It’s a protracted wait from the primary weekend in April till the primary week of November, however ultimately, the boys’s school basketball season is upon us.
We’ve already shared The Athletic’s preseason convention rankings, stuffed with stats and evaluation. We’ve rolled out our preseason All-America groups and High 25. And there’s lots extra to come back. Think about this my first nationwide column, which can frequently cowl the week that was and preview the weekend that will likely be.
So, earlier than the video games really tip off, let’s get you caught up on all the things you could know.
1. UConn’s quest for a three-peat is historic — however not not possible
Final season, Connecticut turned simply the third program within the trendy period to win back-to-back nationwide titles, becoming a member of Florida (2006 and 2007) and Duke (1991 and 1992).
However neither the Gators nor the Blue Devils have been in a position to run issues again a 3rd time. Which suggests the one group that’s ever received three straight continues to be John Wood’s UCLA dynasty, which received seven consecutive championships from 1967 to ’73 (and 10 over a 12-year span). However Dan Hurley wouldn’t have turned down the Los Angeles Lakers’ head-coaching job this summer season if his group didn’t have a practical shot at chopping down the nets (once more) in 2025.
Past the issue of successful a single-elimination event three years working is that Hurley, 51, retains dropping his greatest gamers. After his first title, three starters left for the NBA. After UConn received all of it once more, Hurley misplaced 4 extra starters. No less than Hurley satisfied redshirt junior Alex Karaban to come back again … however now he wants the 6-foot-9 ahead to go from extremely environment friendly function participant to a real All-American.
Karaban will get assist from guard Aidan Mahaney (Saint Mary’s) and heart Tarris Reed Jr. (Michigan), each top-50 transfers based on The Athletic’s listing of greatest accessible gamers, and five-star wing Liam McNeeley was the No. 17 recruit within the nation. Hurley additionally wants his function gamers from the previous two seasons to take the leap. There’s sufficient expertise right here to make one other run. And if UConn does? It will cement Hurley not simply as one of the best coach of the trendy period, however the most effective the game has ever seen.
2. The teaching carousel
Who knew that SMU firing Rob Lanier can be so consequential?
However that turned the primary domino in a wild offseason. SMU, forward of its transfer to the ACC, rapidly employed Andy Enfield away from USC, which paved the way in which for Eric Musselman to go away Arkansas for Los Angeles. The Razorbacks responded with a house run swing: luring Corridor of Famer John Calipari away from his lifetime contract at Kentucky as his act seemed to be sporting skinny in Lexington. (A blue-blood teaching change, for the fourth straight offseason.)
Kentucky settled on BYU coach Mark Pope — a captain on UK’s 1996 championship group — as Calipari’s successor, after its pursuit of Baylor coach Scott Drew got here up quick. BYU employed former Phoenix Suns assistant Kevin Younger, who has seemingly unlocked the Cougars’ identify, picture and likeness vault.
POV: You’re in part 224 throughout @CoachMarkPope‘s introduction throughout #BBM24. pic.twitter.com/Vchb6UQ1a5
— Kentucky Males’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) October 14, 2024
These interconnected dominoes don’t even consider Michigan successful the sweepstakes for Dusty Could, who took Florida Atlantic to its lone Last 4. Louisville, which ended its disastrous two-year Kenny Payne experiment, pivoted to Charleston’s Pat Kelsey.
Tony Bennett’s current abrupt retirement from Virginia, the place he hung this system’s solely nationwide championship banner in 2019, left the ACC and not using a championship-winning coach for the primary time since 1981-82. Ron Sanchez (former head coach at Charlotte) was named interim coach and may have each alternative to win the full-time job. And lastly, tragically, South Florida coach Amir Abdur-Rahim — who led Kennesaw State to its first NCAA Event look and was a rising star — died final week at age 43 resulting from problems from a medical process. Assistant Ben Fletcher would be the interim.
3. Zach Edey is gone, however there’s nonetheless returning star energy
Edey — the primary two-time Wood Award winner since Ralph Sampson within the Nineteen Eighties — is gone to the NBA, however The Athletic’s preseason All-America groups embrace a number of completed gamers.
North Carolina guard RJ Davis is the one first-team All-American again from final season, however two second-team honorees additionally return: Alabama guard Mark Sears and Kansas heart Hunter Dickinson. (Thank the additional COVID-19 12 months of eligibility for guys sticking in class lengthy sufficient to grow to be family names.) Karaban is the face of UConn’s bid for a three-peat, Arizona guard Caleb Love is 2 seasons faraway from ending Mike Krzyzewski’s Corridor of Fame profession, and Purdue guard Braden Smith is ready to step out of Edey’s monumental shadow.
