Gerry McNamara makes his head coaching debut for Siena tonight. ..

Georgia Southern started last season 0-12 overall. …

Coastal Carolina has lost five of their top six players from last season. …

Louisville went 8-24 last season....

Missouri looks to bounce back from going winless in the SEC last season. …

Duquesne plays its first game under its new head coach. ...

Iowa State is favored by nearly 50 vs. MVSU. ...

Baylor-Gonzaga is the only Top 25 college basketball matchup Monday. ...

For the Zags a year ago, it was 84.5 ppg ...

Saint Louis is going to be a popular team this season. They've added a new coach, Indiana State’s Josh Shertz, and the Sycamore’s Robbie Avila and Isaiah Swope via the transfer portal. Santa Clara returns five of their six top scores and within that same group is three of their top rebounders and assisters. The Broncos have more continuity coming into the season and the Billikens Avila, just returned to practice a week ago after a significant ankle strain.

New Billikens HC John Schertz, who propped up Indiana State nicely the past three years and nearly won the NIT a season ago, makes his SLU debut today along with a couple of key transfers from Terre Haute, bespectacled 6-10 Robbie Avila and hot-shooting Isaiah Swope. Herb Sendek's Santa Clara, however, is a rugged campaigner that beat some power conference foes (Stanford, Oregon, Washington State) plus Gonzaga with much the same look that won 20 a season ago. With one bonus, G Carlos Stewart, who starred two years ago for Sendek before transferring home to LSU. He's now back in Silicon Valley, where Stewart earned honorable mention All-WCC with the Broncos when scoring 15.2 ppg in 2022-23. Play Santa Clara (at Sioux Falls, SD)

Josh Schertz comes to St. Louis from Indiana St and I expect the Billikens to be a contender in the A-10 this season. However, Schertz is depending on a lot of transfers and it might take time for them to adjust to his unique offensive system. Santa Clara is one of the most experienced teams in the country, returning seven players who accounted for 72% of its scoring and 69% of its rebounding last season. The Broncos' huge frontline should also control the boards, something that is important in neutral game sites early in the season. I'll back the deeper, more experienced team in the opener.

Obviously we will have an opinion on the first game of the college hoops season, which comes from South Dakota. Charleston is the defending CAA champion and picked to finish second this year while having two preseason all-conference picks in Ante Brzovic, the preseason CAA Player of the Year, and guard CJ Fulton, last season's NCAA assist-to-turnover ratio leader. Charleston also has as well-known new head coach in Chris Mack. SIU returns only three players from last season's 19-win team and breaks in a new coach in Scott Nagy. The Salukis were picked to finish seventh in the MVC.

Purdue’s defense is much improved from last season. However, the Huskies are a team people do not want to get in front of right now. Connecticut ranks 4th in defensive efficiency, but the way they’re playing right now they might as well be number one. The Boilermakers can be a very one-dimensional team at times, with feeding the ball to Zach Edey. And now he goes up against Donovan Clingan, who’s been playing just as good, if not better, especially defensively. Connecticut’s defense has shown they can slow down any offense and repeat as champs.

The big men in this matchup are going to garner most of the hype and media attention leading up to tipoff. But I believe it will be UConn's undeniable advantage in the backcourt that will decide this game. I expect a big time performance from Tristen Newton, who will lead the Huskies to their second consecutive national title. I'm laying the points here.