A lot of in-season tournaments around Thanksgiving feature a couple of big-time schools and a couple of not-so-big-time schools…but this year’s Continental Tire Main Event is not 1 of them. We have 2 of the past 3 NCAA champs (Baylor & Virginia), the school with the most titles in NCAA history (UCLA), and another school that ranks top-25 all-time in winning percentage (Illinois). HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel accepted the tough assignment of traveling west to Las Vegas to see a quartet of top-25 teams battling it out and prepared the following photo essay from the 1st day of games on Friday at T-Mobile Arena.
GAME #1: Baylor-Virginia
Not much of a pre-game meal to fill up before back-to-back games: chips/peanuts/pretzels/water. You know that this is a premier event because there were more than FORTY scouts who requested credentials for this weekend. My 1st sighting of the weekend: 1998 NCAA championship coach Tubby Smith (looking resplendent in purple!):
This was Virginia’s 1st basketball game since the murder of 3 UVA football players last Sunday so there was a moment of silence to remember the victims:
It is hard to believe that it is 4PM local time on a Friday in November and I am about to witness 2 of the past 3 NCAA champs going at it in Baylor (2021) and Virginia (2019):
The crowd is MUCH louder for the Hoos, and when combined with the Illini fans who showed up early it is basically a sea of orange in the stands. The crowd did not need much pumping up, but for those who do then look no further than…DJ Prenup!?
Let’s tip it off:
The 1st half was nip-and-tuck throughout with neither team building a double-digit lead. The Baylor backcourt of Adam Flagler (left)/LJ Cryer (right) was unstoppable from behind the arc as they combined to make 5 threes: 
Virginia guard Armaan Franklin turned 22 on Thursday and decided to milk his birthday by showing out in the 1st half: fadeaway jumpers and steals on defense that were converted into layups on offense allowed his team to hang around as the Cavaliers only trailed 33-30 at halftime.
BYU transfer Caleb Lohner was sensational off the bench in the 2nd half while going 4-4 from the field including a 3 from the top of key, but the best new face for the Bears was 2022 McDonald’s All-American Keyonte George: the super-frosh simply does not make any unspectacular plays. While he certainly needs some work on both his decision-making (5 TO) and defensive positioning (5 fouls in 27 minutes), he does a little bit of everything on offense. He made a couple of runners in the lane, a tough lefty bank shot that resulted in an and-1, and a 3 from the top of key en route to a team-high 20 PTS:
However, this game was decided during the 1st 10 minutes after halftime as UVA went on an incredible 30-5 run against a Baylor team that was 98-8 over the past 6 years when holding a lead entering the 2nd half. Franklin showed that he was not just an inside scorer by making a trio of trifectas and Reece Beekman kept running the offense to perfection, finishing with 10 AST (1 short of his career-high). Big man Kadin Shedrick ended up fouling out but not before scoring 17 PTS/6-6 FG plus a pair of STL/BLK as Virginia hung on to win 86-79:
In the postgame press conference I asked Virginia coach Tony Bennett how well he knew his opposing coach. He said that he has known Scott Drew for many years and cares for his family because they are about character/faith. He spoke to his father Dick earlier today, who mentioned that he could not believe that 40 years ago he was coaching against Homer Drew and today his son Tony was coaching against Scott:
I decided to see what Coach Drew thought about his team’s 35-14 disadvantage at the free throw line. He smiled and stated that he would have to look at the tape because it does not lie! He admitted that his team needed to do a better job of keeping the Cavaliers off of the FT line but was at least happy that his guys made their shots when they did get to the line (12-14):
GAME #2: UCLA-Illinois
The nightcap might also serve as a sneak preview of a future conference game, as the University of California regents announced that they will decide next month whether UCLA can indeed leave the Pac-12 for the Big 10. I though the UVA fans were loud but the Illini fans took it to another (decibel) level. They were screaming out “DEFENSE” and remained standing until the Bruins made their 1st basket (which took over 2 minutes) so it both felt/sounded like a home game in Champaign. In contrast, this UCLA fan was escorted out after the under-8 timeout, to the delight of the surrounding orange-clad fans:
My 2nd A-list sighting of the night was CBS studio analyst Seth Davis, although I guess I am still not 100% sure it is him because I have never seen him not wearing a suit jacket:
Texas Tech transfer/Chicago native Terrence Shannon had a double-double in the 1st half…but you will hear a LOT more from him in the 2nd half! The Bruins have a pair of 1st-team all-Pac-12 preseason picks who both lived up to the hype. PG Tyger Campbell scored from all over the court in the 1st half, making layups and pull-up jumpers and 3-PT shots, oh my:
His teammate Jaime Jaquez Jr. (why does nobody call him Triple-J?!) was also making a ton of shots, including his signature turnaround/fadeaway jumper that seems to go in a majority of the time:
Illinois trailed 37-28 at halftime thanks to a sloppy 13-turnover performance, and when UCLA kept pouring it on to go up 44-29 early in the 2nd half it seemed like it might turn into a blowout, but Coach Brad Underwood called a timeout just 47 seconds after halftime to calm his team down…and it worked. Bruins SG David Singleton made a bunch of threes down the stretch but not as many as Shannon, who tied a school record by making 8-9 3PM (compared to the entire UCLA team who made 9-22 from behind the arc). By the time he was done the Illini had not just tied it up but concluded a 42-17 run to take a double-digit lead of its own:
The other noteworthy performance came from Illinois big man Dain Dainja (“Dainja Zone” anyone?). He made all 6 of his FG attempts and is now a ridiculous 30-35 from the field this season. The best part is that they are not just dunks: he made a gorgeous spin/reverse lefty layup/&1 as well as a turnaround jump hook, and while I do not think he is Kofi Cockburn 2.0 he is pretty freaking unstoppable once he gets the ball in the paint, as he helped his team pull off an amazing 79-70 comeback win:
In the postgame press conference I almost did not pose a question to UCLA coach Mick Cronin because frankly…he scares me, and he was in a pretty bad mood after getting outscored 51-33 in the 2nd half. I regained my courage and meekly whispered what he can do when a guy like Shannon is making a ton of threes: he interrupted me and said that they needed to stop him from shooting. He then proceeded to call out his entire team (and in fairness, he shouldered some of the blame himself), accusing them of not hearing defensive adjustments/scouting reports because they were only focused on their offense. He closed with a quote: “Show me a guy who is not humble and I will show you a guy who is ready to be humbled”:
On a happier note, I tried to see if Coach Underwood had an inkling to place Dainja Zone in the starting lineup. He admitted that he worries just as much about who comes off the bench as who starts and that they are in a really good place with where they are at. However, he did give props to his big man for being big in the 2nd half and that even if he does not start him he should at least consider getting him some more shots:
Since the dream matchup on Sunday of Illinois guard Matthew Mayer facing his old Baylor team (with whom he won an NCAA title in 2021) did not come to fruition, I settled for seeing if he would give his former teammates some tips about what to expect from UCLA this weekend. He said he still keeps in touch with them because “those are my boys” and that whenever he is not playing against them he is rooting for them. Since there was a chance that he might face them on Sunday they had not been talking a lot this week but now they can pick it back up again:
That is a wrap for Day 1, check back in the days ahead for a recap of Sunday’s consolation/championship!
P.S. I got to interview Adam Fleischer of the Illini Guardians NIL Collective back in September and he invited me to come join a game-watch at Aria for the Illinois-Michigan game on Saturday morning at 9AM Vegas time. I was not sure what to expect so early in the day…but as you can see by all of the orange in the photos below, this school travels as well as any program that I have ever seen:
