Having fun yet, this college basketball season? The power teams in the polls certainly already are.
Kansas is still No. 1, running Bill Self’s home record against non-conference opponents to a rather staggering 156-6.
Connecticut opened the season with back-to-back-to-back games reaching 90 points for the first time in 30 years and becoming the first defending national champion ever to start with three 35-plus point wins. Of the Huskies’ past 49 games going back the 2023 championship run, they’ve won 38 by double digits.
Gonzaga has already beaten Division I opponents by 59 and 38.
Purdue has zoomed up to No. 6 while pushing its regular season winning streak against non-conference teams to 39. The Boilermakers haven’t lost one of those games since before the pandemic. But 40 will be a challenge. They’re at Marquette on Tuesday night.
Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner has still missed only five shots so far, out of 46. He has blocked five more shots than he’s missed.
Duke stuffed Wofford 86-35, the fewest points the Blue Devils had allowed in a game since 1968. The defense created four shot clock violations. For his contribution to that win and the loss to Kentucky, Cooper Flagg was just named ACC Rookie of the Week, which is pretty much SOP in that league. In the past 11 seasons, more than 46 percent of the ACC weekly rookie award winners have been Blue Devils.
Tennessee blew past the Big Sky’s Montana 92-57, meaning Rick Barnes has now coached at least one game against every active Division I conference.
Wisconsin outran No. 9 Arizona 103-88, after losing every inch of an 18-point lead. It was the first time the Badgers broke 100 against a ranked opponent in 55 years and the most points a Big Ten team had scored in a p-10 opponent yenon-overtime game against a toars since 1992. “This is a night we will never forget,” guard Max Klesmit said. Leading the parade was John Tonje with 41 points, needing only 14 shots to do it. Then again, he had 21 of Wisconsin’s 41 free throws. Tonje is a sixth-year transfer who scored only 21 points all of last season while fighting injuries at Missouri.
St. John’s beat Wagner for its first win as a ranked team in 10 years, and then defeated New Mexico to give Rick Pitino a 3-1 record against his son Richard. “He handles losing better than me,” Rick said afterward.
Iowa State is the only athletic program this side of Connecticut to have top-10 teams in both Associated Press polls. The men are No. 5, the women No. 8.
But never mind the main marquee. You know the season is truly rolling when things like this bounce across the landscape out there among the masses.
There is, for example, more than one way to go 4-0. Hofstra started the season with two wins by scoring 89 and 90 points, then beat Seton Hall 49-48, its first victory over a Big East team in 18 years. It was also the first game in the nation this season won with a score under 50.
North Texas knocked off Minnesota 54-51 – “We showed them what Mean Green defense is,” guard Rondel Walker said — and that makes three consecutive wins over the Big Ten. They upset Wisconsin in 2023 and knocked Purdue out of the 2021 NCAA Tournament in Indianapolis.
DePaul has started 4-0 under new coach Chris Holtmann and won three consecutive games by 25-plus points for the first time in 30 years. The Blue Demons have 121 field goals this season, and someone has had an assist on 79 of them.
Seton Hall has not broken 60 points in a game yet but is somehow 2-2. Three days after the Pirates lost to Hofstra 49-48 they beat Wagner 54-28, the first time they had held an opponent under 30 since 1947.
Bucknell would be in the top 10 for entertainment value. How the Bison started 3-2: Come from 12 points down to beat Delaware with a 12-0 finish, defeat Southern Indiana in overtime, take a pounding at Kentucky, lose in two overtimes to Mount St. Mary’s after leading by 14 in the second half, come from 21 points down to get by Richmond in two overtimes, even after making 22 turnovers and getting the ball stolen 15 times. It was the Bison’s first back-to-back double overtime games since the 1978-79 season.
Missouri State scored its most points in a game since 1976 in a 111-106 three-overtime victory over Tulsa. This was after blowing a 13-point lead in the last four minutes of regulation,
Charleston sent the hottest scorer in the land out of the gate. Ante Brzovic opened the season with games of 27, 34 and 39 points. That last one included a 3-pointer at the buzzer to beat Florida Atlantic 119-116 in double overtime.
Speaking of the Owls, they’re still a lively story, never mind Dusty May is now in Ann Arbor coaching Michigan. They scored 97, 99, 94 and 116 points their first four games — and lost the last two. Then they beat Liberty 77-74 in overtime.
So is Central Michigan. There was the 73-72 loss to Stony Brook with a driving layup with three seconds left, after leading by 12 and missing three consecutive free throws in the final minute. Then the 70-62 defeat at Marquette despite outrebounding the Golden Eagles by a shocking 46-27. But the Chippewas did have 16 turnovers in the first 14 minutes. Finally, the 70-69 win over George Mason on a Damarion Bonds 3-pointer with two seconds left, after three Central Michigan starters had fouled out.
Winthrop, in 48 hours over the weekend, beat William & Mary on a 3-pointer at the buzzer, lost to Georgia Southern by two points in a game with 77 free throws, and edged North Carolina Central 77-75 in a game with 19 lead changes.
Going into Monday night’s game against Montana, Utah State forward Aubin Gateretse had not missed a shot yet this season, making all 15. Villanova’s Eric Dixon had not missed a free throw yet, making all 20. A team had scored at least 108 points in a game 51 times. For the big names and not-so-big, college basketball is settling in for the winter.
