5 Storylines 20 Days Out From College Basketball

It is that time of year again. The weather is starting to turn a little more crisp, football is in full swing, and the holidays are quickly approaching. However, that also means that college basketball season is right around the corner. The Kentucky Wildcats just completed their annual Pro Day last Tuesday, Big Blue Madness was Saturday, and the Blue-White Game will be played on October 17th. Then, just a week a later, the ‘Cats will play the preseason #1 Purdue Boilermakers in a highly anticipated exhibition game. It is hard to believe how close we are to tipping off the 2025-2026 college basketball season.

In honor of hitting the 20-day-out mark, let’s take a look at five more of the biggest storylines entering the 2025-2026 season. Every five days we will release five more headlines and ultimately reach a total of 25 when the season begins on the 3rd of November. As Kentucky Sports Radio’s resident college basketball junkie, I will have plenty of other preview content, including my annual College Basketball Manifesto, over the next few weeks. It is almost here, folks!

5 Storylines 25 Days Out From College Basketball

As Jon Rothstein would say: And Here. We. Go.

Preseason AP Top 25 Poll Reactions

The preseason AP Top 25 Poll was released on Monday, October 13th. That means we are still well within the news cycle where various fanbases overreact to what technically amounts to a virtually meaningless piece of content. However, it is something to discuss in October so we will do it here as well.

BREAKING: Preseason College Basketball AP Poll🏀https://t.co/pQTPvw4sEm pic.twitter.com/ovodzbD9dE

— On3 (@On3sports) October 13, 2025

• The Big 12, Big Ten, and SEC each feature six programs in the preseason Top 25. Last season, the SEC had nine times in the Top 25 to begin the year.
• Four Big East schools, two ACC schools, and Gonzaga in the WCC round out the Top 25.
• NC State, Oregon, San Diego State, Texas, and Ohio State were the next five among the “others receiving votes.”
• Half of the 2024-2025 preseason Top 10 did not finish the season in the Top 25. Only Alabama, Duke, and Houston started and finished the season in the Top 10.

Preseason KenPom Projections

In our last preview we discussed Evan Miya’s preseason projections. Now, this time around, we get to discuss the Godfather of basketball analytics. KenPom has become a staple of college basketball water cooler talk and is also used by the NCAA Selection Committee. Mr. Pomeroy himself would admit that his preseason projections aren’t going to be the most accurate. The more data he can collect the more accurate his projections become. However, it is a worthwhile discussion point as we compare and contrast against other preseason polls and analytical projections.

📢Preseason KenPom rankings are LIVE🔢

Here's the top 80.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL IS COMING! pic.twitter.com/1E3R80LDWS

— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) October 12, 2025

• What seems to be the national consensus top three of Florida, Houston, and Purdue held true in the KenPom projections. However, the Cougars came in at number one with the Gators and Boilermakers following.
• The Big 12 and Big Ten lead the KenPom Top 25 with seven selections each while the SEC had six schools. The ACC and Big East each had two Top 25 teams while Gonzaga, at #8, was the lone outlier from the WCC.
• As always, there are some discrepancies between the AP Top 25 and KenPom. Here are some of the programs that the AP likes a lot more than KenPom
  • St. John’s was ranked #5 in the AP Poll, but #16 by KenPom.
  • BYU was ranked #8 in the AP Poll, but #18 by KenPom.
  • Arkansas was ranked #14 in the AP Poll, but #29 by KenPom.
  • Auburn was ranked #20 in the AP Poll, but #31 by KenPom.
• The discrepancies obviously go the other way as well. Here are three teams that KenPom is much higher on than the AP Poll.
  • Illinois was ranked #17 in the AP Poll, but #6 by KenPom.
  • Tennessee was ranked #18 in the AP Poll, but #9 by KenPom.
  • Gonzaga was ranked #21 in the AP Poll, but #8 by KenPom.

New Faces in New Places – Coaches Edition

A recurring segment as we preview the upcoming season, here are five high-profile coaching changes that took place heading into 2025-2026. Last year the coaching carousel centered around Kentucky with Coach Calipari heading to Arkansas and Coach Pope coming to lead the ‘Cats. While this cycle might not have been quite as crazy in terms of big names changing schools, there is still a lot to unpack heading into the season.

Darian DeVries to Indiana. One of the highest profile jobs to open this cycle was at Indiana. After failing to win 20 games for the second straight season, Coach Mike Woodson was out in Bloomington after four years. The Hoosiers turned to Coach DeVries who went 150-55 in six seasons at Drake before going 19-13 in his lone season at West Virginia. It’ll be a different level of spotlight than Coach DeVries has dealt with before, but at least so far he seems to have ingratiated himself with the Hoosiers’ fans.

