One week is in the books, and many more are still to come in the 2025-2026 college basketball season. While the opening week may not have featured the strongest slate of games, it certainly didn’t disappoint with a few high-level matchups and even a couple upsets. Most importantly though, it just feels great to have college hoops back.
In a sport that now has so much turnover year after year, finally seeing teams on the court in real game action can reveal a lot. With that in mind, here are three things we learned from the opening week of college basketball.
1. This Freshman Class is Special
If you thought last year’s freshman class was impressive, this year’s group might be even better. Week one was highlighted by several standout performances from first-year players who already look like not just the best in their class, but some of the top players in the entire country.
Arizona’s Koa Peat was the story of opening night with a dominant 30-point, seven-rebound, five-assist performance against defending national champion Florida, which features one of the best frontcourts in the country. He followed that up with 18 points on 86% shooting from the field against Utah Tech in game two.
We got to see two top freshmen on the same court on Friday night when North Carolina hosted Kansas. The Jayhawks’ Darryn Peterson led his team with 22 points, while the Tar Heels’ Caleb Wilson dropped 24 and made plays all over the court during a dominant second-half comeback win for UNC.
Duke’s Cameron Boozer struggled with his shooting against Texas, but aside from that, he had a solid debut and is averaging a double-double through two games. The top player in the class, AJ Dybantsa, has lived up to the hype so far and will be a must-watch this week when BYU takes on UConn on Saturday. That’s just to name a few of the freshmen who stood out during opening week, and I could go on. But for now, this freshman class looks special.
The Transfer Portal is Wild
No matter how closely you tried to follow this offseason's transfer portal movement, keeping track of everything was impossible. Sure, we all know where the big names ended up or followed along while most of the movement was happening, but that was months ago, and this first week felt like a lot of relearning. To me this opening week felt like the start of an NBA season, when you see a lot of familiar faces popping up in new places.
A few names that caught my attention: Meechie Johnson is back at South Carolina and alongside Mike Sharavjamts who’s on his fourth team in four years and has had quite the career path with stops at Dayton, San Francisco, and Utah before landing with the Gamecocks. Then there are guys like Chad Baker-Mazara (USC), Nijel Pack (Oklahoma), Adam Miller (Gonzaga), John Hugley IV (Duquesne), and Devin Askew (Villanova) who feel like they’ve been playing college basketball forever.
These first couple of weeks are a great time to reacquaint ourselves with who’s where, because the college basketball transfer portal is crazy.
Indiana Might Be Back
After years of being stuck in mediocrity and with Mike Woodson now gone, it looks like the Hoosiers may have finally turned a corner. Indiana was one of the most impressive teams of opening week, dropping 98 points in their season opener against Alabama A&M and following it up by hanging 100 on Shaka Smart and Marquette in a dominant 23-point win.
Darian DeVries’ rebuilt roster looks legit, especially after standout performances from Tucker DeVries and Lamar Wilkerson. With an undefeated football team in the midst of one of the greatest turnarounds in sports history and Hoosiers basketball off to a strong start in a new era, excitement has to be at an all-time high in Bloomington.