We have seen some great in-season tournaments in the past (Battle 4 Atlantis, Maui Invitational, etc.), but the Players Era Festival has simply taken things to another level. Last year’s debut featured 8 teams, but this year there is an 18-team field featuring some of the best teams from the best conferences in the country. It is taking place this week in Las Vegas, and we could not be more excited to be there in person! HoopsHD is covering all the angles so you can look forward to an abundance of access in the days ahead. Jon Teitel continues our coverage from Sin City with a recap of St. John’s-Iowa State.
Let’s tip it off:
Coaches Rick Pitino & TJ Otzelberger were both top-3 seeds in the NCAA tourney last March AND are ranked in the top-15 as we speak, so this 1 should be 1 of the premier matchups all week:
I missed most of the 1st half while typing up my Baylor-Creighton recap…but I can tell you that the leading scorers for each team were Milan Momcilovic (left) with 13 and Bryce Hopkins (right) with 10 as St. John’s took a 45-43 lead into intermission:
Lunch was delicious: beef pot pie (much better than it sounds), potatoes, cornbread, carrots, green beans, salad, brownie, and cookies!
Momcilovic kept making shots from behind the arc all day long (just 6-20 in his past 3 games but started 5-7 today), and his teammate Tamin Lipsey came out hot in the 2nd half with a pair of jump shots and an AST in the 1st 4 minutes:
Lipsey finished with 16 PTS in 33 minutes…but did not actually finish the game. He went to the locker room with an injury with just over 2 minutes left, then came back to the bench with 37 seconds left but did not go back into the game. St. John’s had the ball and trailed by a single point with 10 seconds left: Oziyah Sellers scored a team-high 20 PTS but could not make his final layup attempt with a lot of traffic in the lane as the Cyclones hung on for dear life to win it 83-82.
In the postgame press conference, I asked Coach Otzelberger about facing his friend/Creighton coach Greg McDermott tomorrow morning. He said that he is extremely fortunate to have known “Coach Mac” since high school. McDermott gave him his 1st opportunity at Iowa State in 2006, and if not for that chance he would probably not be sitting here today. He has a great sense of gratitude for all that McDermott has done for him: he does not look forward to coaching against friends because he wants to see them be successful…except for tomorrow!
Coach Pitino was NOT in a good mood after the loss, but I assumed a “safe space” would be facing Baylor coach Scott Drew tomorrow in a rematch of 1 of the best games of last season (Baylor had a 1-PT 2-OT win over the Johnnies at the 2024 Baha Mar Championship). He dismissed my premise by explaining that that he is not facing Drew specifically (but rather his Baylor team), and that Coach Drew is similarly facing St. John’s. Both rosters are very different from their game last November, but he did admit that he respects Coach Drew and it will be a great test:
That is a wrap for Game 2 but check back all week long for all access at the Players Era Festival!
