The Top 10 Feel-Good Storylines of the 2014-15 NCAA Basketball Season so Far

There's enough bad news in this world to make even the most optimistic and positive person question whether it's worth remaining hopeful and upbeat.

Consider this slideshow a soothing bubble bath of college basketball-themed happiness, one designed to (at least temporarily) push aside all of the negativity.

As we creep closer to the happiest month of the year in college hoops—March Madness—the pressure is building for teams to win or else. But in that dogged pursuit of victory, sometimes this pushes aside some great developments that were either unexpected or seemed nearly impossible when the year began.

Click through our list of the top 10 feel-good stories of 2014-15 so far, ranked based on how much they tug at your heartstrings. Just try to make it through without feeling at least a little warm and fuzzy inside.

Note: All statistics are current as of Feb. 10.

10. Kentucky's Pursuit of Perfection

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Yes, Kentucky has more talent than pretty much every team in the country. With a seemingly bottomless budget—one that enabled the Wildcats to spend nearly $800,000 on an August trip to the Bahamas for exhibition games—and year after year of top-tier recruiting classes for coach John Calipari to work with, it's not the least bit surprising that this team is the best in Division I.

Still, there's something exciting about watching a team attempt to become the first to go unbeaten in nearly 40 years.

Tuesday's wild 71-69 win at LSU lifted the Wildcats to 24-0, one win short of their school record for consecutive wins to begin a season. A year after Wichita State made it in to the NCAA tournament without a loss (only to fall to this same Kentucky team in the third round), we're again watching the potential pursuit of perfection.

Kentucky is winning its games by an average of 21.3 points, but five times in SEC play it has claimed victory by eight or fewer. With each win, the debates over whether the Wildcats can run the table or if losing a game before the postseason will help each become more intense.

9. Larry Nance's Comeback

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Larry Nance Jr. and Wyoming were on their way to a great season last February when the Cowboys' star player went down with a knee injury. A torn ACL knocked Nance out for the rest of the year, and Wyoming lost six of seven down the stretch.

Less than nine months removed from surgery, Nance was back for Wyoming when the 2014-15 season began. And he's been at his absolute best in this, his senior season, averaging a career-best 16.3 points along with 7.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists while shooting 54.8 percent from the field.

Nance missed the Cowboys' last game, a Feb. 7 loss at Air Force, because of mononucleosis, and Mike Vorel of the Casper Star-Tribune reported Tuesday that Nance did not make the trip to San Diego for Wednesday's showdown at San Diego State. Both teams are tied atop the Mountain West Conference with 8-3 records.

Assuming his illness doesn't linger, Nance has a chance to get Wyoming into the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2002.

8. The Team That Conferences Forgot

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There are 32 conferences in Division I basketball, comprised of 351 teams. The only problem is, there are 352 schools playing D-I ball this season.

NJIT doesn't have a spot in any of those leagues, and hasn't since the piecemeal Great West Conference disbanded in 2013. The Highlanders moved up in 2007-08,  had a 51-game losing streak at one point and haven't been considered attractive enough by any other conference to take them in.

Maybe that will change now that NJIT has knocked off a power team and is putting together a legitimately good season.

As an independent, NJIT has to play a lot of road games, particularly early in the season. Twelve of the Highlanders' first 16 were away from home, including unsuccessful trips to St. John's, Marquette and Villanova...and one very fruitful visit to Michigan.

"Maybe we can get into the Big Ten now," coach Jim Engles joked after his team shocked Michigan, 72-70, on Dec. 6 (h/t Yahoo! Sports).

Though it's not a guarantee, at 15-10 (and winners of 10 of its last 11) with four games remaining, NJIT could possibly land an at-large bid for the College Basketball Invitational or the CollegeInsider.com tournament.

7. Families at the Final Four

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Making the Final Four is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for a college basketball player. But it's rare that their families are able to join them. 

But now the NCAA has agreed to pay up to $3,000 for travel, hotel and meal expenses for family members of players whose teams make this year's Final Four in Indianapolis. This comes on the heels of the College Football Playoff system helping families of Ohio State and Oregon players go to the championship game in Arlington, Texas, in January. 

Considering that the times between qualifying for the Final Four and the games themselves is less than a week, the cost to travel to the games is usually astronomical. The $3,000 might not cover everything, but it will certainly help, and any player who is able to look into the enormous crowd at Lucas Oil Stadium in April and know there are some loved ones out there can play with an extra level of pride and excitement.

6. Oregon State's Unexpected Season

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Oregon State hasn't made the NCAA tournament since 1990, when Gary Payton wrapped up his great college career by leading the Beavers to three straight tourney appearances.

Payton's son, Gary II, is now at OSU, but while his exceptional play has been huge for the Beavers, he isn't the main reason they have an outside shot at finally getting back into the Big Dance.

It's all about Wayne Tinkle, the coach brought in to take over a program that hadn't done much of anything in the previous seasons under Craig Robinson. He basically had to start over, as OSU's entire starting lineup either graduated, turned pro early or transferred.

