NEWS AND NOTES
We had some really exciting games yesterday.
-For Chad Sherwood’s Under the Radar Game of the Day – CLICK HERE
-For the latest edition of John Stalica’s outstanding Throwback Thursday series – CLICK HERE
-First, Monmouth picked up their second big win of the year, and their first win against a top 25 team in school history, when they overcame a double digit deficit in the second half to come back and beat Notre Dame. If they can pick up another win down in Orlando, we have to start looking at them as an at-large caliber team. It will mean they have three wins against likely tournament teams, and all of them came away from home. There are teams that make the NCAAs as an at-large who do it with less big wins on their resume than that.
-Arizona had all kinds of trouble against a winless Santa Clara team, who missed two freethrows at the end of regulation that would have won the game for the Broncos. But, Zona survived and will play an unbeaten Providence team today.
-Gonzaga fell to Texas A&M in the Bahamas, which was somewhat surprising. The game came down to the final seconds, and TAMU held on. With wins against Texas and Gonzaga, both away from home, the Aggies already have more big wins this year than they did in all of last year.
-We’ve seen several rivalry games renewed in these early season tournaments, particularly in the Battle 4 Atlantis, which gave us Washington vs Gonzaga, Texas vs Texas A&M, and Syracuse vs UConn, which was a very exciting game yesterday. While it wasn’t a tournament, the Dave Gavitt Tip-Off gave us Maryland vs Georgetown again, which has been one of the more exciting games and atmospheres of the season. We may see another one tomorrow. Xavier vs Dayton wasn’t exactly on the same level of importance and intensity as some of the other games, but it was still a long standing conference rivalry that has gone dormant. If both can win (or lose, I guess) their semifinal games in the Advocare Invitational, they’ll meet on Sunday. And, I think it goes without saying…ALL OF THESE GAMES NEED TO BE REGULAR GAMES THAT ARE PLAYED ON CAMPUS DURING THE REGULAR SEASON!!! It generates interest and excitement at a time of the season when we need more of it, and it’s a good win for whoever wins, and other than being a bruise to the ego, it really isn’t a bad loss for whoever loses.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-DAYTON VS MONMOUTH (Advocare Invitational) (***Spotlight Game***). Monmouth knocked off a top 25 team for the first time in school history with their win against Notre Dame. They now have wins at UCLA, and on a neutral floor against Notre Dame. If they can pick up one or two more in this tournament, we’ll have to start to SERIOUSLY look at them. Dayton is a good team that opened up a big lead against Iowa, then sort of blew it, but still held on to win. This tournament is a good chance for them to pick up notable wins away from home.
-CHATTANOOGA VS ALABAMA STATE (Emerald Coast Classic). Chattanooga can pick up their third win away from home .
ALABAMA VS WICHITA STATE (Advocare Invitational). Wichita fell to USC, and is being riddled by injuries. This game has in interesting story line as Alabama wanted to hire Wichita Coach Greg Marshall this past offseason, but he opted to stay with the Shockers.
-CONNECTICUT VS GONZAGA (Battle 4 Atlantis). UConn fell to their old conference rivals in Syracuse, and Gonzaga fell somewhat surprisingly to Texas A&M. The fact that it is a third place game will not mean the committee values it any less. It’s a neutral floor game between two ranked teams, so it is still a very good resume builder.
-XAVIER VS USC (Advocare Invitational). USC is here somewhat surprisingly after knocking off Wichita State. But, as of now, the Trojans are unbeaten and they have wins against Wichita and New Mexico on their profile, so they’re not pushovers. If they can win this game today, you have to start thinking of them as a top forty team, or better. Xavier blew past Alabama in their first game and is also unbeaten.
-GEORGIA TECH VS VILLANOVA (Preseason NIT). Georgia Tech is a very respectable 4-1 right now with wins over Tennessee and Arkansas, but I’m still not expecting them to have a big year. If they win this game, then they’ll have our attention.
-UC IRVINE VS BOSTON COLLEGE (Wooden Legacy). UC Irvine lost to Boise State, which denied them the chance to pick up a notable win, and have other opportunities to face quality competition. BC currently has just one loss, but I don’t think they’ll turn out to be the kind of team that the committee values.
-UTEP VS SOUTHERN ILLINOIS (Corpus Christi Coastal Classic). Neither team has been tested yet, but neither team has lost.
-NORTHEASTERN AT MIAMI FL. Northeastern was a team I was very big on coming into the year, but even though they have just one loss, they have had to sweat out some sub par competition. A win today could drastically turn that around, but it’s much easier said than done. Miami has not lost, and they’ve looked as strong as anyone in the country up to this point.
