The 2015-2016 College Basketball season has arrived, and as of right now there are virtually no premier games, however soon there will be many interesting non-conference games. There have already been some interesting non-conference match-ups. The biggest of those being a couple days ago when #2 Kentucky took on #5 Duke and later on that night #4 Kansas faced #13 Michigan State. Also that night #3 Maryland played a tricky game against Georgetown, and #8 Oklahoma traveled Memphis. Kentucky looked like the better team pretty much the whole game, winning 74-63 and it seems like Duke has some things to figure out. The Wildcats and Blue Devils were even in terms of rebounding, but the Wildcats were able to force more turnovers and just shoot better overall. Then in the second game of the double header, Michigan State took down Kansas 79-73 behind a strong second half effort. Denzel Valentine took over late and hit multiple tough threes to help his team win. I think that Michigan State will be very good, because they have a way of surprising everyone and making a run even when no one thinks they can. Like last year when they finished the regular season at 21-10, then advanced to the Big Ten 10 Championship game but lost to Wisconsin, then they advanced all the way to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament before losing to eventual champion Duke.
Then Maryland took down Georgetown but didn't exactly win convincingly, 75-71. I think that Maryland can be a very good team, but they might need to work on their chemistry. They have two Division 1 transfers coming into their starting lineup, Rasheed Sulaimon from Duke, and Robert Carter from Georgia Tech. But Maryland should be really good and will contend for the Big 10 Title. That game was part of the Gavitt Tip-Off Games, which pits the Big 10 versus the Big East, right now my favorite team, Iowa, is dominating Marquette 48-21 at half time. Iowa is definitely doing a lot right, Mike Gesell is passing the ball very well, Anthony Clemons is playing very well defensively and the whole team is shooting it well. But at the same time Marquette is just playing awfully, they've had a number of open three's but so far are just 2-19 from deep. They also have been turning it over frequently, racking up 12 already in the first half, and they aren't playing well defensively either.
The next set of games to watch will be the Big 10-ACC Challenge which has match-ups such as #1 North Carolina versus #3 Maryland, #6 Virginia versus Ohio State, #5 Duke versus #14 Indiana, and Louisville versus #13 Michigan State. This will start at the beginning of December.
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