Rucker's 2026 NBA Draft Scouting Notebook: Prospects to Watch This Week

Draft Season is back. Here's some of the top names in the 2026 NBA Draft class I'm keeping an eye on for the opening week of College Basketball.

Welcome back, NBA Draft fans, to another exciting year.

Each year, we try to take our NBA Draft coverage to another level. This year, my personal goal is to give you as many scouting notes and updates as possible throughout a thrilling 2026 NBA Draft class.

The “Scouting Notebook” will feature plenty of previews, analysis, and buzz that I, or the No Ceilings team, have been hearing in the scouting world. So buckle up—we’re going to have ourselves a fun year.

This week’s edition is a bit of a “tone-setter” for the opening week of college basketball. In previous years, it’s taken a while for us to get some marquee matchups on the slate. But thankfully, that has taken a big change this year. The opening week of college hoops has some juggernaut matchups, both in the college basketball world and the NBA Draft scouting community.

Here’s a look at some of the top games and what I’ll be watching in the opening week of the 2025-26 NCAA season.