College Basketball Stories for the Week Ahead, with Team and Player Rankings

One of the best parts of the college basketball season gets underway this week, kicking off with the Champions Classic in Madison Square Garden tonight. The early season tournaments give us the opportunity to see many of the nation’s best teams play each other with championships on the line, and while the Champions Classic is just a showcase of 4 storied programs and not an actual tournament, we’ll give it some attention since it marks the start of some potentially juicy matchups.

While this showcase has lost a little of its luster with the announcement that Kansas star freshman Darryn Peterson will miss tonight’s game against Duke, pretty much assuring that Duke will beat Kansas handily, Kentucky and Michigan State should provide enough entertainment to make up for it. Kentucky is the far more talented team, but Michigan State’s toughness and rebounding dominance gives them a chance to compete.

Wednesday will provide us with an even better opportunity to see some of the top teams square off, with Arizona playing at UCONN and Alabama traveling to Illinois. UCONN appears to be back in championship form on both ends of the floor, and while I think Arizona has a chance to throw their name into the championship conversation as well, they probably won’t be as consistent from game to game. UCONN simply has more weapons and a much better defense, and I expect them to handle their business at home. If you like free money, put some down at +115 odds for the Huskies to win the Big East conference this year.

Alabama is coming off a troubling loss at home to Purdue, where they were dominated physically and exposed defensively, and their schedule isn’t doing them any favors by following that up with a trip to Illinois. While Purdue is currently ranked #1 in the AP poll, I see Illinois as a better team than Purdue, especially when they’re at full strength. While Illinois may still be without star center Tomislav Ivisic, they should still have enough to do exactly what Purdue did and hand Alabama their 2nd loss in a row.

Tournament season truly kicks off on Thursday with the Baha Mar Championship in the Bahamas, featuring the aforementioned Purdue Boilermakers along with Memphis, Texas Tech, and Wake Forest. This tournament should be extremely interesting, with 3 of the 4 teams having a reasonable chance to win the title. Memphis looks to be the odd team out, and Purdue should have no trouble reaching the championship game against the winner of Texas Tech and Wake Forest.

Purdue will once again have a size and strength advantage inside, but Texas Tech has the best post player in JT Toppin, while Wake Forest is coming off a narrow one-point overtime loss at Michigan and has the talent and athleticism to hang with anyone. Whichever team gets the most fans to make the trip might have the edge, but all 3 have already played extremely well in hostile environments so anything could happen in this tournament.

Gonzaga moves into the top spot

After several extremely impressive performances early this season, Gonzaga has now moved into the top spot in my poll. The Bulldogs are overdue to win a National Championship, and despite currently being ranked #13 in the AP poll, this Gonzaga team has the depth, talent, and versatility to deliver Coach Mark Few the title he deserves. At +2500 this is likely to be the best price we’ll be able to get on Gonzaga cutting down the nets in Indianapolis, because after their demolition of a pretty good Creighton team last week, this team might flirt with an undefeated regular season if they get to conference play without a loss. A wager on the Bulldogs to make the Final 4 at +500 seems like a great bet as well.

While going undefeated is extremely rare and always unlikely, there’s another much more under-the-radar team I think has a legitimate chance to do it as well. The Saint Louis Billikens are unranked and relatively unknown, but they’re extremely quick, athletic, and skilled, and they’re led by a coach who is soon to be one of the biggest names in college basketball.

Josh Schertz is a name that not many people probably recognize, but I have a feeling this will be the last season where that’ll be the case. I first noticed him while living in Charlotte, North Carolina and attending a few games at Queens University, where Schertz brought his Lincoln Memorial team to town every year and developed an incredible rivalry with Queens. His teams were always extremely tough and prepared, and he carried that success to Indiana State before taking the job at Saint Louis. While I currently have Saint Louis ranked #6 in my poll, they have an extremely weak schedule and should be favored in every game they play. Betting them at +400 to win the A10 conference seems like an absolute lock.

