THE LATEST LINE: IT'S EARLY, BUT THREE SQUADS HEAD FIELD IN COLLEGE HOOPS

It's still extremely early in the college basketball season, but if you're a true NCAA hoops junkie, it's never too early to start talking about possible national championship contenders.

Now, granted, a lot of things can change between now and March, when all the real madness begins.

Contenders can turn into pretenders as quickly as some star player tears up a knee or gets kicked off the team.

But from my seat in the gym, at this point in the season, three teams have separated themselves from the rest of the pack and figure to be hard to beat come NCAA Tournament time.

The terrific trio: Kansas, Wake Forest and Kentucky.

Not surprisingly, those squads are ranked one-two-three in the major national polls, although Kentucky figures to drop after Saturday's upset loss to Mississippi. Kansas and Wake Forest were undefeated entering Saturday's action.

What makes those clubs so special is not just the tremendous talent they possess. The team concept they embrace is almost unbelievable, particularly Kansas, which often times passes up wide-open 15-footers -- normally a very high-percentage shot -- in order to get a shot even closer to the basket.

Cincinnati probably has as much if not more talent than the trio. But the Bearcats -- at least right now -- don't play the team game nearly as well. Ditto for UCLA, which could have as many as five NBA draft picks.

So which of those three will win it all? It's a tough call right now.

And even though it's early, it's a decent bet that one of the trio will be cutting down the nets in a few months.

Of course, what happened Saturday to Kentucky -- with Mississippi pulling off the upset -- demonstrates what is so special and fun about the single-elimination NCAA Tournament each year.

On any given day, just about any team can be upset.

Which could end up making this column sound pretty ridiculous in a few months.

* With perennial powers Murray State and Tennessee State off to struggling starts, things appear more wide open than ever so far in the Ohio Valley Conference basketball race.

It looks like a prime opportunity for some surprise teams -- SEMO perhaps? -- to make plenty of noise in the league standings.

* George White, a 1994 Jackson High graduate, will be heading to the University of Missouri-St. Louis to play baseball this year.

White, who batted .320 for Mineral Area College last season, originally signed with Lincoln University, but didn't like it there and left school.

He'll be playing for the nationally-ranked Division II UMSL Rivermen this spring.

* Tickets are still available for the St. Louis Cardinals Caravan that will visit Cape Girardeau Wednesday.

A 6 p.m. program will be held at the Show Me Center, which will be followed by a children-only autograph session.

The cost is $5, with all proceeds going to the Cape Youth Baseball Association.

For more information, call River Eagle Distributing at 335-7717.

~Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian