You’re on, 2025. Let the conference head-knocking begin. So, instead of bringing in college basketball’s new year with confetti and party horns, it is better to end Auld Lang Syne with a simple question.
Are they ready out there?
The non-conference shakedown cruises against smaller fry are pretty much over. It’s bare-knuckles time with the league neighbors. Here are some stats to take into account in 2025 to show the way.
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Is the SEC ready? League play should be as merciless as lunchtime in a shark tank. Barring any upsets in the final hours of the year, four Division I teams will take unbeaten records into 2025, and three of them, Tennessee, Florida and Oklahoma are card-carrying SEC members. Don’t even think of taking any nights off. The league has 10 teams in the current AP Top 25, including four of the top six. South Carolina has the worst record in the conference. The Gamecocks are 9-3.
P.S. The SEC is talking about being the monster of March, and why not? Funny thing though. The league hasn’t put a team in the national championship game in 10 years.
Is Tennessee ready? A program that has never seen the Final Four has been ranked No. 1 for nearly a month now. The 12-0 Vols seem serious about this, trailing for only 43:39 out of 480 minutes this season and leading by at least 18 points in 11 of the 12 games. But the coming weekend brings a visit from their old pal John Calipari and then a trip to Florida.
Is Auburn ready? Two months ago, the Tigers had beaten four ranked non-conference opponents during the regular season in their entire history. They matched that total in 43 days, knocking off No. 4 Houston, No. 5 Iowa State, No. 12 North Carolina, and No. 16 Purdue, “I was concerned about the toughness of our schedule,” coach Bruce Pearl said. “If we couldn’t handle it, we could’ve hurt our league. But we didn’t. We helped our league, and that matters to me a great deal.”
Is Florida ready? The Gators have sent out the same lineup every game to start 13-0, only one of the wins by single digits. The only other time Florida opened 13-0 was 2005-06, and that team became the national champion. The Gators’ ability to turn into a locomotive can be seen in the 27-0 run against Wichita State, the 31-8 spree against Wake Forest, the 8-0 burst in the final 1:48 to blow by North Carolina, the 87 points poured upon the Virginia defense, the average winning margin of 23.9. That’ll get tested in a hurry in SEC play. Florida will be in Lexington on Saturday to face Kentucky. “It’s been a lot of learning through winning. If we continue to learn and not be complacent, I think we’re ready,” guard Walter Clayton Jr. said.
Is Oklahoma ready? Do you mean the team picked to finish 15th in its first whack at the SEC? The 13-0 start is the Sooners’ best since 1988, the same year as their only appearance in the national championship game in the past 77 years. Now, the SEC journey begins in Alabama, where the Tide is putting up 89.9 points a game to lead the nation.
Is Drake ready? Consider this: A team goes 28-7, but its coach leaves for West Virginia and takes the star of the team, his son, with him. The other five top scorers are also gone for various reasons, too. Sounds like leaner times ahead, not at Drake. The Bulldogs are 12-0, aided and abetted by a new pipeline from Division II Northwest Missouri State. New coach Ben McCollum came from there, and so did Drake’s current three top scorers. They’re just learning about life in the Missouri Valley Conference. Here’s another Drake question. The Bulldogs will have to be how many-and-O before they’re finally ranked in the top 25?
Is North Carolina ready? The 8-5 Tar Heels have fallen behind by double digits in the first half in seven games so far and needed rallies from 21 points down against Dayton and 16 down to UCLA, or they’d have a losing record. Playing from behind can make for a hard winter in the ACC. Best not to try that at Duke.
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Is Gonzaga ready? Kentucky, Connecticut, and UCLA own a combined 25 national championships, and the Zags had to play all three in December. They lost to all three. Gonzaga has averaged only four defeats a year over the past eight seasons but already has its ration for 2024-25 with a 9-4 record, and the schedule is one reason why. Another has been a problem finishing. They lost in overtime to West Virginia and Kentucky, by three points to UCLA, by six to UConn. “We’ve got to close out these games and learn to win these close games,” guard Ryan Nembhard said.
