After spending the first week of this month playing exhibition games against two Canadian college teams in The Bahamas, Cincinnati coach Jerrod Calhoun told me last week that he would like to see the NCAA allow Division I college teams to play each other in the summer, “so you don’t have to go so far to play the games.”Let me add to Calhoun’s message: Let’s allow DI teams to play other DI teams to give us good summer basketball. The current system, in which major college basketball programs go on foreign tours to play exhibition games and develop chemistry, usually leads to college teams playing inferior competition — Canadian colleges, for instance — and after a week of watching every replay I could find of those games, it was hard to stay awake.There were two exceptions, however. Arizona traveled to Lithuania to play the Lithuanian and Ukrainian national teams, as well as the Lithuania “B” team, and those games were competitive and entertaining. Michigan also played the two Lithuanian teams and is scheduled to play Mega Superbet from the Adriatic Basketball Association on Thursday.I’ve been jotting down my thoughts and observations. Today, I’ll start with Arizona and Michigan — both of which ended last season at the Final Four in Indianapolis, where the Wolverines cut down the nets. On Wednesday, we’ll publish my thoughts on the rest, a list that includes Purdue, Arkansas, Indiana, Texas A&M, Auburn and the aforementioned Bearcats.How good could Arizona be?A year ago, I was a believer in the Michigan roster. I watched the Wolverines play St. John’s in the preseason, came away convinced they had the highest ceiling in college basketball and moved Michigan to preseason No. 1. I’m having similar feelings after watching Arizona’s trip to Lithuania.The Wildcats were not at full strength — missing fifth-year Clemson transfer RJ Godfrey, who will likely start at power forward if eligible, and freshman JJ Mandaquit, likely the backup point guard — and Michigan faced a tougher version of Lithuania’s patched-together national team than the one Arizona beat, but I’m a believer based off what I saw from Arizona, mostly because of the leaps made by forward Ivan Kharchenkov and center Motiejus Krivas and the readiness of freshman guard Caleb Holt. That could be the best trio in college hoops.Kharchenkov, a 6-foot-7 sophomore, played like an All-American and National Player of the Year candidate. If our Sam Vecenie updates his 2027 NBA mock draft anytime soon, I would encourage him to put a lottery grade on Kharchenkov. I loved him as a freshman because of how hard he played as a low-usage glue guy. Now with a much bigger piece of the pie headed his way, he appears ready to be a star.Remember the turbo button in NBA Jam? Kharchenkov looked like he was the one player on the floor with turbo mode available, blowing past defenders off the dribble. His burst was impressive, as was his ability to fly at the rim and put the ball softly off the glass. His jumper looked smoother than a year ago and he shot with confidence, making 6-of-15 3-pointers on the trip. He was uber-efficient, shooting 65.8 percent inside the arc and averaging 26.3 points per game. In the two games against senior national teams (Ukraine and Lithuania), he had 55 points.Krivas was not quite at Kharchenkov’s level, but he was close. Coach Tommy Lloyd had Krivas on a pitch count because of a foot issue, and that’s one reason Arizona lost the first game of the trip to Lithuania’s “B” team — Krivas played only 11 minutes.