Per Jay Bilas in his College Hoops Opus : “The 2013-14 college basketball season promises to be one of the best in recent years. A combination of thoughtful rule changes and the arrival of a super-talented freshman class with the ability to deliver on its rare potential will lead to an improvement in college basketball's respectability, play-ability and watch-ability.” (http://insider.espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9924930/jay-bilas-preseason-college-basketball-opus-college-basketball)
But wait… there’s more. Another reason that the 2013-14 college basketball season promises to be one of the best of late: The Schedule. Every year, without fail, the college basketball season gets really good. Key word: gets. We all know that come time for conference play, we’re going to see good games. We all knew, in years past, that once January and February rolled around, we’d be plugged-in to games like Syracuse vs. Georgetown, Kansas vs. Missouri, Kentucky vs. Florida, Syracuse vs. Pitt, Gonzaga vs. St. Mary’s, Michigan vs. Michigan State, DUKE vs. Maryland, Michigan vs. Ohio State, Indiana vs. Purdue, Georgetown vs. Villanova, UCLA vs. Arizona, Kansas vs. Kansas State and of course, the game that sets the standard: DUKE vs. UNC. These games, no matter the rankings, would provide for some serious entertainment. Problem is they don’t happen until January or February (and now, some won’t happen at all due to conference realignments). College basketball starts in November… February is literally another year away.
Save for a few marquee matchups here and there (think Big Ten/ACC Challenge or SEC/Big East Challenge or maybe a good holiday tournament), we were not doing any nail biting for about three months. Not now, though. This year, college basketball is coming strong straight out of the gate. Take a look at these games, all of which will happen before the 2014 ball drops in Times Square:
November 12: Florida (#10) vs. Wisconsin (#20)
November 12: VCU (#14) vs. Virginia (#24)
November 12: Kentucky (#1) vs. Michigan State (#2)
November 12: DUKE (#4) vs. Kansas (#5)
November 16: Ohio State (#11) vs. Marquette (#17)
November 19: Oklahoma State (#8) vs. Memphis (#13)
November 22: Michigan (#7) vs. VCU (#14)*
November 24: Louisville (#3) vs. UNC (#12)*
November 26: Gonzaga (#15) vs. Baylor (#25)*
November 27: Syracuse (#8) vs. Baylor (#25)/Gonzaga (#15)*
November 29: DUKE (#4) vs. Arizona (#6)*
December 2: Florida (#10) vs. UConn (#18)
December 3: Syracuse (#8) vs. Indiana
December 3: DUKE (#4) vs. Michigan (#7)
December 4: Michigan State (#2) vs. UNC (#12)
December 4: Wisconsin (#20) vs. Virginia (#24)
December 6: Kentucky (#1) vs. Baylor (#25)
December 7: Marquette (#17) vs. Wisconsin (#20)
December 10: Kansas (#5) vs. Florida (#10)
December 14: Arizona (#6) vs. Michigan (#7)
December 14: Kentucky (#1) vs. UNC (#12)
December 14: Kansas (#5) vs. New Mexico (#23)
December 17: Florida (#10) vs. Memphis (#13)
December 19: DUKE (#4) vs. UCLA (#22)
December 21: Ohio State (#11) vs. Notre Dame (#21)
December 21: Marquette (#17) vs. New Mexico (#23)
December 21: Kansas (#5) vs. Georgetown
December 28: Kentucky (#1) vs. Louisville (#3)
*Games that are not certainties but possibilities due to holiday tournament brackets
A history lesson:
In the 2005-06 season, I was confident; certain even, that I was going to watch DUKE get off to its best start in school history. The 1991-92 team got off to a 17-0 start before losing their first game. Seventeen wins. Didn’t lose until February when DUKE went over to Chapel Hill for that season’s first installment of the Tobacco Road Rivalry. In that time, between game 1 in November and game 18 in February, there was a smattering of decent games. DUKE, the #1 ranked team, played #7 St. John’s (in the ACC/Big East Challenge) and #18 Michigan before hitting January. But for the most part, the #1 team wasn’t getting too much of a challenge in the earlier part of the season, and it looked this way again in 2005-06. DUKE was again ranked #1 when the season tipped off in November with no huge challenges ahead, save for a match-up against #11 Memphis (in a holiday tournament), #17 Indiana (in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge) and #2 Texas (which DUKE won by 31 points so I’m not sure I would call that a true #1 vs. #2 game- I doubt we see that lopsided of a result on November 12th of this year). An 18-0 start was all but a given with the way the schedule looked up until January/February.
