College basketball is finally coming back on Friday, November 10. This year is going to be pretty interesting if you have been following sports news in the last month.

This season may not be completely about what happens on the court for teams around college basketball. The FBI has been investigating certain schools around the country for paying recruits under the table. This investigation has taken the spotlight off of the basketball part of the season due to coaches being fired and a couple of assistant coaches being arrested. Let’s stay on the positive side of this year and focus on basketball.

The defending national champions, the North Carolina Tar Heels, are ranked 9 in the preseason AP poll. They will be returning three key players from last year with Joel Berry, Theo Pinson, and Luke Maye. Berry will miss at least the first three games of the year after breaking his hand punching a door. The big question for the Heels is if they will have a forward who can rebound regularly. Head Coach Roy Williams has always based his system off of being able to rebound on both ends of the floor.

The number one ranked team in the country is the Duke Blue Devils. Their key returning player is point guard Grayson Allen. He got a lot backlash in the media last year for tripping opposing players on multiple occasions. Coach Mike Kryzewski says that he has done a lot of maturing over the offseason. Duke bolsters another top 10 draft class with most of their starters being freshman.

The dark horse for the national title this year is Wichita State. The Shockers are ranked 7 to start the year, and they always have a good season.  They are one of the few schools in the country who return a strong senior class because they do not recruit one and dones. They lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year to a strong Kentucky team.

The Shockers are not the only new team to the top 25. Saint Mary’s and Seton Hall, among others, have made an appearance in the top 25 this year. These teams are hoping to make a deep run in the tournament this year after struggling last year.

College basketball is going to have an interesting year this year after all of the FBI investigations and coach arrests. Hopefully, everyone can start focusing on the basketball part of the season now that the season is starting.