That’s only a snippet of the expertise again. However there’s additionally …
4. Cooper Flagg, essentially the most hyped highschool prospect since …?
Welcome to the 12 months of Flagg. The 6-foot-9 Maine native was the top-ranked recruit on this 12 months’s freshman class, and he’s lengthy been the front-runner to go No. 1 within the 2025 NBA Draft. It’s not hyperbolic to name him the most-anticipated highschool recruit since Anthony Davis at Kentucky in 2011-12. And the 9 months “The Forehead” was on campus turned out fairly effectively for the Wildcats, no? Duke and third-year coach Jon Scheyer are hoping Flagg leads the Blue Devils to related nationwide championship heights — and talent-starved NBA followers in Washington, Brooklyn and Detroit are watching simply as eagerly.
Flagg’s hype practice hit a brand new gear after his efficiency this summer season at Workforce USA camp. Regardless of being the lone school consultant on the Choose Workforce — which featured rising NBAers like Brandon Miller and Jalen Suggs — Flagg was, at occasions, one of the best participant on the court docket.
Flagg is a greater defensive participant than offensive one at this level, however he can nonetheless pour it in as a scorer. Regardless, Duke’s do-everything centerpiece may have a highlight skilled on him for good motive: He’s the uncommon expertise, even at 17, who can lead a group to a nationwide championship.
COOP &1 @Cooper_Flagg pic.twitter.com/P9pCUnbjuf
— Duke Males’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) October 28, 2024
5. Expertise guidelines
When the 2020 NCAA Event was canceled resulting from COVID-19, the NCAA granted each participant that season an extra 12 months of eligibility. Within the last season with these gamers nonetheless lively, what’s the legacy of that call? Essentially the most skilled period within the current historical past of the game.
In accordance with NCAA information, in 2018-19 — the ultimate full season earlier than the pandemic — the typical expertise stage for DI males’s gamers was 2.41 years; for this season, it’s as much as 2.62. However that information isn’t completely consultant as a result of it counts fifth-year gamers like regular seniors. If it accounted for the extra 12 months, the typical is pushed even greater. Take Xavier, essentially the most skilled high-major group within the nation this season. The Musketeers’ common expertise is 3.35 years, per NCAA information. However in case you account for the group’s eight fifth-year gamers, that determine rises to three.53.
As for the way expertise correlates to successful? There have been solely two freshman starters up to now two Last Fours mixed, each for UConn: Karaban (2023) and Stephon Fort (2024). Duke, or one other freshman-heavy group, might reverse that narrative this season. However current historical past suggests expertise is extra worthwhile than ever.
6. Rutgers has 2 of the nation’s high 3 recruits
The one college up to now decade to land two of the nation’s high three recruits was Duke, till this summer season. However by signing ahead Ace Bailey (No. 2 nationally, per the 247Sports Composite) and level guard Dylan Harper (No. 3), Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell has completed the seemingly not possible in New Jersey. (The wonders {that a} household legacy — Harper’s older brother, Ron Harper Jr., additionally performed at Rutgers — and a strong NIL pitch can do.)
Each Bailey and Harper are projected top-five picks in subsequent summer season’s NBA Draft — they usually might even problem Flagg to go first in the event that they lead the Scarlet Knights to the NCAA Event.
At 6 ft 6 and 215 kilos, Harper has best measurement for a lead guard, and he provides polished three-level scoring skill. Bailey is extra uncooked, however there aren’t many prospects along with his athleticism at 6 ft 10. They’ll be requested to hold a heavy load in a Massive Ten predicated on physicality and submit play.
7. One other switch portal cycle sees high names discover new properties
The place did a few of the high names wind up? Former Last 4 contributors — level guard Jeremy Roach (Duke) and ahead Norchad Omier (Miami) — will group up at Baylor this season. The remaining cornerstones from Florida Atlantic’s 2023 Last 4 group scattered, as effectively; heart Vlad Goldin adopted Could to Michigan, guard Johnell Davis went to Arkansas, whereas guard Alijah Martin stayed in Florida and joined the Gators.