Unfortunately, DUKE lost to Georgetown that January and had to settle for simply tying the best start in school history but the point is- this optimistic outlook that your team could go undefeated until at least conference play, was usually the norm. It wouldn’t just be easy, per se, nor was it ever just handed to any team, but it was certainly feasible. Each team in any given year would have a marquee game here or there in the early part of the season but the real games started in January and February and it only went up from there. It was the consensus that the season really started when conference play began.
Between the two seasons that started 17-0, DUKE played games against 28 ranked teams prior to January; less than one-third of these games were not a part of a challenge (think ACC/Big Ten or ACC/Big East) or a tournament of some sort (Jimmy V, Maui Invitational, Great Alaska Shootout, Battle 4 Atlantis, etc.). Since the 2005-06 season, DUKE has played games against 18 ranked teams prior to January; less than one-third of these games were not a part of a challenge or tournament. And it wasn’t just DUKE that had schedules like this; it was the consensus around the entire country. Back then, it seemed as if these few “bigger” games sprinkled amongst teams in November and December were there just to keep the interest alive and they usually only came in the way of a tournament or challenge. Point blank: November and December belonged to college football; college basketball was just biding its time. Until this year.
Are there still “cupcake games” that will happen? Of course. No team can schedule 40 games solely against top 25 opponents each season. But, there is a marked difference materializing this year. From November 8th, the start of the season, until the end of 2013, there are 23 marquee games being played (28 if the five tournament games end up being played as they are lined up to possibly do). Look at November 12th alone: the double-header in Chicago will feature the #1 vs. #2 as well as the #4 vs. #5. Of course, this is part of the Champions Classic which could be considered a challenge or tournament of sorts but the difference is in the name: Champions. Holiday tournaments do not always shape up to be great games simply because they are a tournament… the teams involved could drum up no interest because not all teams in a holiday tournament are good (this year’s Great Alaska Shootout features not one ranked team). Same thing with challenges- not every ACC/Big Ten Challenge match-up is a doozy (Miami vs. Nebraska, anyone?). But, when you call something the Champions Classic and have a three year round-robin format involving four of the best teams in recent history, the games will always be good. And this year, in the third and final installment of this Champions Classic, the best was certainly saved for last. In any other year, this one night would be impossible to follow. But this year, while it’s still hard to follow 4 of the top 5 teams playing one another on the same night in the same venue, the schedule around the country holds up. That very same night #10 Florida is playing #20 Wisconsin and #14 VCU is playing #24 Virginia. Eight top 25 teams playing one another on the same night... less than one week into the season! The trend is set.
No more than 10 days will pass between November 8thand the end of 2013 without seeing two top 25 teams play one another (no more than 7 days if the possible holiday match-ups hold). Sure, a good part of this is due to the holiday tournaments and challenges, but this year, it’s not just those games. Games like Florida/Wisconsin; VCU/Virginia; Kentucky/UNC; DUKE/UCLA; Arizona/Michigan and Kansas/Georgetown… (just to name a few) are on this season's slate.
Gone are the days of a slow and steady climb to the excitement. On November 8th, it’s getting started and it’s getting started with a bang.
After that? Conference play.
After that? Conference Tournaments.
After that? Selection Sunday.
After that? March Madness.
November 8, 2013 to April 7, 2014…
151 days of absolute entertainment.
Enjoy.
#collegebasketballneverstops
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