In-season tournaments begin tomorrow, providing fans with a steady dose of matinee basketball for the next two weeks. Here’s your log5 guide to those events. Only true eight-team brackets are eligible for this analysis. (Sorry, teams in fake pre-determined brackets.) These tournaments are ordered by strength of field, from weakest to strongest.
Gulf Coast Showcase (TV: ???, Nov. 25-27)
Semis Final Champ 99 San Diego 87.7 48.8 28.9 100 La. Tech 83.0 45.8 27.1 103 St. Bona. 73.6 49.7 25.5 169 Wagner 75.4 33.4 13.2 222 S. Illinois 26.4 11.6 3.2 279 Stetson 24.6 5.3 1.0 276 NC Greensboro 17.0 3.0 0.7 302 Ill. Chicago 12.3 2.4 0.5
What to watch for: Uh, I don’t think you can actually watch this unless you’re at Germain Arena. This new tournament is showcasing some mediocre mid-majors. But I’ll never complain about new tournaments on the schedule, especially when they figure to produce a few competitive matchups.
Great Alaska Shootout (TV: CBS Sports Network, Nov. 27-30)
Semis Final Champ 57 Indiana St. 70.8 62.7 35.4 49 Harvard 70.0 48.0 30.2 83 Green Bay 74.2 31.8 16.1 133 Tulsa 29.2 22.3 7.9 118 Denver 30.0 14.8 6.5 208 Pepperdine 25.8 5.5 1.6 NR Alaska Anc. 54.3 8.7 1.4 268 TCU 45.7 6.4 0.9
Reason to watch: A D-II team being favored in a game. It’s possible TCU isn’t the worst D-I squad in the bracket, but it’s also possible that they’ll be an underdog in their first round game against Alaska-Anchorage. The Seawolves are notoriously tough in this event and if TCU is favored it won’t be by much. Indiana State benefits by drawing the winner of that game, and thus gets an edge over higher-ranked Harvard in terms of its chance of winning the event.
Paradise Jam (TV: CBS Sports Network, Nov. 22-25)
Semis Final Champ 61 Maryland 91.0 63.3 33.5 44 Providence 64.2 48.3 31.0 76 Vanderbilt 35.8 22.7 11.5 108 La Salle 79.9 26.7 11.4 122 Northern Iowa 56.3 21.0 7.6 155 Loyola Mmt 43.7 14.0 4.3 260 Morgan St. 20.1 2.3 0.4 287 Marist 9.0 1.7 0.2
Reason to watch: La Salle finding itself. Maryland gets the edge here by virtue of its first-round friendly against Marist. What’s the deal with La Salle? The Explorers figured to be really good this season, what with bringing back an experienced core form a Sweet 16 team, but they haven’t looked sharp in starting the season 2-2 with ugly wins against Quinnipiac and Siena. Some of this is dumb luck – opponents are making high percentage of their threes (39.7%) and grabbing a ridiculous number of missed shots (39.7% vs. 26.7% last season), too. I wouldn’t take them too lightly here.
Puerto Rico Tip-Off (TV: ESPN2/3/U, Nov. 21, 22, 24)
Semis Final Champ 7 VCU 76.5 45.5 30.9 18 Michigan 90.8 45.8 28.7 25 Georgetown 82.9 59.8 27.1 63 Kansas St. 73.6 28.7 8.3 65 Florida St. 23.5 7.8 3.2 148 Charlotte 17.1 6.2 1.0 164 Northeastern 26.4 5.3 0.7 202 Long Beach St. 9.2 1.0 0.2
What to watch for: VCU’s defense against a team that takes care of the ball. Who do the new rules interpretations affect? You might think a team like VCU that relies on forcing turnovers. Well, guess again. VCU is still forcing turnovers, and the Rams are fouling a lot more, too, but it hasn’t been a problem so far. They should face Michigan in the semifinals and under the old interpretations, things didn’t go so well for the Rams when the two teams squared off last March. A rematch would make for compelling viewing.
