After two days of barely any interesting games, Friday offers some compelling matchups thanks to multiple power-conference coaches being willing to take their ranked teams into true road environments.
Florida is at Florida State. Alabama is at Purdue. Marquette is at Maryland. Arizona is at Wisconsin. Ohio State is at Texas A&M.
Sure, it’ll all be overshadowed Friday night by a fight between a 58-year-old former boxing champion turned cannabis entrepreneur (Mike Tyson) and a 27-year-old content creator turned professional boxer (Jake Paul) — weird as that is to type. But it’ll still be nice to watch some of college basketball’s best challenge themselves against quality opponents in hostile environments, and I’m probably most looking forward to Alabama at Purdue, where the Boilermakers’ 21-game winning streak inside Mackey Arena will be tested.
Alabama is actually a 2.5-point favorite in the game, which speaks to the program Nate Oats has built. Last season, he guided the Crimson Tide to their first Final Four appearance in school history before losing to UConn. This season, he has Alabama off to a 3-0 start behind CBS Sports Preseason National Player of the Year Mark Sears, who is averaging 18.0 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists while shooting 50.0% from the field and 42.9% from 3.
He’s great.
So I can’t wait to see Sears, a 6-foot-1 guard, make his first big case to win the 2025 Wooden Award in a high-profile game played inside the arena Zach Edey called home while winning the 2023 and 2024 Wooden Awards.
Alabama is No. 2 in Friday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. Purdue is No. 9. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.
Top 25 And 1 rankings
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