Opening Night Recap

 College Basketball Season Officially Underway

Hello everyone! I'm just as excited as anyone to finally see some college ball being played while the NFL still dominates Sundays. I've never followed the sport this early on into the season, so seeing teams dramatically change in perception on a game to game basis will take some getting used to. Without further ado, here are some of my thoughts on the opening night of the season:

Battle of Ohio Down to the Wire

Not many people were expecting it, but Akron came just a few ticks away from topping its in-state rival in the Ohio State Buckeyes. I'm not sure if the latter's #17 ranking will hold, but from watching the match, its tightness was more of a testament to how impressive the Zips played rather than a poor performance from Ohio State. Akron was playing some very composed basketball, and if not for a defensive breakdown on their final defensive possession, they'd have walked out of Columbus with a marquee victory. The Buckeyes did the minimum that they had to do last night; walk away with a win. They're going to need to prove themselves against Duke and/or Kentucky in their respective non-conference tilts (we'll talk about these two teams later) For Akron, however, prospects of claiming the automatic bid from the MAC already seem very plausible.

Top 25 Teams Mostly Clean House

While the preseason rankings should be taken with a huge grain of salt, almost of them did end up winning last night. Third-ranked Kansas comfortably defeated the Spartans in East Lansing, spreading the floor extremely well. Michigan State kept it within arms reach for much of the game, but the Jayhawks went on a huge run mid-way through the second half and Michigan State never recovered.

I didn't watch most of the other games, but some teams towards the lower end of the top 25 took some extra time to dispose of their opponent: St. Bonaventure let Siena stay in it for a half, as did Tennessee with UT Martin and Arkansas with Mercer. The Houston Cougars needed overtime to get past the CAA staple of Hofstra, and they would have walked away with an ugly blemish on their resume had Jamal Shead not intercepted an inbounds pass with 30 seconds left en route to a game-tying three.

The one elephant in the room is the 25th-ranked Virginia Cavaliers, suffering an unexpected home loss to Navy. They were sloppy with the ball all night long (14 turnovers) and couldn't recover from their early hole. Virginia gets a chance at redemption against the aforementioned Cougars in six days.

Coach K With a Swan Song Squad to Remember

I didn't watch the full game since I was extremely tired, but my god did Duke look good. This game was back and forth during the early portion of the second half, but the Blue Devils simply outpaced Kentucky during the contest and maintained a comfortable lead. While Paolo Banchero was productive despite playing through injury, the real star for Duke was Trevor Keels: with 25 points on 10/18 shooting, Keels dominated with clutch buckets time and time again. He was so effective at driving to the rim that Duke's measly 7.7% 3-point shooting percentage was hardly noticeable in this victory against the Wildcats. Mike Krzyzewski may have one last run to the final four before calling it quits.