Winners and Losers of the Opening Day of the 2014-15 College Basketball Season

Goodbye, season previews. Hello, regular-season college hoops.

After months of patiently waiting, we were rewarded for our good behavior with a bevy of games on the first Friday of the college basketball season, from which there was no shortage of winners and losers.

Eastern Washington was the first winner of the season, defeating Texas Southern by a score of 86-62, but it was a guard for the Eagles who was arguably the biggest winner of the day.

But the Eagles were just the first of many winners on the day with many better than average teams picking up an easy win against not so average programs.

However, things didn't exactly go according to plan for a few of those teams—particularly the ones in the SEC. On a night that usually consists of one or two marquee games and about 10 dozen blowouts, there were quite a few surprising upsets that we'll get to in the loser slides.

Winner: Drew Brandon, Eastern Washington

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For most casual fans, the 2014-15 regular season didn't really begin until big-name programs like Duke and Florida took the court for nationally televised games at 6 p.m. ET.

However, things officially kicked off seven hours before that when Texas Southern and Eastern Washington played the first game of the season.

It was an 8 a.m. start in Cheney, Washington, meaning those kids were up before the crack of dawn. In my four years of college, the only time I saw the sunrise was because of all-nighters, so it couldn't have been easy for them.

But Eastern Washington played the first game of the 2014-15 college football season, and apparently wanted to do the same for basketball.

We made sure to wake up and keep tabs on the box score because of Tyler Harvey, and he didn't disappoint. Damian Lillard 2.0 drained seven of his 12 three-point attempts, finishing the day with 21 points.

But it was Drew Brandon who had us frantically refreshing the box score of a game that the Eagles would eventually win by 24 points. Eastern Washington's point guard finished the season opener with 10 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists.

Though he was just one assist away from accomplishing something that only 10 players did in the entire 2013-14 season, head coach Jim Hayford parked Brandon on the bench for the final four minutes of the game.

In addition to his near triple-double, Brandon also had four steals and two blocks.

We're trying to keep things in perspective. This was just one game against a SWAC team that didn't play a single player who scored a point for the team last season. Still, it's hard not to like Eastern Washington's three-headed monster of Brandon, Harvey and Venky Jois. Keep an eye on this team from the Big Sky.

Loser: St. Joseph's and Ole Miss

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Tough to decide which one-point home loss was worse.

On the one hand, St. Joseph's was a tournament team last season while Fairleigh Dickinson went 10-21 and was rated as the 280th-best team at the end of the season by Ken Pomeroy (subscription required). Even less was expected of the Knights this year, as they were rated 310th to open the season by the same source.

However, St. Joseph's lost a lot this offseason and wasn't really expected to do much. The Hawks do still have DeAndre Bembry, but he scored just eight points after averaging 12.1 PPG as a freshman.

We're going to go with Ole Miss for the worst loss of the night, though.

Maybe it ends up having the same effect as Kansas State's opening night loss to Northern Colorado last season, but maybe losing at home to a Big South team in the form of Charleston Southern hangs over the Rebels' heads all season long.

To be fair, the Rebels are going through a lot of changes. Three of their five leading scorers from last season are gone, and their sixth-best scorer (Aaron Jones) from 2013-14 was suspended for a violation of team rules. They're relying on a lot of transfers this season.

But, come on. How do you lose at home in overtime to a team that shot 32.8 percent from the field and 22.9 percent from three-point range? How does Jarvis Summers score just eight points on 13 shots before fouling out? How do you get out-rebounded 54-50 by a team without a single player taller than 6'8"?

Pitiful showing from a team expected to be one of the contenders in the SEC.

Winner: Duke's Freshmen

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In what can only be described as a vicious slaughtering of Presbyterian, Duke's best-in-the-nation recruiting class was on full display early and often.

