Wishing a blessed and Happy Thanksgiving to all on this holiday. Hoping your day is filled with family, turkey, football, and maybe some basketball too.
Armed with boatloads of money, the Battle 4 Atlantis has quickly become one of the more prominent early season college basketball tournaments with some flat-out loaded fields in its short history, to the point where some call it the sport’s premier tourney. We’d still go with the Maui Invitational, which at least is played in an arena, not a ballroom that is lit like it might be a spaceship, but it’s hard to argue with the teams that have gathered in the Bahamas for this tourney.
Still, this year’s field had a look of being quite top-loaded, with distinct favorites in all four quarterfinal games. Arizona (No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll), Villanova (No. 5) and Purdue (No. 18) were the only teams close to the national rankings coming in. It stands to reason, then, that it was nothing less than stunning to see two of those three lose Wednesday, as well as a third favorite go down to end the day.
It began in the opener, as Tennessee knocked off Purdue 78-75 in overtime. Rick Barnes is turning a corner with the Volunteers, forming this program in his image with a toughness and grittiness that means they won’t back down to anyone, and that’s what happened in this one. This is a big win for the Vols, as well as a puzzling one for the Boilermakers, who spend much of the game hoisting jumpers, seemed to refuse to take advantage of a big height advantage inside and also were out-rebounded by a much smaller team.
That was just the start of the bracket-busting. After Villanova held serve for the favorites with a less-than easy 66-58 win over Western Kentucky, North Carolina State got a big win early in the Kevin Keatts tenure by toppling Arizona 90-84. Freshman Braxton Beverly was the subject of one of the latest chic NCAA outrages when the governing body initially wouldn’t give him a transfer waiver for doing something with clear and obvious consequences within the organization’s eligibility rules. The NCAA relented due to heavy public lobbying, and he scored 20 in this one. Big win for the Wolfpack and Keatts, who has some early validation for his work in Raleigh.
The night ended with one more surprise, as Northern Iowa upended SMU 61-58. This was a classic slow-paced, efficient Ben Jacobson-led UNI win, as the Panthers shot well (48%) and outrebounded the Mustangs solidly (37-27). Spencer Haldeman scored 15 big points off the bench, and the Panthers move on and now will have a classic contrast in styles game in the semifinals against N.C. State.
Side Dishes:
- Notre Dame led on just two occasions all night against Wichita State in the Maui Invitational final. It just so happened that one of them was at the end, as Martinas Geben hit a pair of free throws with 2.3 seconds left for a 67-66 win. The Fighting Irish came back from a 16-point deficit for their first title at Maui and in another memorable final in an event that seems to never come up short. Mike Brey-who received plenty of attention for how he dressed, or maybe more appropriately didn’t dress, for the tourney-went to a zone that slowed down the Shockers, who haven’t quite been on their 40% three-point clip from last year early on this season. Also from Maui: hooray for Chaminade, which with a big second half blew out California 96-72, the final score every bit indicative of the domination. The Silverswords have sadly been relegated to every-other-year status in the Maui Invitational in the future, mildly understandable given their relative lack of success-this was just their eighth win all-time in the event-but still a sour move for taking away the tourney’s underdog factor some years.
- Notre Dame/Wichita State was just one of several games of the day that went to the wire. One of the finishes of the year came as Kyron Cartwright hit a running, off-balance, leaning three-pointer at the buzzer to give Providence a 66-65 escape over Belmont. That had just come after the Bruins had run a beautiful lob play in the final seconds to Dylan Windler to go ahead with 3.7 seconds left, 3.7 seconds from a massive road win. Cartwright sped down the floor, though, and got off his shot just before time expired in a finish that if it took place in March would be worthy of highlights for years.
- Another fantastic finish came in the Cancun Challenge, as Louisiana Tech’s Derrick Jean hit a three-pointer with one second left to give the Bulldogs a 63-61 win over Evansville. The Purple Aces came so close to a very nice early season tourney championship, leading 58-51 with just over five minutes left, but Tech rallied to pull out a battle of undefeateds.
- Talk about a late, late night score to get the attention: UNLV 85 Utah 58 in the MGM Main Event championship game. Are the Runnin’ Rebels back? It sure looked that way. Brandon McCoy had 26 points and 17 rebounds.
- The first Cayman Islands Classic title goes to Cincinnati, which drilled Wyoming 78-53 in the final. The Bearcats jumped on the Cowboys from the start and looked head-and-shoulders above the rest of the field at this tourney. Very impressive.
