At this writing, there is a scant 19 days between us and the college basketball season, and in the spirit of my annual world's earliest college football Week 1 preview, I bring you the slightly more irregular world's earliest Week 1 college basketball preview.
The main reason that the football version of this column is a lot steadier (and earlier) is because college basketball schedules come together in a much more piecemeal fashion, and teams are still adding opponents scant weeks before the season, whereas in football, you're only going to have to find 3-4 non-conference opponents, so schedules can be, and are, set years in advance.
But college hoops schedules for 2024-25 are indeed set now, so let's have a look at Week 1.
As has been the case for the past several seasons, the season starts off on an early Monday in November (November 4th, in this case), with most D1 teams playing that Monday. Then, the schedule is sparser on Tuesday-Thursday (especially Tuesday), before ramping up bigly again on Friday. Saturday usually sees less action due to competing with college football — more on that later — before wrapping up Sunday.
The very first game of the season, taking place during the day on Monday, is usually a mid-major taking on a sub-D1 program (last year, it was IUPUI hosting Spalding at 11AM). This year, however, the college basketball podcast and media company Field of 68 is putting together an actually-good showcase to start the year, on YouTube, something of a throwback to the Bracketbuster matchups of yesteryear that pit good mid-major programs against each other: Southern Illinois vs. Charleson at noon Eastern, Santa Clara vs. Saint Louis at 3, and McNeese vs South Dakota State (the de facto host, as these games will be in Sioux Falls) at 6.
For something like the fourth or fifth year in a row, FOX Sports 1 will ring in the new season with Monday whiparound coverage of several Big East teams taking on lesser lights, where you just hope one of the games manages to not be a blowout. According to Kenpom.com, the closest projected game is Southern Indiana at DePaul. If you want to know the closest projected game that doesn't rely on DePaul's suckitude, that would be Missouri State at Butler.
Late at night, there are two neutral-site games with a lot of name value: Texas vs. Ohio State from Las Vegas at 10 on TNT, and Baylor vs. Gonzaga from Spokane at 11:30 on ESPN2.
Skipping ahead to Friday, and speaking of name value, North Carolina goes to Lawrence to take on Kansas at 7PM on ESPN2. That game is No. 1 on the day in "thrill score," a KenPom formula that seems to combine how close a game should be and how elite the teams are. No. 2 that night is New Mexico vs UCLA from the Vegas suburbs (11 PM, CBSSN), and No. 3 is also a Las Vegas-area neutral site game between Arizona State and Santa Clara, which has not found a TV home yet.
Saturday, however, is a revelation. Most years, there is very little in the way of intriguing Saturday matchups in November because they don't want to go up against late-season college football. This year, I don't know, I guess they are not afraid?
First, there's Tennessee at Louisville at noon on ACC Network. Then at 7:30 on ESPN, Arkansas vs. Baylor in Dallas (I might go to this game, will write on it if I do), followed by Auburn vs. Houston at the Toyota Center (where the Rockets play) at 9:30 on ESPNU. What?! That's the No. 1 vs. No. 3 in preseason Kenpom rankings!
Finally, in what also seems to be becoming a yearly tradition, FOX Sports 2 has a quintupleheader of Big East games that Saturday if you really want to give college football the middle finger (which, to be clear, I do not). The game with the most potential to be close, according to KenPom, is Fordham taking on Seton Hall at noon.
Enjoy the games, everyone!
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