Rivals Roundtable: Early takeaways, surprises, top performers

The college basketball season is in full swing and week one wasn’t short on intrigue. Today in the roundtable, Rivals.com’s Rob Cassidy, Jamie Shaw and Dan McDonald take a look at what transpired over the last week and discuss some of their biggest takeaways.

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2022 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team | Position

2023 Rankings: Rivals150

2024 Rankings: Top 40

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Cassidy: Duke seems to be much better than its current No. 9 ranking. It’s early, sure, but this roster certainly feels like it has the depth of talent to compete for a national title. The freshman tandem of Trevor Keels and Paolo Banchero is electric. Put that together with ​​Wendell Moore's production and veteran presence, and it seems as though this team could go as far as its complimentary pieces take it. Few ACC teams seem capable of testing the Blue Devils.

McDonald: Alabama looks like it could be ready to run it back with an SEC championship and potentially even a national championship. The Crimson Tide are so deep and talented with a lot of shot makers and two really good point guards in Jahvon Quinerly and JD Davison. Nate Oats has the Crimson Tide rolling.

Shaw: The ACC may struggle this season. Pittsburgh, Virginia, Miami, Louisville and Georgia Tech have all taken non-Power Five losses to this point. With the exception of Duke, which looks like a top-10 team, it will be interesting how things play out.

Cassidy: There were bigger upsets than Arizona State’s 66-65 home loss to UC Riverside, but the manner in which it unfolded was … something. I’d be curious to know how many times out of 100 Riverside’s J.P. Moorman could make that 70-foot buzzer beater from this impossible angle if given the chance. It doesn't matter, though, he only had to make it once to send Arizona State fans sighing into the bottom of a discounted double vodka-soda on Mill Avenue. I’ve watched the highlights more than 10 times, and … Man … Just ... Poor Sun Devils.

McDonald: Navy winning at Virginia was pretty surprising. You don’t see teams playing at Virginia scoring that easily against Tony Bennett’s teams. I trust that he’ll get his team right and that will likely just be a blip on the radar a month from now, but it still caught me off guard to see it happen on opening night.

Shaw: UC Riverside, on the road, over Arizona State. Temple graduate transfer J.P. Moorman capped off a 14-point, 11-rebound performance with a 70-foot heave, at the buzzer, to give UC-R the victory. This is a critical year for Bobby Hurley at Arizona State.

Cassidy: Cheers to Kansas’ Ochai Agbaji. The narrative around KU’s offseason centered on high-profile transfer Remy Martin and how he’d look in Bill Self’s offense, but it was Agbaji that stole the show in the season opener against Michigan State. His career-high 29 points made a statement about who may be the on-floor leader of this Jayhawk team. Agbaji decided to come back to college after testing the NBA waters this offseason, and that looks like a great choice.

McDonald: JD Notae has been on fire for Arkansas to start the season. He’s made nine three-pointers in two games and is averaging 24 points. He came off the bench for the Razorbacks last season, but he’s taken on a starting role this season and hasn’t slowed down one bit in a more prominent role. It’ll be interesting to see where he ranks in the SEC in scoring at the end of the season because he does that at an elite level.

Shaw: Oscar Tshiebwe. Through his first two games of the season Tshiebwe is averaging 20 rebounds per game. He went for 20 on opening night, against Duke, and then followed that up with another 20 against Robert Morris. Offensively, the powerfully built Tshiebwe is averaging 15.5 points on 52-percent shooting. When you add in the 2.5 blocks per game, you get the full scope of some dominating early performances.