The Top Feel-Good Storylines of the 2016-17 NCAA Basketball Season so Far

Sure, college basketball has its blue bloods. You know who it boils down to in the end. But if you're only worried about the end, you're missing the best part.

The end isn't where the story is written. This time, right here, is the point where a season really finds its spine.

Plenty of things can still happen, but at this point, everyone knows who's good and who isn't. Sometimes, when the stars align, those good teams and players also make for good stories. 

Here are the top 10 feel-good stories in the game this season. Most are teams, some are individuals and a couple of others don't even have much to do with basketball.

After a 2015-16 season that saw the Gophers lose 23 games and suspend four players in connection with an alleged sex scandal, it was a long summer of discontent for Minnesota basketball.

Fast forward to this year, and you'll find a humble, hard-working squad that has learned from its lumps and is, as of Saturday night, 18-7 on the season. They even broke into the Top 25 at one point and are currently slotted for a ninth seed in the latest bracketology projections by ESPN.com's Joe Lunardi. 

The Gophers aren't perfect, but they play solid team defense and appear to be better for the bad times. Here's to that.

If you haven't heard about the 5'9" Chippewa blowing away the rest of the nation in scoring, you are not, as the kids say, doing it right.

Marcus Keene and his scoring-in-bunches game are downright Iversonian. Mark Titus of The Ringer writes:

When I say Keene scores basically only in isolation situations, I mean that literally. For most great players, going one-on-one is a side dish that complements their overall game. For Keene, iso plays are his side dish, appetizer, soup, salad, entrée and dessert. ... When he did have the ball, Central Michigan set a screen for him once every handful of possessions, and even then he half-heartedly used them, waited for the screener to roll to the basket and get out of his way and retreated toward half court to reset before attacking his defender one-on-one.

He's riding this entertaining (if inefficient) approach to a six-point-per-game advantage in the national scoring race. He's pouring in 29.9 per contest, according to NCAA stats. 

This is the epitome of rooting for the little guy.

What's not to love about one of the original mid-major Cinderellas rising up to dominate all opponents and the national polls?

Put (legitimate) strength-of-schedule concerns aside for just a moment. This is the best Gonzaga team in years, maybe ever. Whenever you can log 25 wins before Valentine's Day, you're doing well. 

Given their archetypal underdog role—combined with frequent postseason disappointment as a new-money powerhouse—it's hard not to feel good for the Zags' success and their prospects in the spring.

If this doesn't make you feel good, you may need to consult a physician.

Notre Dame point guard Matt Farrell had just finished helping the Irish wrap up Colgate in an early-season matchup when a video message from his older brother, a soldier in Afghanistan, played across the arena screens.

Farrell got a little misty-eyed as he watched, but that was nothing compared to the waterworks that awaited when Bo Farrell showed up in the flesh, surprising his little brother and most of the audience in the building.

The story is pretty well-known by now. Northwestern is the only power-conference school to never reach the Big Dance.

Could this be its year? 

It would be quite a large mammal to remove from their backs. Behind the triumvirate of sophomore forward Vic Law and junior guards Scottie Lindsey and Bryant McIntosh, the Wildcats are 18-6 and cling to a No. 8 seed in the latest Lunardi projections.

They've lost their last two and face Big Ten-leading Wisconsin on Sunday. After that, they host a Maryland team hungry for wins of its own. If Northwestern can hang on, it'll be the toast of March Madness.

A huge Michigan State fan, Lacey Holsworth passed away from cancer in 2014 at the age of eight.

One of her legacies has become Lacey's Laces, a charity dedicated to fighting pediatric cancer.

When Michigan State played Michigan on Jan. 27, there were special gold Lacey's Laces on both sidelines. College basketball does a lot of different things to help battle cancer. This may be the most touching.