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2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season
Preseason AP #1	Kansas
Regular season	November 6, 2018 – March 10, 2019
NCAA Tournament	2019
Tournament dates	March 19, 2019 – April 8, 2019
National Championship	U.S. Bank Stadium Minneapolis, Minnesota
NCAA Division I basketball seasons «2017–18  2019–20»

The 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 6, 2018. The first tournament was the 2K Sports Classic and the season will end with the Final Four in Minneapolis on April 8, 2019. Practices officially began in September 2018.^[1]

Rule changes

Season headlines

• May 23, 2018 – The NCAA announced its Academic Progress Rate (APR) sanctions for the 2018–19 school year. A total of nine programs in eight sports were declared ineligible for postseason play due to failure to meet the required APR benchmark, including the following Division I men's basketball team:^[2]
  • Alabama A&M
  
  


• June 18 – Purdue University Fort Wayne (PFW), which was set to begin operation on July 1 following the dissolution of Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW), announced that the athletic program that it would inherit from IPFW, previously known as the Fort Wayne Mastodons, would become the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons. PFW also changed its colors from IPFW's former blue and silver scheme to the old gold and black used by its new parent institution.^[3]
  


• August 8 – In response to the sport's ongoing corruption scandal, the NCAA announced a suite of major changes to its rules governing college basketball:^[4][5][6]
  
  
  • Certain high school players and college players with remaining eligibility will now be allowed to have formal relationships with agents while retaining college eligibility. These agents must be certified by the NCAA. College players can be represented if they have formally requested an evaluation of their NBA prospects from the league. Should the NBA change the age limit for the draft to once again allow players to be drafted directly from high school, the rule also allows for high school players to be represented, effective on the July 1 before their senior year, if USA Basketball has designated them as "elite senior prospects". However, these relationships will be allowed only during the draft process, and must be terminated if the player returns to school.
  
  
  • Certain players who declare for the NBA draft but are not selected will be free to return to their former schools, as long as they have not signed professional contracts, or have not complied with NCAA rules for relationships with agents, in the meantime. However, this privilege is only extended to players who have requested NBA evaluation of their draft prospects and have been invited to the NBA Draft Combine.
  
  
  • School presidents, chancellors, and athletics staff members are now contractually required to comply with all NCAA investigations. This effectively gives the NCAA subpoena power in its investigations, which it previously lacked.
  
  
  • Presidents and chancellors are now personally accountable to the NCAA for athletic department compliance with NCAA rules.
  
  
  • The NCAA and its Committee on Infractions can now use information obtained in outside investigations in its infractions process. Previously, the NCAA could not use such information.
  
  
  
  


• August 22 – The NCAA announced that effective immediately, the RPI will no longer be used in the selection process for the Division I men's tournament. It was replaced by the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET), which takes into account the following:^[7][8]
  
  
  • Game results
  
  
  • Strength of schedule
  
  
  • Location (home, away, or neutral site)
  
  
  • Scoring margin — Teams will receive no added credit for victory margins above 10 points. Additionally, overtime games will be assigned a scoring margin of 1 point, regardless of the actual score.^[9]
    
  
  
  • Net offensive and defensive efficiency
  
  
  • Quality of wins and losses — The NCAA will continue to use its "quadrant" system, introduced for last year's tournament selection process, to classify individual wins and losses.
  
  
  • All games will be evaluated equally; there is no bonus or penalty for when a game is played within the season.
  
  
  
  

The NET was adopted only for men's basketball. All other sports that use selection committees to determine NCAA tournament entries, including the Division I women's basketball tournament, continue to use their own versions of the RPI.^[8]

• September 10 – The Northeast Conference (NEC) announced that Merrimack College would start a transition from the NCAA Division II Northeast-10 Conference and join the NEC effective July 1, 2019. The Warriors will not be eligible for the NCAA tournament until becoming a full D-I member in 2023–24.^[10]
  


• September 28 – LSU player Wayde Sims, set to play his junior season for the Tigers, was killed in a shooting near the Southern University campus in Baton Rouge, home to both schools.^[11]
  


• October 3 – Long Island University announced that it would merge its two current athletic programs—the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds, full members of the NEC, and the Division II LIU Post Pioneers—effective with the 2019–20 school year. The new program will compete under the LIU name with a new nickname and maintain LIU Brooklyn's Division I and NEC memberships.^[12] This change will have minimal effect on the existing LIU Brooklyn men's basketball program, as LIU has announced that the unified basketball team will be based at the Brooklyn campus.^[13]
  


• October 23 – The Associated Press preseason All-American team was released. Purdue guard Carsen Edwards was the leading vote-getter (63 votes). Joining him on the team were North Carolina forward Luke Maye (52 votes), Duke guard R. J. Barrett (50), Kansas forward Dedric Lawson (30), Wisconsin forward Ethan Happ (23) and Nevada forward Caleb Martin (23).^[14]
  

