College Basketball has started back up and the expectations are high for this season. There are a lot of story lines for this 2024-2025 season involving players, teams, and coaches that will affect this season. UCONN (University of  Connecticut)  is favored to three-peat and win in March which would bring them their sixth title all time and third title in a row. Legendary Coach John Calipari has moved teams after fifteen years coaching at Kentucky, he is now coaching the Arkansas Razorbacks. Duke freshman  Cooper Flagg has been making headlines across the country being the number one ranked recruit. In his first game against the Maine Black Bears he shot forty percent from the field and scored eighteen points with a side of seven rebounds and five assists, all of this done in thirty minutes. This season is supposed to be full of surprises so this is what to look out for.

Players to look out for:

Cooper Flagg, like mentioned before Cooper Flagg was the number one ranked recruit who committed to the Duke Blue Devils over the summer. Flagg is a six foot nine forward who can do a lot of everything. In a pre-season game he had an epic chase down block showing off his freakish athleticism and  lock down defense. Flagg is supposed to make waves this season which adds on to the “anything is possible” factor around the league.

RJ Davis, Davis is a six foot senior guard who plays for the University of North Carolina. He is in his fifth year as a UNC guard. He is incredibly athletic and strong for his size and he knows how to score. In his first game against Elon University he shot thirty six percent from the field and twenty seven percent from three. He had twenty four points, seven rebounds, seven assists, and two steals. Davis broke out last season averaging twenty one point two points a game and scored a total of seven hundred and eighty four points last season.

Mark Sears, Sears is a six foot one senior guard who plays for the University of Alabama. Sears broke out last season averaging twenty one points and forty three percent from three. He led Alabama to its first Elite Eight experience in school history last year where they lost to UCONN who ended up winning the whole thing. In his first game this season against UNCA he scored twenty points and was seventy five percent from three which is very impressive. Sears is in his fifth year with Alabama which will help him be a good leader on the team with his experience that will help them make a deep run in the playoffs this year.

Hunter Dickenson, Dickenson is a seven foot two center who plays for the University of Kansas. He is also in his fifth year at Kansas. He averaged a double-double last year averaging seventeen points and ten rebounds. Dickenson led Kansas to a one seed when playoff time come, but unfortunately they lost in the second round in a very close game to Arkansas. But Kansas has a current NCAA record of thirty two straight years of March Madness appearances making the last time they missed March Madness since 1992. In his first game this season he had sixteen points and was one hundred percent from three which is impressive from a center of his height. Dickerson and his Kansas Jayhawks will hopefully have a better run in the playoffs this year than last year if they make it.

Now we will be looking at some teams that could make a run this season:

UCONN, UCONN is favored to win it all this year which would give them a three peat and a grand total of seven championships, but that might not happen because there are plenty of teams that can stop them this year. UCONN has to rebuild this year after four of their players were drafted into the NBA one of them being Donovan Clingan who led the team to the championship last year as he carried the defense. UCONN easily won their first game against SHU by thirty six points. UCONN first real challenge of a game will be on November twenty fifth against Memphis University.

Kansas, Kansas has been a contender for a couple of years now, but haven’t met expectations since the NCAA Championship in 2022. They have plenty of talent on their team which will be led by senior center Hunter Dickerson. They beat Howard in their first game by thirty points and their first test will be coming quickly going against a very good UNC team in only their second game. That game will also be followed by another tough Michigan St team led by Coach Tom Izzo. After the game vs Michigan St they will face the “Cinderella” team from last year, Oakland. Oakland was the fourteenth seed last year upsetting the three seed Kentucky in the first round but lost to North Carolina St who also made a deep run in March Madness. Kansas is the number one ranked team in the nation as of now but that can always change.

Alabama, Alabama is mostly known as a football school but that has recently changed with their new found success on the basketball court. They got all the way to the Elite Eight last year which was the first in program history and are expected to make a bug run this year. This team is led by senior guard Mark Sears who has been carrying their offence and has been draining everything from behind the arch. Alabama is ranked as the second best team in the nation as of now but they will be tested in the next few weeks. The schedule ahead brings many tough basketball teams for the Crimson Tide, their first test will be on November fifteenth against the Purdue Boil makers that got second in the tournament last year. Then they will be going against a good Illinois team that had a very good season last year. Then they will go against a very good Houston team that made a huge run last year with their lock down defense. After that they will take on a very good Rutgers team and after that UNC which will be their biggest challenge during this series of test, and finally they will take on Creighton who are ranked fourteenth in the nation and will put up a fight against Alabama. These games will really test the Crimson Tide and their players and see how far they can actually make it in the playoffs.

Duke, Duke is always a radar watch when it comes to basketball especially with new rookie Cooper Flagg leading the team this year it will be fun to watch this team compete. This is a very young team with six freshman on the roster and three of them start for the team. There are very high expectations for this team because Duke is always able to make a big run and they have the potential number one pick for next year’s NBA draft in Cooper Flagg. Their first big test will be on November twelfth against the Kentucky Wildcats who have seen a whole roster change. This will be a first glance of how well the young team can handle these big moments and the pressure of their very first prime-time game. A couple games later they will be tested once again and will be going against the ninth ranked team in the country Arizona. This will be another test against another very good basketball team and will test these freshmen once again. Soon after they will go against the number one ranked team in the nation, Kansas, this will be their biggest test because it’s the best team in the country vs the best freshman and maybe best basketball player in the country. Duke is going to be a fun team to watch this season and hopefully make a deep run in the playoffs so we can continue to watch this team and watch Cooper Flagg get better over the course of this season.

College basketball is one of the best sports seasons to watch because anybody can beat anybody and a chance of an upset and buzzer beaters can happen at any moment during the season and especially during March Madness. The one thing I like about March Madness is that it is one game and it is win or go home and you only get one chance to beat the team and move on. As a team you have to be at your best during this time because if your not you will get beat. You have to get hot at the right time because you can win a lot of games in the beginning of the season but when playoff time comes you can lose the first game or any game and that’s why its so fun to watch and how hard it is to have a good March Madness bracket. This is some of the main information about the college basketball season that will get you from now until playoff time.