A preview of the national championship game could take place Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden when No. 1 Duke and No. 7 Kansas meet in the Champions Classic. On paper, this is the most anticipated matchup of the nonconference slate, as the Blue Devils and Jayhawks came into this season the most equipped to contend for a title. Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski brought in arguably his best recruiting class ever and returned a leading candidate ...

No. 3 Villanova 79, No. 15 Purdue 76  The No. 3 Villanova Wildcats squeaked out a three-point victory over the No. 15 Purdue Boilermakers at Mackey Arena on Monday.  Purdue struggled to keep up with the Wildcats for parts of the first half as big men Caleb Swanigan and Isaac Haas sat on the bench in foul trouble.  However, the Boilermakers pulled level at the halftime buzzer, when PJ Thompson drained a shot from just over halfcourt.  The defending ...

College basketball kicked off its season this week, and in turn, the Associated Press has released its first poll of the 2016-17 campaign.  Below, we'll break down the Week 1 poll and analyze the top teams and their starts to the season.      Analysis Most of the teams ranked in the AP preseason Top 25 opened their seasons with wins this past week. Perennial contenders Kansas, Michigan State and UConn weren't among them, however. The Jayhawks came into the ...

The 2016-17 college basketball season was barely nine hours old when Arizona's Kadeem Allen delivered a memorable game-winner against Michigan State that we'll inevitably still be discussing on Selection Sunday. Oh, college basketball. How we missed thee. Hopefully you remembered to stretch before the action got underway, because there was no easing into the regular season. There were 155 games on Friday night with all 25 teams in the preseason AP Top 25 in action. Throw in ...

Kris Wilkes has been one of the nation's most coveted small forwards for some time, and the 5-star recruit announced Sunday he has committed to the UCLA Bruins.  Per ESPN.com's Paul Biancardi, Wilkes' pledge to UCLA gives the program four top-100 prospects going into 2017.  ESPN's Jeff Borzello noted UCLA has been the favorite to land Wilkes over the last month, with Indiana and Illinois among the teams also on his short list.  Wilkes said during the press conference announcing his ...

From underrated to overrated and back again, few players know the pressure of trying to meet expectations quite like Maryland's Melo Trimble. The junior combo guard (who we never thought would be here for three years) is one of the 10 entities under the most pressure for the 2016-17 college basketball season. Hope springs eternal during the offseason. Every November, we enter the new year of hoops with a dozen "legitimate candidates" to win the national championship ...

Coveted guard prospect Anfernee Simons is reportedly planning to play college basketball at Louisville after giving the Cardinals a verbal commitment last weekend. Evan Daniels of Scout reported Friday that Simons quietly committed to head coach Rick Pitino during an unofficial visit to the school. Simons' Team Breakdown coach, Kenny Gillion, confirmed the decision. The class of 2018 standout was impressed with how much interest Louisville showed while most programs are still focused on 2017. "The big thing ...

After an extremely long wait, the 2016-17 college basketball season has begun. All the predicting and projecting about what will happen over the next five months has made way for actual competition, which began with nearly every Division I team in action on Friday. Those opening games were also the first chance for some players stepping into bigger roles to show their stuff. For various reasons, to this point in their career the numbers haven't been ...

College basketball was absent from our lives for 222 days, so no one was complaining when No. 3 Kansas and No. 11 Indiana gave us five bonus minutes of opening-night action Friday before the Hoosiers emerged from the nightcap of the Armed Forces Classic with a 103-99 win. In some ways, it felt like early November basketball. Both teams battled bouts of sloppy play. There were air balls and heat checks. And there were fouls. Goodness ...

The second game of the 2016 Armed Forces Classic doubleheader Friday night went to overtime and saw the No. 11 Indiana Hoosiers take down the No. 3 Kansas Jayhawks, 103-99, in Honolulu.              James Blackmon Jr. carried Indiana after Thomas Bryant, who added 19 points, fouled out. Josh Jackson, Scout's No. 1 overall prospect in the class of 2016, made one of the most anticipated debuts of the college basketball season for Kansas, ...