The 2025 calendar year jump starts with a set of captivating conference matchups. Illinois and Oregon tip things off Thursday. And Saturday’s schedule is loaded — we get a top-10 matchup between Florida and Kentucky and a top-12 game with Oklahoma and Alabama, while top-ranked Tennessee goes against John Calipari’s Arkansas and No. 3 Iowa State hosts No. 25 Baylor.
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No. 22 Illinois at No. 9 Oregon
Venue: Matthew Knight Arena — Eugene, Ore.
Time: 10 p.m. ET Thursday
TV: FS1
Brad Underwood’s Illini lead the conference in 3-point attempts, and they’re sixth in Basketball Reference’s simple rating system. Its top three scorers are all first-years. Kasparas Jakučionis is as good as advertised, with a fantastic 66 percent true shooting rate and just a few makes shy of 50/40/90 splits. But he’s actually second on the team in usage rate to Will Riley, who’s averaging more than 12 points off the bench. And Tomislav Ivišić has the best box plus-minus in the Big Ten while matching the lottery-bound Jakučionis in win shares.
Illinois is 12th in the nation in adjusted defensive rating and has already scooped two ranked wins over Arkansas and Wisconsin. A few weeks ago, it also took No. 1 Tennessee to the edge of the cliff, contorting the Volunteers’ offense to an unsightly 32.3 percent from the floor. Thursday night marks Illinois’ third top-1o matchup of the season.
Oregon is a tough out anywhere, especially with the fluorescent green Eugene crowd behind it. The Ducks’ only blemish this season is a narrow, respectable two-point loss to UCLA. Four-year Oregonian Nathan Bittle has career-best marks in every stat except 3-point shooting and Brandon Angel is making an absurd 75 percent of his 2-point field goals. Keeshawn Barthelemy and Jadrian Tracey are icy from long-range, too. They’re cruising, even with veterans Jackson Shelstad and T.J. Bamba playing the most inefficient ball of their collegiate runs.
This is Oregon’s third-ranked matchup thus far. It has won neutral-site Las Vegas meetings with Texas A&M and Alabama. Defensively, it’s allowing just 57 points per game since losing to UCLA loss.
From CJ Moore’s CBB power rankings: “Jakučionis is a little turnover-prone, but there are few players in the country as good at shooting off the bounce. He has an effective field goal percentage of 61.5 percent on shots off the dribble, per Synergy, and he scored 11 of his 21 points on those shots against the Tigers. Kylan Boswell is a good complement to Jakučionis. The Arizona transfer is one of the best perimeter defenders in the country, and he makes it so that Jakučionis doesn’t always have to initiate offense. Do not be surprised if the Illini are one of the teams that improve as much as anyone between now and March.”
No. 6 Florida at No. 10 Kentucky
Venue: Rupp Arena — Lexington, Ky.
Time: 11 a.m. ET Saturday
TV: ESPN
The Wildcats have won 10 of the last 12 meetings between these bitter rivals, but the Gators took the most recent contest — last season’s 94-91 overtime thriller in Lexington, in which Walter Clayton Jr. sunk seven 3-pointers. Saturday’s tilt could well be the highlight of the college basketball weekend, with Florida undefeated at 13-0 and 11-2 Kentucky touting six players averaging double-figure scoring. The last two head-to-heads have been decided by a combined five points.
Todd Golden’s Gators harbor massive expectations for this spring. They opened at No. 21, and have thumped their way up to sixth in the latest AP poll. They’ve won all but one game by more than 10. The schedule has been comparatively light, but the next two weeks should be a fertile proving ground — Saturday at Kentucky, then hosting No. 1 Tennessee, then at Arkansas.
Clayton, Will Richard and Alijah Martin comprise a talented and experienced trio of guards. Clayton takes more than seven treys a night, and has particularly relevant work experience after last season’s eruption at Rupp. Fellow senior Richard averages more than 14 points and two steals, and the fifth-year senior Martin is up to 15.2 points on less than 30 minutes a game.
