Forget waiting ’til March for college basketball madness because the fun has all ready begun just two weeks into the season.

With several season-opening tournaments, a couple of incredible upsets and a handful of captivating matchups, the college basketball season is off to a blazing start. Here’s a recap of some of the highlights from the past two weeks.

Let’s start in New York with the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.

In the first round No. 3 Kansas held off a late charge by then No. 18 UCLA to win 99-98, and No. 19 St. John’s downed Kentucky 62-61. Kansas then went on to beat St. John’s in the championship 82-74, and UCLA ran past Kentucky 97-92 in overtime to take third place.

In Hawaii at the Maui Invitational, No. 2 Arizona emerged as the victor but not before a few upsets took place.

The surprise team of the year so-far, Dayton, upset Connecticut 80-66 and Maryland 77-71 and has entered the AP poll for the first time since 1974.

No. 8 Illinois knocked off then No. 6 Maryland 90-80 and eventually lost to Jason Gardner and Arizona 79-76 in a highly contested championship game.

At The Great Alaska Shootout, No. 20 Syracuse beat Depaul 92-84 in the semifinals, then pounded Missouri 84-62 to take home the title. The Orangemen, expected to be in a so-called “rebuilding year,” surprised everyone and swept a very talented field behind the play of guard Preston Shumpert.

Meanwhile back in New York, No.1 Duke outlasted No. 15 Temple 63-61 in the championship game of the Preseason NIT. In the semifinals, Temple handed new Indiana coach Mike Davis his first loss (69-61), and Duke manhandled Texas 95-69.

While these tournaments were going on, upsets were taking place all over the country. Central Michigan beat Purdue 67-66 on a last second layup in West Lafayette. The Boilers then rebounded to beat then No. 1 Arizona 72-69. The biggest shocker of this young season, however, had to be Cal-State Northridge’s 78-74 win over intrastate rival UCLA .

This week’s action is highlighted by the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, which began Tuesday night. No. 12 Wake Forest went to Ann Arbor and took out Michigan 71-60, while Clemson beat Northwestern 57-44 at home, and Duke edged Illinois in a 78-77 thriller in Charlotte. Iowa managed to save some Big Ten face, by annihilating Georgia Tech 85-67 in Iowa City.

Through all of these tournaments and great matchups, Duke, Arizona, Michigan State, Kansas and Illinois have all proven themselves to be among the nation’s elite, among others.

Dayton, Purdue, Syracuse, and several other teams have shown ability to play the role of “spoiler” and quite possibly contender.

The NCAA is currently tinkering with the notion of abolishing tournaments at neutral sites such as Maui and Anchorage, and I for one, think this would be an absolute travesty.

These tournaments provide great matchups early in the season that otherwise wouldn’t happen, and provide smaller schools the opportunity to put its school on the map.

Nonetheless, this college basketball season is going to be an incredible ride, and whoever comes out standing at the top will truly be a champion due to the great amount of competition out there.

By the way, did anyone see Michelle Snow’s dunk?

(P.S. The women can play too.)