Although college football has not come to a complete halt, NCAA basketball has begun! Exhibition games–two non-season games allowed for all colleges–started a little over a week ago for the majority of NCAA basketball teams. The outcomes of these games, along with which freshmen each school managed to recruit, helped to establish preseason rankings for college basketball.

The ACC preseason rankings placed two of our students’ favorite teams–Duke and UNC–right next to each other. Duke has received many top recruits this season, including Cooper Flagg, a 6 ‘9” forward who received his first NCAA D1 offer while in eighth grade. In their second exhibition game (on October 27th), the Blue Devils crushed Arizona State by 56 points, so their placement as first in the ACC preseason seems justified. The Tar Heels, who are ranked second in the ACC, also added two top-eleven freshman recruits for their season, but it may not be enough to offset the loss of Armando Bacot, Harrison Ingram, and Cormac Ryan. This hasn’t been too big of an obstacle so far, though, since in their two exhibition games (played on November 4 and October 27), UNC showed their young team’s skill by beating Elon by 14 points and John C. Smith an impressive 127-63.

North Carolina Universities kept the top three local with the third preseason ranking being for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Hunter Sallis, the Demon Deacons’ transfer from Gonzaga, made a name for himself last year with an average of 35.4 minutes played and 18.0 points scored per game. Sadly, the Wolfpack was ranked ninth in ACC preseason rankings despite last season’s run to the Final Four… their first appearance since 1983! The loss of three starters from last season–DJ Burns, DJ Horne, and Mohamad Diarra–has brought them down in the preseason rankings.

That’s enough for preseason, though; let’s get into NCAA rankings as they stand after the first “real” season games. 

After their first games, Kansas, Alabama, UConn, Houston, Iowa State, Gonzaga, Duke, Baylor, UNC, and Arizona were placed in the top ten (in that order) in the NCAA rankings. Kansas won their first game against the Howard Bison by 30 points, 19 of which were scored by senior Zeke Mayo. (Admittedly, a number-one team shouldn’t have come as close to losing as they did in last week’s game against UNC.) Alabama had an arguably better game, scoring more than twice as many points as their opponents, the Asheville Bulldogs, for a final  score of 54-110. Their team had a great game as well with 55 rebounds, 63.3% field goal percentage, and 44.4% from the three-point line. The Crimson Tide ended the game with all players, bench and starters, having at least 2 points each. The final top-three NCAA team, UConn, had a great game against Sacred Heart, finishing with 92 points with junior Alex Karaban leading with 20 points.

As the season progresses, the games you should pay attention to match-ups between SEC rivals Auburn and Alabama: they will play each other twice, February 15 and March 8 and will likely battle it out for the No. 1 seed going into the NCAA tournament. While Alabama was already at #2 (and still is), Auburn wasn’t even in the top 10 just a couple of weeks ago, but they recently won against the Houston Cougars, launching them into fifth place, so Alabama may have some competition.

You should of course keep an eye on our favorite ACC schools. Now that most teams are two or three games into the regular season, Duke has moved from #7 to #5, and Carolina dropped from #9 to #10 after losing to #1 Kansas by just three points on November 8. These stats don’t mean much, though, when it comes to the battle of the blue bloods: both teams play their absolute best when facing off against each other. After a game the first weekend in February, the Blue Devils and Tar Heels will meet for their second time on March 8–the same day that Alabama and Auburn play. And don’t forget about NC State! Though not yet ranked nationally, the Wolfpack is #4 in the ACC with a 3-0 record.

Here’s to an exciting college basketball season!

Our current NCAA Top 10 rankings as of November 15th 2024.