Must-Watch 2023-24 Nonconference Men's College Basketball Games – Bleacher Report

If you snoozed through the first few days of the 2023-24 men’s college basketball season, it’s hard to blame you.
Outside of USC-Kansas State on opening night and Auburn-Baylor the following evening, there wasn’t a single matchup that jumped off the page as a big game. (Though, James Madison-Michigan State sure did unexpectedly end up being a huge game.)
That is about to change in a gigantic way with a ton of must-watch nonconference contests.
While the AP poll is rarely the best barometer for who the nation’s top teams are, it does hold a lot of power over how games are marketed. For instance, the Auburn-Indiana game on Dec. 9 could be every bit as good as the Tennessee-Illinois game being played on the same day. But as things stand, the Tigers-Hoosiers clash between unranked teams would get a bit lost in the shuffle while the No. 9 Volunteers taking on the No. 25 Illini might get billed as the biggest game of the day.
With that in mind, we have combed through the 2023-24 schedule, looking for any and every matchup between preseason AP Top 25 teams, and found 28 such games.
Might as well rank all 28, right?
Beyond rankings and which matchups are just plain intriguing because of A) prior meetings between the teams, B) historic relevance of the programs or C) entertaining showdowns between individuals on the rosters, one very important factor in the rankings is location. Specifically, the top five spots on the list were reserved for games on campus as opposed to a neutral location, because those are just inherently more fun to watch.
One final note: Prospective games in early-season tournaments are not included, but first-round matchups in those events are fair game. But, in case you’re curious, we could end up getting:

28. No. 23 Saint Mary’s vs. No. 17 San Diego State (Nov. 17 in Las Vegas)
Unfortunately, some game has to rank last, and the opener in the Continental Tire Main Event takes our bottom spot. Strangely enough, this is one of just two games between teams ranked Nos. 14-25 in the preseason AP poll, and this doesn’t pack nearly as much punch as Kentucky-UNC. It should be a good, low-scoring affair, though, and a result that will inevitably be mentioned often in February and March as a key one for bracketology purposes.
27. No. 24 Alabama vs. No. 12 Arizona (Dec. 20 in Phoenix)
Alabama is going to have a rigorous run through mid-December, consecutively facing Purdue, Creighton and Arizona. But after losing his starting job in March before transferring from Alabama to Arizona this offseason, Jaden Bradley should be extra motivated to face his former team. It figures to be a good clash of transfers as Bradley and Caleb Love take on the Crimson Tide’s trio of “up transfers”—Aaron Estrada, Grant Nelson and Latrell Wrightsell Jr.—who each averaged over 16 points per game last season.
26. No. 10 Florida Atlantic vs. No. 25 Illinois (Dec. 5 in New York City)
How wild is it that Florida Atlantic will feature prominently in the 29th installment of the Jimmy V Classic? After a quick glance through the event’s history, I believe the last true mid-major (Gonzaga doesn’t count) to play in it was Butler (then in the Horizon League) in December 2009—right before the Bulldogs went to back-to-back national championship games. But are the Owls ready to continue last year’s magical run by taking down Terrence Shannon Jr. and Coleman Hawkins?
25. No. 11 Gonzaga vs. No. 21 USC (Dec. 2 in Las Vegas)
Bump this one up about 15 spots if it ends up being Bronny James’ collegiate debut at USC, but this will be a huge game with or without him. Save for the two meetings with Arizona in Pac-12 play, this is by far the biggest game on USC’s schedule. It’s also a rematch of the 2021 Elite Eight, which got out of hand in a hurry. Here’s hoping that with stud freshman Isaiah Collier, the Trojans can keep this one close for at least a few minutes.

24. No. 3 Purdue vs. No. 24 Alabama (Dec. 9 in Toronto)
You don’t see many NCAA basketball games played in Canada, but what a cool exception to the rule this will be, with Purdue’s Zach Edey returning home to Toronto to take on Alabama. The Crimson Tide loaded up on big men this offseason, both adding two transfers and two freshmen listed at 6’10” or 6’11”. We’ll see if that’s enough to even remotely stifle the 7’4″ Boilermaker.
23. No. 4 Michigan State vs. No. 20 Baylor (Dec. 16 in Detroit)
22. No. 2 Duke vs. No. 20 Baylor (Dec. 20 in New York City)
Baylor will only play two nonconference games against AP Top 25 teams, but they’re two massive neutral-site contests within a 100-hour window of each other in mid-December.
And it’s for the best that the Bears are waiting until six weeks into the season to really challenge themselves, because replacing three 15 PPG guys—Adam Flagler, Keyonte George and LJ Cryer—in a single offseason could take some time.
Transfers RayJ Dennis and Jayden Nunn and freshman Ja’Kobe Walter will need to step into that void, and Walter certainly did so in the opener against Auburn with a game-high 28 points. Fellow freshman Yves Missi also provided some remarkable energy plays late in that come-from-behind victory.
Perhaps by mid-December, they’ll be ready to topple these preseason No. 1 seeds.

