Welcome back to the Starting 5. The Starting 5 is written multiple times per week by Adam Spencer to keep you up-to-date on all the news and events in the world of college hoops. You can follow Adam on Twitter at @AdamSpencer4 and @BlueChipGrit.

1. Opening Tipoff

Kentucky tipped off its 2022-23 season on Monday evening against Howard. It was the first SEC men’s basketball game of the year in terms of tipoff time, and it was certainly nice to get a look at the team ranked No. 1 by KenPom.com.

The Wildcats were without reigning National and SEC Player of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe as he continues to recover from an offseason surgery. Kentucky was also missing last year’s SEC assists leader, Sahvir Wheeler.

But, that didn’t slow the Wildcats down at all. Kentucky cruised to a 95-63 win even without its 2 veteran leaders. That’s because Iowa transfer CJ Fredrick, who missed last year with an injury, and Illinois State transfer Antonio Reeves led the way, with Reeves scoring 22 points and Fredrick adding 20. The duo shot 8-for-17 from 3-point range as the Wildcats knocked down 45.8% of their long-range shots.

That’s going to be a major key moving forward. Those guys are in Lexington to do exactly what they did on Monday night. We’ll see if they can keep it going.

  • The key to this year’s success in Lexington might be the development of forward Jacob Toppin. This sequence from the first half shows just how talented he can be:

  • That’s Toppin playing solid help-side defense, grabbing a rebound and bringing the ball up the court to initiate the offense. Then, as Kentucky moves the ball around the perimeter, Toppin moves into some space and confidently buries a 3-pointer. That was a great defense-to-offense possession for Toppin. If he can continue to play smart like that, he’ll be a major part of the Wildcats’ march toward the Final Four.
  • Cason Wallace is a talented playmaker, but he’s at his best in transition. Within a couple of minutes in the second half, Wallace had 2 transition assists – 1 on a beautiful give-and-go to CJ Fredrick, the other setting up an easy dunk for Chris Livingston. Here’s the assist to Livingston:

  • Wallace will be counted on to fill some of the playmaking role occupied by TyTy Washington last year. So far? So good!

I’ll go as far as to say I think the Wildcats will win the national title this year:

It’s an early prediction, yes, but if Kentucky is healthy at the end of the year, I think John Calipari will be cutting down the nets in Houston when all is said and done this season.

2. Home-Court Advantage

Arkansas has a trio of elite freshmen – Nick Smith Jr., Anthony Black and Jordan Walsh. But, in a 76-58 win over North Dakota State on Monday night, the experienced players had the best performances.

Ricky Council IV had a game-high 22 points. Mizzou transfer Trevon Brazile had 21 points and 12 rebounds. Devo Davis added 18 points. Smith didn’t play due to “right knee management.” Black and Walsh combined for 7 points and 8 fouls in 48 minutes – not a great start.

But, this was always going to be a work in progress early in the season for Eric Musselman’s squad. I’m not concerned about the freshmen, and you shouldn’t be either.

Until then, if Council keeps doing things like this, the Hogs will be just fine:

Now, let’s take a look around the rest of the SEC:

  • When all is said and done this year, Tennessee might be the best defensive team. The Vols had some struggles offensively on Monday night in a big win over Tennessee Tech, but they did hold their opponents to only 43 points in the 75-43 victory. Tyreke Key was an impact player, leading the Vols with 17 points in his first outing on Rocky Top. Zakai Zeigler was 4-for-14 from the floor for 12 points, including an abysmal 2-for-12 from beyond the arc. That’s not a winning recipe moving forward, but there’s still time for this team’s offensive identity to develop. That defense will keep Tennessee in every game this year.
  • I’m going to be honest – I didn’t envision Mizzou struggling this much against Southern Indiana on Monday night. Continuing the honesty train, I didn’t know Southern Indiana was a school until Monday night. I certainly didn’t know its nickname was “Screaming Eagles.” That’s something. Then, Mizzou went out and only beat Southern Indiana 97-91. The Tigers let Jelani Simmons score 23 points to lead all scorers. Fortunately, Kobe Brown wasn’t going to let his team suffer an embarrassing upset loss. He had 20 points, 14 rebound and a highlight-reel dunk:

  • This wasn’t the start I thought the Tigers would have to the Dennis Gates era, but they’re 1-0. I’m a bit worried about Missouri State transfer Isiaih Mosley, who had only 4 points on 2-for-7 shooting (0-for-3 from 3-point range) in 16 minutes. The Tigers need him to be more of an offensive threat moving forward. Fortunately, there’s still time for this team to jell. Not a good look in Game 1, though.

Now, let’s take a look around the rest of the college hoops world.

3. Other Notes

Keep an eye on Baylor this year. As you saw above, I have the Bears losing the national championship game to Kentucky this year. They’re that talented. Adam Flagler has been a sixth man on a couple of deeper teams during his career, but now he’s the guy in Waco.

In the season opener, a 117-53 blowout win over Mississippi Valley State, Flagler had 21 points and 8 assists. Here’s Flagler showing off his 3-point range:

But, Flagler is far from a one-man show in the Baylor backcourt. LJ Cryer is back after dealing with an injury last year. And 5-star freshman Keyonte George made an immediate impact in his first collegiate game:

In fact, George has the talent to be a truly special player. This guy already looks like a seasoned veteran, not a young freshman:

In the post, Flo Thamba is a rebound machine and great rim protector. The Bears were without Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua alongside Thamba, as JTT continues to recover from a knee injury suffered last season. Once he’s back in the mix, this is a Baylor team that can compete for a Big 12 and national title this year.

Here are some other observations from around the country:

  • There are a lot of new faces at Duke, including in the head coach’s chair. Mike Krzyzewski is officially retired, with Jon Scheyer taking the reins of the blue-blood Blue Devils. Duke also has a trio of 5-star freshmen in Dariq Whitehead, Dereck Lively II and Kyle Filipowski. But, make no mistake – especially for the early going this year, this is junior Jeremy Roach’s team. He scored 16 points in the first half of the season-opener against Jacksonville, confidently knocking down a few 3-pointers:

  • It’ll be his job to lead this team and guide the freshmen as they learn what college basketball is all about. He’ll be Scheyer’s best asset through the first couple of months of the 2022-23 season.
  • Drew Timme is going to be the focus of Gonzaga’s offense this year. Even without Chet Holmgren next to him, even without Andrew Nembhard distributing the ball to him, Timme couldn’t be stopped in Gonzaga’s 104-63 victory over North Florida. He scored 22 points, grabbed 2 rebounds and dished out 2 assists. This Gonzaga team doesn’t seem to have the same level of talent (we’ll discuss that in a bit) as years past, but Timme is still there, and that makes the Bulldogs a Final Four contender.
  • If Terrence Shannon Jr. can take the next step at Illinois after transferring from Texas Tech, the Illini will be a Final Four-caliber team. Shannon led the Illini to an 87-57 win over Eastern Illinois on Monday, scoring 24 points to go with 8 rebounds and 2 assists. He was all over the court, even making contributions on defense:

  • Coleman Hawkins had 23 points and 12 rebounds. That’s a strong duo. The rest of the roster will need to develop behind them, but this is a good team for Brad Underwood.

Next, let’s take a look at the next few days on the college basketball schedule.