-KENTUCKY VS SOUTH FLORIDA (ARS Hoops Invitational). I’m expecting this to be a mismatch, but it is a win away from home for Kentucky’s profile.
-BOISE STATE VS MICHIGAN STATE (Wooden Legacy). Boise knocked off a pretty good UC Irvine team, and I still think they’re good enough to land inside the bubble come Selection Sunday. A win today would be a huge boost to their season’s profile, but it’s much easier said than done against a Michigan State team that’s been playing outstanding basketball in their last couple of games.
-CINCINNATI VS NEBRASKA (Barclay’s Center Classic). This is Cincinnati’s toughest test of the year, but with that being said it still isn’t likely that they’ll sweat a whole lot. Nebraska has just one loss, but it was a blowout loss against Villanova, which is the only good team they’ve played.
-NJIT AT ALBANY – UTR Game of the Day. Read Chad Sherwood’s Write up HERE
-VIRGINIA TECH VS IOWA STATE (Emerald Coast Classic). The Cyclones haven’t really been tested yet, but they’re ranked #4th, and I can’t say that I think they’re overrated. Virginia Tech has just one loss, but they haven’t had a test like this yet.
-WINTHROP AT NC STATE. Winthrop hasn’t played a very tough schedule up to this point, but they haven’t lost yet either. A win today will get people’s attention.
-NOTRE DAME VS IOWA (Advocare Invitational). This is certainly the game that many were expecting to see, but they weren’t expecting to see it on the loser’s side of the bracket. Iowa fell to Dayton in a game where they overcame a double digit deficit late and even took the lead, but couldn’t quite get it done. Notre Dame blew a double digit lead to Monmouth. But, as has been harped on many times, it doesn’t matter that this game is in the loser’s bracket. It is a neutral floor game between Notre Dame and Iowa. The committee won’t value it any less than they would had it been on the winner’s side of the bracket.
-MICHIGAN VS TEXAS (Battle 4 Atlantis). Both of these teams could really use some momentum, and a win on a neutral floor in a game like this will give some to whoever pulls it off.
-MEMPHIS VS OHIO STATE (ARS Hoops Invitational). Speaking of teams that could really use some momentum, this game has a VERY pivotal feel to it because both teams seem to be going in the wrong direction right now.
-RICHMOND VS CALIFORNIA (Las Vegas Invitational). Richmond played well in a losing effort to West Virginia, but eventually they need to start picking up notable wins if they want to impress the selection committee. They have another chance to do that today against a Cal team who is talented, but doesn’t have a whole lot of depth, and it showed late in the game against San Diego State.
-LONG BEACH STATE AT OKLAHOMA STATE. I’m not too big on Oklahoma State, but they do have just one loss so far and they’re taking on a decent LBSU team today.
-GEORGE WASHINGTON VS TENNESSEE (Barclay’s Center Classic). GW is unbeaten and already has a big win on their profile. Tennessee, at this point, just has one loss and it was in the final seconds to Georgia Tech. This is an early season resume building opportunity for both teams.
-EVANSVILLE VS SANTA CLARA (Wooden Legacy). Santa Clara is winless on the year, but they were very close to picking up a massive win against Arizona yesterday. Evansville fell to Providence, and doesn’t have a whole lot of opportunities at impressive wins, so winning their final two games in this tournament is important.
-ILLINOIS VS UAB (Emerald Coast Classic). UAB has just one loss, but it was against the only decent team they’ve played so far. If they want to make a case that they belong inside the bubble they must do well in this tournament. Illinois doesn’t have any big wins either, and has actually had some surprising losses, so this event is a chance for them to turn things around as well.
-TOLEDO VS LOYOLA CHICAGO (Great Alaska Shootout). Both teams have just one loss and this is a chance to pick up a nice early win away from home.
-WEST VIRGINIA VS SAN DIEGO STATE (Las Vegas Invitational). San Diego State had been struggling, but they got a HUGE win against Cal last night. That’s the kind of win that can turn a team’s season around. If they win today, they’re resume will be rather healthy. West Virginia hasn’t lost, and they’ve already knocked off some pretty decent teams up to this point. This will be a likely resume builder for the team that wins.
-PROVIDENCE VS ARIZONA (Wooden Legacy). Both teams are unbeaten, and both are likely tournament teams, so again, it will be an early season resume builder for whoever wins it.
BUY GAMES
-Arkansas State @ Baylor
-Lipscomb @ South Carolina
-FGCU @ Florida
-NC Central @ Louisiana Tech
-Northwestern State @ Auburn
-Portland @ Colorado State
-Idaho State @ Utah
-Delaware State @ Fresno State
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.