25 the snap judgments from Friday's at the end of the season can

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Snap judgments from season openers often turn out to be wrong a few months later, but it's all we have to go on right now. Here are 25 first impressions in the wake of Friday's lengthy list of season openers: 

• An impressive 62-59 road win at Old Dominion reinforces that Georgetown will go only as far as the Hoyas' trio of talented guards takes them. Chris Wright (19 points), Jason Clark (18) and Austin Freeman (17) rallied Georgetown from eight down midway through the second half, combining for all but eight of the Hoyas' points including the final 31.

• Haphazard shot selection killed Seton Hall a year ago, so 29.7 percent shooting in a 62-56 loss to Temple was an especially discouraging start for the Pirates. Senior Herb Pope had an especially tough day, scoring five points on 2-for-10 shooting in his first regular season game since his scary collapse following an individual workout this offseason.  

• College of Charleston showed against Maryland how good the top of the Southern Conference is this season, so credit Minnesota for the ease with which the Gophers turned aside Wofford 69-55 on Friday night. Ralph Sampson III had a breakout game (20 points, 13 rebounds) and Trevor Mbakwe (14 points, 10 rebounds) had a strong debut as Minnesota overwhelmed the smaller Terriers with their size.

• Trey Thompkins better hurry back from his ankle injury before Georgia wrecks its supposed breakout season without him. The Bulldogs needed eight straight points from Jeremy Price to rally from a late seven-point deficit and escape with a 72-70 home victory over Mississippi Valley State. 

• Either UNLV's defense is '85-Bears-good, or UC Riverside's offense may set futility records this season. The Rebels had no problems without suspended star Tre'Von Willis, holding the Highlanders to an incredible 15-for-67 shooting (22.4 percent) in an 85-41 season-opening blowout.

• For all the talk of a more frontcourt-oriented Villanova team this offseason, that didn't materialize whatsoever in a season-opening 68-52 win over Bucknell. Guards Corey Fisher (24), Maalik Wayns (15) and Corey Stokes (11) combined for 50 points and 42 of Villanova's 57 shots in the victory.

• Charlotte's 78-70 home loss to Gardner Webb will be a blight on its resume all season, but the short-handed 49ers deserve some slack in this one. Suspensions and foul trouble left them with just four scholarship players and two walk-ons available for the final five minutes.

• The biggest issue facing UCLA this season is point guard play, so Lazeric Jones' performance was the most encouraging aspect of the Bruins' 83-50 demolition of Cal State Northridge. The junior college transfer scored 15 points on 6-for-7 shooting, solidifying his spot in the starting lineup ahead of former decorated recruit Jerime Anderson.

• Revamped UConn started three of its six freshmen in a 79-52 victory over Stony Brook, but it's the play of sophomore Alex Oriakhi that validates talk of a bounce-back season in Storrs. Oriaki had 11 points and 18 rebounds, shades of former Huskies star Jeff Adrien.

• Tim Floyd's debut at UTEP demonstrated how much the Miners will miss departed big men Derrick Caracter and Arnett Moultrie. Star guard Randy Culpepper went scoreless in the second half, the Miners blew a 10-point halftime lead and Pacific emerged from El Paso with a mildly surprising 66-61 win.

• The notion that Baylor can contend in the Big 12 is predicated mostly on freshman Perry Jones making an immediate impact, so all eyes were on him in Baylor's season-opening 87-52 victory over Grambling. Jones scored 11 points and grabbed 8 boards in 32 minutes but he shot just 4 of 11 and committed 7 turnovers.  

• Some of the preseason buzz around LMU as a threat to Gonzaga in the WCC will die off in a hurry. The Lions blew a 15-point lead over Morgan State with 14 minutes left and lost 81-79, a very disappointing result for LMU but an impressive road win for Todd Bozeman's two-time defending conference champion Bears.

• The only bright spot from Wake Forest's 89-79 home loss to Stetson was freshman J.T. Terrell erupting for 26 points. The departure of Al Farouq Aminu, Ish Smith, Chaz McFarland and Tony Woods and the growing pains of the Deacons' promising freshman class point to a long season for new coach Jeff Bzdelik's team.

• Beating South Florida 63-56 on the road won't be the victory that catapults Southern Miss into the NCAA tournament this March, but it could have been the type of loss that keeps the Golden Eagles out. This was an important win for Larry Eustachy's team and for Conference USA.

• Is Xavier in more trouble than we thought? It looked that way before Tu Holloway came to his team's rescue. The high-scoring point guard had 20 of his 25 points in the second half as the Musketeers rallied from a nine-point halftime deficit at home to stave off Western Michigan, 68-65.

• A road win at Rutgers isn't going to generate huge buzz for Princeton, but this was an important win for a Tigers program that has uncharacteristically struggled in recent years. They validated some of the preseason hype that they will contend in the Ivy League and they built some confidence heading into Sunday's challenging matchup with Duke. 

• When is a basketball coach thrilled to be at a football school? When his team squanders a 16-point halftime lead at home and falls in overtime to UNC Asheville. Many fan bases might be furious over such an embarrassing season-opening loss, but it barely registers at Auburn amid the Cam Newton chaos. 

• NC State's sputtering 82-69 victory over Tennessee Tech wasn't an aesthetically pleasing performance, but highly touted freshmen Lorenzo Brown, Ryan Harrow and C.J. Leslie each made an immediate impact. The trio combined for 51 points, with Leslie leading the way with 21 points, six rebounds and three steals. 

• If Ohio State gets production from its freshman like it did on Friday night, the Buckeyes may be dominant this season. DeShaun Thomas had 24 points and 8 rebounds, acclaimed big man Jarred Sullinger posted 19 and 14 and point guard Aaron Craft had 9 assists and zero turnovers.

• Josh Selby's absence is supposed to be a chance for sophomore Elijah Johnson to increase his playing time, but the Kansas guard isn't making the most of his long-awaited opportunity so far. Johnson sat out Friday's opener for undisclosed disciplinary reasons and likely won't play Monday either. 

• Mississippi State is in what could be called survival mode while waiting for big man Renardo Sidney and guard Dee Bost to return from suspensions later this season. The Bulldogs needed a career-high 32 points from fellow star Ravern Johnson to hold off unheralded Tennessee Tech 75-65 on Friday night.

• Oakland might not have been nearly tough enough to emerge with a victory at West Virginia, but its star center did nothing to hurt his NBA prospects against the bruising Mountaineers' front line. Benson had 21 points and 15 rebounds in a losing effort on the road. 

• UMass may not win a lot of games in the Atlantic 10 this season, but credit the Minutemen for their resilience at least. They trailed Rider at home by 21 points at halftime on Friday night but rallied for a 77-67 victory thanks to 31 points from Anthony Gurley and 28 from Freddie Riley

• Encouraging for North Carolina: sophomore forward John Henson showed signs of progress with 10 points, 17 rebounds and seven blocks against Lipscomb. Discouraging for North Carolina: Starting backcourt Larry Drew III and Dexter Strickland produced only six points and three assists between them.

• How different will Cornell look this season now that the class that took the Big Red to three straight Ivy League titles is gone? Cornell's leading scorer in 60-54 win over Albany was senior guard Max Groebe, who had 15 points on 5-for-10 shooting after averaging just 5.8 minutes per game last season.

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