NCAA Basketball: 5 biggest winners and losers from week 1 of 2022-23

Winner – Saint Mary’s 

Capped off by a 30-point win over North Texas in a game where they only surrendered 33 points, Saint Mary’s finished the first week 3-0. They beat the Vermont Catamounts handedly 79-53. The Catamounts were far and away the America East favorites in the preseason and responsible for a third of the conference’s preseason first team.

The Gaels are now 25th at KenPom thanks to a defense up to 11th in adjusted efficiency. They beat three quality mid major opponents, two of which we have already mentioned as well as Oral Roberts. Not only are they beating them, they’re doing it by an average of over 21 points. Aidan Mahaney is a bucket as a true freshman and Randy Bennett should get major props for putting together yet another quality team in Moraga. They’ll get there cracks at Gonzaga in conference play and Houston in early December. I promise those two teams aren’t excited about playing the Gaels.

Loser – Tennessee

Losing to Colorado in a nutshell isn’t the worst thing in the world. That is, if it was at elevation and the Buffaloes hadn’t just loss to Grambling State. But, Colorado made the trip to Bridgestone Arena in Nashville and they did lose to the Tigers just two days prior. The loss is a pretty bad look for a team that has aspirations of winning the SEC, especially considering how they lost.

The biggest question for the Vols heading into the season was consistent offense. They struggled with that last season even with Kennedy Chandler on the roster. Without Chandler, it wasn’t clear who would take the creative control of Tennessee’s offense and produce consistently. Rick Barnes’ squad was just 16-of-63 from the field and 10-of-37 from the 3-point line. They turned it over 15 times. Thank goodness they got to the free throw line 30 times or it would’ve been even uglier. There’s nothing more demoralizing than having your biggest concern slap you in the face right out of the gates to start the season.