Thankfully, here comes college basketball!

While I may be grumbling over the end of Daylight Saving Time on Sunday, Nov. 1, there is something else going on that day that will help occupy my mind.

Nov. 1 is the start of college basketball season.

It’s a new dawn…especially if your college football team (like mine) is toast.

The first college basketball games out of the blocks should offer plenty of entertainment…in the Eternal City Tip-Off Doubleheader being played in Rome, Italy.

 

Men’s and women’s teams from Notre Dame and Villanova are involved. 

The men’s game will air on FOX at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, and the women’s teams take the court at 12 noon, to be broadcast of FS1. (Church schedules may need to be juggled on Nov. 1 to accommodate parishioners who are also viewers.)

“The doubleheader at the 3,500-seat Palazzetto dello Sport will bring together two of the sport’s most storied Catholic universities in a city layered with religious and historical significance,” wrote Clemente Lisi, executive editor at Religion Unplugged, a nonprofit news organization based in San Diego, Calif.

 

“The event also carries an added layer of connection through Pope Leo XIV, a Villanova graduate and the first American-born pope,” Lisi said. “His election last year drew widespread attention to his alma mater.”

 

Organizers of the sporting event are still hopeful that that student-athletes from both schools will have an opportunity to meet the pope ahead of the games – “a rare moment for college athletes to meet the pontiff just before taking the court to open their season,” Lisi said.

(At age 71, Pope Leo XIV is expected to recover fully from successful lung cancer surgery that was performed on Oct. 13 and resume his regular duties by Oct. 20.)

 

“Both schools’ Catholic affiliations make them a natural pairing for an event explicitly centered on the intersection of faith and athletics,” Lisi wrote.  

The Rev. Peter M. Donohue, Villanova’s president, emphasized that the basketball games are part of a broader experience that “offers our student-athletes and communities the chance to witness how sport can inspire unity, shared purpose and compassion.” 

 

The Rev. Robert A. Dowd, Notre Dame’s president, pointed to his university’s existing ties to the Italian capital as part of what made the trip a natural fit. Notre Dame has maintained an academic center in Rome, Notre Dame Rome, since 2014, giving the school an established institutional presence in the city.

 

“We are honored to join Villanova for what is sure to be the experience of a lifetime for our student-athletes and fans,” Dowd said.

Interestingly, both Villanova and Notre Dame were founded in 1842. Villanova now has an enrollment of about 10,300 students at its main campus in Villanova, Pa. (a suburb of Philadelphia). 

The Villanova Wildcats athletic teams compete in the Big East Conference.

Pope Leo XIV (born as Robert Francis Prevost in 1955) grew up in Chicago, Ill., and enrolled at Villanova in 1973. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1977.

 

Notre Dame, in South Bend, Ind., has an enrollment of about 13,050 students, and the Fighting Irish teams are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference…except when they aren’t. Notable exceptions are men’s football (independent) and men’s hockey (Big Ten).

So, what should we expect to see on the hardwood come Nov. 1. The Villanova men, coached by Kevin Willard, should be decent this season. The squad is knocking on the door of having a top-25 preseason ranking.

 

Notre Dame’s men’s team, on the other hand, under the leadership of coach Micah Shrewsberry, is expected to have a tough season, due to a lot of volatility within its roster.

 

ESPN’s fearless prognosticator Joe Lunardi anticipates that “Notre Dame will keep it close but not quite pull off the upset.”

 

On the women’s side, both Villanova and Notre Dame are included in ESPN’s preseason Top 25. 

Villanova, coached by Denise Dillon, is ranked No. 20 in the polls and is picked to challenge perennial powerhouse Connecticut for the Big East title.

 

With head coach Niele Ivey, Notre Dame starts the season ranked No. 14 in the country. 

The team is led by senior guard Hannah Hidalgo, who was picked as the ACC Preseason Player of the Year.

 

And then, on Monday, Nov. 2, there’s more men’s basketball – all day and all night long.

The first game starts at 12 midnight as part of The “Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon,” which includes eight games that will be played at two sites – Rock Hill, S.C., and Sioux Falls, S.D.

 

The 16 teams involved are all classified as “mid-majors,” representing leagues that are just a notch below the “power six” conferences.

Six games will be played at the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center. The arena can accommodate about 1,500 spectators. Here’s the lineup of games:

12 midnight: High Point vs. Liberty

3 a.m.: Grambling vs. Northern Illinois

6 a.m.: Appalachian State vs. Merrimack

9 a.m.: Winthrop vs. Queens (of Charlotte, N.C.)

5:30 p.m.: UAB vs. McNeese State

8 p.m.: Furman vs. Bethune-Cookman

Two other contests are scheduled for the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, which has a seating capacity of 3,250:

11:30 a.m.: Murray State vs. Tennessee State

2 p.m.: UTEP vs. Northern Kentucky

Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon is presented by the Field of 68 Media Network, which is part of the On3/Rivals platform, based in Nashville, Tenn.

All games will be streamed on The Field of 68’s YouTube channel and X account.