Duke, Gonzaga, USC, South Carolina

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I went down quite a few rabbit holes researching the random schools playing Division I college basketball games this week.

In today’s SI:AM:

The best team in the NFC West
NFL playoff photo
Mr. Baseball

The start of the college basketball season is always a bit of an anticlimax. Most teams spent the early part of their schedule improving their records in non-conference games against cupcake opponents before the real testing began later in the year. Never is that more apparent than on the opening day of the season, when you’re destined to learn of the existence of more than a few schools just by looking at the scores from around the country. That will be the case when this year’s season starts on Monday. The Louisiana-Monroe men play at a school called Champion Christian College, which: according to American news and world reporthas only 80 students. (That means 6.3% of the student population will be on the field at any given time.) The women of Florida International play – and this is no joke – Florida National.

But not every match on the schedule features irrelevant schools such as Alice Lloyd College (553 students) and University of The Southwest (369 students). Here are a few games that should be worth your attention on the opening day of the season.

No. 7 Duke Blue Devils vs. Maine Black Bears (men, 7 p.m. ET on ACC Network)

It’s been four months since Duke freshman Cooper Flagg wowed the basketball world with his stunning performance against Team USA in a pre-Olympic scrimmage in Las Vegas, when the 17-year-old punched jumpers with Anthony Davis in the face and dunked on Bam Adebayo. Now we’ll see what he can do against players his own age. Flagg, who doesn’t turn 18 until Dec. 21, is a 6-foot-4 swingman and the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft. He will look comfortable in the college game with a matchup against the flagship university. in his home state (Flagg’s twin brother, Ace, left for Maine earlier this week.) And Flagg isn’t the only freshman of note with the Blue Devils South Sudan in this summer’s Olympics, with Kon Knueppel, another five-star prospect.

No. 6 Gonzaga Bulldogs vs. No. 8 Baylor Bears (men, 11:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2)

This is the most important match scheduled for Monday. It is the only match between two teams from the top 10 and there is also a budding rivalry. These two teams met in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament and again in the ’21 national championship game (which Baylor won) before playing a wild rematch at a neutral site in December ’22, in which Baylor won the last eight scored points to win 64–63.

Baylor has taken a small step back since that national title season, losing games by double digits in each of the past two seasons and bowing out in the second round of three consecutive NCAA Tournaments. But the Bears were active in the transfer portal, adding Miami’s Norchad Omier and Duke point guard Jeremy Roach, along with a high school recruiting class that 247 Sports ranked as the best. sixth best in the country. Gonzaga also added Arkansas transfer Khalif Battle, a sixth-year senior and one of the nation’s top free-throw shooters.

No. 3 USC Trojans vs. No. 20 Ole Miss Rebels (women, noon ET on ESPN)

The dominant storyline in women’s basketball this season will be how the sport adapts to the absence of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, two stars who have been defining in recent years. But as transcendent as Clark and Reese were in college, they are hardly irreplaceable. There are several rising superstars waiting to step into the spotlight.

One of them is USC’s JuJu Watkins, who was one of the best players in the country as a freshman last year but will now get more attention without Clark dominating the conversation. Watkins averaged 27.1 points per game last season, second in the nation behind only Clark, and set a national freshman record with a total of 920 points.

Watkins and the Trojans are placed in a big spot for their opener, playing Ole Miss in Paris in a game that will be televised nationally on ESPN. The Rebels have emerged as a force to be reckoned with within the SEC after years of irrelevance. Last season was their third in a row with fewer than ten losses, while finishing third in the Conference regular season standings. This game isn’t as high-profile as the South Carolina-Notre Dame season opener in Paris last year, but Ole Miss is a quality opponent that will test the Trojans.

No. 5 UCLA Bruins vs. No. 17 Louisville Cardinals (women, 2:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2)

The other big Los Angeles school is featured in the second game of the Paris showcase, with UCLA facing Louisville in one of only three top-25 matchups offered on the first day of the season.

The star player in this one is UCLA center Lauren Betts. The 6-foot-1 junior had a breakout season last year after transferring from Stanford, averaging 14.9 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. She will be asked to play an even bigger role this year after leading scorer Charisma Osborne graduated and moved on to the WNBA.

No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks vs. Michigan Wolverines (women, 7:30 p.m. ET on TNT/TruTV)

Last season was the best illustration of why the Gamecocks are the best program in college basketball, men’s or women’s. They lost seven seniors to graduation (including five selected in the WNBA draft) from the 2022-2023 team, but didn’t lose a step, becoming the first team since the UConn Huskies women in ’13-14 to go undefeated championship completed. season. This year they bring back most of the dominant squad (nine of the eleven players), and a second straight undefeated season is a strong possibility.

That quest begins against a solid Michigan program that has made four straight NCAA tournament appearances. South Carolina should win this one without much problem (he’s favored by nearly 20 points at most sportsbooks), but it will still be interesting to see how the Gamecocks adjust to life without star center Kamilla Cardoso. She was a force of nature last season, averaging 14.4 points, 9.7 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game, and the biggest question mark for this team is how she will be replaced.

Kardoso may be gone, but the Gamecocks won’t be lacking in star power. Expect sophomore MiLaysia Fulwiley to take a step forward this season after excelling in limited action as a freshman. Fulwiley played just 18.4 minutes per game (seventh among South Carolina players), but was second behind Cardoso with 11.7 points per game. She has the ability to score in bunches — she scored 24 points in just 17 minutes in the SEC championship game win over LSU last season — and will have more opportunities to do so this year.

…things I saw yesterday:

5. Panthers commit tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders long term after capture.
4. The pistons by metro to Barclays Center because the New York City Marathon disrupted traffic in Brooklyn.
3. Saquon Barkleys backward obstacle.
2. Amon-Ra St. Brown’s spinning touchdown catch.
1. DeVonta Smith’s one-handed touchdown catch at full speed.