4. Outlet Pass

There aren’t many elite games on the schedule in the first few days of the season as top squads ease their way into the 2022-23 campaign. But, this is a great opportunity to get eyes on some teams that will feature some new players in key spots. So, here are the 5 games I’m most excited to watch between now and the weekend:

  1. Michigan State vs. No. 2 Gonzaga (Friday at 6:30 p.m. ET on ESPN) – This is easily the best game on the schedule the first few days of this season. I’m a bit surprised the Spartans aren’t ranked, but Tom Izzo’s squad has had some struggles in recent years. Still, this is a game the Bulldogs can’t overlook early in the year.
  2. Liberty at No. 20 Alabama (Friday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN+) – The Tide are an interesting team this year. They could come together and earn a top-3 finish in the SEC. Or, they could fall apart, struggle defensively and end up outside the top 6. We’ll learn a lot about the Tide in this game, as Liberty always plays tough under coach Ritchie McKay.
  3. Bethune-Cookman at No. 13 Indiana (Thursday at 8:30 p.m. ET on BTN) – This will be a good chance to get a look at Indiana big man Trayce Jackson-Davis. He’s the favorite to win the Big Ten Player of the Year award and there are major expectations for Mike Woodson’s Hoosiers this season. This should be an easy win, but we’ll see how Jackson-Davis’s supporting cast looks.
  4. No. 16 Villanova at Temple (Friday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPNU) – These Philadelphia matchups are always fun. Yes, Villanova has been in a class by itself when it comes to the city games lately, but Jay Wright retired and there’s a new sheriff at Villanova. I’m excited to see what Kyle Neptune brings to the table.
  5. North Dakota State at No. 5 Kansas (Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN+) – A chance to get a look at the reigning champions (as a Mizzou grad, it kills me to say that) is always interesting. The Jayhawks will be without coach Bill Self, who has been suspended for 4 games. We’ll see if the NCAA accepts that self-imposed “punishment” or if more penalties are coming down the road for this program.

As mentioned, there’s not a lot of meat on the bone when it comes to the schedule the next few days. But, hey, college basketball is back! That’s something to celebrate and I will certainly be watching as much as I can as the season gets underway.

5. My Top 5 Teams

You know by now that I have Kentucky winning it all this year. Thus, the Wildcats are heading into the season as my No. 1 team. But, here’s how the rest of my top 5 shakes out as we get ready to get things started in the 2022-23 campaign:

  1. Kentucky – See the opening section. I love the Wildcats this year. Lots of depth, lots of top-end talent, plenty of shooting. Now it’s just about John Calipari and his ability to coach his guys into a cohesive unit by March.
  2. Gonzaga – Drew Timme coming back is the headliner here. He’ll challenge Oscar Tshiebwe for National Player of the Year. But, the Bulldogs also get Rasir Bolton and Julian Strawther back this season. Both of those guys started 30+ games for Gonzaga last season and averaged more than 11 points a contest. That’s a fearsome trio for any opponent to try to stop.
  3. North Carolina – While I think the Tar Heels will have a hard time replacing Brady Manek, every other contributor is back. Armando Bacot is one of the best big men in the country. Caleb Love and RJ Davis return in the backcourt. Leaky Black and Puff Johnson are talented players. Then, there’s newcomer Pete Nance. The 6-11 big man is a 1,000-point scorer from his time at Northwestern and he’ll form perhaps the best front-court tandem in the country with Bacot. Hubert Davis has plenty of elite talent to work with on this team.
  4. Houston – Kelvin Sampson is an incredible coach. Marcus Sasser, Jamal Shead and a few other players have elite talent. This team battled some injuries last year and still made it to the Elite Eight. If the Cougars can stay healthy, they should run the AAC and earn a great seed in the NCAA Tournament.
  5. Tennessee – The Vols should be elite defensively and should have enough offensive firepower to beat anyone in the country. Santiago Vescovi is a great talent and Julian Phillips is an intriguing freshman. Tyreke Key and Zakai Zeigler form an entertaining backcourt tandem. This should be a fun team to watch this year.

There are plenty of teams that are intriguing options, but just missed the top 5. Reigning champion Kansas is one. Duke is another. We’ll see how each top team looks in its opening game and then reevaluate things moving forward.

Enjoy the Starting 5? Have a question? Want to yell at me about something? Follow me on Twitter @AdamSpencer4 or email me at ASpencer@SaturdayDownSouth.com.