Jahlil Okafor led the way with 19 points on 9-of-10 shooting. The big man somewhat surprisingly only had six rebounds, but showed off a secondary aspect of his game with four assists. During one sequence in the first half, he and Quinn Cook were basically playing hot potato with entry passes and kick outs. Cook ultimately missed the ensuing shot, but it was a nice example of Okafor's unselfish play.

After the game, Okafor told reporters, "I felt comfortable from tap to finish. I didn't feel uncomfortable at any point."

Tyus Jones was lethal starting in the backcourt alongside Quinn Cook. (Rasheed Sulaimon came off the bench.) Jones had 15 points on eight shots and seven assists, including a no-look, left-handed dish to a streaking Okafor and a sick alley-oop to Justise Winslow off an in-bounds play.

Jones had just one turnover, and it came on a play where Winslow saved a ball from going out of bounds by shoving it to a falling Jones who threw it away.

Winslow also had 15 points, including 2-of-3 on three-point shooting—an aspect of his game that scouts were worried about.

Grayson Allen was the one freshman who didn't start for Duke, but he got more than enough playing time to put up 18 points with three assists and three steals.

All told, Coach K's 2014 class scored 67 points in a 113-44 rout.

Loser: Secondary Spartans

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Travis Trice had himself an outstanding game in the opener for Tom Izzo. Formerly Gary Harris’ backup, Trice exploded for 25 points on 5-of-6 three-point shooting with five rebounds and five assists. He scored 39 percent of the team’s points.

Branden Dawson had a good-but-not-great game of his own with 12 points, eight rebounds and three steals.

Beyond that, though, the team was a disaster and nearly lost to Navy, eking out a 64-59 victory.

Matt Costello and Gavin Schilling were perfect from the floor, but they only attempted five shots. They combined for 10 points, 10 rebounds, seven fouls and three turnovers.

Alvin Ellis III started in the backcourt but mustered just one assist and no points before leaving with an ankle injury. Cleveland State transfer Bryn Forbes played in his place and made just one of eight field-goal attempts.

Perhaps most disturbing of all, Denzel Valentine had just five points on 10 shots and committed three turnovers.

If the Spartans and Blue Devils both play in Tuesday’s Champions Classic the way they did tonight, they may want to consider putting a mercy rule into effect.

Winner: Syracuse's Frontcourt

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Granted, Kennesaw State was one of the worst teams in the nation last season, but goodness gracious.

Without DaJuan Coleman or Michael Gbinije—the latter of which was out due to a violation of team rules—Syracuse completely destroyed Kennesaw State on the glass by a margin of 56-26.

Rakeem Christmas, Chris McCullough, Tyler Roberson and B.J. Johnson combined for 66 points and 38 rebounds.

For Syracuse to win a game by 47 points this season, many assumed that Trevor Cooney would basically need to score 50 points by his lonesome, but he attempted just seven shots in the game, scoring 12 points.

We'll see if the Orange can replicate this sort of interior dominance next week against California and either Texas or Iowa in the 2K Sports Classic, but early returns are that it was a bit foolish to assume that Syracuse might finish outside the top five in the ACC.

Loser: Durand Johnson, Pittsburgh

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The ACC hierarchy may have gotten a little less convoluted on Friday night when Jamie Dixon announced that Durand Johnson will be suspended for the entire season.

No reason was immediately available for the suspension, but does it really matter? We're certainly curious what happened, but the fact remains that the Panthers need to carry on without a player who was expected to be one of their leading scorers this season.

James Robinson, Cam Johnson, Jamel Artis and JUCO transfer Sheldon Jeter will need to pick up the slack in his absence, but it didn't much affect their chances on Friday night. The Panthers raced out to a 32-4 lead against Niagara before wrapping up a 78-45 victory.

Winner: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

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Georgia helped out a lot by missing a ton of early shots. The Bulldogs had just five points on the scoreboard at the under-12:00 media timeout.

But credit where credit is due. Georgia Tech was staked to an early lead, and the Yellow Jackets never let it go.