21. No. 16 Kentucky vs. No. 19 North Carolina (Dec. 16 in Atlanta)
It’s two of the three winningest programs in men’s college basketball history, but which blue blood will enter conference play as the more legitimate threat to add another Final Four banner to its rafters?
That may well depend upon who wins this mid-December battle in Atlanta.
North Carolina has considerably more experience on its roster, but John Calipari is no stranger to the freshman-heavy life. It’s been a few years since he had to rely on this many first-year players, but the Wildcats could have something special brewing with D.J. Wagner and Justin Edwards in the spotlight.
20. No. 6 Connecticut vs. No. 19 North Carolina (Dec. 5 in New York City)
The other half of the aforementioned Jimmy V Classic (FAU-Illinois) will feature last year’s national champion against the team who entered last season as the favorite to win it all.
Both the Huskies and the Tar Heels enter this season with what looks like one of the best inside-outside duos in the nation—Donovan Clingan and Tristen Newton for UConn; Armando Bacot and R.J. Davis for UNC—as well as a desperate need for their 5-star freshman to be as good as advertised.
Will Connecticut’s Stephon Castle or North Carolina’s Elliot Cadeau make the better early impression?
19. No. 25 Illinois @ No. 9 Tennessee (Dec. 9)
The first of 11 true road games on this list will pit this pair of orange-and-white squads against each other for the first time in a long time.
Illinois and Tennessee haven’t met since January 1988, all the way back during Rick Barnes’ first season as a head coach, then at George Mason.
Will Barnes’ Volunteers be able to protect home court, or will the Illini use size to their advantage to score a huge road win? Between this game and the UNC-Tennessee matchup higher on the list, we should get a good early sense of whether the Vols have enough of a frontcourt presence to contend for a title.

18. No. 7 Houston vs. No. 15 Texas A&M (Dec. 16 in Houston)
Neither of these teams went out of its way to put together a good nonconference schedule.
Save for Texas A&M likely facing Florida Atlantic in the semifinals of the ESPN Events Invitational, this is the only game either team will play against a preseason Top 25 opponent until mid-January.
As such, the loser of what figures to be a very physical affair will be getting a ton of “OK, but who have you beaten?” questions until at least midway through their conference slate. The Aggies typically aren’t a prolific three-point shooting team, but they’ll likely need a good number of triples to knock off the Cougars.
17. No. 6 Connecticut vs. No. 11 Gonzaga (Dec. 15 in Seattle)
Play this game at The Kennel instead of in Seattle and it easily jumps into the top 10.
Even so, it’s a huge game between teams who squared off in the Elite Eight less than eight months ago.
Gonzaga would rather not be reminded of that 28-point blowout loss, but every other previous Huskies-Bulldogs clash was pretty great, all five decided by five points or fewer.
16. No. 5 Marquette @ No. 25 Illinois (Nov. 14)
The Champions Classic will take center stage on Nov. 14, but this is the one night during the first month of the season when you are definitely going to need a second screen.
Aside from Olivier-Maxence Prosper, Marquette brings back everyone from the team that won both the regular-season and conference tournament titles in the Big East.
Because of that, this is the first time since 1977 that the Golden Eagles opened a season ranked in the AP Top 10, let alone the Top 5. But will they survive this early road test against the Illinois team that knocked off No. 1 Kansas in an exhibition game?

