There has been a full week of college basketball games, which means it’s beyond time to overreact.
Here are the three biggest winners and losers from the sport’s opening week.
The Wildcats won the first spotlight game of the 2205-26 season with their 93-87 triumph over reigning national champion Florida on opening night. Toss in the fact that freshman forward Koa Peat likely gave the most impressive individual performance of the week (30 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals), and yeah, it isn’t hard to justify Arizona being here.
There was maybe a mild hangover on Friday for Tommy Lloyd’s team, which led Utah Tech by just seven points at halftime before rolling to a 93-67 victory. Peat scored 18 points in the win despite attempting just seven field goals.
Arizona was picked fourth in the Big 12 preseason media poll, but if week one is any indication, the Cats are much more of a threat to Houston’s throne than most thought entering the year.
After blasting Central Arkansas by 40 on opening night, the Tar Heels made an early statement on Friday night with an emphatic 87-74 win over visiting Kansas.
While most of the hype entering the showdown surrounded KU super freshman Darryn Peterson, it was UNC’s own McDonald’s All-American, Caleb Wilson, who stole the show. The absurdly talented 6’10” forward scored 24 points to go along with 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals as he added his name to the list of teenagers who have defined the first days of the 2025-26 season.
After the game, Wilson acknowledged that that matchup with Peterson was personal for him.
It’s no secret that this is a make-or-break season for Hubert Davis in Chapel Hill. Notching a statement victory this early in the season is comforting, but it means nothing if the Tar Heels aren’t able to build on it over the next few weeks of non-conference play.
Carolina will have an opportunity to do just that during a three-game stretch at the end of November/beginning of December when they’ll face Michigan State, Kentucky and Georgetown in succession.
While Arizona may have had the splashiest week one win thanks to the added spotlight that opening night brings, it was the Crimson Tide who scored likely the week’s most impactful victory.
More than a few college basketball writers projected during the offseason that Nate Oats’ program might take a slight step backwards in 2025-26. Instead, Alabama waltzed into Madison Square Garden on the season’s first Saturday and took down Rick Pitino and No. 5 St. John’s in a wildly entertaining game where the Tide were pretty clearly the superior side.
Labaron Philon made an early statement to the college basketball world by looking unguardable for two hours and finishing with 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting. Backcourt mate Aden Holloway was rock solid as well, and added 21.
St. John’s will be fine. Pitino teams always seem to hit their stride right around the start of conference play, which means a true road win over the Johnnies should age like a fine wine for Alabama.
Is it unfair to knock a team for losing on the road to a top 25 opponent in the first week of the season? Perhaps, but November stock reports aren’t about fairness. They’re about … well, vibes, mostly. Just like the College Football Playoff rankings.
Fears that poor outside shooting and erratic guard play could once again haunt John Calipari were given fuel in this one. The Razorbacks connected on just 7-of-28 shots from beyond the arc, and freshman guard Darius Acuff struggled with decision-making, particularly when it came to shot selection and a critical foul of Michigan State’s Jeremy Fears on a three-point attempt.
The pieces are there for the Razorbacks, but they simply could not find a way to get it done when the stakes were the highest, which was a story that largely defined Calipari’s first season in Fayetteville.
The Bruins looked wildly inconsistent in a pair of closer than they had any business being wins over Eastern Washington (80-74) and Pepperdine (74-63). Despite that, head coach Mick Cronin didn’t seem to be bothered at all by the team’s play and was adamant that the preseason No. 10 team in the country would be just fine.
Just kidding, he said he wanted to fire himself after the season’s first game.
It’s pretty apparent that UCLA is struggling a bit to adjust to life with Donovan Dent, the score-first point guard who thrives when he has free reign to do his thing in transition. The Bruins likely will be just fine when all is said and done, but week one was not overly comforting for fans desperately waiting for the program to get back to the promised land.
I don’t care how much they beat Merrimack by in game two, you can’t commit perhaps the worst foul we’re going to see all season and go to overtime with Bethune-Cookman and avoid finding yourself on this list.
Maybe Steven Pearl is the right man for the job and the Tigers are going to keep rolling just like they would have if his dad had remained the head coach. Game one certainly provided some reasons to believe that will not be the case.
