Cincinnati needs players to lead

— -- Our thoughts and prayers go out to Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin, who the school  announced Friday will serve in an "advisory role" for the rest of the season, due to health reasons.

Here's why I love Cronin: when the announcement was made Friday he described his new, non-bench role as, "I'm Pat Riley with no rings, no tan and no hair." Gotta love the humor.

Some other quick New Years' week thoughts on a variety of subjects:

Nebraska  -- Needs to get back to the innocence of being an up-and-comer. The Cornhuskers were a cute, interesting story last season -- a quirky coach with a star transfer star in Terran Petteway. Now the Huskers have an 8-5 record, with a loss to Incarnate Word and a coach who got tossed from an  NCAA tourney game and lost his mind at Indiana's Tom Crean. Handling success is harder than handling failure. As for the "star," Petteway's numbers (19.5 PPG, 5.8 RPG) are great but he takes way too many bad shots and the ball stopping in his hands is destroying continuity. It's time for Nebraska to remember: when you're Nebraska hoops, you are always striving. You've never made it.

Kentucky  -- Keep doing what you do, an undefeated season is a couple of months away. I know Coach Cal should play Ulis at point and the offense isn't great, blah blah blah. Kentucky, you be you.

Michigan State -- Paging Branden Dawson. I don't want to hear about Dawson being hurt -- he didn't touch the ball in either OT of the Maryland loss, and he took only 11 shots while point guard Travis Trice took 22. That's backwards in Tom Izzo's world. It's time for Dawson to demand the ball, and time for the guards to make certain he doesn't get lost.

The Mountain West -- Let's celebrate the "old guys." Colorado State (14-0) is coached by 59-year-old Larry Eustachy, Wyoming (12-2) is coached by 63-year-old Larry Shyatt and, of course,  San Diego State (11-3) is coached by 69-year-old Steve Fisher. In a sport where every 23-year-old believes he invented coaching, it's great to see seasoned pros doing great things.

Evansville  -- Why are we celebrating Evansville (11-2), besides its win over Northern Iowa and the fact coach Marty Simmons is a former teammate and one of my favorite people? I celebrate because the Purple Aces run motion offense and actually assist one another. Evansville is fourth in the NCAA in assists (19.0 per game) and third in field goal percentage (52.7). Sure, they ball-screen some, but players don't stand around and are taught to move without the ball. Also, 6-foot-2, 210-pound D.J. Balentine averages 22.1 PPG and is a throwback to guys who just know how to play. Run motion, have an old-school stud and I salute you!

West Virginia  -- While we are saluting, let's salute the job Bob Huggins is doing. Betcha very few fans know WVU is 12-1 and No. 7 in ESPN's BPI. Now, they haven't played a great schedule but after a year that taxed Huggins to no end and resulted in the transfer of key players Eron Harris and Terry Henderson, it's great to see WVU, led by Juwan Staten, thriving in Huggins' eighth year in Morgantown. The Mountaineers have a great game coming up this Saturday, against 13-0 TCU in Fort Worth.

College hoops officiating -- Let's get this cleared up. I respect the vast majority of guys doing this job, but the use of review is getting totally out of hand and killing our game. In the Michigan State-Maryland game, the officials went to the monitor to check the feet of a 3-point shooter three different times in the final 10 minutes and into overtime. It stopped any momentum either team had going, and infuriated Maryland coach Mark Turgeon to the point of complete exasperation. If you're not good enough to see the feet of a 3-point shooter, you're not good enough to officiate big-time hoops. Here's a (somewhat facetious) solution: take $100 out of the refs' game checks for every time they have to go to the monitor. Again I'm being facetious (kinda), and know there are many flaws with that plan, so don't kill me on Twitter. But the point is, replay has made refs lazy and overly reliant on the monitor.

As we enter the conference season, here are my champion picks for the major conferences:

• American -- SMU. Markus Kennedy is back, and Larry Brown is simply a coaching god. Nic Moore is the best I've seen this season at controlling his team. 

• ACC -- Duke. This is by far the best league in the country. Duke is the only team I see good enough to hang with Kentucky, but don't sleep on Notre Dame. ND (86.1 points per game) is the most fun offense to watch in the NCAA. And I absolutely love everything about Virginia, but my pick is Duke.

• A-10 -- VCU. The Rams have improved since I saw them in Brooklyn before Thanksgiving. They're scoring easier and looking much more comfortable with one another. 

• Big East -- Villanova. Most mentally and physically mature team I've seen this year. 

• Big 12 -- Kansas. Always Kansas, until some team steps up and beats 'em. 

• Big Ten -- Wisconsin. Wisconsin is clearly the best team in a disappointing league. Great, great start for Maryland, winning at Michigan State. Dez Wells and Melo Trimble may be the Big Ten's second-best tandem behind Wisconsin's Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker. 

• Missouri Valley -- Wichita State. This is a terrific league. Wichita State is my favorite, but Northern Iowa, Evansville and the surprising Loyola (IL) Ramblers at 11-2 have been really good.

• Mountain West -- Wyoming. I would pick San Diego State, but the unknown status of Dwayne Polee II makes me go with Wyoming and Larry Nance Jr. Nance struggled in the Cowboys' two losses (Cal and SMU), but has bounced back by combining for 60 points in the team's past two wins, over Montana State and UNLV. 

• Pac-12 -- Arizona. By a wide margin.

• SEC -- Kentucky. First place is Kentucky's starters. Second is Kentucky's second unit. Third is UK's walk-ons.

• WCC -- Gonzaga. (See: Kansas.)

Happy New Year, especially to all those serving in the armed forces and away from home over the holidays. Make 2015 a great one!