Continuing To Preview Opening Weekend

Continuing with my preview of the first week of college basketball games, here are games that I'm looking towards on Saturday, November 15th:

George Mason at Vermont (1pm ET): Despite the fact that the media has selected VCU as the preseason Colonial favorite, I've gone with George Mason. I really like how Jim Larranaga is insisting on making the Patriots more than a one-hit wonder. He chose not to cash in, unlike Keno Davis who spent one year coaching Drake and immediately took the promotion. Ironically, Providence offered the job to Larranaga first, and he turned it down, forcing them to take Keno Davis as their second choice. Nobody is left that any casual fan would remember from the Final Four squad, as Will Thomas has graduated. They also lost Folarin Campbell to graduation, meaning that John Vaughn is the lone returning double-digit scorer. But George Mason's success has paid off in two straight very good recruiting classes (not to mention another good one lined up for next season), and the question will be which players step up. If I had to pick one, it would be freshman point guard Andre Cornelius, who was arguably Larranaga's top recruit in this class, and who looked good in George Mason's opening exhibition game. Vermont is not likely to be that good of a team this year, but they provide a good opening test. If George Mason can win this one on the strength of the freshmen then that will be a great start to the season.

San Diego at UNLV (5:30PM ET): Both of these teams are thinking that even without a conference title, they should be in the hunt for an at-large bid. UNLV returns a lot of pieces from a team that was pretty good last year, including potential Mountain West Player of the Year Wink Adams. But my favorite in this game is San Diego, because they are just going to be that good this season. With everybody returning from last year's hugely successful team, there's a reason why I am picking them as an at-large team right now. A win for UNLV would give them a huge mental boost as they look ahead to what should be a wide-open Mountain West. Gonzaga is expected to roll through the WCC once again, but San Diego has a chance to challenge them and a win here would go a long way towards proving that they have that ability.

Butler at Drake (8PM ET): This was a heck of a match-up last season, although it probably won't have the same excitement this year. Drake was great last year, but there's just no way they'll be that good again this season. Keno Davis is gone, and the school also lost Adam Emmenecker and Klayton Korver to graduation, among others. I still think they'll be a pretty good team, but I just don't see how they're going to get back to the Tournament. Butler also has a bit of an end of an era themselves as AJ Graves, Mike Green, Julian Betko and Drew Streicher all graduate. But one person who isn't gone is Matt Howard, who has the ability to someday be the Horizon League Player of the Year. I made some Butler fans a bit unhappy about picking Valparaiso to take the Horizon this coming season, but Butler can prove me wrong with a strong win to open the season. If Matt Howard becomes a true star, and Butler's good recruiting class starts to pay off, they could be back on top of that conference yet again.