College Basketball Opening Night Winners And Losers

Monday officially kicked off the first full slate of the 2026-2027 College Basketball season. I’m a huge football fan don’t get me wrong but there is nothing better than college basketball, and night one delivered with top teams in action, upsets, and action-packed highlights. 

I thought it only made sense to pick some winners and losers from the 24-hour slate. Let me know what I missed, and if we disagree on who won the day and who lost it.

Winner: UCLA

No. 22 UCLA and No. 5 Arizona tipped off in one of the day's biggest matchups in Las Vegas. The Bruins started the season strong with a convincing 84-75 win over the Wildcats, led by 21 points (11-11 FT) from junior Trent Perry. Ivan Kharchenkov did all he could for Arizona, scoring 38 points and adding 10 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to fend off the Bruins and keep the upset at bay. 

The win is a huge boost for a UCLA team that fizzled out in last year’s NCAA tournament against eventual runner-up UCONN in the round of 32. Head coach Mick Cronin secured a signature top-five win after his seat started to heat up with inconsistency over the past few seasons.

I have no doubt the Wildcats will be just fine, but questions about their depth have arisen because of their lack of bench production. Arizona’s starters scored 71 of their 75 total points. I’m also not sure why Tommy Lloyd is starting Bryce James just to play him for six minutes.

Loser: Oklahoma 

If Oklahoma head coach Porter Moser’s seat wasn’t already scorching hot coming into the year, it just got even hotter after their embarrassing four-point loss to East Texas A&M on Monday night. The Sooners closed as 28.5-point favorites and lost to a Lions team that went 11-21 a year ago. 

East Texas A&M’s win is the second-largest Division-1 upset by spread in the last 30 years. Eastern Illinois took down Iowa back in 2022 after being a 30.5-point underdog. The SEC went 6-1 on opening night, and Oklahoma was the lone flop in the conference. 

The Sooners have underperformed under Moser. He boasts a 95-76 (.556 winning percentage) record and is just 27-53 (.388 winning percentage) in conference play in his five seasons at Oklahoma. 

The road doesn’t get easier as the season rolls on for the Sooners. With the SEC being one of the premier conferences year in and year out, Oklahoma will have their hands full on a nightly basis. Not to mention they have out-of-conference matchups against Purdue, Pitt, Syracuse, and Oklahoma State. We could be looking for the Sooners' next head coach very soon.

Winner: Florida

The No. 1-ranked team in the country took care of business against state rival Miami in one of the premier opening-night games. Florida’s 10-point win over the Canes was impressive because Miami was a trendy upset pick in the gambling space. 

Senior Thomas Haugh led Florida with a team-high 19 points and 10 rebounds. Boogie Fland and Alex Condon combined for 23 points, and senior big man Reuben Chinyelu snagged 14 boards. The game was back-and-forth for much of the first half before the Gators’ experienced upperclassmen willed them to a 10-point advantage at the break.

Miami sophomore Acaden Lewis scored a game-high 24 points, but the Canes shot just 35% as a team, and in big games against the top-ranked team in the country, that won’t do.

Loser: Iowa State

The Cyclones fell to the Memphis Tigers 80-76 at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, near my neck of the woods, on Monday. Iowa State looked sluggish throughout the game, and the offense never found its rhythm. They shot 4-for-20 (20%) from beyond the arc while Memphis splashed nine three-pointers on the same number of attempts. 

The Cyclone’s biggest losses came before the season when star forward Milan Momcilovic transferred to Kentucky and Joshua Jefferson went off to the NBA. Iowa State needs to find its identity. Tamin Lipsey is back thanks to the NCAA ruling, but who else will step up? That’s the question head coach TJ Otzelberger will have to answer because the Big 12 is tough once again.

Winner: Offense

Two offensive performances caught my eye on opening night. Illinois dropped 120 points in their 75-point win over Fairleigh Dickinson. The Fighting Illini shot 55% as a team and connected on 19 three-pointers. Illinois had 13 players score, and six of them scored in double figures. They might be a wagon all season long. 

Dior Johnson is back at UCF after making multiple stops throughout his high school and collegiate career. The senior guard dropped 41 points on an efficient 13-for-15 shooting (86.7%). The Knights snuck by Florida Gulf Coast in a 96-95 overtime win. Johnson has always been an elite scorer. He averaged 24.0 points per game last season at Tarleton State, and his career-high is 42 points.

Loser: Adrian Wojnarowski

I have never been a huge fan of Woj, and it's been a while since I've thought about him. But after St. Bonaventure’s 79-71 loss to Youngstown State, I couldn't help but chuckle at seeing him not excel in his new role. Woj paid $80,000 to lose to the preseason-ranked ninth team in the Horizon League. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I respected his job as an NBA insider. He had a knack for spoiling the moment, as all of these insiders do nowadays. He always wanted to be first to the news, which is understandable because that is his job, but let the news break naturally. 

I’m not a huge fan of the insider job overall. In my opinion, you have to do some shady things to get to the top of that profession and get the news delivered to you right away. So it’s funny to see the downfall of a guy who had so much reach across the sports landscape, now struggling to defeat the Penguins of Youngstown State.