Kevin Sweeney

Sports Illustrated’s Complete 2025–26 Men’s College Basketball Rankings From No. 365 to No. 1 The annual preseason list takes into account all offseason moves and predicts how the march toward the NCAA tournament will play out.

Breaking my Bluesky absence to share my annual 1-365 national college hoops rankings, a labor of love (and maybe torture) few others would take on.

Your early guide to college hoops in 2025-26:

www.si.com/college-bask...

Inside Houston’s Last-Second Sweet 16 Winning Play Milos Uzan was the third option on the drawn-up situation, but big man JoJo Tugler’s instincts made all the difference to advance the Cougars.

Fantastic write-up of Houston's beautiful game-winning inbounds play against Purdue last night from @ksweeneycbb.bsky.social www.si.com/inside-houst...

As I first reported on Twitter (down currently), Penn has parted ways with Steve Donahue after back-to-back 7th-place Ivy finishes, source told @sportsillustrated.bsky.social.

Donahue was 131-130 in nine seasons there.

Arguably the best job in the Ivy League.

Louisiana is parting ways with longtime head coach Bob Marlin, per release.

Marlin had been at UL since 2010. Off to a 3-9 start this year.

Assistant Derrick Zimmerman will be the interim.

Coaches have been angling for this one behind the scenes for months already, if not longer.

Ranking Top 10 Men’s College Basketball Transfers Through First Month The portal has driven change to rosters across the country, and many of those players have exceeded expectations with their new teams.

🚨 Midseason Portal Rankings 🚨

A check-in on the 10 best/most impactful transfers in college basketball thus far, plus five mid-majors that struck gold with under-the-radar adds.

1. Chaz Lanier
2. PJ Haggerty
3. Adou Thiero

Full top 10 and more:

www.si.com/college-bask...

I don’t think enough people realize that Auburn is currently pacing towards being an all-time great college basketball team. We’ll see if they can maintain it, but there’s a path to this being a historic season for the Tigers.

I’ll double this up…

The KenPom daily ratings archive dates back to the 2011-12 season.

Auburn’s net efficiency rating of 35.00 on December 15 is the highest any team has been at this point in the season… by far.

The next-best efficiency rating on this date: 31.40.

Power Elite: How Overtime Went From Highlight Culture to Basketball Academy With a league turning out five-star prospects, there’s no denying that OTE has fundamentally altered the hoops landscape.

I came into this story wondering how good content and good basketball development could coexist. Was really impressed with Overtime's dedication to making this the best developmental program and building the content around that North Star.

www.si.com/basketball/p...

Power Elite: How Overtime Went From Highlight Culture to Basketball Academy With a league turning out five-star prospects, there’s no denying that OTE has fundamentally altered the hoops landscape.

When Overtime Elite came onto the scene, some expected more flash than substance.

3+ years later, the league is one of the top hoops incubators in the world... and just getting started.

"We try... to make it a place that has literally no weaknesses.”

www.si.com/basketball/p...

NBA Draft Big Board: Three Blue Devils in Top 10, Rutgers’ Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey Near Top A month into the college basketball season, the freshman class has outproduced its high expectations.

Cooper Flagg comes in at No. 1 in my updated 2025 draft big board, but plenty of movement below him.

Check in on where I have Rutgers' star freshmen, the *other* Duke guys and more key names worth tracking:

www.si.com/nba/nba-draft-big-board-cooper-flagg-duke-baylor-rutgers

All told, I think 2-2 for Duke against Auburn, Arizona, Kentucky and Kansas is pretty impressive... and the only reason it doesn't feel like that is that they easily could be 4-0.

The Isaiah Evans Game

North Carolina started from as good a place as anyone this spring with what they were bringing back in the backcourt and the two five-stars incoming.

Just a massive whiff all spring that is translating onto the court now.

3:30 away from a 4-4 start in Chapel Hill.

Entertaining first half between UConn and Baylor. UConn still getting killed at the rim defensively (20 Baylor paint points,+ eight FTs) but looked better later in the half keeping drivers at bay. Getting the threes they want on the other end.

Big 20 mins ahead for both teams.

lol Dan Hurley is a crazy person

The hijinks of early NET rankings… Syracuse lost by 26 to Tennessee last night and still climbed 18 spots overnight, from 178 to 160.

The ACC is now 0-9 against the SEC to start today’s ACC/SEC challenge.

And this isn’t just poor matchups… ACC teams are just 2-7 against the spread.

League is now 1-21 in games against the SEC as we wait on a final result between Kentucky and Clemson.

Disastrous.

Cards not at full strength, but 20+ point drubbings in Pat Kelsey’s first two big home games isn’t ideal as he looks to re-inject some energy into this Louisville program.

Ole Miss rolling tonight at the Yum! Center.

After years of explosive offenses, odd to see a Steve Forbes team be so offensively-challenged. Wake stuck on 44 with three minutes to go on the road at Texas A&M.

Good news? Wake’s early win over Michigan is aging quite nicely.

Providence using Bryce Hopkins as a small-ball 5 tonight in his season debut feels as noteworthy as his 16 points, 5 boards and 4 assists.

Friars bounce back in a BIG way from Atlantis and blow out BYU.

Men’s College Basketball Panic Meter After Feast Week Flops Ranking how concerned should fans be for five top teams with disastrous results, including two-time defending champion UConn’s 0–3 trip to Maui.

Grading what your concern level should be for five highly-ranked preseason teams who flopped during Feast Week:

www.si.com/college-bask...

Reminder that this is a particularly massive game for Indiana given how it sets up their schedule for the rest of the week.

Lose this game, and IU likely gets WVU and Davidson Thursday/Friday. More likely than not they’d exit non-conference play without a Q1 win.

Indiana just playing from so far behind analytically against modern offenses like Louisville.

Hoosiers took 12 non-rim twos in first half, Louisville just 3.

Indiana’s shooting has been cold, but you make life so much harder for yourself with a shot diet like that.

What an epic game.

Maui always delivers.

Sucks for a technical to be such a pivotal point in the game, but also not sure the refs had any other choice after how Hurley reacted there.

Incredible win for Memphis… and UConn’s got some stuff to fix.

UConn getting 29 combined points in half from Tarris Reed and Jaylin Stewart and still being tied with Memphis is something

Quite the start to the Ben McCollum era at Drake. Bulldogs look every bit the part of a team that can push Bradley in the MVC.

There are a lot of really productive transfers out there, but not sure anyone has been more important to their team than John Tonje at Wisconsin.

Another 30+ point night tonight. Has made up for AJ Storr’s departure and more in Madison.

Early yet, but the Ace Bailey homecoming game at Kennesaw (particularly timed right before Vegas) is looking like a pretty big self-inflicted wound for Rutgers.

Georgia takes a big early step towards the NCAA tournament with a neutral court win against St. John’s.

Bulldogs have the size and physicality to grind out games and good enough guards to go score it.

Great chance to be 12-1 heading into SEC play in January.

Of all the basketball games ever played, Georgia vs St John’s is certainly one of them