College Basketball Season Starts!!!

Today is officially the first day of the college basketball season! The first week is pretty slow, with primarily warm up games for Top 25 opponents and other power conference schools. Some preseason tournaments start, but they are primarily initial round-robin games. Tournaments like Coaches v. Cancer have preliminary rounds but four schools automatically advance to the semi-finals. Since those don't take place until next week (and to a larger extent, the week after), this week is devoid of good matchups. Still, I hope to get started on weekday and weekend game previews as soon as possible. Here's what my schedule looks like over the next few weeks:

Today: This post, final Season Preview (hopefully)
Friday: Weekend games to watch
Sunday: Weekend recap, games to watch for upcoming week
Wednesday, Nov. 18: In-depth preseason tournament preview
Every day after: Daily recaps

A somewhat intense schedule, I know. We'll see if I can keep this pace up for the entire year. I figure this weekend and the next two weekends I should have plenty of time to watch and write about college basketball, so might as well use the time well. Enjoy!

Season Preview: Best of the Rest

In my final season preview, I'll highlight some teams not in a power conference that might have a significant impact on how this season turns out. The vast majority of the 342 schools in Division I do not play in power conferences, and many times it's a few of those teams that make the compelling stories of the year. Here's how this is going to work: I'll highlight a few mid-major conferences that might send multiple teams to the NCAA tournament, and then I'll list a few schools from small conferences that could be important as well.

Atlantic 10: The A-10 has been ruled by Xavier the past few seasons, but there are still plenty of quality teams in this conference. This season, Xavier is in a bit of a reloading phase, and so the conference is wide open... unless, of course, Dayton just assumes Xavier's spot as the dominant team.

Dayton: The Flyers return most all of the important players on last year's squad, including league player of the year candidate Chris Wright. Depth and versatility is the name of the game for the Flyers, who have many different options in the frontcourt as well as depth at point guard. The key for Dayton will be outside shooting and offensive efficiency. If they can get better in both of those areas, this is the best team in the conference and a potential Sweet 16 team.

Xavier: It's difficult to bet against the 3 time defending conference champs, but when you lose three of your top players, there will be a rebuilding phase (short as it may be). Jason Love is the top returning scorer and becomes the new leader of the frontcourt. Indiana transfer Jordan Crawford will provide offensive spark and anchor the backcourt. It will be new faces in leadership roles for the Musketeers, but that shouldn't keep them out of the tournament.

Richmond: The Spiders played well at the end of last season and they return 4 starters, making them the best of the rest of the conference. Their Princeton offense is difficult to prepare for, but will they have the size to compete with Dayton and Xavier?

Others: La Salle, Duquesne, Temple

Mountain West: This conference was one big giant mess last year, with three teams finishing in a tie for 1st and another just one game back. The Mountain West has been somewhat crippled due to graduation, but there should be some decent teams and it should be a competitive conference again.

BYU: The only two all-conference selections returning this year both play for the Cougars. Jimmer Fredette and Jonathan Tavernari give BYU a quality guard and wing, respectively. Two other returning starters return to give BYU the best team in the conference (from preseason projections, anyway) and give Cougar fans hope they'll be able to get past the first round in the tournament this year.

UNLV: Transfers Derrick Jasper and Chace Stanback join Tre'Von Willis and a slew of freshman to a Rebel team that is experiencing a lot of turnover this season. The room to move up in the conference is there, but the question will be if UNLV can mesh quickly enough to make a tournament run. San Diego State: The Aztecs were one of those surprise mid-major teams that had few preseason expectations but made things interesting on Selection Sunday. They lose three of their top four scorers from last year, but they have one of the best recruiting classes in the conference coming in, including top 100 prospect Kawhi Leonard. They're in a similar spot to UNLV this season.

Others: New Mexico, Utah

Missouri Valley Conference: It wasn't that long ago (2005-06) that this conference sent 4 teams to the dance. While the conference may never hit that mark again, there's good reason to believe the MVC will send multiple teams to the tournament this season.

