A compelling November round faculty basketball owes a few of its intrigue to Michigan prep hoops.
“Going all the best way again to my highschool days,” stated Alabama head coach Nate Oats final week, “All people made the state playoffs. So, what’s the purpose of going 20-0…[when] you get to the top of your 20 regular-season video games and everyone begins model new the place you draw out of a hat [to determine an opponent] within the state match?”
Emphasizing preparedness for the most effective competitors come postseason over an inflated file for seeding functions served Oats properly at Romulus Excessive Faculty, and has contributed to the Crimson Tide’s rise within the coach’s six seasons on the helm.
Alabama has performed a high four-ranked power of schedule in every of the earlier three seasons, with 2025-26 promising extra of the identical. After opening with North Dakota, the Crimson Tide face a gauntlet of 4 straight high 25-ranked opponents together with preseason No. 1 Purdue.
Matchups at No. 5 St. John’s, a digital highway recreation in opposition to No. 17 Illinois in Chicago and with No. 21 Gonzaga in Las Vegas for the Gamers Period Championship bookend the top-ranked Boilermakers’ go to to Tuscaloosa. All are performed earlier than Thanksgiving when, only a era in the past, the faculty basketball season was solely simply starting.
Oats’ scheduling philosophy appears to be like more and more like the usual greater than the formidable outlier, too, making for a November that guarantees each bit as thrilling as March.
Alabama can have loads of competitors for the highest power of schedule in 2025-26, together with from opponents on the Tide’s schedule.
On Dec. 13, Arizona heads to Birmingham to face Alabama in a digital highway recreation. By the point the Wildcats go to the Yellow Hammer State, they may have already seen:
- No. 3 Florida in Las Vegas on Nov. 4
- No. 12 UCLA at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, on Nov. 14
- No. 4 UConn in Hartford on Nov. 19
- No. 20 Auburn in Phoenix on Dec. 6
Arizona’s season-opening encounter with Florida marks the primary time a Wildcats staff opens in opposition to a defending nationwide champion since 1989 when UA tipped off with a win over Michigan.
The timing is noteworthy, falling proper within the coronary heart of Arizona’s rise underneath the late Lute Olson, and stands as testomony to the Oats philosophy not being totally new.
On the tail finish of his profession in 2005, Olson defined his method to non-conference scheduling to KUSports.com:
“I’ve all the time been of the opinion you study from taking part in the most effective competitors you may play. I say I’d somewhat lose one after the other or two (factors) than win one by 40. …I would like us to be examined, to see what we have to do higher. The one approach to try this is to play robust competitors,” Olson stated.
Tommy Lloyd grew to become Arizona’s head coach in 2021, one yr after Olson’s demise and 14 after the Corridor of Famer coached his remaining recreation. Whereas bodily eliminated, Lute’s presence is all the time felt round Tucson and a technique wherein Lloyd’s honored that previous is thru his personal scheduling philosophy.
“Testing your staff is necessary,” Lloyd advised reporters in June. “We’re going to proceed to push the envelope with our schedule and problem our staff, and hopefully it’s a staff that’s ready to play good basketball in March.”
Lloyd got here to Arizona through Gonzaga, a program that has persistently scheduled among the most formidable non-conference video games courting again to the Zags’ first Elite Eight run in 1999.
Gonzaga’s hard-nosed scheduling underneath Mark Few could have been born of necessity, because the Zags fought each for respect and to construct on the momentum established throughout preliminary Cinderella runs. However even since settling into its present position as a perennial High 25 program, Gonzaga continues to play one of many extra demanding early slates within the nation.
This yr, which means dealing with No. 23 Creighton, heading to Vegas for the Gamers Period Championship, drawing No. 9 Kentucky in Nashville, UCLA in Seattle, and NCAA Event fixture Oregon in Portland simply earlier than Christmas.
And throughout the game, it’s extra of the identical. UConn coach Dan Hurley could by no means need to go to Hawai’i on Thanksgiving week once more, however the 2024-25 Huskies’ stumble on the Maui Invitational didn’t cease the 2023 and 2024 nationwide champions from dealing with BYU, Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Florida and Texas in a span of 4 weeks.
The results of all this heavyweight scheduling may very well be probably the most thrilling first months of faculty basketball in current reminiscence.
