1. Twenty-four top 25 teams in action
5 things to watch for on college basketball’s opening night
The most wonderful time of the year is upon us. Here’s what you should be tuned into this evening.
Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
There are no games featuring multiple ranked teams, but come on, it’s the first night of the season. That’s way too early to get greedy.
Here’s your lineup of potential upsets:
No. 1 Kentucky vs. Grand Canyon, 8 p.m.
No. 2 Arizona vs. Mount St. Mary’s, 8 p.m.
No. 3 Wisconsin vs. Northern Kentucky, 9 p.m.
No. 4 Duke vs. Presbyterian, 6 p.m.
No. 5 Kansas vs. UC Santa Barbara, 8 p.m.
No. 6 North Carolina vs. N.C. Central 8 p.m.
No. 7 Florida vs. William & Mary, 6 p.m.
No. 8 Louisville vs. Minnesota at U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, 7:30 p.m.
No. 9 Virginia at James Madison, 7 p.m.
No. 10 Texas vs. North Dakota State, 8 p.m.
No. 11 Wichita State vs. New Mexico State, 9 p.m.
No. 12 Villanova vs. Lehigh at the PPL Center, Allentown, Pa., 8 p.m.
No. 13 Gonzaga vs. Sacramento State, 9 p.m.
No. 14 Iowa State vs. Oakland, 8 p.m.
No. 15 VCU vs. Tennessee at Alumni Hall, Annapolis, Md., 6:30 p.m.
No. 16 San Diego State vs. Cal State Northridge, 10 p.m.
No. 17 UConn vs. Bryant, 7 p.m.
No. 18 Michigan State at Navy, 9 p.m.
No. 20 Ohio State vs. UMass-Lowell, 7 p.m.
No. 22 SMU vs. Lamar, 9:30 p.m.
No. 23 Syracuse vs. Kennesaw State, 7 p.m.
No. 25 Harvard vs. MIT, 7 p.m.
No. 25 Utah vs. Ball State, 10 p.m.
No. 21 Nebraska and No. 24 Michigan, in case you were wondering, are the lone ranked squads not in action on opening night.
For a complete television schedule, check out Matt Sarz’s listings.
2. The Armed Forces Classic/Battle of the Pitinos
The Armed Forces Classic is always a spectacle, and Rick and Richard Pitino coaching against one another obviously adds to the intrigue, but this should also be the best overall game of opening night.
It usually takes a while for Rick Pitino’s teams to get accustomed to his high demands and fully grasp what he wants them to do on defense and the press. The result is that the Cardinals typically drop at least one or two games to good, but not great, teams in November and December. With four starters returning from last season’s NIT champions, Richard Pitino would seem to have a squad capable of taking full advantage of this situation.
Wins in November are all the same as wins in February when it comes to computer rankings and resume scrutinizers. One of these teams is going to notch a solid first bullet point on opening night.
3. Kansas vs. UCSB and Alan Williams
The loaded Jayhawks open the season at home against UC Santa-Barabara, a team which touts one of the nation’s most underrated players in senior forward Alan Williams. Advanced statistics love the kid the way 20-something women love pictures of themselves in DJ booths.
“Just about every basketball skill you can think of, he’s really good at,” stat guru Ken Pomeroy said last March. “All these numbers he puts up are the numbers you would expect to come from somebody who’s 6 feet 10 inches or 6 feet 11 inches. Being a huge shot-blocker and a great rebounder and a guy who can draw a bunch of fouls in the paint -- it’s definitely unique for someone as short as he is.”
Williams hasn’t yet been able to get the Gauchos into the NCAA Tournament (they made the field in each of the two seasons prior to his arrival at UCSB), and as a result he hasn’t received nearly the amount of national attention he deserves. Putting up some solid numbers against Kansas this evening would be a solid step towards changing that.
4. Short-handed Connecticut
The Huskies will begin their title defense on Friday without the services of Rodney Purvis, who was suspended for the season-opener by the NCAA earlier this week because he ... played too much summer basketball? Purvis, a former five-star recruit who sat out last season after transferring from NC State, has consistently been referred to as “the Ferrari that can finally come out of the garage” by head coach Kevin Ollie. He’ll stay in the garage until game two.
UConn will also be facing Bryant without junior guard Omar Calhoun, who is dealing with a sprained MCL in his right knee. After averaging double figures in scoring and earning All-Big East honors as a freshman, Calhoun found himself in a season-long shooting slump as a sophomore, and hardly played at all during Connecticut’s run to the national title. He spent the summer slimming down and working on his jump shot, and had drawn rave reviews from Ollie before suffering the injury late last month.
5. VCU vs. Tennessee
This is the first (and better) half of the Veterans Classic from Annapolis, which will also feature Michigan State taking on Navy. The event and CBS Sports Network have been kind enough to show us the second best game of the evening at 6:30 p.m. ET, which means we can all start our opening night parties (you guys do that too, right?) a half hour ahead of schedule.
This is the second straight season that VCU, the heavy favorite to win the Atlantic 10, has started ranked in the top 25. That makes them far from the ideal first opponent for Donnie Tyndall, who finds himself under heavy scrutiny in Knoxville before ever having coached a game at UT. It probably doesn’t help his cause that the Volunteers are 4-0 all-time against the Rams.
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