Everything we learned from college basketball’s opening night

One of the most consistent complaints about college basketball over the years has been that the sport doesn’t do enough to celebrate its opening night. Most seasons have kicked off with a thud thanks to a Friday night assignment in the middle of football season that has been chock full of games sparking little to no national intrigue.

Thankfully, the times have changed.

Tuesday night brought with it arguably the most loaded opening slate in college basketball history, one headlined by the Champions Classic doubleheader in Indianapolis.

Let’s run through the major takeaways from the first night of the 2018-19 college hoops season.

In one of the most impressive performances you’re ever going to see — opening night or any other night — Duke rolled to a 118-84 win over Kentucky in a game that wasn’t even as close as the final score would indicate. The 34-point final margin was still lopsided enough to make it the worst loss of the John Calipari era at UK.

Put simply, the obvious talent gap between Duke, the No. 4 team in the country, and Kentucky, the No. 2 team in the country, was staggering. The Blue Devils spent two hours treating the Wildcats like a non-conference opponent out of the Horizon League.

Zion Williamson lived up to every last bit of his massive hype, finishing his collegiate debut with 28 points on 11 of 13 shooting while also grabbing seven rebounds. That performance somehow managed to overshadow the fact that fellow freshman sensation R.J. Barrett dropped 33, and yet another frosh, Cam Reddish, poured in 22. Both Williamson and Barrett broke Marvin Bagley’s record for points by a Duke freshman in their college debut, and Reddish came up just four points shy of joining them.

Duke set new records for points in a Champions Classic game, margin of victory in a Champions Classic game, and points against a John Calipari-coached team. The Blue Devils shot 54.4 percent from the field, knocked down 12 of 26 three-point attempts, nd finished with a ridiculous 22 assists to just four turnovers.

It’s only one game, but Duke certainly appears to have the potential to be the perfect team at the perfect time for college basketball.

The Blue Devils are already the sport’s biggest name, and now they find themselves with youth, star power, and the ability to hang 140 on any given night. Having an appointment viewing team figures to be a massive boon for a sport like college hoops, which is currently being held near the ground by a myriad of issues. Having a modern day 1990-92 UNLV Runnin’ Rebels (and having that team be Duke) won’t solve all of the sport’s problems, but it will sure as hell help.

Kansas has one of the stranger makeups of any preseason No. 1 team in recent memory. Yes, the Jayhawks are loaded with talent and experience, but we’ve hardly seen any of that talent or experience compete in a Jayhawk uniform. In fact, the only two returning starters from Bill Self’s 2018 Final Four squad are a center best known for his late-game free-throw struggles (Udoka Azubuike) and a guard everyone thought Self had run out of the program after last season (Lagerald Vick).

With understandable questions swirling about how well Self’s talented but unfamiliar roster would gel in live competition against the preseason favorites out of the Big 10, Kansas quieted its few offseason doubters.

The Jayhawks got 20 points, 14 rebounds and six assists from preseason All-American Dedric Lawson, who was seeing his first action since transferring from Memphis after the 2016-17 season. Five-star freshman guard Quentin Grimes chipped in 21 points of his own, and Azubuike added 17 on 7-of-10 shooting from the field.

The most obvious difference in the play of this Kansas team and the way the Jayhawks have looked the past couple of years is that this KU squad is going to get to placing an emphasis on post production. Self has let his guards captain the ship in recent years because he hasn’t really had any other choice. Azubuike was the only legitimate post threat on last season’s team, and the team the year before was even more thin in the front court. With Azubuike back and the Lawsons in the fold, expect this KU squad to play more like the ones we had been accustomed to seeing under Self.

That doesn’t mean the backcourt isn’t going to be a strength for this team. It’s not hard to make the case that Grimes was Kansas’ best player on Tuesday, and though he was a bit out of control at times, fellow freshman guard Devon Dotson also showed why he earned a starting spot.

Dotson finished with 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting, but he did have four turnovers to just three assists. VIck went just 1-for-7 from the floor and scored only two points, but if the freshmen are going to be this ahead of the curve, the senior can remain the streaky presence that Jayhawk fans grown to know and tolerate.

