No. 20 Alabama opens the season at home against a Longwood team coming off its first NCAA Tournament trip on Monday night in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

The Crimson Tide finished 19-14 in 2021-22 but ended the campaign on a sour note by dropping their final four games.

The Lancers enjoyed a 26-7 campaign, with the Virginia school going to its first Big Dance by winning the Big South Conference crown.

Alabama got its first taste of live action in an Oct. 29 exhibition game against Southern Illinois and held on for a 73-67 win.

Alabama’s newcomers scored 61 of the team’s points, including 14 out of freshman forward Brandon Miller, a five-star prospect and 2021 McDonald’s All-American.

The Crimson Tide shot just 41.3 percent in the win and head coach Nate Oats said his team has to improve on shot selection.

“We have got to figure out why we’re not getting better looks,” Oats told RollTide.com. “I thought we did get some good looks, but we just got to make them. Some of that’s going to come with just playing together and getting our chemistry a little better.”

Along with Miller, senior guard Jahvon Quinerly will be key to making that happen. Like Miller, he’s a preseason All-SEC pick and averaged 13.8 points per outing last season for the Tide. But Quinerly isn’t expected to be available until January, according to Oats, after tearing his ACL in March.

Facing an SEC team like the Crimson Tide won’t be anything new to the Lancers, who fell to Tennessee 88-56 in the opening round of last year’s NCAA Tournament.

The Lancers are led by Isaiah Wilkins and DeShaun Wade, both preseason all-conference picks, with Wilkins coming into the year as the reigning Big South tournament MVP. He averaged 12.7 points per game.

Wade poured in 11.8 points per outing and buried the fourth-most 3-pointers (74) in a season in program history.

One thing the Lancers have focused in on in is their work off the court. The newly opened basketball performance center on campus should play a huge role in helping the Lancers be even better this season.

“This elite training center — along with the addition of Luke Toburen (director of basketball performance) to oversee it and supervise the training of our student-athletes, will provide us a critical tool to help our players develop more effectively,” Lancers coach Griff Aldrich told the school’s website.

Alabama’s game against Longwood is one of three home games in the month of November before heading to the Phil Knight Invitational in Oregon over Thanksgiving. Alabama was 13-4 at home last year.

Longwood is facing Alabama for the first time in program history, and this will be the first time it has played an SEC team in the regular season since Nov. 9, 2013 at South Carolina. The Lancers are seeking their first-ever win against an SEC program.

Alabama comes into the season picked to finish fifth in the SEC.

–Field Level Media

Keion Brooks Jr. once fancied himself as a one-and-done college player for Kentucky.

Brooks is now in his fourth collegiate season, and he will suit up for Washington for the first time when the Huskies open the season against Weber State on Monday night.

Brooks parted ways with Kentucky after last season, but it wasn’t to head to the NBA. Instead, he ventured west to join a program in need of reinforcements after losing Pac-12 leading scorer Terrell Brown Jr. (21.7 points per game) off a 17-15 club.

Expectations are mixed for the Huskies, but Brooks is bullish on his new teammates.

“People might be underestimating us and think we might do this or that, but I believe in the group that we got,” Brooks said. “We play extremely hard and we play really well. That’s what I’m looking forward to and trying to get that story out.”

Brooks, a forward, averaged 10.8 points and 4.4 rebounds in his final season for the Wildcats. He will be asked to complement holdover guards Jamal Bey (9.4 ppg) and PJ Fuller II (7.4).

The Huskies also landed guard Noah Williams in the transfer market. Williams played the last three seasons for Washington State, a fierce rival of Washington, and averaged 9.5 points last season.

The Huskies reeled in prized freshman guard Koren Johnson, rated as the top recruit in the state of Washington. Johnson could find himself in the starting lineup soon if he lives up to his billing.

Weber State went 21-12 last season and is operating under new coach Eric Duft after Randy Rahe retired following his 16th season.

Continuity won’t be a problem as Duft was an assistant for Rahe’s entire tenure with the Wildcats.

Standout forward Dillon Jones said it’s hard to find a difference.

