As if we didn’t have enough sports in our life we now get to add in college basketball, which tips off on Tuesday November 5th. Unlike College Football where we are dealing with 120ish team we have 353 NCAA CBB division 1 teams and that means there are a ton of games basically every night. Now its almost impossible to breakdown all these teams, especially the ones from smaller conferences, but it’s still important to try and identify who may be a buy low candidate right out of the gate.
This article is going to give some quick thoughts on the upcoming year and then dive into the two marquee matchups that we have to open the season. College Basketball is certainly a marathon and not a sprint so we fortunately will have a lot of time to see these teams in action before we even to begin to think about March. Still lines can be very inefficient to start an NCAAB season and that is something we can try and take advantage of.
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Rapid Fire Season Preview Thoughts
Best Team: Michigan State
Will break them down more in depth in a second as they play tonight, but the Spartans are #1 to start the year as they should be.
Sleeper Team: South Florida
Not a basketball power, but this team won 24 games last year and got experience in a “postseason” tourney by winning the CBI Tournament. They return basically the entire team so its not unrealistic to think this team could go dancing. I will be keeping a close eye on how they look early in the season as they should be a tough team to handle with everyone back.
Team with most question marks: UNC
Remember the name Cole Anthony, and you certainly will as he is going to be one of the best players in the country in his likely only season at UNC. He is set to try and mask the massive losses this team suffered and will be relied on heavily from the start. If he can immediately step in as a top player in the country UNC could once again be a threat. If not we may see a rare down year for Roy Williams and the Tar Heels.
Player to watch: Myles Powell – Seton Hall
There is a lot of excitement around this Seton Hall team and that is due to Myles Powell returning for his senior season. He comes off a Junior year where he averaged 23 points per game and is a National Player of the Year candidate in 2019. He has the ability to take over a game by himself and come tourney time this is not a player you are going to want to face given his abilities.
Tuesday 11/5 Opening Night Doubleheader
9:30 PM EST : Michigan State -3 vs Kentucky , O/U 138
Michigan State
The Spartans are the clear #1 team to start the season as they bring back a ton from a talented 2018/19 squad. The leader has to be Senior PG Cassius Winston who will be a national player of the year contender and the catalyst for this squad. In addition to Winston they return a ton of experience and talent so it’s easy to see why they occupy the top spot to begin the season. They reached the Final Four last year and anything short of cutting down the nets will probably feel like a disappointment for this team.
Kentucky
Like every year it’s hard to know how good Kentucky is because they rely on incoming freshman. In addition to a likely one and done Freshman in Tyrese Maxey the Wildcats have an impact transfer from Bucknell in Nate Sestina. Last year Sestina averaged 15.8 PPG while pulling down nearly 9 boards a game and should be a contributor immediately. This game vs Michigan State on Tuesday at MSG won’t mean much long term, but it’s still nice to see these teams measure up right out of the gate.
My Pick: Michigan St -3
Im rolling with the Spartans here as the experience and leadership should pay dividends from the opening tip. Kentucky has shown year after year they are a team that works up to March as they are usually breaking in new players and have some early season road bumps. Facing off against a Michigan State team with depth, experience, and an All American point guard is a tough ask and I think we see that be the difference in the game tonight.
7 PM EST : Kansas -2.5 vs Duke, O/U 152
Kansas
The opening game of this MSG doubleheader is Kansas vs Duke , who occupy the 3rd and 4th rankings to start the year. Long term the future may be bleak as the NCAA investigates this program and their head coach, but until that hammer drops the Jayhawks are a contender. They return Udoka Azubuike off an injury plagued 2018/19 and now have fellow big man Silvio De Sousa eligible which is going to cause a lot of problems for opponents. The size immediately stands out and Kansas has enough in the backcourt to make this a balanced and difficult team to deal with. They also got an important transfer in Iowa’s Isaiah Moss , so the rich get richer and that adds to the Kansas depth.
Duke
Naturally you cannot replace guys like Zion Williamson , Cam Reddish, and RJ Barrett, but the Blue Devils will have to try. However they certainly are trying with a batch of big time freshman coming to town to support returning PG Tre Jones. Similar to Kentucky there will be some growing pains most likely as they work thru their first season together, but the talent is there once again. Vernon Carey , Cassius Stanley and Matthew Hurt all are expected contribute immediately and they are guys to keep an eye on early in the season. Matching up with Kansas’ frontcourt isn’t the ideal way to get a career started, but again it’s a great measuring stick type game.
My Pick: Kansas -2.5
Somewhat similar situation to the MSU/Kent game as Kansas has a lot of experience returning, while Duke is reloading with top end talent. This game comes down to the frontcourt as Kansas has multiple bigs who are going to cause problems. If Duke can matchup down there and avoid foul trouble they can hang in this game, but if not we should see Azubuike dominate down low. One thing to monitor is a few guys are questionable to play in this game for the Jayhawks so keep an eye on guys like Isaiah Moss before tip.
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