5 Storylines 5 Days Out From College Basketball

It is that time of year again. The weather is starting to turn a little more crisp, football is in full swing, and the holidays are quickly approaching. However, that also means that college basketball season is right around the corner. Kentucky’s Blue-White Scrimmage, Pro Day, and Big Blue Madness are all in the rearview mirror. On Friday, Kentucky defeated #1 Purdue in an exhibition contest 78-65. While the result might not mean much, the Wildcats were incredibly impressive on the floor playing without Jaland Lowe and Jayden Quaintance. The second exhibition game, against Georgetown, will take place on Thursday. It is hard to believe we are just five days away from the 2025-2026 college basketball season.

In honor of hitting the five-day-out mark, let’s take a look at five more of the biggest storylines entering the 2025-2026 season. Every five days we have released five more headlines and have now reached a total of 25 heading into the season’s tip-off on November 3rd. As Kentucky Sports Radio’s resident college basketball junkie, I will have plenty of other preview content, including my annual College Basketball Manifesto, over the next few days. It is almost here, folks!

• 5 Storylines 25 Days Out From College Basketball
• 5 Storylines 20 Days Out From College Basketball
• 5 Storylines 15 Days Out From College Basketball
• 5 Storylines 10 Days Out From College Basketball

As Jon Rothstein would say: And Here. We. Go.

Opening Day Games to Watch

Kentucky fans will have to wait until Tuesday, November 4th to watch the ‘Cats take on Nicholls. However, there are 169 Division I games on Monday night to satisfy the appetite for college basketball. The Field of 68 will feature an Opening Day Marathon with three games taking place in Rock Hill, South Carolina and Sioux Falls, South Dakota respectively. That means we get 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time basketball between Winthrop and Queens to tip-off the season. Per the KenPom ratings, there are just two opening day games between Top 100 opponents. Let’s take a look at those contests that will take place back-to-back in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena.

• Florida vs. Arizona – The defending national champion Florida Gators will play the most anticipated game of opening night. Arizona features a trio of highly-anticipated freshmen in Brayden Burries, Koa Peat, and Dwayne Aristode. Meanwhile, Jaden Bradley, Tobe Awaka, and Anthony Dell’Orso return as starters from last seasons’s team that reached the Sweet 16. Expectations are high in year five for Coach Tommy Lloyd. The same is obviously true for the Gators coming off of the title. Their front court featuring returners Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, Rueben Chinyelu, and Micah Handlogten could be the best in the country. However, their ceiling will be defined by how good Arkansas transfer Boogie Fland and Princeton transfer Xaivian Lee can be in the backcourt.
• Villanova vs. BYU – AJ Dybantsa will make his debut in the night cap on TNT in Las Vegas on Monday night. The top prospect in the Class of 2025, and projected top pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, has already posted some insane numbers in the Cougars’ exhibition games. However, it’ll be different when they go against Villanova in a contest that counts. Coach Kevin Willard is looking to turn the page to a new generation after a couple of disappointing seasons for the Wildcats. Returning guard Tyler Perkins, James Madison transfer Bryce Lindsay, and freshman Acaden Lewis will be relied upon heavily to carry Villanova from the backcourt.

Hot Seat Watch

Unfortunately, this always has to be a preseason topic. Of the five names we mentioned last season, three of the five are gone. These are the coaches who will be feeling the most heat throughout the 2025-2026 college basketball season.

• Hubert Davis (North Carolina) – You can’t talk hot seat without at least mentioning the highest profile name of the bunch. Sure, Coach Davis has a contract extension that takes him through 2029-2030, but that can be ripped up quickly. After a surprise run to the National Championship game in year one, the Tar Heels have made two more NCAA Tournaments including a Sweet 16 during his tenure. A late season, semi-miraculous (controversial) run to the NCAA Tournament likely saved his job last year. If North Carolina has a similar 2025-2026 it could be time for a change.
• Johnny Dawkins (UCF) – UCF went to the Round of 32 in Coach Dawkins’ third season at the helm. Since then, they have won 20 games just once, going 20-17 last season, and haven not returned to the NCAA Tournament. In a loaded Big 12 there is no real reason to think the Knights have a tournament team this year either. This definitely could be it for Coach Dawkins after 10 years in Orlando.
• Bobby Hurley (Arizona State) – Coach Hurley keeps hanging around in Tempe. The Sun Devils haven’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2023 and haven’t won a postseason game during his tenure. Arizona State has also finished under .500 each of the last two seasons and in four of the last five overall. With his contract ending after this season it feels like, barring a NCAA Tournament berth, it could be Coach Hurley’s last at the helm.
• Matt McMahon (LSU) – Ja Morant helped put Coach McMahon and Murray State on the map leading them to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments in 2018 and 2019. Coach McMahon later went 31-3 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2022. That success led him to landing the LSU job. He took the Tigers from two SEC wins in 2023 to nine in 2024, but they fell back to 3-15 in 2025. Per KenPom, LSU is projected to finish 14th out of 16 in the SEC. If that happens it will likely be it for Coach McMahon in Baton Rogue after five years.
• Wes Miller (Cincinnati) – The national media has certainly put Coach Miller on the hot seat heading into this season. Cincinnati had a very disappointing 2024-2025 campaign that has made this situation one to monitor. Coming from UNC Greensboro, Coach Miller has yet to lead Cincinnati to the NCAA Tournament in four seasons. The Bearcats are projected fifth in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric, and have always been strong defensively under Coach Miller, but without improvements offensively year five could it.

