2024-25 College Basketball: Early Season Winners & Losers

We’ve had about a month of college basketball so far this season to get an idea of what’s in store for 2024-25. It’s been interesting. Just this week, we saw the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country fall victim to upsets. There are surely more to come.

Soon, teams will start playing conference games. Some teams, like those in the Big Ten, will play at least one conference game before the New Year. As we head into the next phase of this college basketball season, let’s pause for a moment and take a look at the early season winners and losers.

Winner: Boomer Sooner!

So, you lose six of your top seven scorers from a year ago. Then, the rest of the SEC picks you to finish 15th in the 16-team league. Oklahoma head coach Porter Moser and his Sooners have simply shrugged that off and proceeded to start the new season 8-0. Among the victories are wins over Louisville and Arizona on the way to a Battle 4 Atlantis tournament title. 

Moser’s high-pressure defense has been the key. Oklahoma generates the fifth-most steals per game in the country and they hold opponents to 26.5 percent shooting from behind the three-point line. Freshman guard Jeremiah Fears is outstanding, averaging 16.9 points per game. Senior Jalon Moore leads the Sooners in scoring at 18.0 points per game.

Winner: The Smart Call

Shaka Smart is one of the best college basketball coaches in the country. He’s back at Marquette after taking the Golden Eagles to last year’s Sweet Sixteen. Smart lost Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro to the NBA, but it’s like they haven’t missed a beat. Marquette is 8-1 with a huge early win over Purdue, then ranked No. 6, 76-58. The Eagles did lose their first game this week to No. 6 Iowa State, 81-70, on the road.

Smart’s teams have always been built around defense. This year’s Eagles are no different. They currently rank No. 6 in Adjusted Defensive Efficiency, according to KenPom. Guard Kam Jones is a star, averaging 19.6 points and 6.4 assists per game. Marquette will host another ranked team on Saturday – No. 11 Wisconsin.

Winner: The Third Best Team in the ACC

This spot was supposed to be reserved for Wake Forest, Clemson, or Virginia. Not so fast says Pitt head coach Jeff Capel. The former Duke player and coach has the Panthers off to a 7-2 start. Pitt won on the road at Ohio State, but did fall to a ranked Wisconsin team and just lost a road game at Mississippi State. 

Pitt returns the ACC’s Sixth Man of the Year Ish Leggett. In 2024-25, Leggett has taken a giant leap forward to star. The 6-3 senior averages 17 points per game, leading an offense that puts up 82 per game. Jaland Lowe and former Houston transfer Damian Dunn give the Panthers one of the best three-guard lineups in the nation. 

Winner: Duck, Duck, Win

Dana Altman seems to do this every year. No one thinks he has a team worthy of challenging for anything and then all of a sudden…they’re 9-0! The Ducks are 9-0 and won the Players Era Festival with a 83-81 thrilling upset of then-No. 9 Alabama. Oregon has also beaten a ranked Texas A&M team and an always tough San Diego State. 

The Ducks got off to a great start in Big Ten play too. This week, they beat USC 68-60 in their first-ever Big Ten conference game. Altman is consistently overlooked in the coaching circles, but Oregon will definitely contend for the Big Ten title this season.

Loser: Wildcats Can’t Shoot

Tommy Lloyd took over the Arizona basketball program in 2021-22. The Wildcats went 33-4 and made it all the way to the Sweet Sixteen. Arizona went 27-9 last year and made another Sweet Sixteen in Lloyd’s third season. To start this season, Arizona already has four losses. Wait, what?

Yes, Arizona has losses to Wisconsin before they were ranked, No. 12 Duke, and unranked Oklahoma and West Virginia. Now, all of those may end up being “good” losses, but this Arizona team isn’t like Lloyd’s first three. The Wildcats are shooting 31 percent from behind the arc (250th in the nation) and they’re 242nd in assist rate. In Lloyd’s first three seasons, Arizona was second, fifth, and 25th in assist rate.

Loser: Calipari Won’t Change

John Calipari took over at Arkansas in the offseason. The Razorbacks faithful were (and probably still are) excited to see what changes Calipari would bring to the program. One thing he won’t change is the way his teams play defense. It’s not good. 

Sure, Arkansas is talented enough to beat Lipscomb, Troy, Pacific, Little Rock, and Maryland-Eastern Shore. But, when you don’t play sound defense against elite teams like Baylor and Illinois, you get beat. The Hogs lost by five to Baylor and by 13 to the Illini. Their win this week over Miami on the road was pretty impressive, but the Razorbacks need to figure out how to play defense or the expectations won’t be met.

Loser: Hoosier Blowouts

Indiana started the 2024-25 season with some blowout wins over Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and Eastern Illinois. Those aren’t the blowouts we’re referring to though. We’re talking about the spanking that the Hoosiers took first from Louisville and then from No. 3 Gonzaga. Both games were in last week’s Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas.

The Hoosiers defense doesn’t do well in transition and doesn’t defend the three very well, especially in pick-and-roll situations. Pick-and-roll three-point shooters are hitting over 40 percent against Indiana. That’s why Louisville beat the Hoosiers by 28 and then Gonzaga followed up with a 16-point beatdown the following night. That defense needs to fix itself or Indiana will miss the NCAA tournament again and Mike Woodson will probably be out of a job.

Loser: Champs to Chumps?

Okay, so it is early, but the defending national champion went to the Maui Invitational and promptly lost all three games it played. UConn, winners of two straight national titles, lost to Memphis (99-97), Colorado (73-72), and Dayton (85-67) in Maui. The Huskies defense had some issues, and head coach Dan Hurley has started to address those. It is weird seeing UConn 6-3 and ranked No. 25 in the country at this point in the season.

Now, Hurley and UConn did redeem themselves with an easy win over Maryland-Eastern Shore last Saturday, but the big one came this week in a showdown with No. Baylor. UConn got back to basics and beat the Bears 76-72 on Wednesday night. It’s not likely UConn stays on this loser list for long.

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