Robinson, the brother of First Lady Michelle Obama, wasn't fired until almost seven weeks after his final season ended with a 16-16 record. That gave Tinkle—who had been at Montana for eight years—very little time to put a team together. He ended up holding open tryouts in early October for walk-ons so he would have a large enough roster to practice with.

OSU was picked to finish dead-last in the Pac-12, yet it is tied for third with a 7-4 conference record (and a 16-7 overall mark) heading into Wednesday's game at UCLA. The Beavers are 14-0 at home, with wins there over Arizona, DePaul and UCLA.

5. Winning Without Mick

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Cincinnati's Mick Cronin is one of the most fiery coaches when pacing the sidelines, with his antics and temper as synonymous with the Bearcats as their plodding, defensive-minded style of play.

But Cronin has had to pace in his den, rather than back and forth in front of the bench, since late December, when he was diagnosed with an arterial dissection in his skull. He hasn't been able to attend games and practices, with assistant Larry Davis taking his place for the remainder of the season.

"This is my life," Cronin told Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News during a visit to his home to watch Cincinnati's Feb. 5 win at SMU. "This is my baby playing on TV."

Despite the shakeup, Cincinnati is still holding its own in the American Athletic Conference. The Bearcats have gone 10-5 since Cronin took his leave of absence, and they are 17-7 overall and 8-4 in the AAC after Tuesday's loss at Temple.

Prior to that loss, Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller projected Cincinnati as a No. 7 seed in the NCAA tournament.

4. Butler Doing It Again

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Back-to-back trips to the NCAA title game had Butler on a major upward trajectory at the start of this decade. The Bulldogs parlayed that success into upgraded conference affiliations, including a move into the Big East for the 2013-14 season.

Then-coach Brad Stevens surprisingly jumped to the NBA in July of 2013, leaving Brandon Miller—who had been hired three months earlier as an assistant—to take over the program. The Bulldogs struggled that year, but they had hope this season would fare better.

But another unexpected coaching change happened in October, when Miller asked for a leave of absence because of undisclosed medical issues. Assistant Chris Holtmann was tabbed as the interim coach, and it was starting to look like Butler would have another unsteady campaign. 

Except the Bulldogs have far exceeded expectations, sitting at 18-6 overall and at 8-3 in the Big East, a half-game behind first-place Villanova. Butler hosts Villanova on Saturday.

3. The Surgically Repaired Triple-Double Machine

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Kyle Collinsworth has reached a level of diverse production that no player in college basketball history has ever gotten to. And it's a place no one thought he'd get to after suffering a major injury last season.

With his 23-point, 12-rebound, 10-assist effort Saturday in a win at Pepperdine, the BYU junior set an NCAA record with his fifth triple-double of the year. His others were on Dec. 6, Dec. 27, Jan. 3 and Jan. 15.

Not surprisingly, BYU is 4-1 in those games, the only loss coming by seven points to Gonzaga.

"He's making it look routine, like shaving or flossing," Dick Harmon of the Deseret News wrote after the fifth triple-double.

The 6'6" Collinsworth is averaging 13 points, 8.5 rebounds and 5.8 assists this season for the Cougars, numbers similar to what he put up in 2013-14. But last year was cut short when he tore his ACL during the West Coast Conference title game loss to Gonzaga.

He made a complete recovery and was at full strength when this season began, though it wasn't until that first triple-double in a win against Hawaii that Collinsworth began showing his ability to score, crash the boards and dish it out all at the same time.

2. Coach 1K

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It was a foregone conclusion that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was going to get to 1,000 wins before any other coach in Division I history, as he entered this season with 983 and a significant lead over Syracuse's Jim Boeheim.

We just didn't know when it would happen, though the game he picked to hit that milestone made the achievement stand out even more.

Other than Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, the arena that Duke has owned has been Madison Square Garden in New York City. The Blue Devils have earned several neutral-site and tournaments wins there, and they try to play in the area as often as possible in an effort to keep their brand relevant in the northeast.

Had Duke not lost back-to-back games earlier in January, though, Duke's 77-68 win at St. John's on Jan. 28 would have ended up being win No. 1,002. Instead, it allowed for Coach K to hit 1,000 in his team's home away from home.

1. Austin Hatch's Long Road Back

Michigan is not having a very good season, the byproduct of mass departures to the NBA as well as a string of injuries that have occurred throughout the year. Yet because of Austin Hatch, much of that hasn't mattered when considering the grand scheme of things.

Hatch, a 6'6" freshman guard, has played in only four games this season for the Wolverines, logging a total of four minutes. He's scored one point, making 1-of-3 free throws during the final moments of a blowout win over Coppin State on Dec. 22.

"I'm still a work in progress," Hatch told Nick Baumgardner of MLive.com back in August. "But given the fact that I couldn't walk three years ago, I think I'm getting there."

That lone point nearly two months ago marked a significant point in a long journey back from the brink of death, not once but twice. Hatch was at one time a well-regarded basketball recruit, and just days after committing to Michigan in 2011, he was in a plane crash.

It was the second time he'd been involved in such a wreck, both of which killed family members. The second took his father and stepmother and left Hatch in a medically induced coma.

ESPN recently aired a special—"Miraculous: The Story of Austin Hatch"—on SportsCenter. The trailer for that 16-minute piece can be viewed here.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.