At 8:00 AM local time today in Cheney, Washington, it will happen. A man will throw a basketball into the air, two other men will jump for it, and a new college basketball season will commence. Texas Southern and Eastern Washington will play a college basketball game that will almost definitely mean nothing, but they will be playing a college basketball game. Midnight Madness was fun and exhibition games offered a pleasant tease, but they’ll never leave you fully satisfied. It’s possible that a SWAC/Big Sky battle might also leave you wanting more, but that’s the beauty of today and beyond — more is on the way.

For The First Time Since This Moment On April 7, College Basketball Will Be In-Season (AP)

Shortly after things kick off in the Evergreen State, familiar faces – and familiar fun — will begin popping up all over the country. Shaka Smart and the gang will resume their HAVOC-wreaking ways in Annapolis against Tennessee. Duke can be found on an ESPN network (versus Presbyterian), while ACC rival Virginia will look to suffocate an intrastate foe (James Madison). National Player of the Year candidates will begin their campaigns: Marcus Paige in Chapel Hill (against North Carolina Central), Frank Kaminsky in Madison (versus Northern Kentucky), Jahlil Okafor in Durham. The game of the day features as many likely NCAA Tournament teams (2) as it does coaches with the last name Pitino, which I’ve heard is a fairly familiar surname in college basketball circles. It’s a beautifully inverted hibernation that begins anew today, as dozens more teams, coaches and players reappear for their winter stay in the collective eye of the nation.

Talented returnees is not an oxymoron, but in 2014, a college basketball season tipoff could not occur without plenty of unknown quantities in important places. There’s another special freshman class on campus, with many first-years situated for early starring roles on title-contending teams. Okafor (Duke), Stanley Johnson (Arizona), Cliff Alexander (Kansas) and [name-a-Kentucky Wildcat freshman] all begin potential one-and-done seasons. Impactful newcomers are not limited to that crop of recent high school graduates, however. Meaningful transfers are seemingly everywhere these days, but Rodney Purvis (UConn), Kyle Wiltjer (Gonzaga) and Bryce Dejean-Jones (Iowa State) are three who stand out – each begin their seasons today.

No offseason passes without controversy, but we have officially made it from April to November without significant scarring. It won’t all be good news from here until April 6, 2015, but college basketball – the actual basketball – is guaranteed to be around for those five months, thank god. Included in that deal is the potential for unimaginable circumstances, like a MEAC team waltzing out of an ACC arena with a victory, or an unknown team from a bygone place proving to be unbeatable well into next year. Preseason assumptions exist in college basketball like they do in any other sport, but even in those seasons where prognosticators strike gold with November predictions, surprises occur. There are 351 potential points of origin for a college basketball story; off-script action is bound to occur, and it all starts again in Cheney, Washington, today.

Welcome back, college basketball.

BHayes (244 Posts)

This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2014 at 8:01 am by Bennet Hayes and is filed under 2014-15 Season Preview. Tagged: Cliff Alexander, duke, eastern washington, feature, frank kaminsky, Jahlil Okafor, marcus paige, shaka smart, Stanley Johnson, texas southern, vcu. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.