- Navy will host the first annual Quicken Loans Veterans Classic, playing No. 18 Michigan State in the nightcap. The Spartans will be led by seniors Branden Dawson and Travis Trice and junior Denzel Valentine, with Valentine capable of putting together a breakout season with his expanded role. In the first game Donnie Tyndall will make his regular season debut at Tennessee, and he didn?t draw an easy opener with No. 15 VCU being the opposition. The Rams won?t have Briante Weber however, as he?s serving a one-game suspension.
- The two teams at the top of most preseason polls, No. 1 Kentucky and No. 2 Arizona, are in action with season openers they?ll be expected to win. Kentucky hosts Grand Canyon, with this being the first opportunity to see how John Calipari?s platoon works against Division I opposition. As for Arizona, Sean Miller?s Wildcats host a Mount St. Mary?s team that relied on pressure defense and three-point shooting to earn a trip to the NCAA tournament last season.
- Besides Arizona three other ranked teams host opponents that reached the NCAA tournament a season ago: No. 6 North Carolina (North Carolina Central), No. 10 Texas (North Dakota State) and No. 11 Wichita State (New Mexico State). All three ranked teams begin the season with high hopes, and the individual matchup of Wichita State?s Ron Baker and New Mexico State?s Daniel Mullings may be the best that any of those games has to offer.
- After finishing third in the SEC last season, Mark Fox?s Georgia Bulldogs are looking to earn a trip to the NCAA tournament in 2014-15. First up on the schedule for them is rival Georgia Tech in Atlanta (7:00 p.m., ESPN3), and although Marcus Thornton and company will be expected to win you never know what will happen in rivalry games. Georgia Tech?s led by Marcus Georges-Hunt, and Maryland transfer Charles Mitchell will help them in the post.
- A game to keep an eye on that doesn?t match ranked teams: Wofford at Stanford (12:00 a.m., Pac-12 Networks). The Cardinal, led by guards Chasson Randle and Anthony Brown, should be in the mix in the Pac-12 but they?ve got a tough matchup in the regular season opener. Mike Young?s Terriers reached the NCAA tournament last season, and with all five starters back led by guards Karl Cochran and Spencer Collins this is a group expected by many to be the class of the Southern Conference.
Long Beach State at BYU
BYU?s best playmaker, Kyle Collinsworth, saw his first action in the Cougars? second exhibition game last week but his minutes will still be monitored as he continues to work his way back from a torn ACL suffered last March. The good thing for head coach Dave Rose is that he has a lot of depth on the perimeter, led by high-level scorer Tyler Haws and Wake Forest transfer Chase Fischer. Long Beach State boasts one of the better perimeter tandems at the mid-major level in Mike Caffey and Tyler Lamb, with the former expected to earn first team All-Big West honors for the third consecutive season. BYU should win, especially with the game being played in Provo, but the guard play makes this a game to check out.
