The Case For Diversifying Your College Basketball Viewing This 2024-25 Season

The college basketball landscape is slowly becoming too divided and siloed. For the vast majority of fans and journalists, following the "whole" sport is basically just code for the top twenty to twenty-five teams, or perhaps all of the five power conferences and occasionally Gonzaga. Plenty of others who became disillusioned by one-and-done and realignment wholly committed themselves to mid-majors until the NCAA Tournament rolls around. And for perhaps the majority of fans, it's a laser focus on their own team (a good thing) and a default to just the top teams (not a good thing).

But college basketball's magic derives from its diversity. Strategies and styles differ from team to team and conference to conference in a way not seen at the professional level. Stars and future pros emerge from every corner of the country every season. And perhaps most importantly, every month carries a different weight for different teams, mostly depending on their conference situation.

For those solely locked in on top teams and power conferences, it can be a slow and often dramaless grind until reaping the rewards that come after Selection Sunday, save for a handful of bubble teams bathing in tension over the final month. For NCAA Tournament hopefuls in the Mountain West, WCC, AAC and A-10, there is a weight to every single game, starting opening night, just knowing that any Q1 win or Q3/4 loss could irrevocably change your entire season. In the remaining twenty-two leagues, late February becomes a desperate time in the pursuit of advantageous conference tournament seeding. And when that tournament week finally comes, well there may be no other event in sports that has every team constantly stuck on the flimsiest of tightropes, knowing almost everyone will take a bone shattering spill, but awaiting at the end is perhaps the greatest jubilation of your athletic career.

That's why I encourage everyone to invest their viewing time this winter across a broader spectrum of teams. You should absolutely still continue to follow the journeys of a few National Championship contenders, since April will certainly start to feel kind of hollow if you don't, but there's really no need to lock in on all of them. Most of the season, the stress simply isn't there, given that each passing week will bring you in the possibility that 2-0 or 0-2 could maybe, just maybe, eventually move that team one seed line in the NCAA Tournament.

For this group, I would suggest following Duke, who is led by a generational talent in Cooper Flagg and flanked him with another pair of potential lottery pick freshman, a veteran point guard and a bevy of older transfers who fit all of the roles needed on a flexible roster to win it all. Houston has had a top ten defense nationally (per Kenpom) four years straight and for fans of old school roster building and development, the Cougars essentially bring back their entire roster from last year's one seed, save for replacing their now in the NBA star Jamal Shead with Oklahoma transfer Milos Uzan.

A power conference bubble team or two would be a nice follow as well. The experience will bring some of the drama that January and February can tend to lack elsewhere, while continuing to give viewers a taste of opposing teams that could go deep into March, and the sight of plenty of future NBA Draft picks.

A few of the best bets to sweat out the whole year, include:
-Pitt has who hovered as close to the cut line as anyone the past two years and seem the have the exact roster talent for it to happen again.
-Ole Miss is trying to bounce back in year two under Chris Beard, an undeniable top notch coach who is also extremely easy to root against, given his off-court actions.
-Providence fans are riding high on the idea that Kim English is a future coaching star, and a good season will send their hopes to the moon, but another empty Selection Sunday could quickly turn this passionate group venomous.
-Florida has quietly had a rough three year stretch by their standards and will try to make a run with a potential All-American (Walter Clayton Jr). Plus they have the tallest man ever in the sport (7'9" Olivier Rioux).
-Kansas State went all or nothing with their NIL budget, spending big (like $2M for Coleman Hawkins) at the top and leaving the depth bare.
-Louisville has already improved from Kenny Payne to Pat Kelsey by dominating in their season opener but the Cardinals could sneak into the NCAA Tournament seemingly a year early.

For fans who want to seem like an expert to their friends coming out of the selection show, it's a great idea to latch onto a top team in a lower conference and hold on through the sheer enjoyment of a dominant January and February, followed by the every minute white knuckling of conference tournament week. Plus, for those who are unfamiliar with watching smaller budget schools, its actually really fun to spend one or two games a year watching horrible broadcast features like bad camera angles and shrieking microphones.