Finding Value in the Futures Markets

Brandon’s Best Bets has been a lucrative venture for many followers over on KSBoard each of the last two seasons. We will be back, beginning November 3rd, with daily gambling advice. However, to get ahead of the game, let’s lay out some of our favorite futures before the college basketball season tips off. (All odds are provided by our partners at BetMGM). Always bet responsibly.

• Arizona +2500 National Championship Winner. Much has been made of the Wildcats’ three highly-touted incoming freshmen, but it is the return of three starters from last year’s Sweet 16 team that make this an intriguing value. After three Sweet 16 trips in four seasons, including each of the last two, this could be the year Coach Tommy Lloyd breaks through.
• Duke +150 ACC Regular Season Winner. This is pretty much a two horse race between the Blue Devils and the Louisville Cardinals. Getting Duke at plus odds is good value here. Ride with Cameron Boozer and Coach Jon Scheyer’s group.
• Kentucky +350 SEC Regular Season Winner. That is too juicy of a number for what could be a Top 5 team in college basketball. This is another year where 14-4 will likely give you a chance to win the league. That is very doable for this Kentucky team.
• Cameron Boozer +1200 John R. Wooden Award Winner. Exhibition games should be taken with massive grains of salt, but Cameron Boozer completely dominated Duke’s two exhibition games against power conference competition. He has a chance to put up some ridiculous stats for one of the country’s best teams.

Illinois Goes International

Tapping into the international basketball scene has become more and more popular over the last few years. NIL has made it possible for former professional players to come over and still be eligible to play college basketball. Nobody has leaned into this movement more than Coach Brad Underwood at Illinois. Last season, the Illini featured Kasparas Jakucionis and Tomislav Ivisic. Jakucionis became the 20th pick in the NBA Draft after just one season in Champaign.

This season, Ivisic will return and is joined in the front court by his brother Zvonimir Ivisic who transferred in from Arkansas. California transfer Andrej Stojakovic, David Mirkovic, and Mihailo Petrovic round out three more international prospects that will be featured in Illinois’ rotation. KenPom is high on the Illini ranking them sixth in the preseason while they check in at #17 in the AP Poll. It will be interesting to see if Coach Underwood’s venture into foreign waters pays off in 2025-2026.

CBS Sports’ Top 100 and 1 Players

In our last preview we highlighted CBS Sports’ Top 100 and 1 team rankings. Now, we will dive into their rankings of the top players in college basketball.

• Three Kentucky Wildcats made the list. Otega Oweh ranked the highest at #9. Jaland Lowe checked in at #35 overall. Jayden Quaintance, who is still returning from an ACL tear, was next at #52 overall.
• Purdue point guard Braden Smith was ranked as the top player in college basketball for the 2025-2026 season.
• The highly-touted freshmen all showed up in the Top 5. CBS had Kansas’ Darryn Peterson #2, Duke’s Cameron Boozer #4, and BYU’s AJ Dybantsa at #5.
• Boozer, Dybantsa, and Peterson are obviously the highest-profile names in the incoming freshman class. However, there are several more who will make instant impacts. Louisville’s Mikel Brown Jr. was the next highest ranked freshman at #22. Tennessee’s Nate Ament was ranked #36. Arkansas’ Darius Acuff Jr. rounded out those in the Top 50 at #45.
• Florida, Purdue, and UConn were the three teams to place four players inside of the Top 100 and 1.
• BYU, Florida, Houston, and UConn were the only four teams to have three players make it in the Top 50. Kentucky very narrowly missed this cut with Quaintance ranking #52.