Kentucky is rangy and balanced. It too should have high expectations come tournament time. Mark Pope’s outfit is the third-highest scoring team in the country and looks great on the boards. Koby Brea leads the SEC in 3-point shooting, and Otega Oweh has a minuscule turnover rate despite team-high usage. They’re two of the four Wildcats with an offensive win share above 1.0 thus far, along with seniors Andrew Carr and Lamont Butler.
Kentucky leads the all-time series 110-42. The Wildcats tallied the longest streak with an 18-win stretch from 1942-64.
No. 23 Arkansas at No. 1 Tennessee
Venue: Food City Center — Knoxville, Tenn.
Time: 1 p.m. ET Saturday
TV: ESPN
John Calipari’s conference tenure in cardinal and white begins Saturday, with a primetime test against top-ranked Tennessee. Each side touts a dynamic point guard — Arkansas’ Boogie Fland is putting up around 16 points and six dimes per game as a freshman, while Vols’ senior floor general Zakai Zeigler has led the conference in assists each of the last three seasons.
Tennessee is looking like a wagon entering 2025. It’s second in points allowed and defensive rating, while fifth-year dynamo Chaz Lanier has scored 22 or more six times since Nov. 21. Every Volunteers outing has been a blowout, save for their one-point scrapper over Illinois. The Vols are currently third in national title odds on BetMGM at +1000, behind only Auburn (+600) and Duke (+750).
Arkansas poses a real challenge, entering with the fourth-best field goal percentage in Division I and shooting a stellar 60 percent on 2-pointers. Fland has notched 16 points, 7.7 assists and 1.5 swipes across his last six games. Adou Thiero has produced at least 20 points in half of his outings this season. He boasts a high motor, relentless defensive energy and a 7-foot wingspan.
In two limited seasons at Kentucky, Thiero combined to shoot 1-for-9 from the field against Tennessee. He’s undoubtedly thinking bigger for Saturday’s showdown.
Memorable matchups: Tennessee beat Arkansas in the 2011 SEC Tournament, 74-68, behind Tobias Harris’ 20 points. The Vols blew a 16-point lead but recovered with enough time to notch the win.
In 2008, the Razorbacks scored an SEC semifinal win off Steven Hill’s game-winning turnaround jumper. It was Hill’s only field goal of a game that had 17 lead changes.
No. 25 Baylor at No. 3 Iowa State
Venue: Hilton Coliseum — Ames, Iowa
Time: 2 p.m. ET Saturday
TV: CBS
The Cyclones are looking like one of the best teams in the game, full stop. They’re plus-21.9 through their first dozen games, and the only loss was courtesy of a last-second Johni Broome stinger in Maui. Baylor has a top interior force in Norchad Omier and a lottery-bound talent in V.J. Edgecombe. This is a fun way to tip off Big 12 basketball in 2025.
Scott Drew’s Bears start three seniors and have no trouble putting numbers on the board. Omier has made at least half of his shots in every game since opening night, and Edgecombe has drained multiple 3-pointers in three straight.
Baylor hasn’t been past the second round of the NCAA Tournament since it hoisted the national title in 2021. If it’s to mount a deep run this March, it’ll need to keep juicing rising freshman Robert Wright III. The Delaware native looks ascendant after his settling-in period, averaging a super-efficient 14.8 points and 6.4 assists since December. In the Bears’ last defeat, a four-point loss against formidable UConn, Wright went 9-for-14 off the bench and had four dimes to zero turnovers.
But Baylor is the understandable road underdog for Saturday. Iowa State is a tough out with two seniors scoring 16 points a night, and it dominates the turnover differential at plus-6.8 per game. T.J. Otzelberger’s Cyclones haven’t lost at home since February 2023.
Baylor has the narrowest of leads in the all-time series at 25-24.
No. 12 Oklahoma at No. 5 Alabama
Venue: Coleman Coliseum — Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Time: 6 p.m. ET Saturday
TV: SEC Network
The Sooners are undefeated at 13-0, and formally begin their SEC membership with a tough matchup against fifth-ranked Alabama. Nate Oats’ team is averaging 89.9 points per game, making the Crimson Tide the most prolific scoring bunch in the nation.
