It was a bizarre sports weekend that began with college basketball upset wins for Western Illinois, Monmouth, William & Mary and Radford.  They were the type of season openers that could only make sense on Friday the 13th.

And as the oddity of outcomes transitioned to Sunday football, with Green Bay losing at home to the lowly Lions and Peyton Manning effectively benching himself, a traditional power in college basketball returned to form.

The Cincinnati Bearcats ripped Robert Morris, winning 106-44.

Robert Morris was a tournament team last season.  However, they only returned four players to this current roster.  (This is also the same Robert Morris program that defeated Willie Caulie-Stein/Kyle Wiltjer’s Kentucky team in the 2013 NIT).

Still, Cincinnati ran circles around the Colonials with 32 team assists for the game.

Chad Brendel is the co-owner of bearcatsjournal.com and was in attendance.  After the game, he was asked by collegebasketballeyetest.com if this was for real.

“Bearcats are very much for real,” Brendel responded.  “Robert Morris not as good as last year, but still (a) decent mid major. (Robert Morris) just got rolled.”

Bearcat fan Walt Merritt agrees.  “(They) passed my eye test — making shots they didn’t make last year.

“(Their) defense struggled in first game but killed it today,” Merritt said.

The Bearcats repeatedly launched 20-something to single digit scoring runs.  The Bearcats shot 53.5% from the field.  Senior Shaq Thomas put a punctuation mark on it all:

Bearcat fans were excited by Mick’s boys taking a track meet approach.  Timmy Hinds watched the game on TV.

“(I was) impressed by how much better shape the bigs are; those guys look so much better and fluid,” Hinds tells @CBBEyeTest on Twitter.

“The maturity of the team is great,” Hinds continued.

Freshmen Jacob Evans and Justin Jenifer played quality minutes.  Jenifer scored 11 and dropped 9 assists in just 16 minutes of action.

The win had some national pundits, like CBS’s Jon Rothstein, demanding a top 25 ranking.  And that’s what you can expect to happen early this coming week.

As for a college basketball eye test, Wisconsin Badger fans are questioning what they just saw.

It was supposed to be a night to celebrate.

The Wisconsin Badgers rose the banner for their Final Four berth before the season opener against the Western Illinois Leathernecks.

Bo Ryan’s squad was one half away from a national championship, having been tied with Duke at halftime last April.

But on this November night, fans witnessed what growing pains losing Frank Kaminsky, Traevon Jackson, Sam Dekker and Josh Gasser will result in.

Western Illinois won this opener, 69-67.

“Since I’m a believer I’m just calling it a fluke,” super fan Marci Williams tells collegebasketballeyetest.com. Williams was in attendance at the Kohl’s Center in Madison Friday night.  She said that the Badgers lack of defense and chemistry was apparent.

Jonathan Eckelberg is an ambassador for the Badger State, working for the Wisconsin Department of Tourism.  This loss won’t cost the state any tourism to the Kohl’s Center.  Eckelberg says the team just needs to fix the little things.

“They needed to make more free throws for sure. Easy points that they threw away,” Eckelberg told @CBBEyeTest on Twitter.

Danny Lemanske boasts on his Twitter bio as being the biggest Badger fan ever.  He watched the game at home.

“They got beat over and over again inside.  They don’t have a rim protector. (It) seemed like offensive ball movement was a lot worse,” Lemanske said late Saturday.

If you follow Badgers Men’s Basketball on Twitter, this offseason would have you thinking Nigel Hayes is primed to be the next Arlando Tucker:

And it won’t be long before that excitement returns.  In fact, it appears Wisconsin fans are already over it.  Most tweets Saturday night point to Bo Ryan’s ability to develop young talent to fit his system.

Lemanske said “suddenly I don’t feel so bad,” after seeing that coach Buzz William’s Virginia Tech team lost to Alabama State.

Let’s also put into context who this Western Illinois Leathernecks team is.  First, they hail from the Summit Conference, which recently brought you the North and South Dakota state division 1 teams to the NCAA Tournament.  In 2014, North Dakota State defeated 5th seed Oklahoma.  Last season, they lost to Gonzaga by just 10.  In prior years, South Dakota State earned itself as low as a 13 seed and competed well round one against Baylor and Michigan respectively.

Contrary to Wisconsin, this Western Illinois team got 136 minutes contributed from its senior players.  Perhaps our takeaway should be less about Wiscsonsin’s chemistry and more about who the Summit League’s next representative may be.

