Click here for David Griggs’ rundown of today’s NCAA action; also click here for Chad Sherwood’s rundown of today’s featured under-the-radar contest in Nashville.
While the Thanksgiving holiday was originally a quiet portion of the college basketball calendar with the exception of a few holiday tournaments, the popularity of Thanksgiving week (and some cases prior to the week of Thanksgiving) tournaments has exploded in recent seasons. One of the original capstone moments came not during Thanksgiving but rather prior to Christmas in 1982 when Virginia was upset by the Chaminade Silverswords, a small Marianist college in NAIA located in Hawaii.
Beginning in 1984, the Maui Invitational became a popular “exempt” tournament for NCAA teams. This meant that a team could play up to 3 games but only have it count as one game on a team’s regular season schedule. Nowadays, a team can play a maximum of 4 games as part of a bracketed event, even if 1 or 2 of those games are considered non-bracketed. The Maui Invitational has featured 4 champions of the tournament who would go on to win the national title – Michigan in 1988, North Carolina in 2004, North Carolina in 2008, and Connecticut in 2011. It has also featured a previous champion who would be an eventual national runner-up in Arizona in 2000. There used to be a period when teams could only play in 2 exempt tournaments every 4 seasons, but that restriction was lifted in the mid-2000s. This may have best been summed up by the 2003 champion Dayton Flyers – they beat Central Michigan, San Diego State and Hawaii to win the Maui title that year. The real irony here is that Dayton has arguably had better performances in Maui when they had 3rd-place finishes in the tournament; each year they would get a pair of wins against notable NCAA Tournament teams (i.e. Connecticut and Maryland in 1999) that would help catapult them to what was then a rare at-large bid for the Flyers in the 1999-2000 season.
Another tournament that used to be one of the premier Thanksgiving destinations was the Great Alaska Shootout. This tournament actually goes back to 1978 when it originally began as the Sea Wolf Classic (hosted by the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves). Even though no champion of this tournament has never gone on to win the national title later that season – there were 2 champions who would finish as the national runner-up; Seton Hall in 1988 and Kentucky in 1996. One of the best championship games in the Great Alaska Shootout came between Cincinnati and Duke in 1998; you can click here for some footage of this memorable game between a Duke team that would also finish as a national runner-up that season and a Cincinnati team where Kenyon Martin was an emerging superstar. The Bearcats would be victorious on this night, however.
In recent seasons, however, the elimination of the 2-in-4 rule has freed more marquee programs to play in other tournaments that have sprawled throughout the country, much to the detriment of the Great Alaska Shootout and the Preseason NIT. In its heyday, the Preseason NIT would be a 16-team single-elimination field that would feature the first two rounds to be played on campus sites and the final 2 rounds to be played in Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving weekend. The very first Preseason NIT was held in 1985; Duke would beat Kansas in the championship in New York and would also beat the Jayhawks in the Final Four later that season. When under-the-radar teams began crashing the party, dwindling attendance helped lead the tournament to eventually change its format to one where 4 pre-determined teams would host the first 2 rounds on their campus sites and then play each other in a bracketed event in MSG. The “under-the-radar” teams would also play bracketed games with each other so that they too could play up to 4 games under the umbrella of an exempt event. Today, the Preseason NIT has dwindled to a 4-team, 2-game non-exempt event that will rotate between the Barclays Center and the older Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
But some of the events that have sprung up in recent years have benefitted both major teams and non-major teams alike. The MAAC hosts an annual tournament in Orlando (now the Advocare Classic); C-USA hosts the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas, and the Big West hosts the Wooden Legacy in Fullerton (early rounds) and Anaheim for the final day of competition. These events serve as early tests for major programs and also give under-the-radar teams a chance to play the big boys (and occasionally each other) in a neutral court setting as opposed to on-campus sites as buy game fodder.
So let us be thankful for what these tournaments have provided and will continue to provide for college basketball fans as they gradually become part of what is indeed a festive holiday weekend.