 

 

 

"Bet the House" Segment with Team and Player Rankings

 Alabama -3.5 over Purdue

The “Bet the House” segment barely saved itself last weekend, squeaking by with the narrowest of victories when Arkansas covered the 3.5 point spread against Michigan State by just a half point. While I want to focus mainly on Alabama and Purdue here, we have to talk about Arkansas for a minute.

The Razorbacks are one of the most talented teams in the country, but their performance against Michigan State was borderline pathetic, due more to the coaching than anything the players did. There’s no doubt that John Calipari is one of the greatest recruiters of all time, but I’m just gonna come out and say it, he’s below average as a coach.

Year after year, Coach Calipari has a really hard time identifying who his best players are, and who should be on the floor. What he’s doing with Maleek Thomas coming off the bench is reminding me of how he handled Devin Booker, forcing his team to start the game without one of its best players and ensuring that they don’t have their best lineup on the floor. While this is only one of the disastrous lineup mistakes Calipari is making early this season, his problems go beyond personnel decisions.

He consistently struggles to make adjustments on the fly, and his team was clearly unprepared for the kind of physicality and rebounding effort Michigan State brought to the game. While Coach Tom Izzo’s teams are always among the best rebounding teams in the country, there’s really no excuse for how badly Arkansas got dominated on the glass. The Razorbacks have a long way to go to reach their enormous potential, and until Coach Calipari makes some major changes, they’ll continue to be more of a solid top-20 team than the championship contender we were hoping to see.

Let’s now move on from my disappointment in Arkansas and Coach Calipari to a much more impressive SEC team, the Alabama Crimson Tide. The Alabama guards were fantastic in a gritty road win over St. John’s, consistently pushing the pace and keeping the St. John’s defense on its heels. Their quickness and ability to score from anywhere makes them extremely difficult to defend, and this could be a major problem for a Purdue team that lacks elite speed and athleticism.

While Purdue is a smart, veteran squad and I understand why they’ve started the season ranked so highly, they’re still badly overrated even after dropping from #1 to #2 this week. In their last game they struggled to pull away from an Oakland team that isn’t very good, and although they were without one of their better players Trey Kaufman-Renn, their limitations were on full display. While Kaufman-Renn is expected to return tonight, he likely won’t be at his best, and even if he is I don’t think it will matter. Alabama is just too fast and too athletic, and after losing to Purdue the last 2 seasons, I think the Crimson Tide will be eager to turn the tables and put a beatdown on the Boilermakers.

College Basketball: Big-Picture View from Week 1

We’re obviously taking some chances here with bold predictions early in the season based on very little information, but one of the main objectives of this work is to see the big picture as early as possible. There will naturally be lots of big changes to the rankings in the first few weeks of the season as we accumulate more information and get a better feel for all the teams, but the entire landscape should be taking a more solid form by the time December rolls around.

A few new teams will be added to the “Championship Contenders” list in the next edition, and my apologies go out to St. Johns, who I’ve now removed from the overrated list after getting another look at them. They’re extremely tough and physical, and while they might not be the 5th best team in the country, they’re probably not as far away from that ranking as I originally thought. We’ll take a more in-depth look at a few other teams in the next article, but for now we’ll highlight a few season-long wagers worth considering based on what we’ve seen so far.

 

Worth a Wager

Illinois (+700) to win the Big Ten

Arizona (+800) to win the Big 12

Arkansas (+475) to win the SEC and (+2000) to win the National Championship

Longshots (probably won’t do it, but the odds are enticing!)

Baylor (+2500) to win the Big 12

Washington (+4000) to win the Big Ten

Wake Forest (+10000) to win the ACC

 

I like to sprinkle in a few of these season-long investments as the season unfolds, and these are the ones that seem to be offering the best value at this point. We’ll now stick our neck out again with another “Bet the House” segment, but this time we’re gonna back a team we have much more confidence in, the #1 team in our poll, the Arkansas Razorbacks.

 

Bet the House

Arkansas +3.5 @ Michigan St

The first edition of “Bet the House” didn’t go too well, and if this one doesn’t succeed I’ll be scrapping this segment and quitting betting on individual games altogether. Bethune-Cookman fell flat after an impressive first game, and Miami really stepped it up from their lackluster opening performance, showing once again how dangerous it is to assume that teams will look even remotely similar from game to game. Miami was extremely impressive defensively while putting up over 100 points, while Bethune-Cookman looked too small, a step slow, and emotionally-drained from their overtime loss a few days ago. That one was ugly.