Despite trailing by a comfortable margin for most of the night, Michigan State did what the best Tom Izzo teams do and still managed to make things interesting. The Spartans roared back in the game’s final minutes, eventually cutting what had been a 15-point Kansas lead just three with 35 seconds to go. Time ultimately ran out on Sparty, but it’s still easy to see why MSU is the preseason pick to reign supreme in the Big 10.

Perhaps most encouraging for Izzo is that his team was able to remain competitive despite an off night from its two presumed standout players. Cassius Winston and Nick Ward combined to score 24 points on just 5-of-18 shooting from the field. Each player also finished with five turnovers, tied for the most of any player in the game.

Senior Kenny Goins — who has never averaged more than 3.4 ppg in a season — picked up the slack by putting up 17 points and 11 rebounds. Junior Josh Langford his 4 of his 6 three-point attempts, and led Michigan State with 18 points. Both of those stat lines are significant developments for an MSU team that is going to need multiple “role players” to take massive steps forward if the Spartans are going to have hope of making a run to the Final Four.

Your updated Champions Classic standings after year eight of the event:

1. Duke (5-3)

2. Kansas (4-4)

2. Kentucky (4-4)

4. Michigan State (3-5)

Duke is also 5-3 against the spread, while Kentucky and Michigan State are 4-4, and Kansas is 3-5.

Despite a few anxious moments in the second half, No. 8 North Carolina ultimately pulled out a 78-67 road victory over Wofford. The win was sweet revenge for a Tar Heels squad that was stunned on its home floor last December by the Terriers.

UNC made sure history didn’t repeat itself on Tuesday by limiting preseason Mid-Major All-American Fletcher Magee to just 7-of-23 shooting from the field, including 3-of-16 from beyond the arc. Magee scored 27 points in the upset of the Tar Heels last season.

While North Carolina fans are excited about Roy Williams’ freshman class, it was the veteran trio of Luke Maye, Cameron Johnson and Garrison Brooks who led the way in the season-opener. Paced by Maye’s 24 points, the trio combined to produce 61 of UNC’s 78 points. Freshman Nassir Little came off the bench to chip in seven points on 3-of-5 shooting.

No. 16 Syracuse had no problem with Eastern Washington, smashing the visiting Eagles by a final score of 66-34. The Orange held their guests to just 10 points in the first half, but that effort wasn’t nearly good enough to satisfy head coach Jim Boeheim.

The offense picked up a bit after the break, with Syracuse scoring 38 points, 10 more than their first half total. The 34 points they held Eastern Washington to were the fewest for a ‘Cuse opponent since 2013.

Outside of Providence, there hasn’t been a whole lot of buzz surrounding Friar freshman AJ Reeves. That changed Tuesday night, when the 6’4 guard out of Roxbury, Mass. set a new PC freshman scoring record by dropping 29 points in just 30 minutes. Reeves was 10-of-13 from the floor and drilled seven three-pointers.

Providence opened the season with a 77-67 win over visiting Siena.

The best moment of night one happened in Austin, where Texas guard Andrew Jones returned to the court nearly 10 months to the day he was diagnosed with leukemia. Jones was the Longhorns’ second-leading scorer (13.5 ppg) last season when he was forced to leave the team, but it feels safe to say that none of the points he’s scored in his college career meant more than the one he netted on Tuesday.

Texas took care of Eastern Illinois, 71-59, but that storyline was secondary.

Wichita State hasn’t missed an NCAA tournament since 2011, but the Shockers may have their work cut out for them to make it back to an eighth straight Big Dance. Gregg Marshall’s team was out-rebounded by 11 and shot just 37 percent from the field in a 71-58 loss to visiting Louisiana Tech Tuesday night. The loss marked the first time the Shockers have dropped a home opener since 1995.

Marshall has led WSU to at least 25 wins for nine straight seasons, but the makeup of this team is different. Nine of the 13 players on the Shockers roster are playing Division-I basketball for the first time. That inexperience was on full display in the lopsided loss to a Louisiana Tech team that went 16-17 last season.

