The 2021-22 college basketball season remains in its infancy, but storylines are beginning to emerge nevertheless. This week in Florida man, Rivals.com’s Rob Cassidy chooses to focus on early-season surprises and outlines the good, the bad and the ugly in that front below.
THE GOOD SURPRISE: Cincinnati
Cincinnati didn’t manage a single vote in the preseason AP Poll and was picked to finish sixth in the AAC in the league’s preseason coaches poll. A few weeks into the season the Bearcats are 5-1 and knocking on the door of the national rankings.
And while Cincy dropped a contested neutral site game to No. 13 Arkansas on Tuesday, early returns on the Wes Miller Era remain overwhelmingly positive.
It’s too early to know what the Bearcats’ ceiling is this season, but it’s clear that Miller is pushing the right buttons. The first-year Bearcat coach has his team playing his style of hard-nosed basketball that relies on defensive effort turning into offense.
No. 14 Illinois found out the hard way as it clunked its way to a 28.7-percent shooting in a 20-point loss to Miller’s squad on Monday night. No head coach in Cincy history has started his career with five straight wins. The 38-year-old Miller proved he could win during the five straight 20-win seasons he posted at UNC Greensboro and now seems to be proving his brand of basketball translates to the high-major level. Cincinnati may not be the last stop on his ascent.
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THE BAD SURPRISE: MICHIGAN
Returning veteran and player of the year candidate Hunter Dickinson? Check
No. 1 recruiting class in the county? Check.
A 3-2 record with two losses to unranked teams? Also check.
It’s not time to panic in Ann Arbor yet. Not by a long shot. Michigan is just five games into the season. Still, this start isn’t exactly what anyone expected from the squad that checked in at No. 6 in the preseason AP poll.
In the Wolverines’ defense, Seton Hall and Arizona have looked miles better than anyone expected them to be this season. Michigan was a baffling 1-for-14 from three-point range against Arizona and is a combined 10-for-48 from beyond the arc in their last three games. Juwan Howard's young team seems to lack scoring options in general, which could be a product of having several freshmen playing important minutes.
A Dec. 1 matchup with North Carolina looms large, as it will pit the Wolverines' struggling offense against a North Carolina defense that currently looks unable to stifle anyone. The good news -- for one team, anyway -- is that something has to give.
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THE UGLY SURPRISE: THE ACC
Well, at least there’s Duke?
It's unlikely that a league full of talented rosters is actually bad top-to-bottom, but It’s been a tough few weeks for a conference that is used to being mentioned in the conversation about the best leagues in the country. Just one ACC school (No. 5 Duke) appears in the current AP Top 25, as Florida State wore a 16-point early-season loss to Florida, while once-ranked Virginia opened the season with a loss to Navy before having its doors blown off by No. 15 Houston.
Then there’s the North Carolina situation. The Tar Heels are 3-2 and looked downright confused defensively, especially on ball screens and in the paint, in a 89-72 drubbing at the hands of Tennessee. Following the game, first-year head coach Hubert Davis said he believes the Tar Heels will bounce back to become a good defensive team this season, and it’s certainly possible. UNC has athletes, and coaching transitions often come with growing pains. The concern level will rise, however, if Davis’ team continues to let opponents shoot 55 percent from the floor as it has the last two games.
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THE INDIVIDUAL SURPRISE: Arizona’s Christian Koloko
Arizona’s Christian Koloko averaged a pedestrian 5.3 points per game for a 17-9 Wildcats team last year and has been a non-factor from a scoring standpoint in his two-year Wildcat career. Until now. The 7-footer seems to have found his footing in year three, as he’s posted double-figure scoring totals in each of his last four games, including a 22-point, seven-rebound effort in the Wildcats’ recent upset of Michigan.
Koloko is the reigning Pac-12 Player of the Week and seems to have the confidence and skill set to be a major cog for an Arizona team looking to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018 under first-year head coach Tommy Lloyd.
We love a productive 7-footer here at Florida Man and raise a glass to the big man, who didn’t switch his focus from soccer to basketball until he was 15 years old.
