Early Season Notes: On the court and on the recruiting trails.

#1 Kansas barely escaped Memphis in Josh Pastner's head coaching debut in an ugly shooting, offensive struggle for both teams.

#2 Michigan State almost lost as well, at home to Gonzaga.

#3 Texas won big, but only against Western Carolina.

And of course, #4 Kentucky squeaked past a smokin' hot-shooting Miami (Oh) team at the buzzer.

The only conclusion that I can come up with at this early stage of the season is that there aren't any dominant teams at this stage. There is no team that will dominate an entire season like North Carolina did a year ago as the pre-season #1 and eventual National Champion. Kansas and Kentucky obviously both have the talent to be very dominant towards the middle and end of the season, but they aren't there yet. I do not think the rankings should change that much, however, until these teams lose a game. They're all up there for a reason: their talent. No, Kentucky hasn't proven anything. But nobody has proven anything at this point of the season, so talent is all you can really go by.

Most impressive teams early on: Tennessee and Memphis

Why UT? Because anytime you win 124-49 in a regular season game, it raises eyebrows, even against UNC Asheville. The Vols could be a legit National Championship contender.

Why UM? Because not only did they almost knock off the #1 team in the nation in Pastner's first game, but on the very next day....Pastner signed the #1 recruiting class in the country so far in the early signing period for 2010. Memphis will remain a national power. A disciple of Coach Cal at Memphis, Pastner could be the game's best young coach and also a phenomenal recruiter. To put things into perspective of how young Pastner is, he was a walk-on player for the 1997 Arizona team for Lute Olson that defeated Kentucky to win the National Championship. Just think, Pastner being a head coach for a major D-1 program would be like Ron Mercer already being a big time head coach.

Speaking of recruiting, the Cats did not sign any additional players this week and are not expected to anytime soon. Rivals.com 4-Star Forward, Stacey Poole, remains the Cats' lone commitment at this point. However, the top 4 unsigned players in the nation are all strongly considering the Cats (Brandon Knight, Josh Selby, C.J. Leslie, and Terrence Jones). C.J. Leslie comes from the same high school as John Wall. Likely, all of these guys will wait to see which Wildcats end up staying or going to the NBA next season, before making their ultimate choice.