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  "id": "894",
  "slug": "college-basketball-opens-with-centers-in-the-spotlight",
  "edition": "2026-10-31T00",
  "url": "https://hangingcontext.com/stories/2026-10-31/college-basketball-opens-with-centers-in-the-spotlight/",
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  "newsroom_title": "Sports",
  "angle": "College basketball's 2026-27 season tips off Monday, with preseason watch lists putting the center position first.",
  "headline": "College basketball tips off Monday, and the centers get the first spotlight",
  "dek": "Texas Tech, Cal and James Madison open their seasons on Monday, while the Lisa Leslie and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar watch lists name the centers to track.",
  "published_at": "2026-10-31T00:40:05Z",
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    "trust_text": "Confirmed · 9 sources",
    "newsroom": "Sports"
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    {
      "text": "No. 19 Texas Tech opens its 102nd season on Monday, November 2, 2026, hosting Jackson State, riding a 46-game non-conference home winning streak.",
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      "text": "Cal opens November 2 against Adams State and plays Radford on November 4, with nine newcomers and nine returners in its third ACC season.",
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      "text": "James Madison opens its 105th women's season at Miami (Ohio) on Monday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN+, as the Sun Belt preseason favorite.",
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      "text": "The 2027 Lisa Leslie Award watch list has 20 candidates, including Texas center Breya Cunningham, Syracuse center Izoje and Baylor center Kate Koval.",
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      "text": "The Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award watch list has 20 candidates, including Miami center Cyril and Florida State freshman center Marcis Ponder.",
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    {
      "heading": "Monday is opening night",
      "paragraphs": [
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          "markdown": "No. 19 Texas Tech opens the 102nd season in program history on Monday, November 2, 2026, hosting Jackson State at United Supermarkets Arena. The Red Raiders enter the matchup riding a 46-game non-conference home winning streak, with a roster of 14 players including five returners and nine newcomers under head coach Grant McCasland. They lost 76-65 to Kentucky in a preseason exhibition, and Jackson State finished last season 12-21 under first-year head coach Trey Jackson.",
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          "markdown": "California men's basketball also begins its 2026-27 season on November 2, against Adams State at Haas Pavilion, followed by Radford on November 4. The program enters its third season in the ACC with nine newcomers and nine returning players, and it announced a multi-year jersey sponsorship with Dialpad, which the program calls the largest corporate partnership in its history and the inaugural jersey patch sponsor for all 30 Bears sports programs. Head coach Mark Madsen is one of two current Division I head coaches who won an NBA title as a player.",
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          "markdown": "On the women's side, James Madison opens its 105th season on the road against Miami (Ohio) in the MAC-SBC Challenge, broadcast on ESPN+ at 7 p.m. ET on Monday night, with Miami hosting the matchup as its own season opener. The Dukes enter as the preseason favorite in the Sun Belt Conference, voted top of the poll with 189 points and 11 first-place votes, and they are 18-8 in season openers since 2000. Head coach Sean O'Regan is 7-3 in season openers with 236 career wins, and Trinity Moore, Ja'Quoia Jones-Brown and Bree Robinson are each approaching 1,000 career points.",
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    {
      "heading": "The center position gets its watch lists",
      "paragraphs": [
        {
          "markdown": "The preseason honors point the same way on the women's side: to the center spot. The Lisa Leslie Award, in its 10th year recognizing the top center in Division I women's basketball, named a 20-player watch list for 2027. Texas senior center Breya Cunningham made the list after starting 38 games for the Longhorns in 2025-26 and shooting 59.1 percent from the field; she has scored 915 points at a 55.7 percent field goal rate over three collegiate seasons. Syracuse sophomore center Izoje, the reigning ACC Freshman of the Year and a Preseason All-ACC selection, made it after averaging 15.6 points, 9.2 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game last season. Baylor's Kate Koval, a transfer from LSU who began her career at Notre Dame and was a McDonald's All-American, made it after appearing in 35 games with 17 starts last season, averaging 8.3 points and 6.3 rebounds with 43 blocks. The list narrows to 10 in February and five finalists in March.",
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          "markdown": "The men's counterpart, the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award for the top center in Division I men's basketball, also named 20 candidates. Miami junior center Cyril joins the Hurricanes after a sophomore season at Georgia in which he earned SEC All-Defensive Team honors, led the country with 83 dunks, set Georgia's single-season field goal percentage record at 75.9 percent and averaged 2.2 blocks per game. Florida State freshman center Marcis Ponder made the list before his official debut on November 2, following a preseason that included a double-double against Auburn with 13 points, 21 rebounds and 3 blocks; across two exhibition games he averaged 9.0 points, 14.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocks. Ponder was ranked the No. 4 center and No. 39 prospect nationally in the Class of 2026 by 247Sports. That list narrows to 10 candidates in late February, with the winner announced at the Final Four in Detroit.",
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  ],
  "unresolved": [
    "Whether Texas Tech's non-conference home streak survives a roster with nine newcomers, and how Cal's nine newcomers mesh in its third ACC season.",
    "Whether the Sun Belt favorite tag holds for James Madison after the opener at Miami (Ohio).",
    "How the two 20-player center watch lists narrow in February, and whether the freshmen and transfers on them hold their early form."
  ],
  "decision_card": {
    "useful_for": [
      "College basketball fans planning Monday's opening-night viewing",
      "Reporters tracking preseason award races"
    ],
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    ],
    "compare_against": [
      "Last season's watch lists and how they narrowed"
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