The season is finally here. We can finally talk about matters on the court, though there is one off-court matter that Ted Sarandis and I talk about in our final podcast before the season: the NCAA’s recent announcement about players being able to profit off use of their names, image and likeness. To that end, Ted also talked about an excellent article on the subject from outside the realm of sports media.
Very little is known about what this will ultimately look like, and the announcement comes off as mainly a PR move. Considering the NCAA is being pressed from a few angles, it isn’t surprising, but because it tells us so little, it almost seemed pointless.
Ted and I went on to talk about starting the season this early, then how the preseason top 25 rankings look. Notably, there seems to be a surprising amount of uniformity between the AP and Coaches polls, but this looks like a wide-open season.
Opening night always has some really good matchups and some that look bound to be duds. One thing we might get a sense of from the evening is whether or not the Pac-12 could be headed for a bounce-back year. After two bad years, the conference could use it.
We then look at Memphis and the possibility that they start five freshmen in a wide-open American Athletic Conference, and that is a segue to an article in a preseason publication about the importance of experience on recent national champions. Ted then closes with a great note about Virginia’s opening game on Wednesday night.
We hope you enjoy the podcast and share it with your fellow college basketball fans, and join us for more of them during the season. Additionally, with the games set to begin, more than ever The Morning Dish is your home for a quick glance at what happened the day before in the sport.
Side Dishes
USF looked set to build on their CBI championship a year ago as they had five starters back from that team in a wide-open American Athletic Conference. That now becomes four starters as forward Alexis Yetna will miss the season with a left knee injury. The conference’s leading rebounder a year ago as a redshirt freshman, he suffered the injury in practice on Friday.
NC State will remain without DJ Funderburk for their season opener on Tuesday night, though the redshirt junior can now practice with the team. Head coach Kevin Keatts suspended the forward in September for a violation of team policy and said on Monday that there is no timetable for him to be able to play in a game. It’s not a small loss as he is probably their top post player and likely slated to start after doing well in a reserve role a year ago.
Finally, some great news comes out of Austin. Andrew Jones, who was diagnosed with leukemia in January 2018, is ready to play again and may have a significant role for Texas. When he was diagnosed, Jones was the team’s leading scorer, and while he remains capable, he is still building strength and will have to shake off some rust from not having played for nearly two years. But any way you slice it, the return to action of a cancer survivor is unquestionably great news.
Tonight’s Menu
At long last, the games are here, and as is often the case, opening night is a mix of great matchups and ho-hum affairs.
- Three games tip off the season at noon Eastern time, though only one is between two Division I schools as Baylor hosts Central Arkansas.
- The Champions Classic headlines the night at Madison Square Garden, with Kansas taking on Duke (7 p.m.) and Kentucky taking on Michigan State (9:30 p.m.)
- Also of note are the earliest conference games ever as the ACC opens play with Louisville traveling to Miami (6:30 p.m.), Clemson hosting Virginia Tech (7 p.m.) and NC State hosting Georgia Tech (8:30 p.m.)
- Some interesting games with mid-majors going on the road against bigger opponents are Wagner traveling to Seton Hall (6:30 p.m.), Florida hosting Atlantic Sun contender North Florida, VCU hosting Northeast contender Saint Francis U (all at 7 p.m.), Conference USA contender UTSA visiting Oklahoma, Summit League contender North Dakota State visiting Kansas State, Alabama hosting Ivy League contender Penn, Ohio Valley contender Jacksonville State at SMU (all at 8 p.m.), Fresno State traveling to Oregon, Saint Mary’s taking on Wisconsin in Sioux Falls (which might be the best non-Champions Classic game on the slate), Georgia Southern going to Auburn (all at 9 p.m.), Texas Southern visiting San Diego State (10 p.m.) and Big West contender Cal State Northridge traveling to Oregon State (11 p.m.)
- Some great matchups among mid-majors include Monmouth at Lehigh, Yale at Stony Brook, Furman at Gardner Webb and Northeastern at Boston University (all at 7 p.m.)
- Intriguing games of the night: Summit League contender Omaha at Wichita State (8 p.m.) and Utah heading to Nevada (10:30 p.m.)
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