Throwback Thursday: Thanksgiving Tournaments
Click here for David Griggs’ rundown of today’s NCAA action; also click here for Chad Sherwood’s rundown of today’s featured under-the-radar contest in Nashville.
While the Thanksgiving holiday was originally a quiet portion of the college basketball calendar with the exception of a few holiday tournaments, the popularity of Thanksgiving week (and some cases prior to the week of Thanksgiving) tournaments has exploded in recent seasons. One of the original capstone moments came not during Thanksgiving but rather prior to Christmas in 1982 when Virginia was upset by the Chaminade Silverswords, a small Marianist college in NAIA located in Hawaii.
Beginning in 1984, the Maui Invitational became a popular “exempt” tournament for NCAA teams. This meant that a team could play up to 3 games but only have it count as one game on a team’s regular season schedule. Nowadays, a team can play a maximum of 4 games as part of a bracketed event, even if 1 or 2 of those games are considered non-bracketed. The Maui Invitational has featured 4 champions of the tournament who would go on to win the national title – Michigan in 1988, North Carolina in 2004, North Carolina in 2008, and Connecticut in 2011. It has also featured a previous champion who would be an eventual national runner-up in Arizona in 2000. There used to be a period when teams could only play in 2 exempt tournaments every 4 seasons, but that restriction was lifted in the mid-2000s. This may have best been summed up by the 2003 champion Dayton Flyers – they beat Central Michigan, San Diego State and Hawaii to win the Maui title that year. The real irony here is that Dayton has arguably had better performances in Maui when they had 3rd-place finishes in the tournament; each year they would get a pair of wins against notable NCAA Tournament teams (i.e. Connecticut and Maryland in 1999) that would help catapult them to what was then a rare at-large bid for the Flyers in the 1999-2000 season.
Another tournament that used to be one of the premier Thanksgiving destinations was the Great Alaska Shootout. This tournament actually goes back to 1978 when it originally began as the Sea Wolf Classic (hosted by the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves). Even though no champion of this tournament has never gone on to win the national title later that season – there were 2 champions who would finish as the national runner-up; Seton Hall in 1988 and Kentucky in 1996. One of the best championship games in the Great Alaska Shootout came between Cincinnati and Duke in 1998; you can click here for some footage of this memorable game between a Duke team that would also finish as a national runner-up that season and a Cincinnati team where Kenyon Martin was an emerging superstar. The Bearcats would be victorious on this night, however.
In recent seasons, however, the elimination of the 2-in-4 rule has freed more marquee programs to play in other tournaments that have sprawled throughout the country, much to the detriment of the Great Alaska Shootout and the Preseason NIT. In its heyday, the Preseason NIT would be a 16-team single-elimination field that would feature the first two rounds to be played on campus sites and the final 2 rounds to be played in Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving weekend. The very first Preseason NIT was held in 1985; Duke would beat Kansas in the championship in New York and would also beat the Jayhawks in the Final Four later that season. When under-the-radar teams began crashing the party, dwindling attendance helped lead the tournament to eventually change its format to one where 4 pre-determined teams would host the first 2 rounds on their campus sites and then play each other in a bracketed event in MSG. The “under-the-radar” teams would also play bracketed games with each other so that they too could play up to 4 games under the umbrella of an exempt event. Today, the Preseason NIT has dwindled to a 4-team, 2-game non-exempt event that will rotate between the Barclays Center and the older Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
But some of the events that have sprung up in recent years have benefitted both major teams and non-major teams alike. The MAAC hosts an annual tournament in Orlando (now the Advocare Classic); C-USA hosts the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas, and the Big West hosts the Wooden Legacy in Fullerton (early rounds) and Anaheim for the final day of competition. These events serve as early tests for major programs and also give under-the-radar teams a chance to play the big boys (and occasionally each other) in a neutral court setting as opposed to on-campus sites as buy game fodder.
So let us be thankful for what these tournaments have provided and will continue to provide for college basketball fans as they gradually become part of what is indeed a festive holiday weekend.