Going to a college basketball game this season?  Share your eye witness report by tweeting @CBBEyeTest.

Before you just say, “Oh, just another basketball blogger in his basement blowing steam,” allow me to clarify:  I am just another blogger in his basement!  But my past picks paved the way for some street cred.  In 2013, I listed UCONN as one of my five top value picks (click here to read the archive).  In 2014, all five of my underdog value plays made the NCAA tournament.  That included Utah, which I correctly threw the flag on Vegas when it listed the Utes at 200-to-1.

Of course, this past March Madness, ESPN business reporter Darren Rovell shared my winning ticket after parlaying UAB and Georgia State for first round upsets:

Here are my top 5 underdogs for the 2015-16 college basketball season.  I am taking this show on the road, as in down the street, by visiting college basketball’s epicenter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yow1kf4ADPk

It will happen.

You’ll bookmark this article.  Maybe e-mail it to yourself.  Tweet it out with your reasons why you disagree.

But in March, you’ll come back and say “damn, he was right.”

1. San Diego State
   The biggest snub, as it stands now, is San Diego State.  The AP got it wrong putting teams like California and Utah over their fellow West Coast residents.  Coach Steve Fisher has made it a hallmark of his program to defend the post, and, again, has the assets to do it this season.  Shot-blocker Skylar Spencer returns for his senior season as does Arizona defector Angelo Chol.  Looking for scoring punch?  Winston Shepard and Malik Pope can provide.  In fact, I would not be surprise if Malik Pope’s gaudy 6-10 athletic makeup propels him into an NBA lottery pick if he puts it together in his sophomore campaign.  Point guard Trey Kell went through some growing pains last season under the tutelage of Xavier Thames.

   https://twitter.com/eliteballerspt/status/655125166830309376

2. SMU
   Turmoil.  But not a bad team Somehow Nic Moore has another year of eligibility.  Add to that, his quality play with Kansas basketball as part of the World University Games, and you have a point guard who can lead his team to the tournament.  I think this American Conference will continue its being watered-down.  Let’s not crown UConn just yet, Memphis is a cluster and both Temple and Cincinnati lost some key pieces.  I think shooting guard Keith Frazier is the best player on this roster, which might explain why a school administrator took online classes to solidify his eligibility (according to what Frazier told ESPN) without his knowledge.  I think SMU could play the role of spoiler this season.  Does a ban from postseason play mean they shouldn’t be ranked?  I don’t think so.
   https://twitter.com/Keith_Frazier/status/647947471390314496
   Let the record show my preseason top 25 published weeks ago. Click here to view it.
   
3. Texas A&M
   Aggies alum DeAndre Jordan made a splash this offseason in pro basketball.  I think his alma mater should have got more press as well.  DJ Hogg, Tyler Davis and Elijah Thomas are stacked together in the 30-40th ranked recruits nationally, according to ESPN.  All these Texas boys could make it an interesting year for the Aggies, with a lot of upside.  I  am especially focusing on the most underrated point guard in the nation, Alex Caruso.  Caruso is a true facilitator. He is a senior this season.  He averaged 5.5 assists per year last season.  (Watch these highlights and watch what I’m talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJCGQTXb5Us ).  Texas A&M returns scoring punch with Danuel House and I think it has enough dogs to scrap ahead of the Auburns and LSU’s in the SEC. (Let’s not discount that Florida will need at least a year adjustment minus Billy Donovan).
4. Florida State
   As my father once said, “You can’t teach size.”  This haunted me as a 5’8″ high schooler failing to make the varsity roster.  The concept may also haunt the ACC as I’m looking at Florida State’s roster.  7-3, 7-4, 7-1 it reads.  Then think about the scoring punch.  Freshman Dwyane Bacon is advertised as a better scorer than Xavier Rathan-Mayes, but that does not have to be the case for this team to be difficult to defend.  Rathan-Mayes scored over 22 six times last season, including a 35-point outburst against Miami (while it was fighting for its playoff life in late February).  Leonard Hamilton’s Seminole clubs used to be the higher seed squads no one wanted to face in March Madness.  They made the Sweet Sixteen in 2011.  I feel he has refueled and will return with new faces to those old ways of defending the ball and scoring just enough to stifle the opponent.  Yeah, Montay Brandon is a solid swingman as well.  I almost forgot about him.
5. Georgetown
   D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera will score his way into the top 25 by Thanksgiving.  That is all.
   https://twitter.com/SBNationCBB/status/660120275405570048