We’re a little over a month into the college basketball season with most teams at or near the 10-game mark, and we’re starting to learn who teams really are. We’ve already seen several high-level non-conference matchups, but things will only heat up more as we head towards conference play in January.
Several teams have impressed and exceeded expectations, while others have struggled early and will be looking to regroup. Let’s take a look at three teams that have started strong but still aren’t getting the shine they deserve, and are worth keeping an eye on as the season goes on.
Oklahoma State has jumped out to a hot 9-0 start and is already more than halfway to matching their win total from last season. In his second year in Stillwater, Steve Lutz has the Cowboys playing an up-tempo, high-scoring brand of basketball that’s producing results, as they’re averaging 91.3 points per game with five players scoring in double figures.
Lutz hit the transfer portal hard in the offseason as all but one of this team's contributors are newcomers to Stillwater. The Cowboys have benefited from a lighter schedule so far, but they have a big game this Saturday against Oklahoma, and it will be interesting to see how they perform when they get into what will be a challenging Big 12 slate. It’s a long season, but Oklahoma State has put itself in a great position early to make its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2021.
While Vanderbilt sits at No. 15 in the latest AP Poll, it still feels like no one is talking about the Commodores. Part of that is likely due to the fact they’ve played only one game in the past two weeks, but it’s also Vanderbilt, which isn’t a name that typically commands much respect in the college basketball world.
That said, Mark Byington’s team is a legitimate SEC contender this season and has already picked up several impressive wins. They’re outscoring opponents by an average of 23.8 points and turned heads in the Bahamas, winning the Battle 4 Atlantis with victories over Western Kentucky, VCU, and Saint Mary’s. They followed that up by returning home and handing a solid SMU team its first loss of the season by 19 points.
The Commodores are led by one of the top backcourts in the country with Duke Miles and Tyler Tanner, who are averaging a combined 34 points and 4.6 steals per game. We’ve seen the narrative around Vanderbilt football shift in recent years, and that same kind of change appears to be happening with the basketball program this season.
Things looked bleak for head coach Shaheen Holloway after a 7-25 record last year, but it has been a strong start to year four for him in Jersey. Their early schedule was a cakewalk, but Seton Hall garnered attention with a third-place finish at the Maui Invitational where they knocked off NC State, beat Washington State, and took USC down to the wire.
Holloway has his team winning on the defensive end, as they currently rank 13th in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency allowing just 61.9 points per game. In their most recent outing against Kansas State, they held college basketball’s leading scorer, PJ Haggerty, to 11 points on 3-for-12 shooting. With a 9-1 start and a Big East that looks extremely down outside of UConn and St. John’s, Seton Hall looks to have a strong chance to make it back to the NCAA Tournament.