Wednesday is the one-month mark of the college basketball season, which feels like a good time to take stock of the risers and fallers of the season.
While the No. 1 team in the country — Purdue — remains the same as it was in the Associated Press Top 25 preseason poll, there has been plenty of movement behind the Boilermakers. Including Tuesday night, when we saw Duke eke out a win over Florida, Tennessee go down in a surprise at Syracuse, and (insert KU or UNC game here).
Here’s who has jumped out in the opening section of the season — in both good ways and bad.
SurprisesArizona (7-0)
We knew the Wildcats were going to be good, but did anyone think that one month in, they’d have one of the best resumes in college basketball after topping Florida, UCLA and UConn?
Koa Peat announced himself to the college basketball world with a dominant performance over the defending champ Gators and has continued to impress, averaging 15.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game. (It’s worth noting Peat’s best games have come against the biggest competition; at UConn he went for 16 points and 12 boards on 50 percent shooting.) Anthony Dell’Orso, a starter most of last season, has been excellent — and efficient — off the bench, averaging 11.3 points on 46.2 percent shooting. And Jaden Bradley is the nation’s most underappreciated point guard.
The UA fanbase has been starved for meaningful postseason success for nearly three decades — does that end in March? — Lindsay Schnell
Iowa State (7-0)
Only six teams in the country currently rank in the top 15 in adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency: Michigan, Duke, Gonzaga, UConn, Arizona, and Iowa State, which has the look of a Big 12 and Final Four contender. Per usual, coach T.J. Otzelberger has built one of the best pressure defenses in America, as the Cyclones rank second nationally in turning opponents over, per KenPom.
But Iowa State’s offensive balance — even without star guard Tamin Lipsey, who missed the team’s final two games of Players Era Festival with a groin injury — has been arguably just as impressive. Four different Cyclones (including Lipsey) average double figures, and Otzelberger’s team as a whole is shooting over 60 percent on 2-pointers, a top-25 mark nationally. Injuries doomed ISU late last season, but if Lipsey can get — and stay — healthy, then ISU’s ceiling appears higher than initially expected. — Brendan Marks
Indiana (7-0)
Coach Darian DeVries built a team that could shoot and score using the portal, but I wasn’t sure the Hoosiers could guard. While the schedule hasn’t really provided a great test, the numbers are still pretty impressive.
Indiana is holding opponents to 39.1 percent shooting inside the arc, and the defense ranks 14th in adjusted efficiency. DeVries, who comes from the Creighton/Greg McDermott coaching tree, was more known for his offensive mind, but he led West Virginia to a 15th-place finish in adjusted defense last year. He didn’t have the offensive punch there, especially with a season-ending injury to his son. Tucker DeVries is healthy now and has more weapons around him. If the defense can remain even top-30 good, this could be Indiana’s first team to reach the second weekend since 2016. — C.J. Moore
Kansas (6-3)
As usual, expectations were high for the Jayhawks coming into the season. But a lot of that centered around freshman guard Darryn Peterson, the potential No. 1 pick in next summer’s NBA Draft. Then KU went to Vegas and picked up three wins without Peterson, including a you-had-to-see-it-to-believe-it comeback versus then-No. 17 Tennessee. Their numbers don’t necessarily jump off the page — No. 57 in adjusted offensive efficiency, No. 10 in adjusted defensive efficiency — but imagine how much more dangerous they’ll be when Peterson returns — which should be soon. Kansas nearly beat No. 5 UConn without him Tuesday.
As coach Bill Self said after the Tennessee win, “We came here doubting how good we could be … what (this win) should do is give us confidence that when we are whole … we can actually be pretty good.” Um, ya think? — Schnell
The Jayhawks strung together three wins at Players Era without star freshman Darryn Peterson. (Candice Ward / Getty Images)
Michigan State (8-0)
After Tuesday night, only three teams in the country have three wins over ranked foes: UConn, Duke … and Michigan State, which is 8-0 for the first time since 2016. Coach Tom Izzo’s program was expected to take a step back this season after losing Jase Richardson to the NBA Draft, but instead, Sparty has had one of the strongest identities of any team in America through the first month of the season. Per Bart Torvik, MSU has the third-best adjusted defensive efficiency in the country to date — trailing only Michigan and Houston — while ranking top-20 in offensive and defensive rebounding rate.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Fears Jr. has emerged as Izzo’s next great point guard, leading the country with 9.4 per game. The Big Ten is top-heavy this year, but early on, Michigan State looks like a contender to win consecutive conference titles. — Marks
Vanderbilt (8-0)
The computer models liked Vanderbilt in the preseason — started No. 19 at KenPom — but I was skeptical of the portal haul. The go-to perimeter player, Duke Miles, averaged 9.4 points per game last year at Oklahoma. Well, Ken Pomeroy was right. Actually, he might have been a little low.
