The best memories of this season now concluded

Kansas just finished cutting down the Alamodome nets, but it's not too soon to sum up the 2007-08 season and sneak a peak at next year.

Without further ado, here's what we learned during the five months between North Carolina being No. 1 in the preseason and Bill Self winning his first NCAA title.

The season will be remembered nationally as … The Year of the Freshman. If Derrick Rose, Eric Gordon, Michael Beasley, Kevin Love and O.J. Mayo had opted to become this generation's version of the "Fab Five," nobody would've come within 20 points of them in the NCAA Tournament.

At least, that's presuming Gordon and Mayo would have allowed Rose to run the show. He's the only one of the bunch who could have kept everybody happy.

This season will be remembered in Big Ten country for … Kelvin Sampson's Indiana shenanigans. He ruined a potentially special year and set back the program a few seasons. Of course, his recruiting issues enabled the Hoosiers to be in position for something great in the first place.

He constructed a team that started the season 17-1 and jumped all the way to No. 7 in the polls.

Three weeks after Sampson was fired for his lack of ethics, the Hoosiers finished with an NCAA Tournament first-round flameout against Arkansas.

After screwing up with its Sampson hire, Indiana didn't deserve to find a coach of Tom Crean's caliber. The Hoosiers will be back soon.

This season will be remembered locally for … Not much. For just the second time in 33 seasons, our state's 12 Division I programs were shut out of the NCAA Tournament.

Oh, OK, I'll pick something. I liked Josh Mayo's deadeye shooting at UIC, Darquavis Tucker's and Mac Koshwal's coming-out party at DePaul, and Demetri McCamey's season-long progress at Illinois.

Best game I saw: Indiana's 83-79 double-overtime win at Illinois on Feb. 7.

The crowd was profane and obnoxious, and the Illini were about as good as they'd been all year, but Eric Gordon was just a little bit better and luckier.

He banked in a 28-footer with 24 seconds left to force overtime.

Worst game I (thankfully) didn't see: It's a tie between DePaul's 96-93 home loss to North Carolina A&T -- a team that finished tied for fifth in the MEAC -- and Illinois' 60-58 home loss to Tennessee State -- a team that finished tied for fifth in the Ohio Valley.

Best pregame tradition: DePaul's pre-introductions video featuring its seniors and coach Jerry Wainwright hanging out at the school's "L" stop.

Best message board thread: If you like Fark or Photoshop images in general, you'll love this Ed Hightower-inspired thread on Kansas' Scout.com site.

Twenty pages' worth of humor that was inspired by one of Hightower's flamboyant calls in Kansas' overtime win against Missouri on Jan. 19: http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?S=172#s=172&f=3725&t=1884620&p=1

Preseason No. 1 this November: Presuming all of the fabulous freshmen move on to the NBA, then it's North Carolina.

But if Associated Press Player of the Year Tyler Hansbrough (don't blame me, I voted for Michael Beasley) decides to turn pro, then go with Texas.