CBS Sports graphic
Two kinda-interesting days to start this college basketball season were followed by two filled with blah — evidence being that, between Wednesday and Thursday, only four teams in the CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings took the court, never against each other.
All four games with ranked teams featured a good high-major vs. an overmatched mid-major or low-major with the average margin of victory in those contests being 38.5 points. As I write every season, in some form, this is among the biggest flaws with the sport in November and December, how there are simply too many games between teams that shouldn’t even be competing against each other. But I digress.
Anyway …
Friday should get us back on track and provide something compelling with the most notable game originating at the Dean E. Smith Center, where Darryn Peterson and the Kansas Jayhawks will play North Carolina.
Kansas vs. North Carolina prediction, pick, odds, spread: Jayhawks face Tar Heels in showdown of blue bloods
Cameron Salerno
“Certainly playing at their place, in front of 21, 22 (thousand fans), whatever the number is, will be a tough, tough, tough challenge,” said Kansas coach Bill Self. “But [it’s] one that we need to go through to kind of see where we’re at and hopefully learn from.”
The chance to see Peterson on this stage, so early in his college career, is especially cool. The 6-foot-6 guard is among the obvious candidates to be selected first overall in the 2026 NBA Draft. In his debut against Green Bay, Peterson took 11 shots, made seven of them and finished with 21 points, four rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block in 22 minutes. I can’t wait to see how he’ll perform in his first road game, against his first quality opponent.
Kansas is No. 15 in Friday morning’s updated Top 25 And 1. North Carolina is No. 24. The Jayhawks and Tar Heels are set to tip a little after 7 p.m. ET.
