By Aidan Joly
The first night of the 2023-24 college basketball season is in the books. It featured things going mostly according to plan, albeit one massive upset and some other notable results.
Here are the takeaways from night one.
James Madison stuns Michigan State
James Madison was picked at the top of the coaches poll in the Sun Belt, but the Dukes went into East Lansing and picked up a stunning 79-76 win over No. 4 Michigan State in overtime.
JMU took advantage of Michigan State shooting just 1-20 from behind the three-point arc and not much production out of anyone else besides Tyson Walker, who scored 35 points for the Spartans.
Good on the Dukes for keeping their composure the whole way, and especially to Raekwon Horton, who hit a cold-blooded three with 8.6 seconds left in OT to put the game away. Terrence Edwards Jr. had 24 points for JMU, while former Boston College forward T.J. Bickerstaff had 21.
Another Big Ten team had a bad night, with Rutgers losing to Princeton 68-61 at a neutral site in Trenton.
Isaiah Collier impresses in debut
Collier, the top recruit out in this year’s class, put up 18 points on 7-9 from the field and had six assists in USC’s 82-69 win against Kansas State in Las Vegas. He did foul out late in the game, but he looked sharp throughout.
Boogie Ellis had 24 points for the Trojans as well, while Kobe Johnson added 16. This USC squad is good, and if they can get Bronny James back at some point this season as he recovers from a cardiac arrest over the summer, Andy Enfield’s squad can be lethal.
As a side tangent, can we talk about how good Enfield is? He was a relative unknown when he led FGCU to the Sweet 16 in his second season in Fort Myers, turned around and got the USC job and now he’s been winning there regularly for a decade. It’s impressive stuff.
Purdue is back and great
Moving back over to the Big Ten, it seems Purdue heard every single word of the criticism this off-season. The Boilermakers held a 51-17 halftime lead and completely overmatched Samford in a 98-45 win. The 53-point difference was Purdue’s largest lead of the game.
Purdue had four players in double figures, led by Zach Edey, who had 16 points on 5-6 shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds in just 20 minutes. Of course, he will be playing more minutes when Purdue plays some more competitive opponents. Camden Heide had 13 points, and Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith had 12 points each.
(Edey, who stands at 7-foot-4, took the opening tip against 5-foot-8 Samford guard Dallas Graziani, which made for quite the visual)
Purdue is likely to be playing with a chip on its shoulder all season after the stunning and embarrassing loss in the NCAA tournament last season. This seems like just the start.
Louisville, North Carolina struggle but win
It might be a long season for Louisville and UNC.
First, Louisville struggled the whole way but snuck out with a 94-93 win against UMBC at the Yum! Center. The Cardinals trailed by eight at the half but recovered. This comes after Louisville lost an exhibition game to a Division II school in the preseason, so it might be a very long year for them. The Cardinals have Chattanooga on Friday.
Elsewhere in the ACC, North Carolina struggled a lot of the way, trailing for some of the first half and then only leading by as little as one in the second half, but ran away at the end and beat Radford 86-70. It was not exactly an inspiring performance, but gave a scare.
Hubert Davis is likely coaching for this job this season. The Tar Heels will have to tighten it up.
Oregon picks up nice win
It wasn’t always pretty, but Oregon picked up a nice 82-71 win against Georgia in the opening game of the Vegas doubleheader.
It was a game that was probably more about Georgia struggling than Oregon doing well, but alas. The Ducks were hit by the injury bug a bit this fall and it was encouraging to see them come together and play at least decently.
N’Faly Dante was impressive, scoring 16 points and grabbed 21(!) rebounds, six of them on the offensive glass. Brennan Rigsby also had a nice game with 16 points off the bench. Could he have a bigger role than some expect?
Jabri Abdur-Rahim had 18 for Georgia in the losing effort.
Oklahoma State loses a buy game
A second big 6 team lost at home to a opponent it should have beat, with Oklahoma State dropping the season opener to Abilene Christian 64-59. It is the second time in recent memory Abilene has beaten a high-major opponent after it upset Texas in the NCAA tournament in 2021.
Ali Abdou Dibba had 15 points for the Wildcats in the win, while Hunter Jack Madden had 14. The Cowboys shot under 50% from the free throw line, part of what did them in.
This might be a make-or-break year for Mike Boynton in Stillwater and it was not a good start.
AJ Hoops 