Vandy is up to 11th at his site and Miles is averaging 18.8 points and 4.8 assists per game. Coach Mark Byington has one of the best offenses in the sport, averaging 97.9 points per game. He has done an excellent job evaluating the portal and also found a gem in the high school ranks in Tyler Tanner. The sophomore, unranked in the 2024 class, is averaging 15.0 points and 4.1 assists per game. Both he and Miles have been excellent in the pick-and-roll game, and the Commodores might just be a dark-horse SEC contender. — Moore
DisappointmentsCreighton (5-3)
A NBA scout buddy was raving about the Jays after a preseason trip and was convinced that Creighton was better than Iowa State, which Creighton beat by 13 in an exhibition game. Instead, the Jays have looked pretty average so far, and Iowa State is clearly the better team, winning 78-60 last week in a rematch at the Players Era Festival.
Creighton’s three losses have come by a combined 52 points, and while they were against solid opponents (Gonzaga, Baylor and Iowa State), you’d expect a preseason Top 25 team to be competitive. Most underwhelming so far has been former Iowa forward Owen Freeman, who was thought to be one of the best portal bigs. While his efficiency numbers are solid, he’s averaging just 9.6 points and 5.7 rebounds. The defense is struggling in the post-Ryan Kalkbrenner era, and this appears to be a team without a star, which is what Freeman was supposed to be. — Moore
Kentucky (5-3)
After Tuesday’s loss to North Carolina, Kentucky still hasn’t beaten a high-major opponent yet this season, and it might be time to recalibrate expectations for the most expensive team in the sport. Some of the Wildcats’ struggles are beyond coach Mark Pope’s control; Jaland Lowe’s lingering shoulder injury means Kentucky is playing without a natural point guard (and one of its top transfer additions), while Jayden Quaintance remains out while rehabbing the torn ACL he suffered in the spring. But even still, Kentucky hasn’t looked like a top-25 team, to say nothing of one that entered this season with Final Four ambitions.
UK is only shooting 33.6 percent from 3, can’t regularly string together defensive stops — and continues to give off bad vibes, difficult as that is to quantify. The Cats are still an NCAA Tournament team (probably), but it’s getting tougher and tougher to imagine this group doing anything substantial come March. — Marks
It might be time to lower expectations for this Kentucky team after stheir slow start this year. (Vincent Carchietta / Imagn Images)
Marquette (5-4)
So much has been made about coach Shaka Smart betting on his guys instead of recruiting out of the transfer portal, but given Marquette’s 5-4 record — which includes a blowout loss to Indiana, and Tuesday’s narrow overtime win over Valparaiso — I can’t help but wonder if a transfer or two would help the Golden Eagles, who clearly have a talent deficiency. Marquette currently ranks 66th in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency and 249th(!) in 3-point percentage, but shooting close to the rim might be an even bigger issue. In losses to Maryland and Oklahoma, Marquette was a combined 20-of-47 on layups. Yeesh. Might be a (very) long Big East season in Milwaukee. — Schnell
San Diego State (3-3)
In hindsight, things might not be as dire as they appeared in Vegas, given that what Michigan did to SDSU it did to, well, everyone. But a 40-point loss isn’t something anyone wants on their resume … and neither is a double-OT loss to Troy.
Getting shellacked by Michigan absolutely played a role in the Aztecs’ brutal NET ranking (No. 127 after Tuesday’s games), and it’s a striking tumble for a team that garnered plenty of votes in both the AP and coaches’ preseason polls. SDSU, a program known for its stingy defense, has allowed at least 80 points in its last four games. Suffice it to say, this is not what Miles Byrd envisioned when he spurned the NBA Draft to return to college. — Schnell
St. John’s (4-3)
The concern coming into the season was whether St. John’s had good enough guard play. That hasn’t necessarily changed, but it’s hard to question what’s happening on the offensive end. The Johnnies rank ninth in adjusted offense and their 3-point accuracy has gone from 30.1 percent last season to 35 percent so far this year. If you told me those would be the numbers through seven games, I would have said coach Rick Pitino would probably have an undefeated, top-five team.
Instead, St. John’s is 4-3 because of a struggling defense. The Johnnies have allowed 80-plus points four times and their opponents are getting back nearly 36.4 percent of their misses. Odd, considering Pitino starts three bigs. I expect Pitino to figure things out, but so far this team hasn’t met the preseason hype. — Moore
UCLA (5-2)
The way UCLA’s season has started, we’re probably not far away from an all-time Mick Cronin news conference crashout. Losing by 4 to Arizona is nothing to be upset about, but the Bruins’ 8-point loss to Cal — which was picked to finish 16th in the 18-team ACC — sounded serious alarms about UCLA’s potential. All five wins are of the Quad-4 variety.
Despite adding one of the nation’s most explosive guards from the transfer ranks, former New Mexico star Donovan Dent, Cronin’s team has yet to put things together offensively, barely ranking in the top 50 in adjusted efficiency, per Bart Torvik. And to make matters worse, Dent left the Cal game early with a lower-body injury. There’s plenty of season left, and Big Ten play ensures Cronin’s group will have plenty of resume-boosting opportunities, but the Bruins have looked more like a bubble team through a month than one that can do serious damage. — Marks