College Basketball 2022-2023

[bukie]

Season officially tips off today, with every top 25 team in action today for the first time ever.

Do all top 25 teams win today (all are double digit favorites) or is there a monumental upset on the docket today?

[Tim]

Someone will lose

[UMFan83]

Someone will lose

Probably won't be Baylor. They're up 35-10 on Mississippi Valley St

If someone is going to lose I'll pick George Mason over Auburn. George Mason is a fringe top 100 team and Barttorvik has Auburn lower than their ranking. Though Barttorvik has Michigan 39th so screw them

I guess Michigan could get upset too. Their entire rotation except for Hunter is new (there are holdovers but taking bigger roles) and Purdue FW won the Horizon league last year and brought almost everyone on their team back.

[bukie]

#5 Baylor is the first one to play today, and already leads KP #361 Mississippi Valley State 42-12 about 15 minutes in.

[bukie]

Someone will lose

Probably won't be Baylor. They're up 35-10 on Mississippi Valley St

If someone is going to lose I'll pick George Mason over Auburn. George Mason is a fringe top 100 team and Barttorvik has Auburn lower than their ranking. Though Barttorvik has Michigan 39th so screw them

I guess Michigan could get upset too. Their entire rotation except for Hunter is new (there are holdovers but taking bigger roles) and Purdue FW won the Horizon league last year and brought almost everyone on their team back.

Meanwhile, Illinois returns just Coleman Hawkins and RJ Melendez from last year's team (and Luke Goode but he's out with a broken foot and won't play for months). The entire starting 5 and 10 of their 13 players with significant iminutes are gone, replaced by 5 freshmen (one a preferred walk-on) Skyy Clark, Ty Rodgers, Sencire Harris, Jayden Epps, and Paxton Warden, a Baylor transfer that is technically a redshirt soph in Dain Dainja, and top 10 transfers Terrence Shannon (Texas Tech) and Matthew Mayer (Baylor).

They'll be a completely different team, and I expect them to play much faster paced and aggressive defensively without having to sit back and rim-protect when Kofi was around.

I think they'll be really good, particularly at the end of the season, but I'm curious how everything will mesh together early, especially since they get basically one week of warmup games before going up against 2 of UCLA, Baylor and Virginia.

[bukie]

Looks like Baylor's going to be able to hold on, leading 112-50 with 2 minutes to play.

[Tim]

I think my shot at an upset died with TCU hanging on for a 1 point victory over Arkansas Pine-Bluff.

[Old Style]

I think my shot at an upset died with TCU hanging on for a 1 point victory over Arkansas Pine-Bluff.

[bukie]

Assuming UCLA doesn't blow a 16 point lead, the entire top 25 will have won today.

Biggest upset of the day is Florida State losing at home to Stetson (or USC losing at home to Florida Gulf Coast, but FSU was getting AP votes).

[Old Style]

Assuming UCLA doesn't blow a 16 point lead, the entire top 25 will have won today.

Biggest upset of the day is Florida State losing at home to Stetson (or USC losing at home to Florida Gulf Coast, but FSU was getting AP votes).

#14 TCU got lucky and won by 1 over UAPB.

[bukie]

Memphis is in a weird spot this year.

[UMFan83]

Memphis is in a weird spot this year.

That's strange. But we're in the rapid transfer/NIL era so I'm sure they can build another team in a hurry, and I believe they have a top 10 recruiting class coming in next year.

[bukie]

Good week so far for the B1G. Only one loss, by 1 on an aircraft carrier to #2 Gonzaga by MSU. No upset losses, almost everyone winning handily (side-eyes Michigan).

In fact, the only ranked team to lose so far has been Villanova at Temple.

[UMFan83]

Emoni Bates looks legit. Maybe he was just motivated by Michigan spurning him when he wanted to transfer here but he looked like a star.

That said Michigans defense looks even worse than last years. Yikes

[Old Style]

Buzz Williams looks to have a salty bunch in year 4 at Texas A&M. We shouldn’t have to sweat out Selection Sunday again this season. Sophomore guard Wade Taylor IV will be a familiar name to college hoops fans by the end of this season.

[Old Style]

North Carolina, Gonzaga are 1-2 atop AP Top 25 men’s poll

I know it's not a big deal to a lot of the posters here from basketball schools but it warms my heart to see Texas A&M back in the Top 25 for the first time in 4 years.

[bukie]

In the first half tonight, Monmouth took 24 shots. Illinois had 23 makes.

[UMFan83]

DePaul wins at Minnesota for the 2nd time in 4 years

[bukie]

Through 3 games, Terrence Shannon Jr leads Illinois in minutes, leads the nation in fouls drawn, and has not been called for a foul yet.

[Old Style]

North Carolina, Gonzaga are 1-2 atop AP Top 25 men’s poll

I know it's not a big deal to a lot of the posters here from basketball schools but it warms my heart to see Texas A&M back in the Top 25 for the first time in 4 years.

LOL what a horsefeathering joke. I was an idiot for believing we had a good team. Two gigantic eggs laid yesterday & today against mediocre teams. An absolute disaster for Buzz Williams.

[SouthSideRyan]

Colorado lost to Grambling St and UMass and beat Tennessee and A&M

[bukie]

So far this season, Illinois' personnel strategy has been "keep putting new guys in there with Shannon until something works". Tonight it's Harris, Epps and Dainja. Mayer has stepped up some. Clark has had a good second half after a bad first half. Hawkins and Melendez just don't have it today for whatever reason, but Illinois still leads #8 UCLA late in the 2nd half. It's a good sign.

[Irrelevant Dude]

This Illinois team is impressive. So deep, and so talented. It's hard to imagine losing Kofi and getting better, but this team has so many more weapons. I won't be surprised if they have a few struggles in Big 10 play, but on any given night they can hang with anyone in the country.

[bukie]

Sencire Harris made a difference in the game.

[gflore34]

This is the kind of an Illini team that's finally going to get Underwood past the second week of the tournament.