College basketball is back. The 2026-27 men’s season tipped off Monday with games from a 3 a.m. ET start in South Carolina to late tips on the West Coast, and opening night did not take long to give us an upset. Here is what stood out from Day 1.
Florida Takes Care of Miami
Preseason No. 1 Florida opened against a ranked opponent and beat No. 14 Miami 77-67. Thomas Haugh led the Gators with 19 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, and he made four 3-pointers. Boogie Fland added 12 points and four steals, Alex Condon had 11 points and seven rebounds, and Rueben Chinyelu pulled down 14 rebounds. Florida was not sharp in the second half and shot 57% from the free-throw line, but it beat a top-15 team to start the season. I was in San Antonio when this program won the 2025 national championship.
UCLA Wins in Tucson
No. 22 UCLA went on the road and beat No. 5 Arizona 84-75. Trent Perry scored 21 points with five assists, and Jaylen Petty added 13 points with four 3-pointers. Arizona’s Ivan Kharchenkov did all he could with 38 points on 12-of-20 shooting and 10 rebounds. According to ESPN, it was the third time in four years that an AP top-5 team lost its season opener.
The Upset of the Night
Oklahoma was a 28.5-point favorite at home against East Texas A&M. The Lions won 68-64. Oklahoma trailed by as many as 16 points in the second half, and ESPN Research called it the second-largest Division I upset by point spread in the last 30 years.
The Rest of the Ranked Teams
- No. 3 Illinois 120, Fairleigh Dickinson 45: The Illini set a program record with 19 3-pointers, and the 75-point margin was the largest ever at State Farm Center. Andrej Stojakovic and Stefan Vaaks each scored 20.
- Memphis 80, No. 18 Iowa State 76: Jayden Reid scored 26 points, including Memphis’ final 11 after the game was tied with 3:15 left, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
- No. 25 BYU 94, Ohio State 83: Rob Wright III scored 33 points, and BYU put up 60 in the second half.
- Gonzaga 78, Purdue 72: Davis Fogle scored 22 points for the Bulldogs.
- UConn 86, Gardner-Webb 46: An easy start for the program I watched win the 2023 national title in Houston.
- Houston 94, La Salle 55: The Cougars rolled in their opener.
Other Results Worth Knowing
- UCF 96, FGCU 95 (OT): Dior Johnson scored 41 points.
- High Point 72, Liberty 57: Last season’s Cinderella started strong again.
- North Carolina 80, Western Carolina 72: Michael Malone won his first game as the Tar Heels’ coach, but it was closer than it should have been.
HBCU Watch
Grambling State opened its season at 3 a.m. ET in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and beat Northern Illinois 89-87 in a game CBS Sports called one of the best of the day. Florida A&M lost 113-69 at Florida State.
Looking Ahead
Tuesday’s slate includes Kentucky against Manhattan, and Alabama State opens at Texas A&M’s Reed Arena, a building I covered on a visit in 2020. Florida hosts Jacksonville on Thursday before a trip to Florida State next Tuesday. My first weekly men’s post comes next Monday, right after the first regular-season AP poll.
Featured photo: The O’Connell Center before a Florida Gators game, November 2025 by Gatorfan252525, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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