College Basketball Is Going To Be Different This Season And That's Okay

I started thinking about this over the weekend when I saw a tweet that asked who is the best returning player to college basketball. It was a bit shocking to see some of the names, but really what it comes down to is that there are no major names returning. You look at guys like Carsen Edwards, Ethan Happ, Caleb Martin and Mike Daum. Those are arguably the four best returning players at the collegiate level.

The one thing missing? The major name. Last year we had Miles Bridges returning. Year before that it was Grayson Allen. In 2015 you had all the Kentucky guys returning. You can keep going back and finding those big names that shocked people a bit by returning to college and then were on the preseason All-American team. People talked about those guys all summer, but this year just feels different.

Here’s the thing though. Yes, individual talent will be down this year. That happens, especially now with the new entry rule for the NBA Draft. But, that doesn’t mean there’s not plenty of intrigue in college hoops this year. We have ‘mid-majors’ in Nevada/Gonzaga in the top-10. We have Tennessee in the top-10. We have traditional names like Kansas/Duke/Kentucky in the top-5. We have reigning national champ Nova in the top-10. We have Virginia, one of the two dominant teams last year in the top-10. There are storylines and intrigue throughout, but individual talent is going to be down.

That’s where I’m a bit worried about the sport next year. For those who don’t want college basketball religiously, they tune in once football season ends or during the holiday season when we have games on during the day. Instead of talking about the intrigue, it will end up being about how the game looks ugly or the play is down, because they are used to the NBA. That’s the last thing this sport needs right now with everything else going on with the FBI investigation and the Rice Commission.

But, for the individual talent being down – even the incoming freshman class isn’t labeled as great – this could be good for some of these players. A guy like Carsen Edwards can turn this into a big time year and a jump in the NBA Draft. We could see someone like PJ Washington at UK developing a more dominant game and jumping into the first round of the NBA Draft. We can see teams take advantage of the lack of individual talent in order to make a run.

So, yes, college basketball will be ‘down’ this year, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be an awesome tournament or plenty of intriguing games throughout the year. We heard from certain people that last year didn’t have a dominant team, which was just flat out false. Nova was one of the most dominant teams in college basketball history, losing just one game when healthy. Virginia was a dominant regular season team. We’re going to see a couple teams separate throughout the year, but if it’s the traditionalists, we will hear about dominant teams. Don’t let that fool you from what this season should be.

In case you didn’t want to read all of that – please get sports back on TV this week.