NCAA Basketball: 4 under-the-radar games on opening night of 2020-21

While some NCAA Basketball games may get more fanfare on opening night, here are four intriguing games that are flying under the radar.

It seems like a lifetime ago that conference tournaments were happening and the surreal scene of players getting pulled off the floor mid-game due to the growing threat of Coronavirus took place. Flash forward eight months and the uncertainty still exists, but thanks to safety measures and protocols, an NCAA Basketball season is (hopefully) on the horizon, albeit one vastly different than what we are used to.

While some teams and conferences like the Ivy League decided to cancel their winter season, and others are weighing the pros and cons of a conference-only schedule, it looks as though there will be college basketball on Nov. 25, and as sports fans, we should all be thankful for that.

With the season less than a week away the schedules are slowly coming into focus and even at this late date, things are still in flux as evidenced by the postponement of the game between Miami and Stetson due to COVID-19 issues at Stetson, New Mexico State having to relocate to begin the season, and Iona shutting down for two weeks and canceling their first four games of the season.

Nevertheless, the opening day of the college basketball season offers some wonderfully intriguing matchups to get us started with No. 2 Baylor vs. No. 18 Arizona State headlining the slate.

In addition to the Bears and Sun Devils, the unique non-conference scheduling and reworking of MTE events have also lent itself to some early-season matchups that harken back to the days of ESPN’s BracketBusters event that took place each February, and four such games that won’t garner as much national attention as others will take place on opening night.