We are now almost halfway through the college basketball season and there has been no shortage of storylines up to this point. With every team well into conference play, the top contenders are becoming clearer, while bubble teams are striving to build their resumes before Selection Sunday. So far, these are the most important questions regarding the state of college basketball as I see it.
Who’s eligible to step on a college court?
On Jan. 3, James Nnaji played his first game for the Baylor Bears, a story that took over college basketball. Nnaji was selected No. 31 overall in the 2023 NBA Draft, making him the first former NBA draft pick to play men’s college basketball. Although he never played an NBA game, he spent several years in Europe with FC Barcelona and is now 21 years old as a first-year. This polarizing decision to recruit Nnaji by Baylor head coach Scott Drew received backlash from numerous well-respected coaches such as Tom Izzo, Dan Hurley and Mark Few, who all argued that this lenient eligibility ruling midseason exposes the lack of enforceable rules and leadership from the NCAA. While Nnaji has yet to make a real impact on the team, the question now is what really makes a player ineligible to play college hoops? The NCAA needs to take a real stance or these problems will continue to spiral.
Are the Cornhuskers championship contenders?
Nebraska came into the season as the 14th of 18 teams in the Big Ten preseason media poll. Now, two and a half months later, they have yet to lose a game and are atop the Big Ten standings. Not to mention, Nebraska is coming off two tough away wins at Ohio State and Indiana following their signature victory against Michigan State. Head coach Fred Hoiberg has this program operating at an extremely high level and it’s hard to imagine them falling off anytime soon. While they are bound to take a loss at some point over the course of conference play, this team looks to be one of the best in the country. The one thing that could hold them back from making it to Indianapolis is their lack of NBA talent, but, as things stand now, they appear positioned to win their first tournament game in school history.
Is St. John’s the most disappointing team of the season?
The preseason AP poll always has some rankings that fail to come to fruition, but it’s not every year that a top five ranked team falls off quite this quickly. The Johnnies are 0–3 in their ranked matchups with two additional losses; one of those came to another disappointing team in Kentucky and the other to an eight-loss Providence team. Outside of that, they don’t pass the eye test, with their lack of a true point guard becoming increasingly evident. Last spring, Rick Pitino claimed that Ian Jackson would serve as the team’s floor general for the 2025–26 season, but he has only started nine of 16 games for the team. The NCAA Tournament is still well within reach for St. John’s, but their No. 5 preseason ranking was clearly an overestimation and without quality guard play, it's hard to see them reaching the second weekend in March.