Georgia fought and clawed to get back into the game, keeping the margin at just six points for most of the second half and even closing to within three in the final minute. Based on the poise with which the Yellow Jackets played, though, one would think they were the bubbly team from the SEC rather than the one expected to finish in the basement of the ACC.

They got a lot of help from new faces. Charles Mitchell (transferred from Maryland) had 20 points and nine rebounds while Demarco Cox (transferred from Ole Miss) had 10 points, eight boards and four blocks.

Mitchell's performance was no big surprise, as he was a force in the paint for the Terrapins over the past two seasons, but Cox was practically a no-show for the majority of his first three seasons with the Rebels. If he turns things around and becomes a valuable center, it could be other teams beside Georgia that the Yellow Jackets surprise this year.

Loser: Tennessee Volunteers

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We're not expecting much from the Volunteers this season, so to see them lose the opener to VCU wasn't exactly surprising.

However, we thought they would at least be a little more competitive in the game.

VCU was playing without the best defender in the entire country, as Briante Weber was suspended for the season opener. Moreover, JeQuan Lewis—Weber's replacement in the lineup and the team's usual sixth man—was literally knocked out of the game midway through the first half in a brutal head-to-floor collision that there's no way I'm linking here.

Despite the fact that the Rams played most of the game without two of their best guards, they led by 18 at the half and cruised to a 85-69 victory over the Volunteers. Melvin Johnson had a team-high 23 points—further evidence that he was sorely missed with a knee injury in the 2014 NCAA tournament game against Stephen F. Austin.

At one point midway through the second half, VCU's Treveon Graham—widely regarded as one of the best "mid-major" players in the country—was 1-for-10 from the field, but Tennessee never got it closer than eight points.

Robert Hubbs III only scored four points for the Volunteers. They'll need a lot more from him going forward.

After the game, Donnie Tyndall told reporters, "We knew there would be three main keys: To handle their pressure and not turn it over; No. 2, to keep them off the offensive backboards; and No. 3, to get to the foul line more than them. We didn't achieve [any] of those."

Not a good first week for new head coach Tyndall, considering the news from last week that Southern Miss is currently under investigation for impermissible benefits during his time as a head coach there.

Winner: Texas A&M Aggies

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We've done a lot of harping on SEC teams to this point, but it wasn't all doom and gloom for the conference.

For a team that still doesn't know whether it will have a great player this season in Houston transfer Danuel House, the Texas A&M Aggies sure did put a spanking on Northwestern State.

In typical Demons fashion, it was a high-scoring, uptempo affair. However, it was A&M that did most of the scoring in the 109-68 victory.

Senior guard Jordan Green led the charge for the Aggies with 15 points and seven assists, but seven players scored in double figures for Billy Kennedy's squad.

Perhaps most impressive of all, though, is that they held Jalan West to just 10 points. He averaged 19.4 PPG last season.

With Georgia, Ole Miss and Tennessee showing no apparent interest in being considered one of the best SEC teams not named Kentucky or Florida, perhaps Texas A&M can rise up and finally get to a tournament under Kennedy.

Loser: Missouri Tigers

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How about one more SEC loser for the road?

Last year, UMKC opened its 10-20 season with a five-point home loss to D-II Emporia State.

This year, the Kangaroos hopped out to a much better start on the road against the feckless Missouri Tigers. Martez Harrison had a game-high 26 points for the Kangaroos to go along with four rebounds, three assists and three steals.

But UMKC’s win isn’t quite as noteworthy as Missouri’s loss.

The Tigers need to figure out how to replace Jabari Brown (19.9), Jordan Clarkson (17.5) and Earnest Ross (14.0). Through one game, there are no signs they have done that.

First-year coach Kim Anderson basically handed the keys over to highly rated freshman Montaque Gill-Caesar, who promptly did his best Kobe Bryant impression in scoring 21 points on 23 field-goal attempts with zero assists.

