Two months from the NCAA Tournament, consider the next sentence as words to live by: When everybody knows something, you do not want to know what they know.

In other words, forget the conventional wisdom. Look beyond the obvious. Think outside the box.

This is how unconventional this season has been. If the NCAA at-large selections were made today, there is a very real chance this who’s who of college hoops would be waiting to hear from the National Invitation Tournament: Kentucky, Louisville, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Alabama.

There are more good teams in the Missouri Valley than in the Southeastern Conference. Think about that.

The Atlantic Coast Conference is so shaky once you get past Duke, it is not insane to think the Blue Devils have a chance to win all their conference games. It probably won’t happen, but it is possible. North Carolina State is very good, but, after that, there is just not that much there.

The Big East and Big Ten are both terrific at the top and very strong in the middle. But this season, they are really the exceptions to the theory that power conferences rule.

I can’t come up with a single national-championship contender out of the Pac-10 or SEC. (I know No. 2 Florida is undefeated, but I’m not a believer.)

Only Texas out of the Big 12 appears to be a national threat. And will the sporting gods really let Texas hold the football, basketball and presidential championships at the same time?

When you hit mid-January, it is not early anymore. And you must accept that what was once true is not true now. So, there you have the lesson for this week.

This and that

¢ The West Coast Conference (including Gonzaga, Loyola Marymont, San Francisco) is the country’s only league where all the teams are religious-affiliated schools.

¢ The Big East, as usual, has dominated the other Eastern conferences. It is 12-4 against the Atlantic 10, 6-2 against the Patriot, 14-1 against the Metro Atlantic, 10-0 against the America East and 7-0 against the Northeast Conference.

¢ The Big South, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and Mid-Continent Conference are the only conferences with four 20-point scorers. The SEC, by the way, has none. Its scoring leader, Glen “Big Baby” Davis, averages 18.0 points. If he were still alive, what would LSU legend Pete Maravich think of this development? Pistol averaged 43.8 as a sophomore, 44.2 as a junior and 44.5 as a senior. It’s true. You could look it up.

¢ Gonzaga is on a 32-game home winning streak, and Illinois and Southern Illinois have 31-game home streaks.

¢ Arizona’s 10-6 record is its worst since 1986-87. The Wildcats got swept in Oregon last weekend. Oregon and Oregon State shot a combined 58.1 percent. Since 1989-90, ‘Zona had had 30 Pac-10 road sweeps and been swept only nine times.

¢ They are hooping in Tennessee. Memphis, Tennessee and Vanderbilt are a combined 37-7. Tennessee goes across state to play Memphis on Wednesday night.

¢ Coming into the season, Kentucky was 218-25 in home SEC games at Rupp Arena. This season, the Wildcats are 0-2. Which record do you think the fans in the commonwealth are discussing?