The accolades have never stopped coming for freshman soccer player Lauren Cheney.

The 2007 season was the year of the freshmen. Greg Oden and Kevin Durant grabbed headlines all year and both were first-team All-Americans.
It was the year of the return of the traditional powers.

It looks like UCLA’s season-ending losses to Washington and Cal cost itself a No. 1 seed. Instead, they’ll be No. 2 behind Kansas in the West Regional.

“Rankings mean nothing.” That’s what my teammate told reporters when my high school water polo team upset the top-ranked team in our division long before I gave up playing competitive sports in favor of writing about them.

As Wisconsin center Brian Butch fell to the floor in an attempt to secure a rebound, bodies went flying everywhere as he tumbled over a teammate and an Ohio State player.

A year ago, George Mason was the darling of college basketball. By upsetting favorite UConn in the Elite Eight, the Patriots made one of the most improbable runs to the Final Four in years.

With March rapidly approaching, the bubble for many teams across the country is getting bigger and bigger. For others, those bubbles have already burst.
West Virginia’s win over then-No.

To say that Saturday’s conditions for No. 2 UCLA were less than ideal would probably be an understatement.
The Bruins had flown cross-country for an early game and were playing a West Virginia team on the road in the middle of a tough Pac-10 conference slate.

As West Virginia built a 19-point lead against UCLA, all sophomore Darren Collison could do was hold his head in his hands and watch his Bruins go down in defeat.

After a sweep of the Oregon schools over the weekend, UCLA vaulted back up the polls to No. 2, its highest ranking since spending six weeks at No.