For this team to have any hope of accomplishing anything this season, Johnathan Williams III needs to step up in a big way. The big man blocked four shots but had just six points and five rebounds before fouling out.

Winner: Alan Williams, UC Santa Barbara

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Alan Williams has spent his career making mincemeat of inferior competition. The 6'7" forward from UC Santa Barbara averaged 21.3 PPG, 11.5 RPG and 2.4 BPG last season.

But, hey, who cares? That came against a bunch of weak Big West teams, right?

Well, not exactly. In three games last year against UNLV, California and UCLA, he averaged 22.7 PPG and 9.7 RPG. The man can play, and he got another chance to prove it on Friday night.

Against the likes of Perry Ellis, Jamari Traylor and Cliff Alexander, Williams put up 22 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks. Per usual.

Sure, the Gauchos lost the game to Kansas, but they put up a heck of a fight, losing by just 10 points on the road to what should be one of the best teams in the nation.

As a senior, he doesn't have the allure of a Jahlil Okafor, but Williams could be the next Kenneth Faried in the NBA.

Loser: American vs. Temple

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There were a lot of high-scoring, good basketball games on Friday night.

Then, there's what happened in the Liacouras Center between American and Temple.

If this had just been a game between two teams going nowhere, we wouldn't much care about the fact that they combined for 77 points—in the entire game.

However, American is widely regarded as the favorite to win the Patriot League, and Temple is supposed to be one of the middle-of-the-pack teams from the AAC potentially contending for an at-large bid.

For Temple, Will Cummings averaged 16.8 PPG last season. Quenton DeCosey had 15.4 PPG of his own. But the backcourt duo combined for nine points on 2-of-20 shooting against the Eagles.

The two teams combined to make 23 field goals while committing 29 turnovers.

In a word: yuck.

Winner: Montrezl Harrell, Louisville

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Heck of a performance from Louisville in a game that many of us thought Minnesota had a real chance of winning.

The Cardinals jumped out to a 13-point lead late in the first half and never really looked back. Their lead ranged from 8-20 points in the second half as they coasted to victory.

I see in the box score that Montrezl Harrell had 30 points. It's probably a safe guess those came on 15 dunks, right?

Wait a minute.

He shot 9-of-10 from the free-throw line?

And 3-of-4 from three-point range?!

That can’t be right. Coming into this season, Harrell was a 47.7 percent free-throw shooter in his career and had made a grand total of two three-pointers.

If this is simply the way things are going to be from now on with Harrell, good luck, ACC. The man was absolutely unstoppable against a quality Golden Gophers team.

Let’s also mention that Harrell wasn’t the only big man to drop 30 and show some range on opening night. Georges Niang shot 2-of-3 from three-point range and made 10 out of 11 free-throw attempts en route to a 30-point night. We would have given him his own slide, but we’re a little disturbed that Iowa State gave up 82 points to Oakland.

Loser: Defending National Champions

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OK, yes, the Huskies won the game. And if you look solely at the final score, it doesn't look like Connecticut struggled too much in beating Bryant by a score of 66-53.

However, the Huskies were trailing with 13 minutes remaining. The game was still tied with nine minutes left.

It wasn't until Kevin Ollie was whistled for a technical foul with 9:49 remaining that the team seemed to start taking the game seriously.

Ryan Boatright finished the game with a Shabazz Napier-esque 24 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals. Amida Brimah scored 12 points and blocked five shots.

But even with those guys doing basically everything we hoped they would this season, Connecticut struggled mightily with a team that probably won't even compete for the Northeast Conference title.

Neither Rodney Purvis nor Omar Calhoun played in the game, but that's no excuse. The reigning champs should do a better job of defending their crown.

Winner: Joseph Young, Oregon

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Remember that one game of the NBA season when Russell Westbrook was healthy and he exploded for 38 points and six assists for Oklahoma City?

Well, that’s basically what Joseph Young did on Friday. Only instead of losing by 17 to the Portland Trail Blazers, the Ducks destroyed Coppin State by a score of 107-65.

