What’s Trending: The 2019-20 Season Is Underway!

Posted by Matt Eisenberg on November 11th, 2019

What’s Trending is a column examining the week that was in college basketball social media. Matthew Eisenberg (@matteise) is your weekly host.

College basketball is back and all is right in the sports world again. The season began with the highly anticipated Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden last Tuesday. The battle of #1 vs. #2 was a tight game, but it was the play of Kentucky’s Tyrese Maxey which proved to be the difference-maker. Here is exhibit A of Maxey’s heroics…

Earlier in the night, Duke’s new dunking sensation Cassius Stanley showed off his vertical in the Blue Devils’ win over Kansas. This was a game in which Kansas turned the ball over 18 times in the first half and 28 times overall.

https://twitter.com/theACCDN/status/1191910727805743104

While Maxey and Stanley were starring at the Garden, North Carolina’s Cole Anthony set the Dean Smith Center afire in his debut….

It was also an opening night which included plenty of ACC match-ups. Syracuse and Virginia battled their way through a “first to 40” type of game. Afterward, Jim Boeheim expressed his displeasure in opening the season with a conference game…

It has been an opening week of action which has included plenty of surprises…

There was the record setting night in Salt Lake City where Utah beat Mississippi Valley State by a whopping 94 points…

There were upsets everywhere at the bottom of the Big Ten, including Merrimack getting it’s first win at the D-I level…

https://twitter.com/MerrimackMBB/status/1193017541603532801

…and then there was Southern Utah getting the best of Nebraska in double-overtime.

https://twitter.com/marchmadness/status/1193288254679912448

The opening week also included a wild couple of hours in Memphis.

First there was the news that freshman phenom James Wiseman was ruled ineligible by the NCAA…

…and then there was the news less than an hour later that a restraining order would allow Wiseman to remain on the floor, at least for now…

Thus ultimately setting up what is sure to be a contentious battle between Memphis/Wiseman vs. the NCAA

It was an opening week which included an impactful injury.

And it was an opening week which included moments that players and fans will never forget.

In Wisconsin, there was this moment with Jerrell Moore being announced to the crowd as part of the Badgers staring lineup…

https://twitter.com/marchmadness/status/1192977717861474304

In Austin there was the career-high 20 point performance from Andrew Jones

https://twitter.com/br_CBB/status/1191938373184839686

And in Kent, Ohio, there was this moment with Kent State freshman Kalin Bennett

Then there was a showing of love and support for Michigan State All-American, Cassius Winston, who lost his brother to a tragic train accident on Saturday night.

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