Ready for the opening night of college hoops

It is finally the first full week of November. The clocks have been turned back for the season, we know who the next President of the United States is and my High School Alma mater is in the football state semifinals for the first time since I was a senior as they will be playing in the city I am living in now. And last, but obviously certainly not least, college basketball starts at the end of the week.

Opening night of any college season can be rough. Most of the top teams aren’t playing quality opponents and it’s too early to determine which mid majors will breakout.

Thanks to the Armed Forces Classic and Veterans Classic, there will be some intriguing match ups on Friday night though.

It’s always great when sports can get together to honor military members and continue to do so based on what has happened in recent months. Watching basketball games played on a military ship is a cool sight to see and I couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to actually play on one.

The CBS Veterans Classic kicks things off on Friday evening with Vanderbilt and Marquette.

The Golden Eagles are one of three Division I basketball teams in Wisconsin so I’ll know people who will be tuned into that game.

Another reason Marquette will be highly watched around my social circle is because of their four-star recruit from my alma mater, Sam Houser. He was one of their three four stars this year and Houser was the 16th ranked small forward in the class of 2016.

The Golden Eagles return a lot this year. Besides the big man Henry Ellenson who rightfully left for the NBA, Marquette has everyone back from their rotation.

Marquette hasn’t fished outside of the bottom half of the Big East and made the tournament since the conference was realigned after the 2012-13 season. The Golden Eagles will have to look at Wisconsin natives Duane Wilson and big man transfer from Indiana who is in his third season with Marquette, Luke Fischer. Even though the Big East is still competitive and they have the defending national champion, I think this is the year Marquette finally gets back to the dance.

The Commodores are coming off a season where they finished in a three way tie for third in the SEC where they were certainly hoping for a better result.

Vandy was led by two highly recruited players: point guard Wade Baldwin IV and big man Damian Jones. Both left for the pros and the crop of four stars from last year will have their turn to try and put them back in the top five of the league.

As a Badger fan, it’s always hard to bring myself to cheer for Marquette, but I think they have a good core of players this year with the experience. The thing to watch on Vandy Friday night is if the guys who played behind Baldwin and Jones are ready to step it up.

It’s also exciting as a Big Ten fan for later on in the night. The Arizona-Michigan State game will tip 30 minutes later in Hawai’i at the Armed Forces Classic. Those two teams are both riding on high recruiting classes. There will be a lot of young talent on display especially with health concerns with the Spartans. It’ll be interesting to see which young stars are ready to play this year.

The next game out of the four will match Ohio State up against Navy. The Buckeyes for once didn’t lose anyone to the NBA which was great news for them and it’s not so good for the rest of the league. They are certainly one of the more underrated teams in the country and if the experience and decisions to stay pay off, it’ll bode well for them. If they control the whole game against the Midshipmen, it’ll prove they’re back in the Big Ten.

Indiana and Kansas will cap the night off in Hawai’i. Both teams lost a veteran player in which they ran their offenses around. For the Hoosiers it was their point guard Yogi Ferrell. The Jayhawks lost their well-liked big man Perry Ellis to graduation. Kansas returns both players who handle the point position and they have one of their better recruiting classes they have had in a while. The Hoosiers on the other hand will rely on a new point guard who will most likely be Robert Johnson who averaged 3.1 assists a year ago and a 2015 highly recruited big man Thomas Bryant.

So which game am I most looking forward to? Obviously Wisconsin vs. Central Arkansas.

The game will not be easily accessible and that’s obvious.

The Bears of Central Arkansas finished 6-12 in the Southland Conference with a 7-21 overall record. They do however have a great scorer in a 5-11 guard, Jordan Howard. He shot 95 three-pointers a year ago while averaging 20 points per game. In fact, they return 4 of their 5 leading scorers from last season.

Anything is possible. Everyone knows what happened last year against Western Illinois. The Leathernecks finished 8-20 two years ago, defeated the Badgers to start the 2015 season and then only won nine games after that.

But don’t worry, the Badger team that will start the 2016 season is a totally different one from a year ago. Yes, the players are the same, but the mindset is different. Greg Gard has had a whole off season with this team. Last year the Badgers were coming off back-to-back final four appearances and it seemed as though there was a culture change since a lot of those guys left.

Bo Ryan chose to step down because he knew it was time for Gard to take over the program. Ryan did what he needed to do as coach in 14 years and he knew the start of last season wasn’t working out for him so Gard resurrected the team and advanced them to the Sweet 16.

No hard feelings for anyone. The change had to happen; everyone benefited from it and now Wisconsin is back to playing basketball like they’re used to. It’ll be the same starting five from last year and it should help them in the opener.