Buzz Williams to Maryland. Coach Buzz Williams has had a lot of success in his 18 seasons as a Division I head coach. However, his moves can be described as nothing short of unique. He left Marquette after six seasons for Virginia Tech which was a lateral move at best. Then, after building a winner there, he left following a 26-9 season for Texas A&M. In similar fashion, after leading the Aggies to three straight NCAA Tournaments, Coach Williams made yet another lateral move to Maryland. Despite a proven track record of regular season success, the eccentric Coach Williams has won just four NCAA Tournament games in the last 12 seasons. Maryland will be looking for him to return to the success that has largely alluded him since his early days at Marquette.

Will Wade to North Carolina State. Welcome back to the high-major ranks, Coach Will Wade. Things obviously ended in controversy at LSU, but he was 105-51 there and had the Tigers in back-to-back NCAA Tournaments. Then, after sitting out a year, he led McNeese State to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments. There is no denying that Coach Wade is a winner. He is 246-105 (.701) in 11 seasons as a head coach. Expectations are already high entering year one at North Carolina State.

Sean Miller to Texas. In 20 seasons as a head coach, 2023-2024’s Xavier team that went 16-18 was Coach Miller’s only sub-.500 team of his career. He is an incredible 487-196 (.713) overall between two stints at Xavier and Arizona. Now, Coach Miller takes over a Texas team that has been very average over the last three years. There was a time when he was one of the hottest names in all of coaching. It will be interesting to see if he can climb the mountain one more time with the Longhorns.

Ryan Odom to Virginia. When Coach Tony Bennett retired just before the 2023-2024 season it forced the Cavaliers to hire his former assistant Ron Sanchez. Coach Sanchez had spent the previous five seasons going 72-78 at Charlotte. Needless to say, his time as the interim head coach did not go well. Virginia finished 15-17 and it was time to go another direction. Enter Coach Ryan Odom who is coming off of a 28-7 season at VCU. He will introduce a new style of play to Virginia and look to return them to national relevance once again.

The Return of the One-and-Done

NIL and the transfer portal have made college basketball as old as ever. We have seen guys stick around recently for five or six seasons thanks to additional eligibility being granted for various reasons. Some of that is starting to trickle out, but players are still playing in college longer than we have seen in a long time. However, this season, we could see a shift back towards freshmen dominating the scene. Cooper Flagg started the trend last year earning National Player of the Year honors. This year three freshmen, Cameron Boozer, AJ Dybantsa, and Darryn Peterson enter the season with legitimate National Player of the Year aspirations. Those three will very likely be the best player on their respective teams that are ranked #6, #8, and #19 in the preseason AP Top 25 Poll.

However, the freshman class goes deeper than just Boozer, Dybantsa, and Peterson. Tennessee’s Nate Ament is seen as someone who could contend for the number one pick in the next NBA Draft. Darius Acuff at Arkansas and Mikel Brown Jr. at Louisville will immediately be handed the keys to the car for borderline Top 10 teams. Arizona will rely heavily on Brayden Burries and Koa Peat. Caleb Wilson was a major recruiting win for North Carolina that will look to turn the Tar Heels around. There are several more names worth mentioning such as Chris Cenac at Houston, Braylon Mullins at UConn, and Maleek Thomas at Arkansas who will be expected to be major contributors for Final Four contenders from day one. All of these names are likely one-and-done prospects and potential NBA lottery picks.

Potential NCAA Tournament Expansion on the Horizon

Will this be the last season played with a NCAA Tournament field of 68 teams? The first ever NCAA Tournament was played in 1939 with eight teams. It then experienced three subsequent doubles on its way to 64 teams. The field went to 16 in 1951, 32 in 1975, and finally 64 in 1985. A single team was added for a play-in game in 2001 and then the field expanded to its current 68 team format in 2011. Historically, every 10-20 years the NCAA Tournament has seen some level of expansion. It appears that we could be set for our next growth in 2026-2027.

No official agreement has been reached yet, but NCAA executives are moving towards an expansion to 76 teams for the 2026-2027 tournament. All of the additional teams would take part in an expanded “opening round” leaving the typical 64-team bracket that tips off on Thursday unchanged. Adding more non-competitive teams to an already watered down bubble seems unnecessary. However, the additional teams that will get to go dancing will largely be irrelevant. The NCAA Tournament is the single greatest sporting event in the world. Messing with it may not be necessary, but it won’t cause the ruination of the event that some want to dramatically predict. Whether there are 68, 72, 76, or 365 teams in the NCAA Tournament the vast majority of us will watch and enjoy it all the same.