The college basketball season remains in its infancy, as the calendar hasn’t quite reached Thanksgiving. But while the sample size is small, more than a few pleasant surprises are beginning to emerge.
Below, Rivals.com’s Rob Cassidy explores five of such early-season surprises.
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BRANDON MILLER
OK, so it’s not as though Miller snuck up on anyone. The Alabama freshman was a five-star prospect coming out of high school and the No. 17 prospect in the 2022 class, after all. Still, the way he’s dominated from the jump in his first season has him skyrocketing up draft boards and looking more impressive and NBA ready than most of the 16 players Rivals ranked above him in last year’s class.
The 6-foot-9 wing is averaging 20 points and nine rebounds per game while shooting a staggering 51.7 percent from three-point range for an Alabama team that looks like a serious SEC title contender.. Miller’s hot start is part of what makes Bama’s Thanksgiving Night clash with No. 12 Michigan State feel like must-see TV.
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MARYLAND
Maryland feels a little better than most expected in the first year of a new coaching regime. Kevin Willard arrived from Seton Hall in the offseason charged with the task of bouncing back from a frustrating 15-17 campaign a year ago and eventually finding a way to get the Terrapins to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016.
Just five games into Willard’s Maryland career, however, the Terrapins sit at 5-0 and are coming off back-to-back blowout wins over Miami and St. Louis. It feels as though Willard and company could be sitting at 7-0 when they host No. 16 Illinois at the Xfinity Center on Dec. 2.
Willard seems to have his team ahead of schedule thanks in part to a balanced scoring attack that has five different Terrapins averaging more than 12 points per game.
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KANSAS STATE
The Wildcats haven’t exactly played the stiffest of competition, but 5-0 is 5-0, and none of those five wins have been particularly close. Kansas State has won its first six contests by an average of 17 points and feels like a team capable of making noise in the Big 12.
We’ll see what the future holds obviously, but Jermone Tang seems to have a team capable of outperforming expectations in his first year as a head coach. Led by Florida transfer Keyontae Johnson, who is averaging 18 points per game, the Wildcats look more athletic, skilled and cohesive than they have in recent years – certainly nothing like a team that was picked to finish last by the league's coaches in the preseason poll.
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JOEL SORIANO
Soriano transferred to St. John's from Fordham prior to last season and was relatively pedestrian in his first year playing for Mike Anderson. So far this year, however, the 6-foot-11 center has looked like a different player entirely.
Through five games, Sorianao is averaging 12 points and 11 rebounds per contest, a far cry from last season’s six and five totals. He posted 15 and 12 in a win over Temple earlier this week and managed 19 and 14 in Tuesday's win over Syracuse.
Anderson challenged Soriano to become a team leader in the absence of Julian Champagnie, who led the Red Storm in scoring before departing for the NBA G League this offseason. So far, it seems as though the slimmed down Soriano has answered the bell. It’s early, sure, but it’s already clear that Soriano has taken a massive step forward as a junior and will impact the Big East season significantly.
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MADY SISSOKO
Things didn't go exactly as planned for Sissoko in his first two years in East Lansing, but if there’s something to be said for staying the course, it should be said about the Spartan big, who seems to be coming into his own as a junior.
The No. 46 recruit in the class of 2020, Sissoko averaged roughly five minutes per game in his first two seasons under Tom Izzo. This year has a distinctly different feel, however, as the former four-star prospect is averaging nearly nine points and six rebounds per contest through four games as a starter.
He stood toe-to-toe with national player of the year candidate Drew Timme during Michigan State’s narrow loss to Gonzaga early in the season, finishing the contest with 14 points and nine rebounds. He managed 16 and eight in Michigan State’s win over Kentucky and star forward Oscar Tshiebwe.
Sissoko’s sudden progress is a major reason why the Spartans seem to be a team well on its way to outperforming preseason expectations.