15. No. 24 Alabama @ No. 8 Creighton (Dec. 16)
Might be a bit high with this one, but you can’t go wrong with a marquee game in Omaha.
This was almost an Elite Eight pairing last March, except San Diego State knocked out both of these teams consecutively, denying them the chance to get to the Final Four for what would have been the first time in either program’s history.
Better late than never, though, and it’s a big one for Creighton. The Bluejays otherwise will not play a nonconference game against a team that entered the season ranked higher than 50th on KenPom. Lose this home game at the end of a less-than-daunting nonconference schedule and there will be some serious questions heading into Big East play.
14. No. 17 San Diego State @ No. 11 Gonzaga (Dec. 29)
Did you know these teams have only met three times in the past seven decades, the most recent of which was six seasons ago?
You could have told me this was an annual nonconference game and I would’ve believed you. But perhaps I’m just wishing we’d get more games between these two West Coast-based, non-power conference programs that made it to the national championship in 2017 (Gonzaga), 2021 (Gonzaga) and 2023 (San Diego State).
Per usual, Gonzaga will be plenty battle-tested by this point in the year. For San Diego State, though, this will be by far its biggest opportunity of the entire season to prove that this year’s team is capable of repeating the magic from last March.
13. No. 9 Tennessee @ No. 19 North Carolina (Nov. 29)
Solely from a “contrasting styles of play” perspective, this should be one of the most fascinating games of November.
Over the past three seasons, Tennessee has had maybe the best defense in all of college basketball. And while North Carolina’s offense hasn’t been anywhere near as prolific as it was for the first 15 or so years of Roy Williams’ run in Chapel Hill, you know the Tar Heels are going to want to push the pace and play a more high-scoring affair.
Does Hubert Davis leverage the home-court advantage to get the better of Rick Barnes, or will this be a result that exacerbates the already mounting frustration with the third-year head coach?

12. No. 12 Arizona vs. No. 10 Florida Atlantic (Dec. 23 in Las Vegas)

11. No. 12 Arizona vs. No. 4 Michigan State (Nov. 23 in Palm Springs)
10. No. 12 Arizona vs. No. 3 Purdue (Dec. 16 in Indianapolis)
You’ve got to admire Tommy Lloyd bringing the “We’ll play anyone anywhere” mentality with him from Gonzaga to Arizona.
Back in the olden days under Lute Olson, that’s just how the Wildcats used to operate. The year they won it all (1996-97), they played six nonconference games against ranked opponents. Five years later (2001-02), they opened the season with five consecutive games against ranked opponents.
This year’s nonconference schedule isn’t quite that absurd, but Arizona does play four games away from home against AP Top 10 opponents, as well as the aforementioned neutral-site game against Alabama and a home game against Wisconsin, which is “No. 26” in the preseason AP poll.
Not exactly tiptoeing their way into the final year of Pac-12 conference play here.
Of this neutral-site trio for Arizona, the Purdue matchup is the most intriguing. We’ll find out if Oumar Ballo can hold his own against Zach Edey, how Purdue’s backcourt will respond if Caleb Love goes on one of his unconscious runs and—maybe most importantly—how Arizona responds if Love gets into one of his heat check frenzies.
However, it doesn’t get much better than FAU-Arizona in Las Vegas two days before Christmas. Neither team has a single-digit ranking and it’s a neutral-site contest, so this is the highest I can justify ranking it. But it’s a game dripping with the potential for greatness.

9. No. 13 Miami @ No. 16 Kentucky (Nov. 28)
En route to last year’s Final Four, Miami captured offensive lightning in a bottle, riding leading scorers Isaiah Wong and Jordan Miller on an incredible run.
With that duo now out of the picture, the Hurricanes might be this season’s biggest unknown. The AP voters love them, but the computers (KenPom, BartTorvik, EvanMiya and Haslametrics) all agree this is a borderline top 50 team that maybe didn’t even deserve to be in preseason bracket projections.
Waltz out of Lexington with a W, though, and those computers would have to start believing in The U.
8. No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 16 Kentucky (Nov. 14 in Chicago)

7. No. 2 Duke vs. No. 4 Michigan State (Nov. 14 in Chicago)
What’s funny about this incredible neutral-site event is that as far as AP rankings for Champions Classics go, this year’s installment is maybe a C-plus.
In each of 2015 and 2016, all four teams were ranked 13th or better. In 2018, all four teams were ranked in the Top 10. In 2017, they were all Top 7. In 2013 they each ranked in the Top 5. And in 2019, it was No. 1 vs. No. 2 and No. 3 vs. No. 4.
Of this year’s two games, Kansas-Kentucky is the one more likely to get out of hand. Not only are the Wildcats going to be one of the youngest teams in the country this season, but they might not have any of their 7-footers available for this game.
Both Aaron Bradshaw and Ugonna Onyenso are recovering from foot surgery while Zvonimir Ivisic still has not been cleared by the NCAA. And if they can’t go, good luck shutting down Hunter Dickinson and the Jayhawks with one true frontcourt player (Tre Mitchell).
Duke-Michigan State should be incredible, though, and it got a lot more interesting with MSU’s home loss to JMU on opening night.
If the Spartans win this game, we quickly forgive them for perhaps overlooking a solid mid-major. But if Duke wins in convincing fashion, the takes about Michigan State being just as overrated as North Carolina was last year will be straight fire.

