The great thing about college basketball is the season- within-a-season that is conference play, which begins in full force for both Bethune-Cookman squads Saturday at North Carolina Central.

The BCU men were 5-9 in non-conference play, the women 7-5. And now we're both 0-0.

Not to say those games before didn't matter.  You can learn a lot during non-conference play.

What did the Wildcats and Lady Wildcats learn? Why, here's a list….

* Learning to live without ... : Both teams suffered huge personnel losses. The men's Isaiah Bailey was lost for the season after just three games while the women lost Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Defensive Player Of The Year Ashanti Hunt after two. Adjusting to playing without a key contributor has been the developing story for both squads the first two months.

* We'd be a competitive Atlantic Sun member:  The teams were a combined 5-1 against the Atlantic Sun Conference  the past two months, the lone setback the men's 79-71 loss to Jacksonville after Soufiyane Diakite was injured during pre-game warmups. Don't ask. The men also registered a quality win against Florida Atlantic, who beat Illinois, and you know what that means. The women almost registered a signature win, battling Florida in what was a two-possession game in the fourth quarter.

* Quality road wins are sweet: For the women, it was a 58-56 nail biter at Jacksonville one game after a disappointing loss at Georgia Southern. The guys wrapped up non-conference play with a wicked 74-66 win at Boston that snapped a five-game losing skid.

*Angel's All That. The best is getting better. Angel Golden was the best offensive threat in the MEAC last season and still is, dropping 20 a night. She's stepped her defense as well -- heck, she was the leading rebounder in that Jacksonville with a 21-point, 10-rebound night that marked her first career double-double.

* Forget Olivia. You don't want to mess with Cletrell Pope: Head Coach Ryan Ridder said we were in store for something special once Pope sat out his redshirt season last year. It's been a long time since any BCU team had an Anthony Davis type post player who can regularly put up a 20-20 like this 6-9 junior.

* Malik's back. Sidelined the final 10 games of the 2017-18 season, Malik Maitland proved he's back to full force when he registered 29 points and nine rebounds when the Wildcats scared the living daylights out of Miami in December.  With Bailey sidelined, Maitland's taking more of the scoring load and leads the team in scoring with an average of 12.5 points per game.

* Kiana Williams is a promising freshman: There's a reason that last sentence included the words promising and freshman. Williams is a brash, confident guard not afraid to drive the lane and finish at the basket.  She also can go from being two assists of pulling a triple-double and then post a double-double with double-figure turnovers replacing assists. Kids.