“I could say Duft was almost like a head coach last year, just with how involved he was, how much he talked to us and how hands-on he was,” Jones said, according to the Standard-Examiner of Ogden, Utah. “Now he is guiding everything a little bit more, as expected.”

Jones averaged 12.6 points and a team-best 10.6 rebounds last season and produced 17 double-doubles.

–Field Level Media

New coach Dennis Gates will make his regular-season debut for Missouri as the Tigers host Division I newcomer Southern Indiana on Monday night in Columbia, Mo.

Missouri defeated Division III Washington University of St. Louis 89-61 on Thursday night in their home-court exhibition tune-up.

Forward Kobe Brown, Missouri’s leading returning scorer, poured in 25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Isiaih Mosley, a transfer from Missouri State, had 11 points, four assists and three rebounds.

The Tigers return just three players from last year’s 12-21 team: Kobe Brown, his brother Kaleb Brown and Ronnie DeGray III.

Gates will rely heavily on transfers, including Mosley, point guard Nick Honor (Clemson), Noah Carter (Northern Iowa), DeAndre Gholston (Milwaukee), D’Moi Hodge (Cleveland State), Tre Gomillion (Cleveland State) and Sean East II (John A. Logan College in Illinois).

“I don’t think we have a team where I can sit here and play with the same lineup every game,” Gates said. “I think we’ll see a team that you’ll see guys starting based off the matchups. I think there are seven, eight guys that can start without a doubt.”

Mosley, who led the Missouri Valley Conference in scoring the past two seasons, was the key addition. He averaged 20.4 points per game in 2021-22 while shooting 50.4 percent from the field, 42.7 percent from 3-point range and 90.2 percent from the foul line.

“Probably one of the best scorers that I’ve ever seen in person,” Gomillion told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He’s so quick. … He knows how to hold the line and get to the goal when he needs to. And it’s so hard to guard him because he’s such a good shooter. He’s got the best of both worlds.”

Southern Indiana moved up from Division II to join the Ohio Valley Conference this season. The school was picked in finish seventh in the league’s preseason poll.

In their exhibition tune-up, the Screaming Eagles dispatched NAIA school Midway University 85-50 at home on Wednesday. Southern Indiana hit 12 of 35 3-point attempts in the victory.

“We were wide open, we made the right reads,” coach Stan Gouard said, according to the Evansville Courier & Press. “Last year we took a lot of tough shots, a lot of tough threes. These guys are not afraid to play late into the shot clock. It really blended across the board through everybody else.”

Guard Isaiah Swope led the way with 18 points and six assists. Forward Trevor Lakes scored 17 points, and guard Gary Solomon added 16 points.

Guard Jelani Simmons played just 11 minutes while continuing his recovery from a knee injury. He averaged 14.2 points and 4.5 rebounds last season and earned Preseason All-OVC honors from the league coaches and media.

In addition to playing at Missouri, the Screaming Eagles scheduled tough nonconference games at Notre Dame, St. Bonaventure and Bowling Green.

“It’s going to get harder before it gets easier,” Gouard said, per the Courier & Press. “We can’t get consumed with who we’re playing. We have to focus on the task at hand — get better and be prepared for the OVC.”

–Field Level Media

Under the guidance of a pair of former NBA All-Stars, Vanderbilt and Memphis face off in each team’s season opener on Monday evening in Nashville.

The host Commodores, led by fourth-year coach Jerry Stackhouse, went 19-17 last season, bowing out in the NIT quarterfinals against eventual champion Xavier. It was Vanderbilt’s first winning season and postseason appearance since making the 2017 NCAA Tournament.

Fifth-year coach Penny Hardaway took Memphis to last year’s NCAA Tournament, his first, before falling to Gonzaga in the second round.

“In the past, I’ve seen them, they get out there, they really pressure, they deny, even some full-court press,” Stackhouse said when asked about the Tigers.

Vanderbilt lost two-time first-team All-Southeastern Conference point guard Scotty Pippen Jr. to the NBA but returns six scholarship players and adds a pair of Division I transfers, point guard Ezra Manjon (UC Davis) and forward Emmanuel Ansong (Green Bay).