Is Arizona ready? The Wildcats started the season ranked in the top 10 but are 0-5 against quad-one opponents in the NCAA’s NET rankings. They’ll soon play a lot more of those in the Big 12.
Is Duke ready? Many numbers suggest the Blue Devils have the best defense in the land, and the freshmen have been doing a lot of the heavy lifting, hardly fazed when they had to go against Kentucky, Arizona, Kansas, and Auburn over 23 days. Duke also played three true road games before Christmas for the first time in 34 years and won all three. But there is a relentless pounding that comes with steady ACC play, so that’s the next test. Can Jon Scheyer get the Blue Devils to the Final Four in his third season? Hey, it took Coach K six.
Besides, who can tell what might happen in the ACC with all the new faces calling the shots? Five schools have first-year coaches, and four more have coaches in their second season.
Are Purdue and Indiana ready? They were voted No. 1 and No. 2 in the preseason Big Ten poll.
So, what to think about the Boilermakers being unbeatable at home? 24 wins in a row, including Alabama, but a squishy 2-4 away from Mackey Arena, trailing Marquette by 20, Penn State by 27, and Auburn by 33? They don’t have Zach Edey towering over the world in the paint anymore and must make do with smaller mortals. They were outrebounded and outscored in the paint and in second-chance points but still put away Toledo Sunday, 83-64. They got a big push from the 34 points and 12 assists of Braden Smith, the first 30-10 such game in school history and only the second 34-12 game for a Division I player in regulation in the past 20 seasons, with Oklahoma’s Trae Young.
Matt Painter likes where his team is. Maybe. “We haven’t won a (true) road game so I like where we are if we win our next game,” he said, meaning Thursday at Minnesota. “We have to get some people on our team to do a better job and be more physical. We’ve got too many people with their feet nailed to the ground. You’ve got to hit somebody and go get the basketball. That’s a big question for us going into Big Ten play because it’s a very physical league.
“We’ve just got to be small in our size but we can’t be small in our fight.”
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What to think about Indiana losing games by 28, 17 and 16 points and falling behind Louisville by 38? Or the Hoosiers’ final non-conference prep Sunday, when they went 1-for-20 from the three-point line and had to fight off Winthrop? Mike Woodson said the shot selection was fine; they just didn’t go in. They’re better now. “Every game is important moving forward,” coach Mike Woodson said. “Can’t look back.”
Is Iowa State ready? The Cyclones have quietly planted their flag at No. 3 in the ranking, but nothing is quiet about their offense. They have six players averaging double figures in scoring. One is Tamin Lipsey, the veteran guard with career averages of 10 points, 4.5 assists, four rebounds, and 2.4 steals. According to the Iowa State sports information department, only 14 players in Division I have had those kind of numbers in careers, lasting at least 80 games since 1947. The only other power conference player to do it was Oregon State’s Gary Payton. One other name on the list might ring a bell. Larry Bird.
Is Kansas ready? The Jayhawks always are, winning 33 consecutive conference openers going back to 1991-92. So good luck to West Virginia with that New Year’s Eve visit to Lawrence. But until the Jayhawks can work up steam in league play, such as when they swing through Cincinnati and Iowa State in a couple of weeks, their aura remains a tad bruised from that double loss to Creighton and Missouri.
Are Oregon and UCLA ready? There they are, No. 9 and No. 15, the two highest-rated teams in the Big Ten. Sounds a bit surreal, yes? But their first long conference jaunts will be coming soon, with the Bruins headed across the continent to play Maryland and Rutgers while the Ducks visit Ohio State and Penn State. By then, they’ll get a full dose of life on the road in a league where the home teams so far this season are 131-12.
Is Connecticut ready? It would appear the Maui flu has subsided for the Huskies, but there is danger afoot. Four of the first five Big East games are on the road. The Huskies barely got out of Butler intact and, in the next 12 days, will visit DePaul, Villanova and Georgetown. As 2025 begins, nobody will be watched more than the Huskies. That’s because nobody else is trying to win a third consecutive national championship. That opportunity is one of the parting gifts to the sport from 2024.