Milestones and records

• During the season, the following players reached the 2000 career point milestone – Marshall guard Jon Elmore,^[15]Montana State guard Tyler Hall,^[16]Wofford guard Fletcher Magee,^[17]Cornell guard Matt Morgan,^[18] and Lipscomb guard Garrison Mathews.^[19]
  


• November 12 – Buffalo was ranked 25th in the AP top 25 poll - signifying the first time in school history that the program cracked the top 25.^[20]
  


• November 24 – High Point head coach Tubby Smith won his 600th career Division I game, as his Panthers defeated East Carolina 55–52.^[21]
  


• December 3 — Furman was ranked 25th in the AP top 25 poll - signifying the first time in school history that the program cracked the top 25.^[22]
  


• December 7 — South Dakota State forward Mike Daum became the Summit League's all-time leading scorer. In a 42-point outing against Southern, Daum passed former Oral Roberts forward Caleb Green's conference record 2,504 points.^[23]
  


• December 21 – Chris Clemons of Campbell became the Big South Conference all-time leading scorer. He passed VMI guard Reggie Williams' 2,556 career points for the honor.^[24]
  

Conference membership changes

Six schools joined new conferences for the 2018–19 season. Four schools switched between Division I conferences for the 2018–19 season. In addition, two schools moved from Division II starting this season and are ineligible for NCAA-sponsored postseason play until completing their D-I transitions in 2022.

In addition to the schools changing conferences, the 2018–19 season will be the last for Savannah State in D-I with its decision to reclassify all of its sports to D-II.^[31]

Also, one D-I member adopted a new institutional and athletic identity. The 2017–18 school year was the last for Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) as a single institution; the school's health sciences programs were taken over by Indiana University as Indiana University Fort Wayne, while all other academic programs are now governed by Purdue University as Purdue University Fort Wayne (PFW).^[32] As noted previously, the former IPFW athletic program was inherited by PFW and is now known as the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons.

Arenas

New arenas

• 
  Elon began play at the new Schar Center, which replaced their home of 69 seasons, Alumni Gym.


• 
  Marquette moved, along with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, into the new Fiserv Forum, which replaced BMO Harris Bradley Center after 30 years.


• After 32 seasons at the off-campus Burton Coliseum, McNeese State opened the new on-campus Health and Human Performance Education Complex (H&HP Complex).^[33]
  


• The two new Division I entries for 2018 continued to play at existing on-campus facilities. California Baptist plays at the CBU Events Center, which opened in 2017, and North Alabama plays at Flowers Hall, their home since 1972.

Arenas reopening

Four teams returned to newly renovated arenas, all of which were closed for the 2017–18 season.

• 
  Cincinnati returned to Fifth Third Arena.


• 
  Houston initially planned to reopen the renamed Fertitta Center (originally Hofheinz Pavilion) by the start of the 2018–19 season, but the new arena did not open until December 1, 2018, six games into the season.^[34] The Cougars' first game in the renovated facility was a 65–61 upset of then-#18 Oregon.^[35]
  


• 
  Northwestern returned to Welsh–Ryan Arena.


• 
  Villanova returned the bulk of its schedule to the renamed Finneran Pavilion (originally duPont Pavilion and later The Pavilion).

Arenas closing

Temporary arenas

• With the reopening of Fertitta Center delayed, Houston began the 2018–19 season at Texas Southern's Health and Physical Education Arena, where the Cougars played most of their 2017–18 home games.^[34]
  


• Due to delays in the construction of the new UPMC Events Center, originally scheduled to open in January 2019 but now delayed to that summer, Robert Morris will play its entire home schedule at the Student Recreation and Fitness Center, a facility that opened in 2017 at the on-campus North Athletic Complex as part of the UPMC Events Center project.^[36]
  

Season outlook

Pre–season polls

The top 25 from the AP and USA Today Coaches Polls.

Regular season

Early season tournaments

Upsets

An upset is a victory by an underdog team. In the context of NCAA Division I Men's Basketball this generally constitutes an unranked team defeating a team currently ranked In the Top 25. This list will highlight those upsets of ranked teams by unranked teams as well as upsets of #1 teams. Rankings are from the AP Poll.

Bold type indicates winning teams in "true road games"-i.e., those played on an opponent's home court (including secondary homes, such as Intrust Bank Arena for Wichita State).

Conference winners and tournaments

Each of the 32 Division I athletic conferences ends its regular season with a single-elimination tournament. The team with the best regular-season record in each conference is given the number one seed in each tournament, with tiebreakers used as needed in the case of ties for the top seeding. The winners of these tournaments receive automatic invitations to the 2019 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament.

Postseason

NCAA Tournament

Conference standings