Jawad Williams is averaging 17.1 points per game for 12-1 North Carolina. Craig Jones/Getty Images

Illinois. Kansas. North Carolina.

Bruce Weber. Bill Self. Roy Williams.

The dominoes fell more than a year ago, unleashing a torrent of emotions in fans, players and coaches alike. And now, just when that domino energy had dissipated, here they are again, cosmically linked, the top three teams in the latest AP poll:

Illinois. Kansas. North Carolina.

In the annals of coaching changes, the 2003 Domino Effect was the Big One, a remarkable confluence of events that transformed three of the nation's premier college hoops programs. To understand how unusual it was, consider the first three dominoes the last time UNC changed coaches, in 2000:

North Carolina. Notre Dame. Delaware.

You certainly didn't see that trio topping the polls a season later. And that was normal.

This isn't.

On one hand, you could say all the hand-wringing, finger-pointing and talk radio-slamming from a year ago is moot. The Illini, Jayhawks and Tar Heels are doing just fine, thank you, under their new bosses. (In fact, their rankings are an intriguing reversal of the supposed pecking order established by the changes, with Illinois at No. 1 and UNC at No. 3.) All three teams are loaded with talent, and yet they deserve tremendous credit: to the players for adjusting to new systems, and to the coaches for succeeding with players they didn't recruit.

But getting here sure took a psychic toll on the principals. Williams became a pariah to many in Lawrence, Kan., the town that once revered him, and had to turn around an underachieving Carolina squad. Self spurned the Illini, whose fans pleaded with him to stay, then faced the skepticism of Kansas players who'd already won playing another way. Weber got so fed up with the comparisons last year that he dressed in black and held a mock funeral for Self, right there in the Illini locker room.

Illinois. Kansas. North Carolina. With the possible exception of Illinois-UNC, they'll never schedule games against each other. On the human drama scale, a Final Four involving all three -- in St. Louis, no less -- would be off the charts.

And the way they're playing these days, it's a distinct possibility.

At 14-0, Illinois has been the story of the season, thrashing Wake Forest, Gonzaga and Cincinnati. The Illini play the same kind of crowd-pleasing team ball that Detroit used to win the NBA title last summer, and their apparent lack of a dominant inside force has been erased by consistent play from James Augustine and a solid supporting cast. Everyone knew Dee Brown and Deron Williams were one of the nation's top backcourts, but the key has been the rise of Roger Powell Jr. and especially guard Luther Head. Credit Weber for sticking with Head during a tumultuous junior season and giving him a chance to turn things around as a senior.

At 9-0, Kansas seems primed for a Final Four run if Wayne Simien can return to form after healing from thumb surgery. The Jayhawks may lose without him at Kentucky this Sunday, but the experience gained will be key for KU's young big men in March. Point guard Aaron Miles may be the nation's most underappreciated player; it was his take-charge attitude (and impressive outside shooting) that sparked the Jayhawks' comeback against Georgia Tech, and reliable slasher Keith Langford seemed to follow his lead in the second half. What's more, Kansas has bought into Self's high-low offense and defensive principles. No team seems as ready to peak when it matters most.

At 12-1, North Carolina has somehow flown under the radar since its season-opening loss at Santa Clara. We know better here at the 'Bag. Williams has done a masterful job convincing Rashad McCants to buy in without hindering his effortless offensive creativity, and top scorer Jawad Williams has proved he deserves as much attention as juniors McCants, Sean May and Ray Felton. Like Aaron Miles, Felton has become a threat from the outside, making him even more dangerous, and May has committed himself to winning. When the Tar Heels defend the way Williams wants -- which is happening more and more -- they're the best team in the country.

Illinois. Kansas. North Carolina. Tied by circumstance, their possibilities are limitless. And you can be certain they'll be included in next week's unveiling of our annual Magic Eight.

OPENING THE 'BAG

What do you think about West Virginia's 10-0 start? Are the Mountaineers a contender?
-- Dan Powell, Morgantown, W. Va.

Well, road wins at N.C. State and LSU and a home victory against George Washington show that John Beilein's well-balanced club deserves your attention in a Big East that suddenly looks more wide open than just Syracuse and UConn. We'll learn a lot more about WVU from a challenging game at Villanova on Wednesday (in a bizarro turn-back-the-clock night that would be must-see-TV if Gary McLain showed up high at halftime). Anyway, West Virginia has a four-game stretch beginning Jan. 16 against Boston College, Notre Dame, Syracuse and UConn. Three of those four games are in Morgantown, which means anything less than a 2-2 mark would be disappointing.

When writing about impressive freshman in your last Mailbag, you didn't mention Maryland's James Gist. I assume the reason for this is that you haven't seen him play, or you weren't impressed with his numbers even though he comes off the bench. This kid has done everything right this season.
-- Jano Valencia, Bethesda, Md.

You're right, Jano, I should have put Gist on the list. It's only a matter of time before he gets even more minutes for the Terps. While I'm at it, here are some other fab frosh that I've now seen enough to really like: Indiana's D.J. White, USC's Gabriel Pruitt, Oregon State's Sasa Cuic, Missouri's Jason Horton, Kansas' Alex Galindo and, more and more, Kentucky's Randolph Childress. I'll be at the Jayhawks-Wildcats showdown in Lexington this Sunday to get a first-hand look at those last two guys.

Do you think the Zags should be considered one of the favorites to head to the Final Four in St. Louis?
-- Josh Spokane, Wash.

