Final Night time in Faculty Basketball: Anderson Shines Whereas Texas Tech Units Report

Men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball – there’s no shortage of college ball, every night.

Don’t worry, we’re here to help you figure out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from the last night in college basketball.

Anderson stars in season opener

Texas Tech’s Christian Anderson stepped into the spotlight this season after Chance McMillan and Elijah Hawkins graduated, and Kerwin Walton and Darrion Williams transferred. The 6-foot-3 guard showed that he’s capable of carrying the load, scoring 34 points – the high for any player in any college basketball game on Tuesday, one ahead of Drexel’s Laine McGurk – and dishing 11 assists in the No. 10 Red Raiders’ season-opening 98-60 win over Lindenwood.

That was the 26th-straight season-opening win for Texas Tech, and they made it a memorable one beyond Anderson’s 34 points: Texas Tech made 17 3-pointers, a record for the program, on 45 attempts.

Anderson went 3-for-7 from beyond the arc, while Donovan Atwell led in deep heaves on a 6-for-13 night. Everyone in the starting lineup hit at least one three, and the bench chipped in another four on 12 attempts.

Stirtz introduces himself, again

Bennett Stirtz and coach Ben McCollum have been a package deal. From Northwest Missouri State to Drake, and now, to Iowa, and dominating at every stop. That didn’t stop in Stirtz’s Power-4 debut, as on Tuesday he had 19 points, six assists and four steals against the Robert Morris Colonials in a 101-69 Iowa victory.

Enjoy that dunk from Stirtz? Well good news, Iowa was dunk-happy in their season opener, to the point that you have a montage to watch.

Stirtz led in points, but plenty of other Hawkeyes contributed, as you could probably figure out from the final score and said montage. Six players scored at least 10 points, with Tavion Banks finishing second behind Stirtz with 17, along with four rebounds, while Alvaro Foulgueiras had a a noteworthy all-around game, with 11 points, 3 assists and 5 rebounds in just 18 minutes.

UConn handles Louisville, despite 3-point struggles

Preseason No. 1 and defending NCAA Women’s Tournament champions UConn kicked off their season against No. 20 Louisville on Tuesday, though, not in Germany as had been initially planned. Instead, the Armed Forces Classic took place in Annapolis, Maryland, in the first-ever instance of women’s teams being the feature game for the annual event.

The Huskies got out to an early and dominant lead with 25 points in the first quarter; even with the Cardinals matching them with 17 points in the third quarter and outscoring them in the fourth, UConn won 79-66. 

Wisconsin transfer Serah Williams scored just 4 points in her debut, but collected 8 rebounds – the second-most on UConn on Tuesday – while dishing four assists, as well, including this one to Sarah Strong.

Strong led all scorers with 21 points, while 2025’s Final Four Most Outstanding Player Azzi Fudd chipped in 20. And this without UConn having any 3-point game whatsoever: despite Louisville giving them open look after open look, the Huskies went just 4-for-26 from deep, and took all of eight free throws, too. 

Loyer scores 30, Painter scores another

There are two camps when it comes to Fletcher Loyer – those who want to replace him because of inconsistency in big moments, and those that back him. His opening-night performance was certainly a big moment for the latter group, which includes Loyola coach Matt Painter – he had some choice words for those who disagree with him in the postgame, after Loyer dropped 30 on Evansville.

Purdue is the preseason No. 1, and with significant expectations this season, so Loyer is going to need to keep on racking up the points to quiet the opposition in more ways than one.

Oregon squeaks out a W

Not a buzzer-beater by the strictest definition of the word, but Oregon cut it real close all the same on Tuesday against Hawai’i.

Takai Simpkins scored the last of his 18 points – first among all scorers in the game – with just 2.5 seconds left on the click, to put Oregon up by one. Hawai’i wouldn’t score with what little time remained, and the Ducks would move to 1-0 on the season. 

NC State comes back against Tennessee

No. 9 NC State and No. 8 Tennessee had an evenly matched, back-and-forth affair in their season opener. NC State was up 25-24 after the first quarter, but the Lady Vols were up 44-40 at the half, and then after three quarters the Wolfpack had regained their one-point lead.

The fourth quarter saw momentum swing back in Tennessee’s favor, at least at first: with 3:36 left in the game, they were up 72-69, and though they lost the lead multiple times from that point forward, they were up again 75-74 with 2:15 remaining, and 77-76 with 54 seconds left on the clock. That would be their final lead, however: NC State’s Khamil Pierre hit a go-ahead layup, and then Zamareya Jones hit a pair of free throws with less than two seconds left in regulation, giving them an 80-77 lead.

Pierre led NC State in scoring with 21 points, but also pulled down 14 rebounds while adding 3 steals and a block. Zoe Brooks had 13 points, 11 boards and 5 assists. For the Lady Vols, third-year guard Talaysia Cooper led both teams with 23 points in a dominant game where she also collected 11 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals and a block while turning the ball over just once.

Duke wins in Boozer’s uneven debut

Freshman Cameron Boozer didn’t score a single point in the first half in No. 6 Duke’s matchup against Texas, but he made up for it in the second: he finished with 15 points on the night, and had 13 rebounds after logging another 10 in the second half alone.

Duke, and Boozer, will be fine if he’s playing like he did in the second half. There’s a lot of season left for a lot more halves like that one.

Another Flagg debuts

Duke is without Cooper Flagg now that he’s in the NBA after going first-overall in the 2025 NBA Draft, but college basketball has a different Flagg now. His twin brother, Ace Flagg, is following in their mother’s footsteps at the University of Maine for the Black Bears – Kelly Flagg is a Maine Sports Hall of Famer who was on the Maine squad that upset Stanford in the 1999 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament – Maine’s only win, on the men’s or women’s side, in tournament history.

Monday marked Ace Flagg’s debut for Maine, and while it didn’t go well for the team – they scored just 47 points against George Washington University in a loss, fewer points than in any game last season – he was a bright spot.

Flagg played 29 minutes off of the bench, scoring 10 while picking up 3 rebounds, an assist and four steals. He also led the team in turnovers with 5, however, and missed both 3-point attempts he took. 

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