Young led the way with 32 points (on just 14 field-goal attempts), eight assists and five rebounds.

The crazy thing is that Young could have scored way more than he did. He had 25 points and six assists at halftime before taking his foot off the pedal.

Given the roster construction at Oregon, that’s pretty much going to need to be an average night for Young this season. The Ducks scored just fine against the Eagles of the MEAC, but can Elgin Cook, Dillon Brooks and Casey Benson be counted on for double digits once Pac-12 play begins?

I said all summer that Young is one of the favorites to lead the nation in scoring this year.

He's certainly off to a fast start.

Loser: Tyrell Corbin, Cal-State Bakersfield

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There was no good reason to pay attention to this game until it went into overtime. Then another. And a third. Make it four.

It’s bad enough that anyone has to lose a four-overtime game, but Cal-State Bakersfield should have won this game at least five different times.

The Roadrunners held a lead with 38 seconds left in regulation before High Point tied it up with 15 seconds to go. CSU Bakersfield missed two shots to win the game, and they were off to overtime number one.

The Roadrunners again held a late lead, going up by two with 21 seconds remaining. High Point had a shot rejected with four seconds left, but it fell right into the hands of K.J. James who beat the buzzer to bring on a second overtime, which is where things got tragic for Tyrell Corbin.

CSU Bakersfield went up by four points just two minutes into the second overtime, but would not score again. Corbin attempted the only two shots they were able to get off in the final three minutes, but he missed them both while High Point tied the game.

In the third overtime, the Roadrunners were up by four with 30 seconds left before Devante Wallace drained a couple of three-pointers to tie the game. Corbin once again had a chance to end the game, but missed his three-point attempt.

With 10 seconds left in the fourth and final overtime, the Roadrunners were up by three. But then Corbin committed a foul. After the two successful free throws, Corbin committed a turnover. High Point immediately scored to take a one-point lead. And poor Corbin was given one last chance to win the game, only to miss the shot.

He did score a career-high 20 points in the game, but that’s little solace for the nights of sleep he’ll lose over those missed opportunities.

Winner: Cinmeon Bowers, Auburn

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We already noted what the top-rated freshman (Jahlil Okafor) did on opening night, but what about the top-rated JUCO transfer in the country?

Auburn struggled early with Milwaukee, but Cinmeon Bowers exploded in the second half to finish the night with 18 points and 17 rebounds in an 83-73 victory.

Not only did he dominate the scorebook, but he kept Milwaukee’s bigs from getting involved in it, as well. The Panthers’ four forwards combined for just 19 points and 13 rebounds.

Bruce Pearl’s other transfers had a pretty solid night, too. Antoine Mason finished with 19 points while K.C. Ross-Miller had 13 points off the bench.

The SEC struggled on Friday, but this was a nice statement win for Auburn against an underrated Horizon League team.

Winner: Washington Huskies

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Let's finish on a high note with back-to-back winners, just to emphasize how happy we are to have college hoops back in our lives.

On a night where apparently nothing could be taken for granted, Washington had a few players put on a clinic against South Carolina State.

Nigel Williams-Goss got a little flirtacious with a triple-double, finishing the night with 10 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and two steals.

Andrew Andrews wasn’t quite that close, but he did tally 13 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

However, great play by those guards was no surprise, as they were expected to be the team’s top performers this season.

The big news for the Huskies was in the paint.

Shawn Kemp Jr. disappointed for the vast majority of his first three seasons, but he had a bit of a breakout game with 17 points and six rebounds. Not quite a career high—Kemp scored 18 in a game against Arizona State two years ago—but a promising sign nonetheless.

Washington also got an impressive 14 points, six rebounds and seven blocked shots from Fresno State transfer Robert Upshaw.

Last month, I wrote about Washington being an under-the-radar team that could do some damage if Upshaw came in and immediately excelled.

So far, so good.

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.