There were 100’s of games on the first night of college basketball, but let’s talk about a few that stood out, and could have larger implications on the rest of the season!

Gonzaga- Final Four or Bust?

The Zags were spectacular last night in the biggest game of the day, with a resounding 101-63 victory. Dominating the interior were the bigs for the Bulldogs, Graham Ike and Braden Huff. Ike had 15 points and 8 rebounds, while Huff had 14 points off the bench. The guards for Gonzaga also looked super dangerous, with spectacular movement and creation throughout the game. For Baylor, this isn’t a “the season’s over” moment. Gonzaga is a top 5 team in the country, and will remain there for the entirety of the season. Big time freshmen VJ Edgecombe disappointed despite a ridiculous poster dunk at the end of the game. Seen here https://x.com/CBKReport/status/1853686181642273228. VJ was 2/11 from the field, and was trying to do too much on the court, playing out of control in many moments. The positive for the Bears was the play of freshman guard Rob Wright III, who had 12 points and 6 assists. It’s a long season, and Baylor will be fine, but Gonzaga is posed for another deep run into the NCAA Tournament.

Ohio State- Diebler is Cooking!!

In the other marquee matchup of the night, Ohio State took down Texas 80-72, behind a spectacular 14/28 shooting performance from three. Highlighting this performance was freshman John Mobley Jr., who had 14 points in 13 minutes, including being 4/4 from three. Guards Bruce Thornton and Micah Parrish both also looked great, with 20 and 17 points respectively. The Buckeyes could be dangerous this year!! On the other hand, this game definitely brought up some of my big worries about the Longhorns. The big play is not good. It’s that simple. Kadin Shedrick just isn’t good enough and physical enough to be a 30+ minute per game big. 4/12 from the field as a center is bad. Kaluma has his moments, but also is an inefficient player who plays out of control a lot of the time, making dumb mistakes. Now, to be fair, Texas was missing one of their top guards, Tramon Mark, and there are a lot of newcomers, so growing pains are expected. I won’t be too low on them quite yet. The big highlight for Texas fans was definitely freshman wing Tre Johnson, who played 38 minutes of this one, scoring 29 points on 10/20 from the field and 5/10 from three! He was very impressive, and will clearly be “the guy” for them this year.

My Other Big Takeaways

The best game of the day was #13 Texas A&M @ UCF, in which UCF upset the Aggies 64-61 despite being down the majority of the second half. Darius Johnson was great, doing his usual thing with a 24 point, 5 assist, and 3 steal game. JJ Taylor also impressed me, with 10 points in 22 minutes after barely playing at Memphis last year. He also guarded all American candidate Wade Taylor IV for a large portion of the game, and Taylor ended with 13 points on 4/15 shooting. Texas A&M always seems to start the year poorly, and clearly this year is no different, but the best offensive rebounding in the country was on display, and Pharrell Payne showed his impact before fouling out, with 15 points and 6 rebounds.

No big day of college basketball is without its share of upsets, and yesterday had a few! North Florida beat South Carolina 74-71, with a great all around team effort. Definitely a little worried about the Gamecocks having to play in the gauntlet that is the SEC after this type of loss.. Not a huge upset, but perennial America East powerhouse Vermont took down UAB, most people’s pick to win the AAC, 67-62. The Catamounts are looking legit, maybe they’ll finally get the March upset they’ve been waiting for. The final upset that could be pretty meaningful as the season moves further on is South Dakota State taking down Will Wade and McNeese State 80-73, the team many thought would be a top 5 mid major, and could even make the second weekend in March. They definitely still could, but it will be an uphill battle, with a much harder path to an at-large bid unless South Dakota State continues their success.

Finally, I’ll highlight some of the most impressive performances from last night.

• Illinois freshman forward Will Riley had a ridiculous 31 point game in the Illini’s stomping of EIU, on 10/13 shooting from the field and 5/6 from three. Him having an instant impact is huge for Brad Underwood and Co.
• After losing Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro, Kam Jones became the leader of Shaka Smart’s Marquette squad, and started it with a bang, 32 points on 14/16 shooting against Stony Brook. Get used to these type of numbers from Kam…
• Justin Hill, after transferring down from Georgia to Wichita State, led them to a 91-84 win over Western Kentucky, with 31 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists. He’s going to put up big time numbers this year for the Shockers.
• Speaking of Georgia, their top recruit Asa Newell put up a great stat line in his first collegiate game, 26 points and 11 rebounds, as Georgia barely beat Tennessee Tech.
• Another Montverde teammate of Asa Newell, Derik Queen, was a force in his first game for Maryland, with 22 points and 20 rebounds (no, that’s not a typo). He is DANGEROUS.
• I could go on and on and if you’d like to see all the top performances, I suggest downloading the Real Sports App, which has so many college game feeds and stat lines.

There is so much more that happened, but I don’t want to keep you all waiting all day. It was a spectacular feeling to have my 4 screens with 4 different games on again, and to experience the atmosphere like no other in college basketball! I’ll be back tomorrow for more! Reminder to subscribe (at the bottom of my homepage) to get emails whenever I make a new post. Thank you for your continued support!

(P.C. Gonzaga MBB)