Possible dominance could come this season from High Point, who returns five of the six best players from the Big South regular season champions, while adding four veteran impact transfers. Did I mention that the Panthers have never made the NCAA Tournament? After their first round Tournament victory, Grand Canyon should have been gutted but somehow kept their coach and two best players (Tyon Grant-Foster/Ray Harrison) for one more run. The season has a 2017 Middle Tennessee feel to it. Princeton probably won't dominate, because the Ivy League might be the most competitive conference in the country, but the Tigers kept the conference Player of the Year (Caden Pierce), a future NBA guard (Xavian Lee) and will look to plug in a new rising starter (Dalen Davis). For potential party crashers who have never made the NCAA Tournament, Bryant (with a roster filled with power conference talent) and UMass Lowell will try for the most difficult feat in college basketball, to unseat eight time defending America East regular season champion Vermont and win home court throughout the conference tournament.

For those who desire wild storylines and the sport's best characters, there are plenty of possible train-wrecks that you won't want to look away from. Memphis is an absolute disaster, most of their assistant coaches were fired in September, a player entered the transfer portal in October and then oddly came back, then the Tigers' lost another player of the eve of the season. Yet, the team is so talented that they may only have one challenger (UAB) if things don't collapse. Temple is in the throughs of the investigation into suspicious gambling patterns last season, and their point guard (who wasn't on the team during this) is currently suspended for a completely different incident. Georgetown hasn't been good since 2015 and after much hullaballoo, year one of the Ed Cooley era was a disaster. Villanova has a decent roster but their fans are potentially one more bad loss (they already lost to Columbia) away from a total revolt.

St. John's doesn't deserve to be in the potential disaster group, but the Red Storm have the alluring combo of a legendary fiery coach in Rick Pitino, who has put together the program's best roster in years and could make a deep March run. But there will certainly be drama, intrigue and silliness along the way. I also needed a place to note that Baylor freshman VJ Edgecombe will probably be the most exciting player in college basketball. Here's more thrilling Edgecombe plays.

But outside of the highs and lows of your own team's season, nothing will give you more a roller coaster feeling than watching an upper echelon team in the A-10 or Mountain West. It comes with the odd feeling of rooting all-out for rivals in the non-conference so that playing them later in the year will bring more value to your resume. It's knowing that any road loss could very well bring a court storm and that most games you play will be against quality teams, who also posses the ability to absolutely destroy your Tournament chances. And then comes the conference tournament, where about half the league is capable of winning it (like a power conference) but for all but maybe one or two of those teams, the entire season is on the line in those games.

VCU, Dayton, Loyola-Chicago, St. Joseph's, Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State, Utah State and UNLV are all capable of being that team this year but there are two top candidates. Saint Louis brought in coach Josh Schertz from Indiana State and the crux of his breathtaking offense, Robbie Avila followed along (although Avila is unfortunately out a few weeks with an ankle injury). New Mexico took a punch in the transfer portal but return an excellent frontcourt and one of the most under-appreciated stars in the country in Donovan Dent.

As for who not to watch, I recommend not wasting your time with the Big Ten. It's going to be a down year at the top and per usual, most of the teams in the conference will look decently flawed and you'll just be angry and confused when they get great respect from the selection committee. But if you insist on following someone, Rutgers has gone all-in financially on this season, with two of the five best freshmen in the sport surrounded by seniors, and somehow, no center.

So this season, do yourself a favor, instead of just flipping between Michigan State, Kansas and Kentucky every night, explore everything that college basketball has to offer, whether it's future NBA stars in the Atlantic Coast Conference, heart pounding drama in the Atlantic Ten or a handful of games deciding the entire season in the Atlantic Sun, the only wrong way to watch is to throw yourself into a single corner.