Jeremiah Fears and Jalon Moore are walking buckets for the Sooners, each shooting 50.3 percent and accounting for a combined 35.8 points per game. Few duos have been as sharp as these two. Fears looks particularly, well, fearless as a freshman playmaker. Though he still has a lot of room to grow as a perimeter shooter and needs to cut down on the turnovers, he has shown a natural scorer’s touch and is disruptive in passing lanes. Saturday is the biggest test of his college career.
The Tide went 11-2 in nonconference play, with a very respectable if painful two-point loss to Oregon. They scored a trio of ranked wins over Houston, Illinois and North Carolina. Mark Sears leads the team in minutes, field goal attempts, points, assists and turnovers, while Grant Nelson has converted 20 of his last 27 shots.
From CJ Moore’s CBB power rankings: “The Sooners are undefeated with six wins over high-majors, yet the computers don’t seem to like them. Oklahoma currently ranks 37th at KenPom, 45th at Bart Torvik and 30th at Evan Miya. I went back through the last 10 years to find some similar comps, using Torvik’s sorting tool to search for any high-majors that were undefeated on the Sunday closest to Christmas but didn’t rank in the top 25 at that site. None of them ended up making it past the round of 32. I’m higher on the Sooners than the computers, but if history is any indication, the computers might be onto something.”
Other games worth watching
No. 18 Michigan State at Ohio State
Friday, 8 p.m. ET, FOX
Tom Izzo’s squad is going for a 3-0 conference start. Senior Jaden Akins is averaging 15 points across his last five games. Bruce Thornton has a 65 percent true shooting rate for the Buckeyes, who are a sharp 39.6 percent from behind the arc.
Creighton at No. 8 Marquette
Friday, 9 p.m. ET, FS1
Kam Jones has emerged as one of the most fun watches in all of college ball. He’s averaging 20 points a game, makes more shots than he misses and notched 10 assists for the third time this season in Tuesday’s win against Providence. Creighton just eked out a one-point win over St. John’s on New Year’s Eve.
No. 15 UCLA at Nebraska
Saturday, 2 p.m. ET, FOX
True to Mick Cronin’s priorities, the Bruins are fourth in adjusted defensive rating. They’re coming off an inspired neutral-site win over No. 19 Gonzaga. Nebraska is paced by Brice Williams, who currently has a 50/40/90 season while taking more than 11 shots per game.
No. 4 Duke at SMU
Saturday, 2:15 p.m. ET, The CW Network
Duke’s top-line talent is undeniable, and the Blue Devils’ two losses have come by a combined eight points. SMU fifth-year senior Chuck Harris is shooting 49 percent on 3-pointers.
Arizona at No. 16 Cincinnati
Saturday, 2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Despite its 7-5 record and arduous start to the campaign, Arizona comes into the weekend 21st in KenPom rating and 10th in Basketball Reference’s simple rating system. After intrastate wins against Dayton and Xavier, Cinci dropped a tough three-point game to Kansas State.
Missouri at No. 2 Auburn
Saturday, 4 p.m. ET, SEC Network
Johni Broome just notched yet another AP Player of the Week designation. He leads the SEC in blocks per game and rebounds per game. Missouri has a potent offense under Dennis Gates, and leads Division I in made free throws per game.
Texas at No. 13 Texas A&M
Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, SEC Network
The latest installment of the Lone Star Showdown pits the 11-2 Longhorns against the 11-2 Aggies. Rodney Terry’s Texas team has the fourth-best offensive rating in the country. Buzz Williams and A&M haven’t lost since Nov. 26.
Maryland at No. 9 Oregon
Sunday, 4 p.m. ET, Peacock
The best game of the Sunday slate looks to be freshman phenom Derik Queen going to work against Nathan Bittle and a balanced Ducks attack. Both sides are top 20 in KenPom rating, and are two of the six Big Ten teams with 11 wins before the New Year.
(Photo of Zakai Zeigler and Chaz Lanier: Luke Hales / Getty Images)