Put it this way, Josh: Gonzaga now has the nation's most impressive victims list: Washington, Georgia Tech and Oklahoma State. So that in itself should make the Zags a Final Four candidate. The most remarkable thing about the latter two wins was that dinged-up star Ronny Turiaf brought almost nothing to the table in either game. Nor did he in Gonzaga's last-second loss at Missouri, which (while a nice win for the improving Tigers) didn't change my thinking on Mark Few's team one iota -- except to note that scheduling Mizzou two nights after a road win over the Cowboys was suicidal.

When Turiaf is back at full strength Gonzaga will be scary. The Zags have three go-to scorers in Turiaf, Adam Morrison and ascendant post man J.P. Batista, and Derek Raivio is a threat to hit 20 any night. Nor do I buy Seth Davis' argument that they simply use their matchup zone to hide. Of late only Missouri has had any success against it, and I don't expect the same in the WCC.

	MAILBAG Grant Wahl will periodically answer questions from SI.com users in his mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

While I'm at it, let me take this opportunity to bury, once and for all, the coaches poll, which has become an even bigger embarrassment than usual this year. Are you kidding me: Gonzaga at No. 17? (It's probably too low at No. 11 in the AP poll.) N.C. State in this week's coaches poll at all at No. 24? (Apparently getting housed by St. John's and West Virginia doesn't matter.) One last time: coaches spend very little time watching games around the country, and most of the voting coaches simply delegate the job to their SID ... or their team manager ... or their barber. Yet for some reason ESPN sticks the coaches rankings next to teams on every broadcast like they've come straight from the Oracle. Stop the madness.

Don't get me wrong, I am an N.C. State fan and I hope Herb Sendek stays a long time. He is a gentleman and is good to his players. A negative, though, is that two or three games a season are just too painful to watch. What is it about his coaching style that causes this? The Princeton offense? Depending too much on 3s? When the Wolfpack are on their game it is beautiful to watch, but man alive, when they suck, they peg the suckometer.
-- Grant Kenion, Fuquay-Varina, N.C.

Peg the suckometer? I like that. This is probably oversimplifying things, but for the Princeton offense to work at its best, a team needs to shoot decently from 3-point range. Otherwise you can just lay off on defense, avoid the backcuts and let 'em crank up bricks from the outside. If a soccer goalkeeper knew a penalty kick was going to his right every time, he'd probably save a lot more of them. That's what happened for N.C. State against St. John's.

What is the best name of a player you've ever seen?  I ask because I just found my all-time favorite: Stetson's freshman center (I swear, I am not making this up) Grlenntys Chief Kickingstallionsims. I want his jersey!
-- Micah Hart, Atlanta

Grlenntys Chief Kickingstallionsims is the best name I've ever seen, too. The dude's 7-foot-2!. Check him out here. 

PARLOR GAME RESULTS!

I've finally crawled out from the more than 100 entries in this year's parlor game, which asked readers to submit the best post-1985 team of six players with the surnames Jackson, Williams, Brown, Hill, Smith and Clark. Many thanks for some awfully creative responses, which included five-man teams for each surname, several all-Williamses from North Carolina teams and several entries that actually included Duke's Marty Clark (!).

After a careful review, here's my choice as the top team:

G Jason Williams, Duke
G Chris Jackson, LSU
F Grant Hill, Duke
F Joe Smith, Maryland
C Keon Clark, UNLV
Sixth-man: P.J. Brown, Louisiana Tech

Why? This is the best combination of talent at the right positions. Grant Hill is a no-brainer. I like Jason Williams (over Reggie Williams, Deron Williams and Walt Williams) for his smarts, creativity and scoring ability. I'll take Chris Jackson (over Jim Jackson, Bobby Jackson and Mark Jackson) because of his sick shooting. I like Joe Smith (over Steve Smith, Charles Smith, Kenny Smith and Doug Smith) for his combination of athletic offense and defense inside. And I'll select Keon Clark (over Marty Clark, Shelly Clark and Keydren Clark) for his presence inside.

But the reason why FIRST PLACE goes to reader Doug Lowrey of Germantown, Md., is the tie-breaker: He has P.J. Brown as his sixth man, an optimal choice to provide the extra rebounding and intimidation factors on a team that could use them.

Congratulations Doug!

The next-best entries came from readers Jason Glasper of Jacksonville, N.C.; Steven of Ann Arbor, Mich., Vincent Girardi of Buffalo, N.Y.; Frank Trainer of Chicago, Joey Litman of New York; Andy Goldman of Chicago; Mickey Smith of Winston-Salem, N.C., David Colborne of Kernersville, N.C.; Scott of New Orleans; David Cook of Ellicott City, Md.; Chris Deringer of McLean, Va.; and Brendan of Boston.

Bonus points also to Jason Glasper for the following comment: "I almost left Grant Hill off so I could include Dametri (The Meathook) Hill from Florida. Not because of talent, but because it's hard for me to pass up a chance to make a Meathook reference."

(It's hard for us too, Jason. And so we didn't.)

SEPARATED AT BIRTH

Maryland's Travis Garrison and The Wire's Idris Elba.
-- Matt Brown, Long Beach, N.Y.

WATN:TYSON WHEELER FOUND!

Many thanks to reader Chris Moran of Boston, who informed us that Tyson Wheeler, Cuttino Mobley's former running mate at Rhode Island, is now playing in Italy for the club Terama.

Next week's WATN comes from David Blabey of Delmar, N.Y., who asks: Where in the world is SirValiant Brown?

See you next week.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl covers college basketball for the magazine and SI.com.