Charleston Classic (TV: ESPN2/3/U, Nov. 21, 22, 24)
Semis Final Champ 21 New Mexico 78.5 53.3 40.8 47 UMass 60.4 25.6 16.8 56 Clemson 46.0 18.9 9.4 70 Nebraska 39.6 13.1 8.7 116 Georgia 56.6 32.7 8.7 125 Temple 54.0 27.4 6.9 152 Davidson 43.4 21.0 4.6 94 UAB 21.5 7.9 4.1
What to watch for: Quality, yet obscure teams. This is sort of like the American Idol of in-season tournaments. Some of these teams fancy themselves as at-large possibilities and the rest of the country doesn’t know much about them. A good audition here, and a UMass, Clemson, Nebraska, or UAB can rack up some wins that will matter when mock brackets are being generated.
Wooden Legacy (ESPN/2/3/U, Nov. 28-30)
Semis Final Champ 15 Creighton 61.7 47.9 35.7 53 Marquette 79.7 47.9 19.2 32 Arizona St. 38.3 26.3 17.0 66 San Diego St. 84.2 24.6 12.4 64 George Wash. 55.2 26.9 8.9 86 Miami FL 44.8 19.6 5.7 196 Cal St. Full. 20.3 5.6 0.9 246 Charleston 15.8 1.1 0.2
What to watch for: Maurice Creek. Fullerton gets to play on his home floor for the first two games, and that’s not accounted for here. That will make the likelihood of an all-Big East final a little more remote as Marquette draws the Titans in the first round. Maurice Creek has been a revelation for Mike Lonergan’s GW squad, making 16 of his first 25 threes so far for the 4-0 Colonials. Hey, the graduate transfer rule benefits the mid-major for once. The first president has a first-round grudge match with Miami.
Old Spice Classic (TV: ESPN/2/3/U, Nov. 28, 29, Dec. 1)
Semis Final Champ 3 Oklahoma St. 86.5 74.1 56.2 24 Memphis 93.9 62.2 24.5 51 LSU 54.0 20.9 5.9 59 Butler 66.2 14.7 5.9 62 St. Joseph's 46.0 16.2 4.1 69 Purdue 13.5 6.7 2.3 107 Wash. St. 33.8 4.6 1.2 259 Siena 6.1 0.7 0.04
What to watch for: An upset. I wouldn’t mind seeing an Oklahoma State/Memphis rematch in the finals, if only because the game would surely be more competitive than Tuesday night’s contest.Having to play a quality team you just smoked presents an interesting mental challenge. But the chances of that game happening are a bit less than 50 percent, even with Memphis getting a virtual first-round bye. Compounding probabilities are fun.
Battle 4 Atlantis (AXS TV/NBC Sports Network, Nov. 28-30)
Semis Final Champ 4 Kansas 88.5 59.3 43.1 16 Villanova 85.1 36.0 22.2 19 Iowa 63.2 42.3 17.4 41 Tennessee 66.3 28.3 8.6 43 Xavier 36.8 20.0 5.9 75 UTEP 33.7 9.3 1.7 101 Wake Forest 11.5 2.7 0.7 119 USC 14.9 2.0 0.5
What to watch for: Humans battling 4 mythical underwater cities. Imagine how dumb they will feel when they find out what they’re battling 4. This was the premier in-season tournament a year ago and the field’s not quite as strong this season, but there’s still some intrigue. I feel like there’s a bit of a bias nationally against the Big East. Since they don’t have football, they can’t be considered a strong basketball conference. That seems to be the logic. However, from top to bottom, this is a really nice conference—yes, that includes DePaul—and Villanova and Xavier can advance that idea with a good showing in the Bahamas.
Maui Invitational (TV: ESPN/2, Nov. 25-27)
Semis Final Champ 12 Gonzaga 80.5 54.6 31.7 29 Baylor 94.5 41.0 19.3 22 Minnesota 54.7 33.3 18.4 31 California 69.6 30.5 13.8 23 Syracuse 45.3 25.5 13.0 74 Arkansas 30.4 8.1 2.1 79 Dayton 19.5 6.8 1.7 NR Chaminade 5.5 0.2 0.01
What to watch for: Andre Hollins. Why don’t people talk about Andre Hollins? That’s a rhetorical question: It’s clear he’s not a winner. That’s the reason guys like Larry Drew, Phil Pressey, and Aaron Craft have have had many more words written about them in the last 12 months than Hollins even though Hollins is one of the best two-way point guards in the country. I don’t think it’s too tough to follow the logic that if Hollins had Craft’s teammates, he wins more games. Anyway, it’s going to be hard to prove the critics wrong in Maui, where a loss or two by Minnesota is likely against the toughest field of all the tourneys.