Northern Iowa: My favorites to win the conference this year. They are deep, and they spread the ball as well as anyone in the country. They return 9 of their top 10 scorers this year, including 1st team All-Conference forward Adam Koch, and they will look to expand on last year's tournament berth with a first round victory.

Creighton: While they lack depth in the frontcourt, this could be the best backcourt in the conference despite losing 2 key contributors, including conference player of the year Booker Woodfox. The Bluejays had a very good conference season last year, but their lack of a good non-conference win was their downfall. They'll have several chances this year against Dayton and Michigan to get a big win against a Top 25 team. In conference, Creighton should compete for the title again.

Others: Southern Illinois, Illinois State, Wichita State

The best of smaller conferences:

Butler: Last year was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Bulldogs. If a conference championship and a 7 seed is a rebuilding season, what does this year bring? Butler spreads the ball very well and doesn't have a weak link in their starting five. Whether it's shooters like Zach Hahn, big men like Matt Howard, wings like Gordon Hayward, or guards like Shelvin Mack, this team complements one another very well. The question is, does this team have the athletes to advance beyond the Sweet 16?

Gonzaga: The Zags lost a lot of talent in the offseason, including Austin Daye to the draft and Jeremy Pargo and Matt Heytvelt to graduation. Matt Bouldin, Steven Gray, and Demetri Goodson will form the core of this team and will give the Zags a very talented backcourt. Unlike last year, Gonzaga has question marks in the frontcourt. They will be relying on role players and international players to provide some size and aid the guards offensively and defensively.

Memphis: Just because Cal's gone (along with Tyreke Evans, Robert Dozier, Shawn Taggart, and Antonio Anderson) doesn't mean the Tigers are completely devoid of talent. Guards Doneal Mack, Roburt Sallie, and Willie Kemp will join Duke transfer Eliot Williams as a formidable backcourt. In the frontcourt, JUCO transfer Will Coleman joins Wesley Witherspoon and Pierre Henderson-Niles to give Memphis some size (although they don't have a true 5). The Tigers should be the favorites in the C-USA again... unless some school called Tulsa has anything to say about that (more on that later).

Siena: Last year's small school cinderellas are back again, and with four starters returning again, the Saints will try to advance to the 2nd round for a third season in a row. Point guard Ronald Moore and wing Edwin Ubiles are the likely leaders. The Siena defense forces a lot of turnovers and will look to do the same again this year. The preseason expectations are there, as Siena finished just outside the Top 25, and several tough road games are in place vs. Georgia Tech and Northwern Iowa. It should be interesting to see how Siena fares this season.

Others who could surprise:

Tulsa - the main challengers to Memphis' C-USA dominance. Almost everyone is back from last year's squad that was 2nd best in the league.

Portland - The yearly challenger to take down Gonzaga in the WCC. Similar to Tulsa in that they return every key player.

Niagara - Remember these guys? They gave Siena a game last year in the MEAC final, and they should be back again this year.

Western Kentucky - The best cinderella story of the tournament last year. Orlando Mendez-Valdez is gone, but A. J. Slaughter and Steffphon Pettigrew are back.

Old Dominion - Favorites in the always competitive CAA. Gerald Lee is the guy that makes the Monarch engine run.

Nevada - Most talented team in the WAC, they return two all-conference performers in Luke Babbitt and Armon Johnson.

Akron - Looking for back-to-back MAC championships, they also have a challenging non-conference schedule.

Northeastern - You could probably put George Mason or VCU here to challenge Old Dominion... the Colonial will be fun this season

Oakland - Favorites in the Summit, they lost to Bradley in the finals of the CBI last year and bring back two time all conference player Derick Nelson

Utah State - 30 wins and four starters return? That classifies as significant.

North Texas - The Mean Green are looking to derail the Western Kentucky train in the Sun Belt.

College of Charleston - Favorites in a Stephen Curry-less Southern conference.

*This is just a small snippet of the teams I could talk about.