usatoday
The 2026-27 men's college basketball season tipped off last week, treating fans to seven full days of action. While many games were predictable blowouts between power-conference teams and overmatched smaller programs, a few contests offered early insights into the 365 Division I squads and their potential.
Several top-25 matchups from the preseason USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll highlighted the week: No. 1 Florida defeated No. 17 Miami, No. 5 UConn dominated No. 20 Michigan in a rematch of last year's national championship game, and No. 9 Virginia routed No. 13 Arkansas. Upsets also made headlines, with Valparaiso stunning No. 24 Purdue in double overtime on the road and East Texas A&M shocking Oklahoma.
With the excitement of a new season, the limited sample size, and the urge to interpret early results, sweeping declarations are inevitable. Often, these are overreactions—opinions that look absurd by March, if they even last that long. But sometimes they signal that preseason assumptions were off base. Below, we assess some potential overreactions from Week 1 and whether they hold up.
UCLA as a National Title Contender
Verdict: Not an overreaction
In Mick Cronin's first seven years at UCLA, the Bruins have been steady—five NCAA tournament appearances in the past six seasons—but rarely spectacular. They have advanced past the Sweet 16 only once (as a No. 11 seed) and finished in the final Coaches Poll just three times. Any thought that this pattern would continue was quickly challenged.
UCLA secured arguably the most impressive win of the young season by defeating No. 4 Arizona by nine points in a neutral-site matchup of former Pac-12 rivals, leaving the typically stoic Cronin beaming. Four days later, the Bruins demolished North Florida by 51 points, highlighted by a 35-0 run. UCLA boasts key ingredients for a championship run: a potentially elite backcourt in Trent Perry and Jaylen Petty, Cronin's signature defensive toughness, and a possible game-changer in 17-year-old Nikola Kusturica, a 6-foot-9 Serbian forward averaging 19 points per game on 56.5% shooting. The Bruins began the season just outside the top 25 of the Coaches Poll—an oversight that already looks foolish and could seem even more so by the first weekend of April.
Purdue in Trouble
Verdict: Overreaction
Purdue may be the biggest disappointment of the first week, starting at No. 24 in the Coaches Poll and ending with the program's first 0-2 start since the 1976-77 season. The two losses carry different weight: a six-point setback to No. 12 Gonzaga in Las Vegas is respectable, but a double-overtime home loss to Valparaiso four days later rightly raised concerns.
This was never going to be an easy season for the Boilermakers, who had to replace their top four scorers from last year, including Braden Smith, Trey Kaufman-Renn, and Fletcher Loyer. Still, the team has promising pieces like guard C.J. Cox and 7-foot-4 center Daniel Jacobsen. The Valpo loss is jarring, but Matt Painter has led Purdue to 17 NCAA tournament appearances in 20 years. The Boilermakers should be fine—and if they need inspiration, the 1976-77 squad rebounded from its 0-2 start to go 19-9 and reach the NCAA tournament.
Illinois' Offense as the Nation's Best
Verdict: Overreaction (but only slightly)
After reaching the program's first Final Four in 21 years last season, Brad Underwood scrapped his record-setting offense. As detailed by CJ Moore in The Athletic, Underwood abandoned the ball-screen-heavy system for a free-flowing approach with no set plays. The early results have been staggering: Illinois scored 232 points in its first two games, an average that would rank tied for 11th among NBA teams. In those wins, decided by a combined 107 points, the Illini shot 57.1% from the field and have six players averaging at least 12 points per game, all shooting 50% or better.
The competition—Fairleigh Dickinson and Penn—was hardly formidable, but with players like Andrej Stojakovic, Quentin Coleman, and Stefan Vaaks, this group will be extremely potent. The main factor limiting its ceiling for now is the uncertain status of preseason All-American David Mirkovic, who is recovering from offseason foot surgery and underwent an emergency appendectomy on Oct. 31.
Memphis as an NCAA Tournament Team and Penny Hardaway's Hot Seat Cooling
Verdict: Not an overreaction
No team may have had a better or more surprising first week than Memphis. The Tigers received zero votes in the preseason Coaches Poll and weren't even picked to win their own conference, setting up a do-or-die season for coach Penny Hardaway. But in their first two games, they beat No. 14 Iowa State and followed with a home win over preseason Atlantic 10 favorite VCU.
The biggest revelation was Jayden Reid, a Northwestern transfer who scored 58 combined points in the two victories and looks like the lead guard who can carry the team. Hardaway made sweeping changes after a disastrous 13-19 campaign in 2025-26, overhauling his roster and coaching staff. Plenty of tests remain, including games this week against No. 11 Louisville and No. 21 Vanderbilt, plus a formidable conference foe in Wichita State. Still, it's hard not to be impressed by the early returns.
Originally reported by usatoday.