SI:AM | Five Opening Night College Hoops Games Actually Worth Watching

Most of the games are just tuneups, but there are a few high-profile matchups.

Watkins (12) is ready to take center stage this season. / Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images

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 picture
🎙️ Mr. Baseball

It’s a basketball feast

The start of the college basketball season is always a bit anticlimactic. Most teams spent the early part of their schedule bolstering their records in nonconference games against cupcake opponents before the real tests begin later in the year. Never is that more evident than on the opening day of the season, when you’re destined to learn about the existence of more than a few schools just by checking the scores from across the country. That’ll be the case when this year’s season gets underway on Monday. The Louisiana-Monroe men are playing a school called Champion Christian College that, according to U.S. News & World Report, has only 80 students. (That means 6.3% of the student body will be on the court at any one time.) The Florida International women are playing—and this is not a joke—Florida National.

But not every game on the schedule features irrelevant schools like Alice Lloyd College (553 undergraduates) 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 has 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, as the 17-year-old hit jumpers with Anthony Davis in his face and dunked on Bam Adebayo. Now we’ll get to see what he can do against players his own age. Flagg, who doesn’t turn 18 until Dec. 21, is a 6' 9" swingman who’s the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft. He’ll get to ease into the college game with a matchup against the flagship university in his home state. (Flagg’s twin brother, Ace, committed to Maine earlier this week.) And Flagg isn’t the only freshman of note on the Blue Devils. They also have Khaman Maluach, a 7' 2" center who played for South Sudan at this summer’s Olympics, and 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 biggest game on the schedule on Monday. It’s the only matchup between two teams ranked in the top 10 and also something of 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 scored the final eight points to win 64–63.

Baylor has taken a slight step back since that national title season, losing double-digit games 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 forward Norchad Omier from Miami and Duke point guard Jeremy Roach along with a high school recruiting class that 247 Sports ranked as the sixth-best in the nation. Gonzaga also added Arkansas transfer Khalif Battle, a sixth-year senior and one of the best free-throw shooters in the country.

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

The prevailing story line in women’s basketball this season will be how the sport adjusts to the absence of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, two stars who defined the past several years. But for as transcendent as Clark and Reese were in college, they’re hardly irreplaceable. There are several budding superstars waiting to seize the spotlight.

One of them is USC’s JuJu Watkins, who was already one of the best players in the country as a freshman last year but now will receive 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 920 total points.

Watkins and the Trojans will be placed in a marquee spot for their opener, playing against Ole Miss in Paris in a game that will be broadcast nationally on ESPN. The Rebels have developed into a force to be reckoned with in the SEC after years of irrelevance. Last season was their third in a row with fewer than 10 losses as they finished third in the conference regular season standings. This matchup isn’t as high-profile as the South Carolina–Notre Dame game that served as the 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 pm 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 on offer on the first day of the season.

The star player in this one is UCLA center Lauren Betts. The 6' 7" junior had a breakout season last year after transferring from Stanford, averaging 14.9 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. She’ll be asked to play an even bigger role this year after leading scorer Charisma Osborne graduated and went 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 who were selected in the WNBA draft) from the 2022–23 team but didn’t lose a step and became the first team since the UConn Huskies women in ’13–14 to complete an undefeated championship season. This year, they return most of that dominant squad (nine of 11 players), and a second straight unbeaten 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 trouble (it’s favored by nearly 20 points at most sportsbooks) but it’ll 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’ll be replaced.

Kardoso may be gone, but the Gamecocks won’t be lacking for 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 most among South Carolina players) but was second behind Cardoso with 11.7 points per game. She’s capable of scoring in bunches—she scored 24 points in just 17 minutes in the SEC championship game victory over LSU last season—and will have more opportunities to do so this year.

Harbaugh (right) has the Chargers in the playoff hunt in his first season as head coach. / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

The best of Sports Illustrated

• Gilberto Manzano explains why the Cardinals are the best team in the NFC West right now.

• Albert Breer sees a lot of similarities between this year’s Chargers and the successful teams Jim Harbaugh has coached in the past.

• Matt Verderame takes stock of the NFL playoff picture after Week 9’s games. The AFC division races aren’t all that interesting, but the NFC is really heating up.

• Tom Verducci has a list of six lessons that can be learned from the Dodgers’ World Series win.

• Jon Wertheim sat down with legendary Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker, who just finished his 54th season in the booth.

• Zach Koons recapped a wet and wild Brazilian Grand Prix.

• Hail in the desert? The Cardinals had to close the roof of their stadium after an unexpected severe storm hit in the middle of the game.

• The Saints have fired coach Dennis Allen amid a seven-game losing streak.

The top five…

… things I saw yesterday:

5. Panthers tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders’s long run after the catch.
4. The Pistons taking the subway to Barclays Center because the New York City Marathon snarled traffic in Brooklyn.
3. Saquon Barkley’s backwards hurdle.
2. Amon-Ra St. Brown’s spinning touchdown catch.
1. DeVonta Smith’s one-handed touchdown catch at full speed.