peers. You may remember the Catamounts as the team that came the closest #16-seed to almost defeat a #1-seed as they missed two shots in the final seconds against Purdue in the 1996 tourney.

3. Texas Tech: This affinity grew when St. Robert Montgomery Knight was named head coach in 2001. My wife and I stopped in Lubbock to see a Red Raiders game while moving across the country in January 2008. Little did we know that we would witness the General’s last career technical foul before he retired on February 4, 2008. Guns up!

4. University of Illinois at Chicago: My other alma mater is probably the most crooked college basketball team you’ve never heard of, thanks to Jimmy Collins -a former Lou Henson disciple. In the early 2000s he landed what was lauded by many as one of the top 20 recruiting classes in all of college basketball. Too bad only one of the six players qualified academically.

5. Duke: The love of the University of New Jersey at Durham basketball team stems from my utter hatred for all things periwinkle blue (see #1 under Hate ‘em).

Hate ‘em:
1. University of North Carolina: This is the only school I know of whose fans and alumni brag about the number of Final Fours they’ve lost. Do you know why God made the sky Carolina blue? So we wouldn’t have to step in it.

2. “The” Ohio State University: Two words: Lawrence Funderburke.

3. Kentucky: A.K.A. Kuntucky. They do produce some damn fine bourbon.

4. Illinois: Never has a college basketball program with so much accomplished so little.

5. Michigan: The so-called Fab Five were 1-and-3 against the Hoosiers - oops, make that 0-and-4 since they had to forfeit those games because of illegal payments to Chris Webber.

6. Kansas: KU is joined at the nose with UNC. Dean Smith played there. Roy Williams coached there. Indiana is undefeated against both schools in the National Championship game.

7. Appalachian State: A Catamount is trained to hate all things from this vocational school in Boone.

8. Purdue: Directions from Bloomington - go north until you smell it, then go west until you step in it. One may ask why a died in the wool Hoosier would not list Undue Perversity as the #1 hate ‘em. The answer: Gene Keady’s comb over.