Tucker DeVries — the two-time Missouri Valley Participant of the Yr and the No. 1 switch in The Athletic’s rankings — went along with his father, Darian, to West Virginia. New Saint Louis coach Josh Schertz introduced his greatest participant, the goggle-wearing Robbie Avila, with him from Indiana State. Ahead Nice Osobor moved from Utah State to Washington to stick with coach Danny Sprinkle.
Coleman Hawkins (Illinois) picked Kansas State. Rylan Griffen left one Last 4 group (Alabama) for one more potential one (Kansas). Louisville introduced in a complete new roster, headlined by Chucky Hepburn (Louisville), Terrence Edwards Jr. (James Madison) and Kasean Pryor (USF). We might go on.
8. Can the Massive Ten finish its 25-year nationwide title drought? It appears to be like unlikely
No Massive Ten group has received all of it since Tom Izzo captured his first (and solely) title with Michigan State in 2000.
Since then, eight Massive Ten groups — Indiana (2002), Illinois (2005), Ohio State (2007), Michigan State (2009), Michigan (2013), Wisconsin (2015), Michigan (2018) and Purdue (2024) — have made it to the championship recreation, however none have completed the job. Eleven coaches surveyed by The Athletic largely agreed that in all probability speaks extra to the randomness of March Insanity than any overarching condemnation of 1 convention but in addition spoke to model of play.
It appears unlikely the Massive Ten snaps its dry spell this season. Purdue is the top-ranked preseason group within the league at No. 14, adopted by Indiana (No. 17), UCLA (No. 22) and Rutgers (No. 25). There simply doesn’t look like one or two clear front-runners. Nonetheless …
9. May we see a file for NCAA Event groups from one league?
The Massive East holds the single-season file for NCAA Event bids by one league, when 11 of its 16 groups certified in 2011. However with convention realignment resulting in bigger high-major leagues, will the file be damaged this season?
Doable, however nonetheless unbelievable. Three leagues appear best-positioned: the SEC, Massive Ten or Massive 12. The SEC has 9 groups ranked within the preseason High 25 and a tenth (Mississippi State) that acquired votes within the ballot. The Massive Ten has seven others who acquired preseason votes along with the 4 ranked. The Massive 12 is top-heavy; six of its groups are ranked, with the potential for extra to emerge from its meaty center class.
Even when it doesn’t occur this season, we anticipate that 11-bid mark to ultimately be topped. It might additionally fall quickly if there may be average NCAA Event growth, which might be applied as quickly because the 2026 bracket. Over the summer season, The Athletic reported that the NCAA had offered proposals for each a 72- and 76-team discipline to DI convention commissioners. Below each proposals, the First 4 can be expanded to incorporate at the very least 4 extra at-large groups.
How a lot of an urge for food is there to increase the 68-team discipline? Sufficient, though to not a significant extent. However a number of high-major convention commissioners — together with the SEC’s Greg Sankey and the ACC’s Jim Phillips — have beforehand expressed an curiosity in exploring event growth. Talks stay ongoing.
10. Last 4 predictions
In our employees survey, 11 groups earned Last 4 votes: Gonzaga (8), Alabama (6), UConn (5), Houston (5), Kansas (5), Iowa State (4), Duke (2), Baylor (2), Arizona, Arkansas and Texas A&M.
Of these faculties, 5 have been picked because the preseason nationwide champion at the very least as soon as — however none greater than Gonzaga, whom three of our consultants picked to ship Mark Few’s long-awaited first title. (The others? Alabama, Kansas, UConn and Houston.) That group makes up the clear high cluster of groups anticipated to compete to win all of it.
11. Cheers to the schedule-makers for nice opening-week video games
Listed here are 10 of the opening-week matchups circled on our calendar, that includes 10 totally different ranked groups (occasions ET):
Monday
No. 13 Texas A&M at UCF, 7 p.m.
Missouri at Memphis, 8 p.m.
No. 19 Texas vs. Ohio State, 10 p.m.
No. 8 Baylor at No. 6 Gonzaga, 11:30 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 8
No. 9 North Carolina at No. 1 Kansas, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 9
No. 12 Tennessee at Louisville, midday
No. 8 Baylor vs. No. 16 Arkansas, 7:30 p.m.
Northwestern at Dayton, 7:30 p.m.
No. 11 Auburn vs. No. 4 Houston, 9:30 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 10
Michigan vs. Wake Forest, 1 p.m.
(Photograph of UConn’s Alex Karaban: Brett Wilhelm / NCAA Pictures by way of Getty Photographs)