We may have gotten a little carried away backing a WAY under-the-radar team too soon, so this time we’ll put our biggest wager on what we believe to be the best team in college basketball. With Arkansas holding down the top spot in our poll, and Michigan State failing to crack the top 32, I’m going with the Razorbacks to go into a tough environment and knock off the Spartans.

Typically the Breslin Center in East Lansing is one of the most difficult places to play, especially for a team led by freshmen, but this Arkansas squad is different. They’re just too talented and too deep to lose this game, and as 3.5-point underdogs, this one feels like an absolute lock.

1st "Bet the House" Segment, with Updated Team and Player Rankings

Bet the House

Bethune-Cookman +16.5 @ Miami

Bethune-Cookman is far from a household name in college basketball, but their relative obscurity is exactly why the Wildcats will be one of the biggest surprises this season. They’re coming off a tough overtime loss on the road at Auburn, but Auburn is a very good team, and Bethune-Cookman gave them all they could handle in a tough environment and easily could’ve won the game.

While Auburn has been a top program for years with more than their fair share of elite players, Bethune-Cookman might have had the best player on the floor. Arterio Morris, a former 5-star recruit whose college career hasn’t quite gone to plan, actually came off the bench and nearly led his team to victory. Morris started his college career at Texas, then transferred to Kansas, where he was dismissed from the team before he even played a game after he was charged with sexual assault in September of 2023. Those charges were dropped around 6 months later, and after going the JUCO route for a year, Morris is back in Division I at Bethune-Cookman.

While Arterio Morris represents a level of talent that Bethune-Cookman isn’t used to having, his supporting cast is actually a lot better than anyone would think. The Wildcats are quick and athletic and play with great intensity and effort. They aren’t the biggest team, but they make up for it in toughness, physicality, and aggression on both ends of the floor.

Their opponent, the Miami Hurricanes, are used to having talent, but this year’s team is a complete overhaul from last season. Their roster is made up of all new players, and they’re led by a 1st year coach as well. It will likely take a while for Miami to gel together, and after watching both teams in their first games, this spread looks way too high. Bethune-Cookman has a great chance to not only cover this spread, but potentially even pull off the upset on the road. Keep an eye on Bethune-Cookman, they will likely be one of the teams to bet on this season.

 

2025-2026 College Basketball Preview

 Championship Contenders

Arkansas

John Calipari absolutely nailed it this year on the recruiting trail, bringing in 2 of the best freshmen in the country in Darius Acuff Jr. and Meleek Thomas, while also adding one of the biggest impact transfers in former Florida State big man Malique Ewin. Thomas and Acuff Jr. will form what might be the best backcourt in college basketball, and they’ll be joined by a deep supporting cast more than capable of cutting down the nets in Indianapolis this season.

The Razorbacks already appear to be in post-season form, and I’m looking for them to start the year quickly and explosively to reach their December 20th matchup against Houston still undefeated. That would mean they’d already collected a big statement-win on the road at Michigan State, as well as victories over three top-11 teams in Duke, Louisville, and Texas Tech.

If Arkansas can avoid any major injuries and Coach Calipari can manage his lineups correctly, this team has a great chance to deliver the 2nd National Championship for both program and coach. This is one of the biggest and most athletic rosters in the country, and the young freshmen guards bring the energy and leadership that may have been lacking from last year’s team.

Florida

While everyone is talking about how good Florida’s frontcourt is, and rightly so, it seems like the rest of the team is equally as motivated to win back-to-back championships this season. Thomas Haugh looks like one of the best players in the country, and although I’ve only gotten a brief glimpse of this team in practice, they looked much more skilled and organized than I expected. An exhibition win against a very good Illinois team is impressive, and I look for the Gators to roll into a December 9th matchup with UCONN undefeated. That would mean they got early wins against Arizona and on the road at Duke, and I expect them to battle Arkansas for supremacy in a stacked SEC conference.

