College Basketball Overreactions: Nov. 13

College basketball season has returned, and although it is early, it is certainly reasonable to overreact to everything in the CBB world.

So with that being said let’s look at three early-season overreactions

Penn State is a tournament team

Penn State may be a basketball school, hear me out.

Coach Mike Rhoades and the Nittany Lions have gotten out to an incredible start this season. The team has scored over 90 points in three straight games for the first time in 29 years.

After finishing last year with a 16-17 record, coach Rhoades hit the recruiting trail and transfer portal hard. Bringing in transfers such as Kachi Nzeh and Freddie Dilione V, and recruits such as Miles Goodman and Hudson Ward.

But the most important player, and the one that I believe makes PSU a tournament team, is Yanic Konan Niederhauser.

Niederhauser, an NIU transfer, adds something that Penn State hasn’t had in a long time. A true big man.

He’s seven feet tall but is also able to space the floor and shoot from a three-point range. Niederhauser is an incredible fit for the squad around him.

Niederhauser is averaging 15 points a game this season collecting seven rebounds and over a block per contest. Having a player like Niederhauser allows Penn State to match up with some of the other Big Ten big men.

The additions made to this team are huge, but the players returning might be just as important.

Penn State returns starters Zach Hicks and Puff Johnson who were key pieces in their season last year.

The biggest returnee is reigning Big Ten defensive player of the year Ace Baldwin Jr.

Baldwin Jr. averaged 14 points last season while collecting over 2 steals a game. His stingy defense is what propelled the team to multiple ranked upsets last season.

The main concern with the Nittany Lions last season was the offense, so far this season that hasn’t been a problem.

Expect the Nittany Lions to make a run in the Big Ten tournament this season and be dancing in March. Or this could be way too early to make that call, who knows?

Alabama Will not be the SEC No. 1 seed

Alabama basketball had a great season last year, falling to the eventual national champion UConn in the Final Four.

But with the start to their season so far, I cannot fathom them being the number one seed in the SEC tourney, let alone being the number one seed for the national tournament.

The Crimson Tide barely got past McNeese and Arkansas St winning by less than double digits in both games. Most teams do not struggle against mid-majors, so these games being as close as they were worried me.

But that’s not the only thing to be worried about.

Defensively this team is not great, and if the offense can’t get this team over the hump I believe that a hungrier SEC team, such as Auburn, would take over and win the SEC regular season title.

Auburn went viral over the past weeks for an incident on a plane that caused a delay in the travel to their game against ranked Houston. They would then go on to upset Houston in that game.

So far this season, Auburn is shooting nearly 40 percent from three. Tahaad Pettiford connected on five to propel the Tigers in the upset over Houston.

All in all, I don’t think Alabama has what it takes to be the SEC’s best. They still may be a tournament team, but not a top-seed kind of team.

Cooper Flagg is the best player in college basketball

Yeah, I said it, the best.

Flagg is a unicorn when it comes to college basketball and basketball in general. He was the number one recruit in the country by far, with a 97 grade from scouts.

And so far, he has lived up to the hype for the Duke Blue Devils.

In his first big game for Duke, he dropped 26 points against fellow blueblood Kentucky. Although this was not enough, Flagg proved his mettle against one of the best teams in college basketball.

Flagg has such raw talent that as he plays more games, I think he becomes a more refined and better player overall.

One area Flagg can improve on is his three-point shooting, Flagg is serviceable but with some refinement could become a solid shooter.

When the NBA draft rolls around I expect Flagg to be a top pick if not the first pick in the draft, but he has a whole season ahead of him to prove that he is the best player in college basketball.

Luke Stefanisko is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email ljs6415@psu.edu.