School basketball schedules are nearing completion forward of the 2025-26 season, and there can be no scarcity of marquee nonconference matchups over the primary couple months. Whereas the Gamers Period Competition will deliver quite a few high-profile showdowns to Las Vegas in November, we’re additionally in retailer for some blockbuster, on-campus video games.
Simply to call a number of of the on-campus highlights, we’ll get Michigan State vs. Duke, Alabama vs. Purdue, Illinois vs. Texas Tech, Kentucky vs. Indiana and UConn vs. Arizona. Then, there’s the 2025 ACC-SEC Problem, which brings one other 16 contests of notice, together with Duke vs. Florida and Kentucky vs. North Carolina.
These are the video games and outcomes that assist set the tone for the season. Total conferences undergo or thrive on Choice Sunday due to the metrics that had been constructed by November and December performances.
The SEC’s blockbuster run by nonconference motion final season set the stage for the league to earn a record-breaking 14 NCAA Event bids. Whereas the collective consideration of the sports activities world was largely targeted on soccer and what turned out to be a substandard season on the gridiron, the SEC was quietly taking school basketball by storm.
With basketball season drawing ever nearer, we have recognized the nonconference video games we’re most excited for (in chronological order).
Kentucky @ Louisville (Nov. 11)
Their Nov. 11 assembly on the KFC Yum! Heart in Louisville is coming a lot sooner than regular, however the timing is arguably a optimistic. The rivalry showdown is slated for a Tuesday night time, which is able to make it a beautiful nationwide viewing choice for sports activities followers who will not have any vital soccer alternate options. It can even be the primary actual check for each groups, that means we must always study a ton about their new rosters in a pressure-packed surroundings.
Final season’s Kentucky vs. Louisville recreation transpired earlier than the Cardinals discovered their mojo below Pat Kelsey, as a 93-85 loss at No. 5 UK dropped the Playing cards to 6-5. However Louisville spent the remainder of the 2024-25 season constructing momentum. Now, coming into the 2025-26 season, each Kentucky and Louisville are thriving below second-year coaches and anticipated to compete for convention and nationwide titles. The fast success that Kelsey and Mark Pope have dropped at a basketball-crazed state is reenergizing one of many sport’s greatest rivalries. This 12 months’s assembly will primarily be a celebration of school basketball within the Commonwealth as these applications sq. off whereas in search of to set the tone for seasons with vital upside. — David Cobb
Final November, Houston-Auburn performed on the Toyota Heart in Houston, Texas, was an early season measuring stick for 2 groups ranked inside the highest 15 of the AP ballot. Auburn received that recreation 74-69 regardless of a litany of troubles on their preliminary trek to face the Cougars. Each groups went on to emerge as top-five groups on the season, with Auburn’s run wrapping within the Ultimate 4 to eventual champion Florida and Houston’s run ending by the hands of the Gators within the title recreation.
It is not loopy to suppose this season’s Houston-Auburn recreation in November might once more function one other litmus check for 2 contending powers.
This 12 months’s recreation can be performed on Nov. 16 on the Legacy Area in Birmingham, Alabama, and can function a Houston workforce that would open as preseason No. 1 taking over an Auburn workforce that’s remade however will nonetheless be rugged and able to play spoiler on stomping grounds close to its house.
I am very a lot excited to see how these groups fare in opposition to each other. This may, in fact, be an enormous check for a Cougars workforce with title aspirations, but in addition a worthy problem for Auburn to see simply how prepared it’s to punch in opposition to large canines. It’s going to additionally pit school stars in opposition to one another — Tahaad Pettiford (Auburn) vs. Milos Uzan (Houston), particularly — to say nothing of the chess match between coaches Kelvin Sampson and Bruce Pearl. This matchup has all the products you need. — Kyle Boone
Duke vs. Kansas (Nov. 18)
Kansas freshman Darryn Peterson is the No. 1 prospect from the Class of 2025, based on 247Sports. Duke freshman Cameron Boozer is No. 3. Each are clearly elite and sure one-and-done top-five picks within the 2026 NBA Draft, the place they will be chosen subsequent June by franchises after which presumably spend the subsequent decade-plus competing in opposition to one another as professionals.
We’ll get a preview 9 days earlier than Thanksgiving.
That is when the Jayhawks and Blue Devils will meet within the fifteenth annual Champions Traditional inside New York’s Madison Sq. Backyard. It is a circle-the-date occasion just like the 2007 Jimmy V Traditional, when Memphis and USC had been paired as MSG in a recreation showcasing Derrick Rose (Memphis) and O.J. Mayo (USC), two heralded guards who subsequently went first and third, respectively, within the 2008 NBA Draft.
Neither Rose nor Mayo had been nice that night time.
They mixed to shoot 9 of 29 from the sector, together with 1 of 5 from 3. So, hopefully, Peterson and Boozer will ship a bit higher after they meet Nov. 18. Both approach, I can not wait to see it. — Gary Parrish
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Florida @ Duke (Dec. 2)
Final 12 months’s SEC/ACC Males’s Problem was an eventful one, however it was lopsided. The scales tipped closely in favor of the SEC, because the convention went 14-2 in opposition to the ACC. Duke was capable of save the day for the convention after recording a press release win at house over Auburn. This 12 months’s problem must also be a superb one, and the headliner matchup will see reigning nationwide champion Florida journey to Cameron Indoor Stadium to face Duke.
There are various causes this would be the greatest nonconference recreation of the season. Amongst them is the truth that there can be loads of NBA Draft prospects to ponder. One among them is Duke freshman Cameron Boozer, who’s a projected top-three choose within the 2026 NBA Draft. The Gators even have a handful of gamers who might hear their identify referred to as early subsequent summer time, together with Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Boogie Fland.
Had Duke not blown a late lead in opposition to Houston this previous spring, this might’ve been the nationwide title recreation matchup. The truth that we get this recreation lower than eight months later is a small comfort prize for school basketball diehards who needed to see this recreation performed in San Antonio. — Cameron Salerno
Kentucky vs. St. John’s (Dec. 20)
Wrote about this one when it went official again in Could. UCLA ducked out on the CBS Sports activities Traditional (as a result of Mick Cronin did not wish to fly from LA to Atlanta; he advised me as a lot earlier this offseason), and in doing so gave school basketball considered one of its greatest non-con video games of the season. St. John’s was obtainable and keen to sub in. What can we get? Fairly presumably a top-10 matchup, however past that, we get Kentucky coach Mark Pope matching wits in opposition to his mentor, former Kentucky coach Rick Pitino. And it is occurring on the 30-year anniversary of when the 2 helped information an all-time-great Kentucky workforce to a nationwide title within the 1995-96 season.
“I have been making an attempt to get this recreation for greater than a 12 months,” Pope advised me in Could. “It is a good state of affairs.”
“Clearly, Kentucky was Camelot for me, I’ve stated it many instances,” Pitino advised CBS Sports activities. “So now, to play in opposition to The Captain (Pope), who made so many particular moments for me and the workforce, in a battle that CBS is placing on is kind of particular.”
And it is occurring in a metropolis that Kentucky followers know properly: Atlanta. Or, because it’s identified colloquially: Catlanta. This marquee recreation will come at a degree on the calendar once we’ll have gotten a superb gauge of St. John’s and Kentucky’s capabilities. It is attainable each may very well be ranked as excessive as within the prime 5. However, past the place the groups are at, the storylines hooked up and the reunion ingredient is what makes me extra excited for this recreation than some other within the first eight weeks of the season. — Matt Norlander