- Towson is winner of the Gulf Coast Showcase championship after edging Georgia Southern 70-67 to give the Eagles their first loss. With the early struggles of College of Charleston (more shortly), the Tigers seem to be the clear favorite in the CAA early on.
- The final Great Alaska Shootout opened with a big surprise as Cal Poly heated up from three-point range, making 14 of 25 from deep to defeat Charleston 73-68. The Mustangs now face Central Michigan, which handled Sam Houston State 71-60. Also: Idaho outscored Santa Clara 14-0 to close the game, stealing a 69-59 win from the Broncos, and Cal State Bakersfield shut down host school Alaska-Anchorage 59-39.
- Among ranked teams playing games outside tournaments, Kentucky pulled away to defeat IPFW 86-67, Miami (Fla.) ground out a 57-46 win over La Salle and USC handled Lehigh 88-63.
- Saint Louis defeated Virginia Tech last week, but the Billikens were bombed by Providence in the ensuing game and now have a 72-70 loss at home against Detroit Mercy, which is still playing without suspended coach Bacari Alexander.
- Give it up for Prairie View A&M and the SWAC, which delivered a major surprise as the Panthers to defeat Georgia State’s Panthers 71-56. Juco transfer Gary Blackston had 21 points and 10 rebounds for Prairie View, which has both of the SWAC’s non-conference wins over Division I opponents, having also topped a good Eastern Kentucky team two days earlier.
- Finally, a call to New Mexico State, which defeated its second straight Mountain West foe by taking care of Colorado State 89-76. Multi-transfer (four schools in his collegiate career) Zach Lofton has quickly taken up a big scoring load, and he had 30 in this one. Looking ahead, the Aggies have a chance to put together a very nice non-conference run with a lot of tough but winnable games coming up.
- Off the court, Louisville announced that freshman Brian Bowen will not play for the Cardinals in his collegiate career. Bowen-involved in the FBI’s investigation into college basketball-will stay on scholarship this year but will not practice or play for the team, and is also free to pursue a transfer.
Today’s Menu:
- The Battle 4 Atlantis continues with semifinal play. Tennessee and Villanova match up first (12:30 p.m. Eastern, ESPN) with N.C. State against Northern Iowa to follow (3 p.m., ESPN2).
- The PK80 Invitational presented by Nike honoring Nike opens today with two separate eight-team tourneys presented as one 16-team tournament (it’s not). Pardon our skepticism of the self-absorption and involved in this tourney. The quarterfinal games are actually semi-underwhelming if one gets past the Big Football names on most schools. Easily the best game Thursday is Arkansas against Oklahoma (5 p.m., ESPN2), a pair of teams red-hot offensively to start the season.
- ESPN’s traditional pet Thanksgiving events both open. The AdvoCare Invitational begins in Orlando led off by reeling Missouri against upset-minded Long Beach State (11:30 a.m., ESPN2), who should be emboldened by the Tigers’ recent struggles and now loss of Michael Porter for the season. St. John’s against Oregon State is two teams trying to move back up in the hoops world (2 p.m., ESPNU), and Nebraska gets a chance to play as an underdog against a Central Florida team that knows it almost needs to play well here. Meanwhile, the best game to open the Wooden Legacy in Fullerton, Calif., is easily Saint Mary’s against a Harvard squad that has had some struggles of late (4 p.m., ESPNews).
- The NIT Season Tip-Off semifinals will reveal a lot early on about its four participants. Undefeated Virginia gets what should be its biggest test yet when it takes on Vanderbilt (4 p.m., ESPNU). That is followed by Rhode Island-staggered by the injury to E.C. Matthews-meeting Seton Hall, which has looked good early this year (6:30 p.m., ESPNU).
- The Las Vegas Invitational semifinals include an increasingly fascinating game between Kansas State and Arizona State, as the Sun Devils have been on an offensive tear early (7:30 p.m., FS1). Before that, Xavier takes on George Washington (5 p.m., FS1) in a game that in years past would’ve piqued interest but this year amounts to a trap game for the Musketeers. Then again, there often seems to be one team that pulls massive surprises over this weekend…
- Great Alaska Shootout consolation games have College of Charleston against Sam Houston State and Santa Clara vs. Alaska-Anchorage.
Again, a very Happy Thanksgiving to all.