6. No. 3 Purdue vs. No. 11 Gonzaga (Nov. 20 in Honolulu)
This is the highest-ranked neutral-site game, but it’s not because we necessarily expect it to be a better game than the Duke-Michigan State, Purdue-Arizona or Gonzaga-Connecticut neutral-site affairs.
Rather, Purdue-Gonzaga was the clear choice for the top off-campus clash because of what’s at stake in the Maui Invitational.
The winner of this game moves on to presumably face No. 9 Tennessee in the semifinals, with either No. 1 Kansas or No. 5 Marquette lurking as its final opponent on the winner’s side of the bracket. Meanwhile, the loser likely draws Syracuse on Tuesday and either UCLA or Chaminade on Wednesday.
Even if the Purdue-Gonzaga winner proceeds to lose its next two games while the loser rallies to win its next two, the Purdue-Gonzaga winner clearly leaves Maui having made the better impact on its NCAA tournament resume—not to mention getting more adequately tested for the long run.
However, if the winner of this game goes on to win the Maui Invitational, you can go ahead and pencil it into the No. 1 spot in the Nov. 27 AP poll.
5. No. 11 Gonzaga @ No. 16 Kentucky (Feb. 10)
After eight consecutive years of the Big 12/SEC Challenge delivering some awesome nonconference hoops on the final Saturday of January, that event no longer exists, leaving January-March as almost exclusively conference games now.
Almost.
Though the first game of the Gonzaga-Kentucky six-game series was a November 2022 clash in Spokane, Round 2 will go down just a few days before Valentine’s Day in Lexington.
It’s been a while since Gonzaga had a February nonconference game, but it used to do so on a regular basis, often scheduling a late-season contest against Memphis when John Calipari was coaching there. This will be the Zags’ first-ever road game against Kentucky, though.
4. No. 12 Arizona @ No. 2 Duke (Nov. 10)
The first eight days of the regular season leave an awful lot to be desired, especially if you don’t have a Peacock subscription to watch the Texas A&M-Ohio State and Tennessee-Wisconsin games on Nov. 10.
But Duke hosting Arizona on a Friday night?
Meeting for just the third time since the 2001 national championship?
With former Tar Heel Caleb Love returning to Cameron Indoor?
It won’t be too difficult getting amped up to watch this one.

3. No. 18 Texas @ No. 5 Marquette (Dec. 6)
This one would make a stronger case for No. 1 if it were at Texas, which would mean Shaka Smart returning to the place where he couldn’t manage to win a single NCAA tournament game in six seasons.
Not that there’s anything close to “Chris Beard returning to Texas Tech as the head coach of Texas” levels of animosity from the fans toward Smart, but it would have been more of a narrative if the game were in Austin.
As is, this should be a sensational contest, and one ripe for a drastic overreaction about Texas.
If the Longhorns go on the road and win this game against a popular Final Four pick, fire up the “Texas Is Back” bandwagon. Max Abmas for Newcomer of the Year. Dillon Mitchell for Breakout Player of the Year. Rodney Terry for Coach of the Year. Go nuts in there.
But if Texas loses this game—and also loses the Empire Classic championship game against Connecticut on Nov. 20—there will instantly be questions about the decision to give Terry the full-time job and questions about Texas’ nonconference schedule in general.
2. No. 2 Duke @ No. 14 Arkansas (Nov. 29)
It’s always a bit shocking when Duke plays a true road game in nonconference play. Over the past decade, that pretty much only happened in the ACC-B1G Challenge. But now this game at Arkansas is the headliner of the inaugural ACC-SEC Challenge—a new event also responsible for the aforementioned Tennessee-UNC and Miami-Kentucky matchups.
And with all due respect to North Carolina, Bud Walton Arena might be the toughest venue Duke has played in in a long time.
There will be 20,000 Razorbacks fans there going wild—especially if Arkansas wins the Battle 4 Atlantis the previous week, making this game a chance to vault into the AP Top 5 for what would be the first time in nearly three decades.
1. No. 6 Connecticut @ No. 1 Kansas (Dec. 1)
Pretty hard to argue with the reigning national champion going on the road to one of the most iconic venues in college basketball to face the preseason favorite to win it all.
In particular, 7’2″ Donovan Clingan vs. 7’2″ Hunter Dickinson will be a phenomenal individual showdown. Either one could be the top challenger in Zach Edey’s quest to repeat as National Player of the Year, and this head-to-head battle could provide a big leg up for one of those big men.
And would you believe these schools have only met once in the past quarter century, in the second round of the 2016 NCAA tournament? It seems almost impossible that two of the best programs could just keep passing like ships in the night, but it’s great that it will finally happen in a year when both start out in the AP Top 10 for the first time since 2004.

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