You've read the hype. You've seen the mixtapes. Now it's time for college basketball's latest crop of freshman phenoms to prove themselves for real. The 2016-17 college basketball season is just over a week away, and there is no shortage of great storylines in the sport. One that stands out on an annual basis is how the newest players will perform, particularly those who garnered so much attention at the high school level and through various ...

The Associated Press released its preseason All-America team Wednesday, with Duke Blue Devils star Grayson Allen leading the way. Below are the five stars making up the team: Allen is expected to be a strong contender for the Wooden Award at the end of the season. He averaged 21.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game last season. The junior will be helped by a loaded Blue Devils team that's ranked No. 1 in the preseason ...

Eager to finally watch North Carolina State freshman Dennis Smith Jr. after he tore his ACL in the summer of 2015, NBA scouts already appear willing to look past the injury.  "Best point guard in the draft," one scout told Bleacher Report. "He has the opportunity to be an All-Star in the future. You rarely see college guys with such a killer instinct," he continued.  In September, one Western Conference executive named him his preseason favorite to go No. ...

Duke opens the 2016-17 men's college basketball season as the projected No. 1 overall seed, joined on that top line by Kansas, Kentucky and Villanova. It has been nearly five full months since our last projection of the tournament field, and frankly, not a whole lot has changed. A few noteworthy teams have gotten weaker due to injuries, suspensions or unfavorable rulings from the NCAA clearinghouse. Syracuse got considerably stronger with the addition of graduate transfer Andrew ...

Ben Simmons put the NBA's one-year college rule on notice in October when he stated on Twitter (h/t Andrew Joseph of For The Win) he didn't attend class last year at LSU. But now, the Philadelphia 76ers rookie is calling out the NCAA.  In a new Showtime documentary titled One & Done, which airs Friday, Simmons talked about his life in Australia followed by a lone season in college and preparations for the NBA draft, as well as his ...

November is here, and with it comes the return of college basketball after a seven-month hiatus. Frankly, that's far too long to wait most years, but even more so after such an exciting end to the 2015-16 season, capped by Villanova's thrilling last-second win over North Carolina in April's national title game. Much of our time since then has been spent wondering about what will happen in 2016-17, and now that the season is almost here—first ...

College basketball's preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll arrived Monday, and with it, we have cleared the final remaining hurdle between the end of the 2015-16 season and the glorious beginning of 2016-17. After nearly seven months of hemming, hawing and arguing over which teams deserved to be ranked where, we now know it'll be No. 1 Duke opening the season against Marist next Friday. Joining the Blue Devils will be No. 10 Arizona vs. No. 12 ...

National signing week is right around the corner for the class of 2017, and that means many new head coaches at the college level are signing their first complete class of players. With many new head coaches being on the job since the spring, they've not only had the chance to recruit the current high school senior class, but many also added new additions to the roster right away for the upcoming college basketball season.  Here's a ...

Duke lost Brandon Ingram to the NBA draft and is coming off a shaky season by its standards. But after landing the nation's best recruiting class, per Scout.com, and returning a strong group of veterans, the Blue Devils are right back where they want to be: atop the college basketball landscape.  Duke opened the 2016-17 season as the No. 1 team in the preseason Associated Press poll, receiving 58 of a possible 65 first-place votes. Following ...

From Jayson Tatum and De'Aaron Fox at No. 0 all the way to J.P. Macura and minor-conference stud John Konchar at No. 55, these are the best college basketball players for the 2016-17 season by jersey number. By now, you've probably seen at least one ranking of the top 100 players in the country. Maybe you've even devoured half a dozen of them. But we're hoping to bring you something a little more unique. Yes, most of ...