As we head to the crux of "March Madness," a quick perusal of the tournaments (NCAA and NIT) will produce not UGA, not Georgia Tech, not even Kennesaw State.  One lone entry, Mercer, is going on in the post season. 

Actually, the Bears could have made the NCAA Tournament.  Mercer won the regular season Atlantic Sun Conference title with a 13-4 record, but lost to Florida Gulf Coast in the tournament title game.  As a result FGCU gets the automatic birth to the NCAA Tournament where the Eagles will play Georgetown Friday in Philadelphia.  Mercer will get a trip to Knoxville Wednesday night against Tennessee to open the NIT.

Can't say I'm a fan of the Mercer Bears.  A few years ago, they fired Mark Slonaker, a good friend of mine as head coach of their men's basketball team.  Mark's a great man, he moved on, prospered.  He can forgive and forget.  I can't.  But that's another story.

In a state loaded with basketball talent, why is it so hard for the two top D-1 programs (Dawgs and Yellow Jackets) to move on past their conference tournaments?  Both programs have money and fine coaches, and both play in a premier college conference.  Both schools were knocked out of the first round of their respective tournaments last week; the Jackets with a loss to Boston College and the Dawgs with a loss to LSU.

It gets down to one thing:  recruiting.

In college hoops, more than any other sport, the team with the best players win.  And probably the number one way to size up the best high school players in the nation is with the McDonalds' All American Game.  It's an all star game played each year since 1977 featuring the best players from the US and Canada.  Since the game's inception, 19 players have committed to Georgia Tech, with the latest being Derrick Favors.  Ten players have said yes to UGA, with the latest being Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. 

By comparison, five who will play in this year's game on April 3 will go on to play for Kentucky next season.  Again, that's five from this year. 

As football fans, we always hope that the head coach of our favorite college team will put a "fence around the state" and keep the top talent home.  Never is that more true than with college basketball.  Until that is done, and there can't be anything easy about it, the top high school basketball players like Tony Parker of Miller Grove (UCLA), Shannon Scott of Milton (Ohio State), and Randolph Morris of Landmark Christian (Kentucky) are going to head elsewhere to play.

And until that time, Kentucky, Duke and North Carolina will remain Kentucky, Duke and North Carolina; and the Georgia school will remain the Georgia schools.

So as you enjoy the tournaments, try to discover which McDonalds' All Americans are still playing as we push toward the Final Four here in Atlanta on April 6th.  The McDonalds' basketball website which you can access here will help you with the names.