The College Basketball Season Is Officially Here: Welcome To The New Era Of The Sport

Justin Casterline. Getty Images.

I debated how to do this last year and decided to run it back. We already ranked all 358 teams: 

We even gave out futures: 

Now with that many teams it's nearly impossible to do a detailed preview of the sport. However, I wanted to write something with the season starting. My rankings made it easy for me. It's a new era. Sure we can look at a new era of coaches. Gone are K and Jay Wright. We're a couple years removed from Roy retiring. But we're at a weird time in college hoops with new rules, NIL, transfers, coaching changes and new blood. We saw it come true when Baylor beat Gonzaga to win a national title in 2021. It signaled that you don't necessarily have to be a blue blood in order to win. That was always the thought process. You had to be Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, UNC, Nova, Michigan State, UConn, etc. 

Obviously last year we had 4 known programs in the Final Four. Rare that we get that. Or we may need to adjust how we think of programs. Baylor and Houston are two ideal situations here to look at that. Kelvin Sampson took Houston to a Final Four in 2021 and an Elite Eight last year. Baylor won in 2021 and were a 1 seed last year. They bring guys back and more importantly reload. Each bring in a 5-star McDonald's All-American. Houston has a legit NPOY pick in Marcus Sasser. There's a reason they are the top-2 teams for me in the preseason and that sums it up as well as I can. 

But if you really want to see the change just look at the SEC. It was an okay basketball conference but basically it was always Kentucky and then rotate one other team. In the 90s there was Arkansas and Mississippi State in 96. Then you had Florida in the 2000s and for most of the Billy Donovan run. Now it's jumbled up top with Kentucky, Arkansas, Alabama, Auburn and Tennessee all as top-20 teams. Greg Sankey truly invested to make it a better conference and it's paying off. I know people will say there was a failure in the NCAA Tournament a year ago and that's true, but it's a year-to-year change. 

Speaking of Kentucky, all eyes are on us again. Why? Because Cal needs to make a Final Four. It seems weird to say he hasn't been there since 2015 and now he has the most veteran squad at Kentucky. He brings back NPOY Oscar Tshiebwe. He gets CJ Fredrick healthy after missing all of last year. Sahvir Wheeler, while he has shooting problems, is back as a lead guard. Jacob Toppin, Lance Ware and Damion Collins are all role players who have spent a couple years in the program. He still got his 5-stars, but this is a team that's going to rely on veterans. A key success in college basketball is just that.

Now you can't mention Oscar without injuries. Him and Wheeler are likely out for tonight's game as they try to get healthy. Oregon just lost Jermaine Cousinard. Baylor is without JTT. Texas Tech is without Fardaws Aimaq until February. Wyoming lost Graham Ike, who might the most important offensive piece to an individual team. Brutal injuries to start the year and I'm for sure forgetting some, but it just shows how much health will come into factor. These are all game changers for different reasons and these teams need these guys healthy. 

The Big 12 is going to be loaded again. You have Baylor, Kansas, Texas, TCU, Texas Tech as ranked teams. You still have Bob Huggins finally in the Hall of Fame. Kansas State gets a breath of fresh life with Jerome Tang and transfers. Iowa State is coming off a decent year, even if they lose a bunch of guys, good luck at Hilton. I love that we're getting round robin games in this league because every game is going to be must watch. Easily the best conference in America. 

On the flip side you have the Big 10. They don't really have a title contender coming into the year. Obviously shit can change but who do you love to win a title here? It also makes the league race intriguing because 4-5 teams can win it. A ton of hype around Indiana for the first time in what feels like forever. Hunter Dickinson is back and will piss people off. Weirdly Michigan State isn't ranked again and just feels like an odd time in East Lansing. Purdue still has their monster in Zach Edey. 

The Big East has a ton of new coaches. There might not be a bigger 'new era' than here. Creighton is a popular Final Four pick because of returning everyone + getting Baylor Schiermann in the transfer portal. Xavier brings back Sean Miller. Butler brings Thad Matta home. Those are two massive coaching upgrades. 

Even the non-power conferences have a ton of good teams. Dayton, San Diego State and obviously Gonzaga. But UAB is not even sneaky good. They just are good and have the electric Jelly Walker. Hell, that entire conference is going to be a ton of fun. St. Louis is a team that can challenge Dayton in the A-10. 

The ACC has everyone's pick in UNC. Again, they return basically everyone from last year's team who made a run. Notre Dame has an experienced team. Duke is loaded with 5-stars but a bunch of questions in terms of how they adjust + a first time head coach. Miami hit the transfer portal as well as anyone. Florida State always seems to be in the mix somehow. Pitt is still bad, but it'll be fun to at least watch them implode. 

With 358 teams it's not shocking that there are storylines all around. How do these new coaches take over big time programs? We've seen Oral Roberts and St. Peter's make runs in the last two NCAA Tournament's as a 15 seed, who is next? Can a mid-major make a run to the top-10? Is this the year that Gonzaga finally get a title? With big men dominating in awards, what guards look the part? 

Awards: 

NPOY: Marcus Sasser (Houston) 

1st Team All-American: Drew Timme (Gonzaga), Oscar Tshiebwe (Kentucky), Marcus Sasser (Houston), Armando Bacot (UNC), Keyonte George (Baylor)

2nd Team All-American: Trayce Jackson-Davis (Indiana), Hunter Dickinson (Michigan), Nick Smith (Arkansas), Jaime Jacquez (UCLA), Mike Miles (TCU) 

COY: Kelvin Sampson (Houston) 

SHOW ALERT - So I'm launching a YouTube show called Backdoor Cuts which will start today at 11am. It'll be roughly 30 minutes, talking about the sport for the day, bets and taking all questions from the chat/Twitter. Think the Brandon Walker show but with a couple rotating guests (anyone is welcome on). The plan is to do it every Tuesday/Thursday after this week until football ends. Subscribe/watch here: 

Let's have a year.