Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I know I made a joke about this last season, but I still can’t believe that Florida International vs. Florida National is a real college basketball game.
In today’s SI:AM:
🏀 Top prospect’s college debut
💰 A new twist on NIL deals
🏈 CFP rankings preview
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Few big games, but some big upsets
You’d be forgiven for not realizing that the college basketball season started yesterday. After all, of the over 300 Division I men’s and women’s games, only two were between teams both ranked in the preseason AP Top 25. The first day of the college hoops season is more about discovering the existence of schools like the Mississippi University for Women, Champion Christian College and Friends University. But, there were still a handful of noteworthy outcomes scattered among the dozens of blowouts against tiny Bible colleges. I’ve scoured the scoreboard to bring you a few results that stood out.
No. 16 Baylor defeats No. 7 Duke, 58–52 (women)
The lone ranked-vs.-ranked game on the women’s side featured the Bears and Blue Devils and was played in Paris. Both teams dealt with some early-season rust on offense, with Baylor shooting 31.7% from the floor and Duke shooting 29.0%. Both teams also hovered around 20% from three.
Sophomore forward Toby Fournier was the standout for Duke, scoring 16 points (the only Blue Devils player in double figures) with 10 rebounds and four blocks. Redshirt sophomore guard Taliah Scott was the engine behind Baylor’s offense, scoring 24 points.
No. 13 Arizona defeats No. 3 Florida, 93–87 (men)
The Wildcats prevailed in the only top 25 men’s matchup of the night, beating the defending champion Gators in Las Vegas.
Arizona freshman Koa Peat, a top-10 recruit in the class of 2025, lived up to the hype in his college debut, posting 30 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals in the win.
Interestingly, Arizona only attempted five three-pointers in the game. That isn’t terribly surprising, considering the Wildcats ranked 242nd in the nation last season with 21.3 three-point attempts per game, but that made them the first power-conference team since St. John’s in 2011 to score at least 90 points while attempting five or fewer threes.
West Alabama defeats UAB, 62–59 (women)
The biggest upset of the night on the women’s side came when Division II West Alabama knocked off UAB.
A D-II team beating a D-I team is always fun, but this upset was especially noteworthy for a couple of reasons. First of all, West Alabama isn’t even a good D-II team. In fact, last season the Tigers were a very bad D-II team. They opened the season with a 10-game losing streak (including a 78–47 blowout against UAB), didn’t pick up their first win until January and finished the year at 4–22. UAB, meanwhile, had a very respectable 16–16 record that included a road win over a tournament-bound USF team.
But what really made this one fun was that West Alabama won on a buzzer beater from senior transfer Bellah Machen. Her leaning, contested three with one second on the clock gave the Tigers a dramatic win.
First of the Season and it's a D2 Upsetting a D1!! Bellah Machen (@BellahMachen) Hits the Game Winning 3 with 1.3 remaining for D2 West Alabama to upset UAB in Birmingham pic.twitter.com/XCGwyryWpD
— NCAA Buzzer Beaters & Game Winners (@NCAABuzzerBters) November 3, 2025
Hawai‘i Pacific defeats Boise State, 79–78 (men)
There was also a D-II over D-I upset on the men’s side, with Boise State losing a tight one against Hawai‘i Pacific. It’s a disappointing result for the Broncos, who’ve won at least 22 games in each of the past four seasons.
New Orleans defeats TCU, 78–74 (men)
The other big men’s hoops upset was New Orleans’s win over TCU. The Privateers, out of the Southland Conference, were one of the worst teams in the nation last season. They went 4–27 and ranked 359th out of 364 teams in points allowed per game.
UNO was led by senior guard Coleton Benson, a transfer from Texas State, who led all scorers with 22 points.
The Privateers only have two players who are holdovers from last year’s roster (senior Grant Kemp and sophomore MJ Thomas). The rest of the squad is comprised of transfers (like Benson, Wake Forest transfer Churchill Abass and juco transfer Kedrick Osby) and a heavy dose of freshmen, like international forwards Panagiotis Pagonis (Greece) and Enzo Boudouma (Switzerland), both of whom saw significant minutes on Monday.
Other games of note
- The Ohio State men won a track meet against IU Indy, 118–102. That’s just shy of the Buckeyes’ program record of 121 points (set in 1995 against George Mason).
- The Georgia Tech men survived in overtime, 56–52, against perennial bottom-feeder Maryland-Eastern Shore.
- The No. 20 Auburn men’s team also escaped in overtime against an inferior opponent, beating Bethune-Cookman, 95–90.
- Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s women’s team, which won only one game last season against Division I competition, earned a massive upset over Memphis, 69–64.
- The No. 10 Maryland women, fresh off a Sweet 16 appearance, flexed their muscles in an 80–26 smothering of Loyola Maryland. The Greyhounds only scored 11 points in the second half.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Matt Verderame breaks down Dallas’s first move of the day, handing out grades after Jerry Jones secured linebacker help in a deal that boosts the Cowboys' defense and signals a reshuffle in Cincinnati.
- In a rapidly evolving era for women’s college basketball, Emma Baccellieri examines how Unrivaled’s partnership with 14 star players—including LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson—represents a bold new model for athlete empowerment and compensation beyond traditional NIL deals.
- AJ Dybantsa’s BYU debut wasn’t the fireworks show some expected, but as Kevin Sweeney notes, a 21-point opener—with room to grow from the line and beyond the arc—won’t cool the buzz around the projected No. 1 pick.
- Conor Orr breaks down another chaotic week in the NFL, with an NFC contender rising to No. 1 in SI’s power rankings as the league continues its parity-driven season and power dynamics shift yet again.
- Pat Forde airs his preemptive frustrations ahead of the first CFP rankings release and examines Alabama’s résumé, Notre Dame’s strength and whether the Big Ten can really justify four playoff teams.
- Forde also takes stock of the fast-fading 2023 coaching class, examining who’s survived, who’s already out and why an astonishing turnover rate is reshaping the sidelines less than three seasons later.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. Dak Prescott’s patience in the pocket to find CeeDee Lamb for a big gain.
4. Josiah Lake II’s layup at the buzzer to win it for Oregon State against North Dakota State.
3. A tough bucket by BYU’s lauded freshman AJ Dybantsa.
2. A rare hockey buzzer beater by the Canucks’ Brock Boeser.
1. Giannis Antetokounmpo’s beautiful fadeaway buzzer beater to win it against the Pacers.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | The Most Notable Results From College Basketball’s Opening Day.
