The more distance the present puts between itself and the first Monday of April the more it becomes apparent that this will be the most exciting college basketball preseason this area has ever seen. Why? Because talk of who should be the No. 1 team heading into the 2012-13 season has been almost universally limited to Louisville, Kentucky and Indiana.

The latest evidence comes from CBS, which today asked its three main college basketball writers to give and then defend their pick for the top dog heading into next season. Gary Parrish went with Kentucky, Matt Norlander took Indiana, while Jeff Goodman (What?) chose the Cards.

This year's team has talent, experience and depth.

Kentucky cannot boast all three of those attributes. And while Indiana can, Crean is not Pitino.

Pitino will be 60 years old when the season begins. He'll also have more than 600 career D-I victories under his belt, a half-dozen Final Four appearances and one national title.

He'll have a point guard in Peyton Siva that has three years of experience -- including the last two as a starter. He'll have a pair of talented wings that no one truly saw last season: Wayne Blackshear was a heralded freshman who was coming off two shoulder injuries and didn't make his college debut until mid-February; and Luke Hancock will vie for a starting spot after sitting out a year ago following a transfer from George Mason.

I can only assume that this is a direct result of Goodman not being included in the LCPT for the first time since its inception.

Peep Goodman's chart for further evidence:

Which team has the edge?
	Kentucky	Louisville	Indiana
Point guard	Ryan Harrow	Peyton Siva	Yogi Ferrell
Shooting guard	Archie Goodwin	Wayne Blackshear	Jordan Hulls
Small forward	Alex Poythress	Luke Hancock	Will Sheehey
Power forward	Kyle Wiljter	Chane Behanan	Christian Watford
Center	Nerlens Noel	Gorgui Dieng	Cody Zeller
Bench	Julius Mays Jon Hood Willie Cauley	Russ Smith Kevin Ware Montrezl Harrell	Victor Oladipo Maurice Creek Hanner Perea Jeremy Hollowell
Coaching	John Calipari	Rick Pitino	Tom Crean
Note: Bold indicates team with edge as chosen by Jeff Goodman

Dark Slime would like a word.