Manjon (15 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.4 assists per game last season), has a huge task in taking over for Pippen, who averaged more than 20 points in each of his last two seasons.

Vanderbilt also returns guard/forward Jordan Wright (12.3 ppg, 6.4 rpg), 7-foot forward Liam Robbins (6.8 ppg, 4.0 rpg) and forward Myles Stute (8.5 ppg, 3.7 rpg). Robbins led the Big 10 in blocks at Minnesota two years ago (2.7 per game) but struggled to stay healthy last year, while Stute led the SEC in 3-point percentage (.432).

Neither Vanderbilt nor Memphis is ranked in the AP’s preseason poll, which left the Tigers feeling disrespected heading to the opener.

“Guess we’re the underdogs,” said UTEP transfer Keonte Kennedy (14.1 ppg, 6.1 rpg), who briefly commited to Vanderbilt this summer before officially joining Memphis. “We gotta get out of the mud and come from the bottom. We all like to play with a chip on our shoulder.”

Memphis is led by SMU transfer guard Kendric Davis (19.4 ppg, 4.4 apg, 3.8 rpg), last year’s American Athletic Conference Player of the Year. The Tigers also return starting point guard Alex Lomax (6.1 ppg, 4.1 apg) and second-team All-AAC forward DeAndre Williams (11.1 ppg, 5.8 rpg).

Georgia Southern transfer guard Elijah McCadden (11.7 ppg, 4.6 rpg) should also help, as could Illinois-Chicago transfer guard Damaria Franklin (17.9 ppg, 6.9 ppg), who has yet to be ruled eligible by the NCAA to play at Memphis.

The teams last met in the 2005 NIT, when the Tigers beat Vanderbilt 81-68 in a quarterfinal game.

–Field Level Media

When No. 19 San Diego State opens the season Monday night at home against Cal State Fullerton, the Aztecs will bring back a defense that was ranked No. 2 in efficiency last season by basketball metrics expert Ken Pomeroy.

And if the Aztecs become even an average team on offense, there is a chance they could reach the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

Last season’s team scored just 65.4 points per game, which ranked 305th out of 350 Division I teams, and made just 43.2 percent of its field-goal attempts, which was 229th. With four starters back, San Diego State should, in theory, be more efficient on offense and perhaps turn a 23-9 record into something better.

“We were kind of limited as to who was going to put the ball in the basket,” Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher said of last season. “This year, we have several guys that can do it. I know this team is going to be good. How good? That, I don’t know. You’ve got to win close games.”

It would be surprising if this one fell into the “close game” category. San Diego State has one of the top scorers in the west in senior Matt Bradley, who averaged 16.9 points without a ton of help. Bradley needs just 169 points to eclipse 2,000 points for his career, which started at Cal.

Dutcher said Bradley will be a better player this year because there are more scorers around him.

“If you’re good offensively, you’re going to draw a double-team,” Dutcher said. “And he’s a more-than-willing passer and a good passer.”

TCU transfer Jaedon LeDee has been very impressive in the preseason, showing the ability to score off the dribble and beat opponents in the paint with a 6-foot-9, 240-pound frame. And senior center Nathan Mensah is back to anchor the defense with his shot-blocking and altering ability.

The major question with this team is who takes over for Trey Pulliam at the point. Lamont Butler or Seattle transfer Darrion Trammell will get the call. If either can duplicate Pulliam’s ability to run the offense and come up with clutch plays in the end game, the Aztecs become even more dangerous.

Cal State Fullerton is coming off a 21-11 season that saw it win the Big West Conference tournament with a 72-71 decision over Long Beach State. While the Titans lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Duke, it was still an outstanding season.

Now comes the hard part. Fullerton has to replace its top three scorers, including E.J. Anosike, who scored 16.3 points and grabbed 8.3 rebounds per game. Coach Dedrique Taylor says his team will have to play differently as it tries to re-establish its identity.

“Last year, we dominated the middle,” Taylor said. “This year, we have to defend and rebound and create baskets off our defense.”

Senior guard Jalen Harris, who averaged 9.3 points off the bench a season ago to win the conference’s Sixth Man of the Year, figures to lead the offense this season.

–Field Level Media