The start of the 2024-25 men's college basketball season is always a bit of a slow burn. Sure, we've already seen a few marquee matchups unfold over the past few weeks (North Carolina-Kansas, Auburn-Houston and Kentucky-Duke come to mind), but things feel like they really start to heat up around Thanksgiving -- or as we call it around here, Feast Week.
So with a full serving of basketball finally on offer, now is the perfect time to look at what the biggest storylines in the sport mean and what comes next. In each column, we'll look at the Bubble Watch ramifications of recent games -- plus we'll break down trends, highlight key individual players and plays, and focus on the stats that could lead each team to the 68-field NCAA tournament.
This week, we'll look at Kentucky's hot start under Mark Pope, handicap Rutgers' bubble chances and dive into the NCAA tourney hopefuls with the easiest -- and toughest -- remaining schedules.
Jump to a section:
The Big Dance: Kentucky finds continuity
Bubble Watch: Rutgers feeling pressure
Future Focus: Teams' strength of schedules
The Big Dance: Who needs continuity? Not Kentucky
This column will always tip off with one wide look at a key team, player or trend from men's college hoops. What does it mean for the rest of the season?
After 15 seasons and 533 games for John Calipari at Kentucky, there was little doubt by last spring that the coach's era there had run its course. The Wildcats' first-round loss to 14th-seeded Oakland was the second time in three seasons the Wildcats had exited the tournament in a massive opening-round upset, and no team had underperformed its seed expectations more than Kentucky over that span.