Welcome to the 2024-2025 college basketball season, as all of Division I will look to crown a new champion after back-to-back national titles from UConn.
Plenty has changed at major programs across the power conferences, not limited to the heaviest transfer portal offseason in history. There will be plenty of new faces in new places after the dominoes fell on the coaching carousel.
The initial wave started with the firing of Rob Lanier as SMU’s head coach. While Lanier landed on his feet at Rice, the Mustangs lured USC coach Andy Enfield to Dallas.
The opening in Southern California set forth a shakeup of the biggest teams in college basketball. Eric Musselman returned to California as the new head coach of the Trojans, opening the position at Arkansas. John Calipari made the biggest splash of the offseason, leaving Kentucky for Fayetteville.
Those coaching moves had ramifications on rosters, with recruiting and the transfer portal reacting to the moves. Calipari will have one of the most transfer-portal-dependent rosters in the nation. That'll be the opposite of national runner-up Purdue, which is expected to get no production from the portal.
This article will look at returning effective experience and transfer portal experience, per Bart Torvik.
Experienced rosters have a supreme advantage in early November action in college basketball. While transfer portal additions take time to build chemistry, teams with roster carryover are some of the best to back in the odds market.
First, here's a look at all Division I college basketball teams with roster stability, along with projected transfer portal experience.
Also, there's a look at the first week of action to identity mismatches in experience throughout college hoops.
College Basketball Returning Production
Largest Early-Season Matchup Discrepancies
Here's a look at the opening schedule, as experience mismatches will be in play:
Team (Rank) vs. Team (Rank)
Monday, November 4
- Lindenwood (231) vs. Oklahoma (19)
- Eastern Illinois (47) vs. Illinois (357)
- Mississippi Valley State (63) vs. Iowa State (202)
- Lehigh (272) vs. Northwestern (49)
- Presbyterian (275) vs. Charlotte (14)
- Long Island (71) vs. Ole Miss (5)
- Tarleton State (355) v SMU (36)
- Texas A&M (11) vs. UCF (168)
- Radford (14) vs. Pittsburgh (254)
- Central Conn State (32) vs. Providence (195)
- Morehead State (138) vs. Louisville (9)
- USC Upstate (351) vs. NC State (53)
- McNeese State (14) vs. South Dakota State (331)
- Sacred Heart (249) vs. Temple (51)
- Nicholls State (11) vs. New Mexico (195)
- Cal State Bakersfield (57) vs. California (231)
- Bellarmine (213) vs. VCU (81)
- Southern (265) vs. South Dakota (32)
- Green Bay (319) vs. Oklahoma State (29)
- Baylor (295) vs. Gonzaga (29)
- Chattanooga (246) vs. USC (19)
Tuesday, November 5
- Evansville (322) vs. North Texas (8)
Wednesday, November 6
- Texas A&M-Commerce (245) vs. South Dakota (32)
- Mercyhurst (364) vs. Morgan State (41)
- Coppin State (310) vs. High Point (24)
Thursday, November 7
- Milwaukee (10) vs. Northern Iowa (319)
- Montana State (23) vs. Wisconsin (205)
- Charleston Southern (46) vs. North Florida (215)
- Idaho State (205) vs. USC (19)
Friday, November 8
- Texas A&M-Commerce (245) vs. Texas A&M (11)
- Grambling State (202) vs. Ole Miss (5)
- Murray State (13) vs. Pittsburgh (254)
- Presbyterian (275) vs. NC State (53)
- North Carolina (342) vs. Kansas (57)
- St. Francis (PA) (347) vs. Clemson (86)
- South Alabama (168) vs. Nicholls State (11)
Saturday, November 9
- Middle Tennessee (2) vs. Abilene Christian (222)
- Omaha (199) vs. Minnesota (6)
- Charlotte (14) vs. Utah State (183)
- Morgan State (41) vs. Longwood (313)
Sunday, November 10
- Tennessee State (168) vs. Wyoming (19)
- Texas Southern (26) vs. Georgia (348)
- SELA (231) vs. UAB (26)
- St. Thomas (227) vs. Oklahoma State (29)