Despite not being rated as a top 100 prospect, there are few freshmen basketball players in the country better-known than Georgetown’s Mac McClung. The reason? McClung’s mix tapes featuring his absurd athleticism and ridiculous dunks made him a viral sensation before he was halfway finished with high school.

McClung might not put up monster numbers in his first season as a Hoya, but he’s guaranteed to rip off a handful of highlight reel dunks.

Here was No. 1:

Georgetown beat Maryland-Eastern Shore, 68-53, and McClung finished with eight points.

John Beielien was hoping that his 800th coaching victory was going to coincide with his first national championship. Instead, he had to settle for the occasion coming via Tuesday’s 63-44 win over Norfolk State.

It was a celebratory evening from start to finish for Michigan, which before the game raised the Final Four and Big Ten championship banners earned by last season’s team.

Starting a season nationally ranked for the first time since 2011, Washington outscored Western Kentucky by 27 in the second half to turn a 36-27 halftime deficit into a comfortable 73-55 win.

For Hilltopper fans, it has to be hard not to wish this game had been played later in the year. WKU is the preseason pick to win Conference USA, but the team made its 2018-19 debut while dealing with a host of issues.

Auburn grad transfer Desean Murray, a projected starter, was suspended for the season-opener and didn’t make the trip out West. Lamonte Bearden (11.8 ppg), the team’s starting point guard last season, will reportedly miss the first month of the season because of an academic issue. Two other projected starters — Josh Anderson and Taveion Hollingsworth — missed exhibition games because of suspensions. Hollingsworth started on Tuesday, while Anderson came off the bench.

For Washington, this felt like the proper start to a season the Huskies hope ends with the program’s first trip to the NCAA tournament since 2011. Senior forward Noah Dickerson led U-Dub with 18 points, while sophomore Jaylen Nowell added 17.

Despite being without the services of senior standout Phil Cofer, No. 17 Florida State had zero issue with Florida, rolling to an 81-60 victory over their arch-rivals. The blowout win marked the fifth straight Sunshine Showdown victory for FSU, the longest Seminole winning streak in the history of the series.

Eleven different players scored for Florida State, which held Florida to 37 percent shooting from the field and 6-of-24 from beyond the arc. The Gators scored a seemingly meaningless basket just before the buzzer. That basket actually spared UF from suffering its most lopsided loss to FSU ever. So there’s that.

We’re only one day into the season, but it feels like a safe bet to assume that we’re not going to see another game like the one Stony Brook and George Washington played on Tuesday.

Playing at home, George Washington scored the game’s first 22 points, leading by a score of 22-0 at the midway point of the first half. Stony Brook ended the first half on a 10-0 run, but still trailed 34-24 at the break. The Seawolves still trailed by double-digits deep into the second half, and didn’t take their first lead until the 3:55 mark of overtime (an overtime forced by a last second layup from Akwasi Yeboah).

Ultimately, Stony Brook walked away with a 77-74 win, and the game flow chart wound up looking like this:

Wild stuff tends to follow teams from the America East around.

Nevada found its shooting stroke just in time to avoid what would have been a disastrous home loss to BYU to begin the season. Instead, the Wolf Pack left Lawlor Events Center with what appeared to be a pedestrian 86-70 victory.

The reality is that this was a tie game at the halftime, and a one possession came deep into the second half. BYU did a tremendous job of limiting Nevada to just four transition points, and forcing the Pack to beat them outside shooting and efficient halfcourt offense. It was a brilliant gameplan until Nevada drilled its final six field goal attempts of the game and the Cougars went cold, producing a deceptively one-sided final score.

With the Mountain West appearing like it has the potential to be a one-bid league, Nevada can ill-afford a non-conference slip-up, especially at home against an unranked opponent. Jordan Caroline and Caleb Martin made sure that didn’t happen, combining to produce 46 points and carry the Pack to the first of what figures to be many victories in 2018-19.