They’re on a boat

The GIST: With just 12 days until the season tips off, the preseason AP All-American list dropped yesterday, featuring some serious star power. From sophomore sensations to senior showstoppers, here’s who made the cut:

🐺 Paige Bueckers, UConn: From awards to injuries, it’s been a rollercoaster few seasons for Bueckers. What hasn’t happened? Winning that ever-elusive national title. The NIL darling averaged 21.8 points last season and will be chasing that championship in her last run with the Huskies before heading to the WNBA.

✌️ JuJu Watkins, USC: Remember when Watkins dropped 51(!!!) points in a single game last season? The AP voting committee certainly does. The LA gal averaged 27.1 points per game in her freshman campaign, second only to a little someone named Caitlin Clark. Decent company.

✌️ Kiki Iriafen, USC: What’s better than one All-American? Two, of course. Transfer student Iriafen joins fellow Trojan Watkins on the preseason list after an impressive junior season at Stanford. After entering the portal in the offseason, she’s bringing her 19.4 points and 11 rebounds per game down the road to Los Angeles.

☘️ Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame: From her quick hands to her smooth moves, Hidalgo gave opponents fits on defense and offense all year. She was the driving force for the Fighting Irish, recording 22.6 points and a jaw-dropping 4.6 steals per game. No luck here.

🐂 Madison Booker, Texas: Booker had an unexpected rise to stardom — the forward transitioned to point guard in place of an injured teammate last year. Turns out, she’s a natural, averaging 16.5 points and five assists per game.

The GIST: Thanks to a tie, six players were named to the men’s preseason All-American list: five oldies (but goodies) — Hunter Dickinson (Kansas), Caleb Love (Arizona), Mark Sears (Alabama), Johni Broome (Auburn), and RJ Davis (North Carolina) — and one new kid on the block: Duke’s Cooper Flagg. Let’s get to know ’em.

Duke phenom in rare company: Flagg is the first freshman to be named to the All-American list since current NBAer and former Oklahoma State guard Cade Cunningham got the nod in 2020. It doesn’t happen all that often because, well, usually you have to play a few games first. But he’s that good.

• The No. 1 player in his class, Flagg is making major waves in Durham. He already has a shoe deal with New Balance and is projected to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. It’s Flagg’s world, and we’re all just living in it.

The old guard: Dickinson, Love, Sears, Broome, and Davis are all heading into their fifth seasons. In other words, their basketball careers are starting kindergarten, while Flagg’s is still learning to hold its head up without support.

• Dickinson represents Kansas, the country’s preseason No. 1, and Davis is the only player of the five upperclassmen who hasn’t transferred during his career.

• Of the five returners, Sears was the highest scorer last season, averaging 22.5 points per game for the high-octane Crimson Tide, a program on the rise.

The GIST: From the top of the polls to the end of the bench, the college sports vibes have been truly all over the place. You know the drill, it’s heat check time.

🔥 Big Ten fall sports: The conference is acing its midterms, with four fall sports teams snagging No. 1 rankings this week: Oregon football in the AP poll, Northwestern field hockey in the coaches’ poll, Nebraska women’s volleyball in the national championship selection committee’s Top 16, and Ohio State men’s soccer in both the coaches’ poll and the committee’s Top 16. Hot damn.

❄️ Arizona State football’s starting kicker: Turns out Kenny Dillingham was not joking when he threatened to replace kicker Ian Hershey via open tryouts following the Sun Devils’ 24–14 Saturday loss to Cincinnati: Thanks to a viral social media post, an ASU student earned a tryout today. One guy’s brutal benching is another guy’s dream come true.

🔥 Duke women’s soccer: The Blue Devils are the nation’s top team for the third straight week for good reason: They’re riding a 12-match win streak through cutthroat ACC play and could lock up their first regular-season title in their final three games, starting tomorrow at 7 p.m. ET vs. No. 7 Notre Dame on ACCNX.

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