First practices open, Blue Ribbon picks Florida No. 1, and Houston loses Carlton for the year

College basketball opened its first official practices on Monday, Sept. 21, six weeks before the season's first game in Rome. NC State started Monday and Tennessee begins Tuesday, dates set by the NCAA rule that lets a team practice 42 days before its first scheduled game. 12

Colorado's men's and women's teams open Wednesday, and Tad Boyle has 10 newcomers and four returning scholarship players to sort out before the Nov. 2 opener against Abilene Christian. 3 Practice is also where the gap between the roster a program signed and the roster it can use becomes visible, and several programs open those six weeks with that gap still open.

Chris Dortch's Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook released its preseason top 25 on Sept. 17, and put Florida first. Duke, Illinois, Michigan State and Arizona follow, with Tennessee sixth, Texas seventh, Houston eighth, Arkansas ninth and Connecticut tenth. 4 Gonzaga sits at 23, Ohio State at 24 and North Carolina at 25. The board is a yearbook's projection; the AP and coaches polls arrive later in the fall.

Texas is one of four SEC teams in the top 10, and the Longhorns return one starter, junior center Matas Vokietaitis, from a team that finished 21-15 and reached the Sweet 16. Sean Miller's staff added 11 newcomers across the transfer portal and the freshman class, a group 247Sports ranked first in the country. 4

The individual watch lists are out too. Hoops HQ published 10 Wooden Award candidates on Sept. 16, led by Florida forward Thomas Haugh, who averaged 17.1 points and 6.1 rebounds last season, and Michigan State guard Jeremy Fears Jr., the national assist leader at 9.4 per game. The rest of the top 10 includes Duke transfer John Blackwell, Vanderbilt's Tyler Tanner, Illinois forward David Mirkovic, Kansas freshman Tyran Stokes, Arizona freshman Caleb Holt, Tennessee transfer Juke Harris and Louisville big man Flory Bidunga. 5 These are analyst picks made before anyone has played a possession.

Two injuries will shape the first weeks of practice. Tennessee guard Tyler Lundblade, the Vols' best three-point shooter, will be limited when practice opens after back surgery in August, though Knox News reports he is nearing full health. 6 Iowa State sophomore guard Killyan Toure hurt a shoulder in the preseason, which leaves the Cyclones leaning on their portal class while Tamin Lipsey's fifth-year case runs. 1

Two 2027 recruiting wins landed inside the week. Creighton took a commitment from point guard Micah Gordon on Sept. 19; Gordon is No. 30 in ESPN's SC Next 100 and becomes the highest-ranked recruit in program history. 7 Ohio State added two four-star prospects two days apart: forward Deng Ngor announced on Sept. 17, and guard Jaxson Davis followed the next day. 8

Houston announced on Sept. 19 that transfer forward Justice Carlton will miss the 2026-27 season with a left knee injury she suffered in the preseason. Carlton, a McDonald's All-American and the No. 12 recruit in the 2024 class, spent two seasons at Texas, where she averaged 8.5 points and 4.1 rebounds last year and started 28 of 39 games on a team that reached the Final Four. 9 Houston went 7-23 last season and has not posted a winning record since 2021-22, and the Cougars built this roster around her.

UConn held an open practice at Sacred Heart's Pitt Center in Fairfield on Sept. 20, and nine of the 13 players on the roster took part. Blanca Quiñonez is working back from offseason shoulder surgery and is on track for the Nov. 2 opener against Cornell. 1011

Allie Ziebell watched in a boot after twisting an ankle in the first practice drill, and Marine Dursus has been managing a foot injury from her time in France. Geno Auriemma was least certain about Morgan Cheli: "Morgan, they told me she'd be ready," he said, shaking his head. 10 The calendar has moved on him as well. "We used to not be able to start practicing until Oct. 15," Auriemma said. "Now we have a scrimmage in front of people on Oct. 12." 10

Four women's programs added 2027 commitments in the week:

TCU and Washington traded guards: Buse chose the Horned Frogs over South Carolina, Oregon, Utah and Washington, and Patterson picked the Huskies two days later, with TCU among the schools she turned down. Kansas took Borden, a 6-foot guard from Sumner, Washington who averaged 16.0 points and 5.5 rebounds as a junior and joins Amillia Prochnow in the Jayhawks' 2027 class. 121314

On Sept. 15 the Senate voted 74-24 to end debate on the Protect College Sports Act, clearing the 60-vote threshold that moves the bill toward a final vote. The bill would write into law the 22% cap on revenue that schools may share with players, about $21.5 million this year, and add a $27.5 million retention pool. It would also limit players to one transfer without sitting out a season and codify the NCAA's five-years-and-no-more eligibility rule. 16 Those provisions would set the rules for future seasons, and this season's rosters are being settled one hearing at a time.

Texas Tech forward Darrion Williams, a projected starter on a team with top-10 expectations, has a hearing on Sept. 21; teammate Donovan Atwell's is Oct. 15. St. John's Babacar Sane appeals an NCAA ineligibility ruling on Oct. 1, and Texas A&M's Jordan Pope and Rylan Griffen have preliminary injunction hearings this month. 1 Sixteen Big 12 players and 12 in the SEC are still hoping a judge restores a fifth year, and the outcomes decide whether St. John's fields a contender or a team fighting for a tournament spot. LSU plays an exhibition against McNeese before the season and still cannot say who will be available for it. 1

No games have been played, and none will be for six weeks. The season opens Nov. 1 in Rome, where Notre Dame and Villanova play a doubleheader at the Palazzetto dello Sport — the men at 9:30 a.m. Eastern, the women at noon — and the domestic schedule fills in from Nov. 2. Both NCAA tournaments expand to 76 teams this season. 1117

Until then the AP and coaches polls, the NCAA's NET rankings, KenPom's numbers and every conference standing stay dark. The rankings and roster judgments above are projections made before a possession has been played, and the practice reports are the first evidence anyone has.