Gonzaga

Gonzaga is coming off a couple of down years according to their lofty standards, but this might be the year that Mark Few gets back to another Final 4. Tyon Grant-Foster has been cleared to play and makes them a much more explosive team, giving them the elite athleticism they haven’t traditionally had. The veteran frontcourt of Braden Huff and Graham Ike should dominate down low, and they’re surrounded by a deep and versatile group of guards with great size and a good mix of shooters and slashers. This team has the talent to compete for a National Championship this season, and it looks like their offense is already clicking on all cylinders before the season officially begins.

 

Houston

Houston looks about the same as they usually do. They’re extremely tough defensively once again, and although they lost a couple very important pieces from last year’s runner-up team in LJ Cryer and J’Wan Roberts, they reloaded with elite freshmen Kingston Flemings and Chris Cenac Jr. Flemings is a complete pest with a relentless motor on both ends of the floor, and Chris Cenac Jr gives them a more skilled big than has been typical in the past. Houston will once again be extremely tough to beat, but their depth is a question mark, and they’ll need a few of the other freshmen to contribute if they hope to win it all come April.

UCONN

Danny Hurley will have his team back in the championship conversation this season after deciding to give someone else a chance last year. The Huskies are a veteran squad with tons of big-game experience, and the additions of Georgia transfer Silas Demery Jr. and freshman Eric Reibe will make this UCONN team very difficult to defend. Solo Ball and Alex Karaban return to make another run at it, with Karaban looking to close out his collegiate career with 3 National Titles.

Illinois

Coach Brad Underwood looks to have built a recruiting pipeline to Serbia and Croatia. Freshman David Mirkovic might be the best player in college basketball that almost no one has heard of, while transfer Andrej Stojakovic, son of NBA All-Star Peja Stojakovic, will also bring his complete offensive game to Champaign. They’ll join 2 centers with the last name Ivisic, Tomislav who returns from last year and will almost certainly play in the NBA, while Zvonimir transfers in from Arkansas to join his 3rd team in 3 years.

Kylan Boswell and Ben Humrichous return in the backcourt to give this team solid continuity, balance, leadership, and big-game experience. Is this the year Coach Underwood finally takes his team to a Final 4?

Under the Radar Sleepers

Washington

Washington has one of the most skilled centers I’ve seen come in to college basketball in awhile, Hannes Steinbach. He nearly always makes the right play, and there’s no doubt he’ll make the rest of the team much better if they play through him. Fellow freshman JJ Mandaquit is a great leader and competitor who also makes really good decisions, and the Huskies offense has operated with great ball-movement at times with him at the helm.

The freshman are joined by talented USC transfers Desmond Claude and Wesley Yates III, as well as Bryson Tucker from Indiana and Jacob Ognacevic from Lipscomb. Coach Danny Sprinkle has done a masterful job at both Montana St. and Utah St., and I look for him to turn things around in a big way at Washington this season.

Creighton

Creighton has been a consistently good program under Coach Greg McDermott since he arrived in 2010, and this year’s team is probably a little underappreciated at #23 in the preseason polls. Despite losing their top 3 players from last season, including Ryan Kalkbrenner who is now the starting center for the Charlotte Hornets, it looks like Jasen Green and transfer Austin Swartz are ready to step up and take their place.

The Blue Jays are a great passing team with shooters all over the floor. Their offense is already operating with free-flowing movement that creates open shots for everyone, so this squad will likely be ahead of most other teams on that end of the floor to start the season.

 

Most Overrated

Purdue

It’s a little confusing that Purdue is the preseason #1. I get it that they’re returning the core of the team, but they lack the athleticism of other top teams, and while they’re certainly tough to beat, especially at home, I don’t even have them in the top 10 to start the year.

St. John’s

St. John’s lost a lot from a team that earned a 2-seed and nearly made the Elite 8 last season. They’re expecting big contributions from a lot of new faces, but it could take them awhile to gel together. Right now they look pretty sloppy and out of sync, so it could take this group a little longer to find their identity and play to their potential.

Top Players to Watch