Just as Major League Baseball has come to a close with the Atlanta Braves winning the World Series, another sport begins to help us fill the void that is our evenings.
College basketball begins Tuesday night with a beautiful slate of games.
It’s been seven months since the Baylor Bears dominated the Gonzaga Bulldogs 86-70 to win the 2020-2021 National Championship.
It was the most bizarre of years, with the COVID-19 pandemic having a major impact on the games. In a sport that relies on the energy generated from the crowd, the absence of packed stadiums was more noticeable than any other sport.
March Madness was played in one city — Indianapolis — sapping the energy from the most exciting postseason sports has to offer.
And now, we’re back.
The doors are open and the stands will be full, just in time to catch Mike Krzyzewski’s last season as head coach at Duke.
Coach K will call it a career after 42 seasons as head coach of Duke basketball and will retire as the winningest coach in the college basketball history — Krzyzewski will look to add to his 1,170 wins.
Duke enters the season ranked No. 9 after missing the NCAA Tournament last season.
Then there’s Gonzaga. Mark Few’s Bulldogs enter the season favored to win the national championship for the second consecutive year and only the fifth team to be preseason No. 1 in the AP poll in consecutive seasons.
The Bulldogs return leading scorer Drew Timme and will add 2021 No. 1 overall prospect Chet Holmgren to the roster.
“Both are really skilled players and really unselfish,” Zags assistant coach Brian Michaelson said. “They can play off each other easy, they can play inside or outside. I think it’s a pretty easy and seamless transition as far as those two playing together.”
Gonzaga tips off the season Tuesday against Dixie State. They’ll be without the services of Few, who will be serving his one-game suspension for a September DUI.
UCLA enters the season No. 2 and returns nearly its entire Final Four roster from a year ago. The Bruins will face No. 4 Villanova on Friday, November 12.
Kansas, Villanova, and Texas round out the preseason top-5.
It all gets started Tuesday with a few quality games, so let’s take a look at some of Tuesday’s college basketball tip-off slate of games.
No. 4 Villanova vs Mount St. Mary’s – 4:30 p.m. ET, FS1
No. 17 Ohio State vs Akron — 6:00 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Michigan State vs No. 3 Kansas – 7:00 p.m. ET, ESPN
No. 9 Duke vs No. 10 Kentucky – 9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN
No. 2 UCLA vs CSU Bakersfield – 11:00 p.m. ET, PAC12 Network
Associated Press Top-25
- Gonzaga
- UCLA
- Kansas
- Villanova
- Texas
- Michigan
- Purdue
- Baylor
- Duke
- Kentucky
- Illinois
- Memphis
- Oregon
- Alabama
- Houston
- Arkansas
- Ohio State
- Tennessee
- North Carolina
- Florida State
- Maryland
- Auburn
- St. Bonaventure
- UConn
- Virginia
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.