College basketball’s first week has already handed us a handful of players who are forcing their way onto the radar. Some came from smaller programs, some arrived with bigger expectations, but all five put together opening-week performances that were too loud to overlook.
That doesn’t mean the sample size is settled. November can fool you fast, and one big night is not the same thing as a real trend. Still, these five have done enough to turn early flashes into actual storylines.
Vaughn Weems was one of the biggest reasons Nevada walked out of Sunday with a 96-95 overtime win over Saint Mary’s. He poured in a career-high 33 points, going 12 of 20 from the field, hitting four threes and adding five rebounds and three steals.
Against a Saint Mary’s team that has built a reputation as one of the nation’s most consistently competitive mid-major programs, that kind of production carries real weight. Nevada is now 2-0, and Weems has given the Wolf Pack a reason to believe he can be one of the Mountain West’s more dangerous offensive players.
Styles Phipps made sure Weems wasn’t the only Nevada guard who left a mark on that game. Phipps finished with a career-high 25 points, shot 10 of 12 from the field and scored 11 of Nevada’s 17 points in overtime.
He also had five assists, a reminder that he can do more than just score. Together, Phipps and Weems combined for 58 points against the Gaels, giving Nevada one of the opening week’s most productive backcourt pairings.
Sunday showed what that duo can look like when it’s rolling.
Johnny Kinziger has been on a different kind of heater at Illinois State. Through two games, he has made 11 of 16 three-pointers, a blistering start from a player listed under six feet tall who has to create his own room against bigger defenders.
He scored 30 points against Saint Mary’s, then added 16 against Central State to reach 47 points entering Monday’s trip to Purdue. That matchup gives him an immediate chance to show whether this run can carry over against Big Ten competition.
Tounde Yessoufou’s debut stretch at St. John’s has looked exactly like the kind of impact the Red Storm were hoping for when he transferred from Baylor.
On Sunday against Iona, he scored 23 points in just 21 minutes, hitting nine of 14 shots and four threes in St. John’s 104-65 win.
He also grabbed seven rebounds, stole the ball three times and blocked two shots. That two-way line fits what Rick Pitino wants, and it’s a strong early sign for a player who already came into the season with preseason first-team All-Big East recognition.
Braylon Mullins also delivered in a game that carried plenty of attention. In UConn’s 85-77 win over Michigan, he scored 23 points and went 10 of 11 from the free throw line.
The matchup mattered because Michigan was not just another early-season opponent; it was a national championship rematch, and UConn needed someone to provide steady offense. Mullins did exactly that, and his growth could end up being a major piece of the Huskies’ push for another deep NCAA Tournament run.
The next two weeks should tell us a lot more. Kinziger gets Purdue on Monday, Nevada heads to UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday, and UConn keeps sorting through its rotation after beating Michigan. The bigger question now is not whether these players can match those scoring totals again, but whether they can keep producing once opponents start building game plans around them.
For now, all five have done enough to earn the spotlight.
In Other News...
UConn Just Got Another Early Reminder The Polls Need Convincing
UConns latest AP Top 25 placement offered a familiar kind of early-season reminder: even after beating Michigan 85-77 in a rematch of last years national championship game, the Huskies are still sitting at No. 4. The top of the poll remains crowded with Florida, Duke and Illinois ahead of them, which means Dan Hurleys team is already in the position of having to keep proving that its early work belongs right there with the nations best.
There will be chances to do exactly that later in the nonconference schedule, including meetings with Duke and Illinois that should give UConn a direct chance to reshape the conversation. For now, the Huskies can at least point to the start they have made, along with some individual recognition for Colben Landrew and Braylon Mullins, who earned Big East weekly honors for their play in the first two games of the season. [Read more 🡒]
UConns Fast Start Has Fans Eyeing A Bigger Early Climb
UConn stayed put at No. 4 in the first AP Top 25 poll of the season after opening with a 2-0 start that already offered a little bit of everything. The Huskies handled Gardner-Webb and then backed it up with a win over No. 16 Michigan, a useful early reminder that last seasons standard is still the one this group is chasing.
Freshman Colben Landrew gave the weekend even more of a lift by earning Big East Freshman of the Week honors, another sign that UConn is getting contributions beyond the usual headline names. The schedule does not ease up for long, either, with Wagner, Ohio State, Arizona and Duke all looming as the Huskies try to turn a promising start into something bigger. [Read more 🡒]
UConns November Statement Just Changed How The Huskies Look Nationally
November has already started to reshape the national picture, and UConn is right in the middle of it. Preseason exhibition results have carried more weight than usual in the early AP Top 25 conversation, with some teams getting pushed down after shaky tune-ups and others falling out altogether before the real games even settle in. For the Huskies, that kind of early movement matters because it changes the way the rest of the country is viewing the defending standard in college basketball.
Michigan States slide after exhibition losses is one sign of how quickly the rankings are being rethought, and Tennessees absence after a rough preseason is another. UConns place in that conversation is a reminder that one strong November statement can ripple beyond a single result, influencing how voters sort the top tier and how the next round of matchups will be judged. The bigger question now is how long that early impression holds once the schedule starts offering more chances for teams to answer back. [Read more 🡒]