2011-12 In-Season Tournaments (early look)

[SelectionSunday]

2011-12 In-Season Tournaments (updated 4/25/11)

Here's what I've gathered (tentatively) for next season's in-season tournament fields. Some of the tournaments have preliminary rounds that don't affect the bracketed portion of the tournament. Last season's RPI is listed in parentheses.

(1) Anaheim 76 Classic (8-team bracket/Nov. 24-25, 27): Villanova (38), Boston College (58), New Mexico (66), Washington State (82), Oklahoma (126), Santa Clara (158), St. Louis (175), Cal-Riverside (265).

(2) Battle 4 Atlantis (8-team bracket/Nov. 23-27): UConn (14), Harvard (35), Florida State (55), UCF (69), College of Charleston (72), Utah (118), UNC-Asheville (147), UMass (151).

(3) Cancun Challenge (8 teams/preliminary rounds, then 2 brackets of 4 on Nov. 22-23): Richmond (41) vs. Illinois (48), Rutgers (121) vs. Illinois State (255); Lipscomb (132), Hampton (153), Sacred Heart (273), SIU-Edwardsville (328).

(4) Charleston Classic (8-team bracket/Nov. 17-18, 20): VCU (49), Tulsa (81), Seton Hall (102), St. Joseph's (164), Georgia Tech (168), Western Kentucky (196), LSU (227) & 1 team TBD.

(5) Chicago Invitational Challenge (8 teams/preliminary rounds, then 2 brackets of 4 on Nov. 25-26): BYU (5), Wisconsin (16), Nevada (193), Bradley (22) & 4 teams TBD.

(6) Coaches vs. Cancer Classic (12 teams/preliminary rounds, 2 4-team round-robins, then 4-team bracket Nov. 17-18): Arizona (19), St. John's (26), Texas A&M (29), Mississippi State (119) & 8 teams TBD.

(7) CBE Classic (12 teams/preliminary rounds, 2 4-team round-robins, then 4-team bracket Nov. 21-22): Notre Dame (9), Missouri (37), Georgia (47), Cal (76) & 8 teams TBD.

(8) Diamond Head Classic (8-team bracket/Dec. 22-23, 25): Xavier (22), Kansas State (23), Clemson (57), UTEP (59), Long Beach State (90), Hawaii (162), Southern Illinois (207), Auburn (254).

(9) Global Sports Classic (5 teams/round robin): Creighton (123), Iowa (185), North Carolina A&T (231), Campbell (280), Chicago State (339).

(10) Global Sports Shootout (5 teams/round robin): Cincinnati (36), Marshall (54), Northwestern State (237), Alabama State (257), Jacksonville State (331).

(11) Great Alaska Shootout (8-team bracket/Nov. 23-26): Southern Miss (63), Murray State (117), San Francisco (120), New Mexico State (139), UC-Irvine (296), Dartmouth (311), Alaska-Anchorage (non-DI) & 1 team TBD.

(12) Las Vegas Classic (8 teams/preliminary rounds, then 2 brackets of 4): West Virginia (21), Missouri State (43), Baylor (94) & 5 teams TBD.

(13) Las Vegas Invitational (8 teams/preliminary rounds, then 2 brackets of 4 on Nov. 25-26): North Carolina (6) vs. South Carolina (134), UNLV (25) vs. USC (67); Cal Poly (201), Morgan State (209), Mississippi Valley State (250), Tennessee State (232).

(14) Legends Classic (12 teams/preliminary rounds, 2 4-team round-robins, then 4-team bracket Nov. 25-26): 12 teams TBD.

(15) Maui Invitational (12 teams/preliminary rounds, then 8-team bracket Nov. 21-23): Kansas (1), Duke (4), Georgetown (13), Memphis (28), Tennessee (34), UCLA (44), Michigan (52), Chaminade (non-DI); (mainland only) Middle Tennessee State (211), Towson (287) & 2 teams TBD.

(16) NIT Season Tip-Off (16-team bracket with all teams guaranteed 4 games): George Mason (24) @ Virginia Tech (62); Syracuse (18) & 13 teams TBD.

(17) Old Spice Classic (8-team bracket/Nov. 24-25, 27): Dayton (70), Indiana State (84), Minnesota (85), Fairfield (97), Arizona State (161), Texas Tech (165), DePaul (234), Wake Forest (260).

(18) Paradise Jam (8-team bracket/Nov. 18-21): Marquette (64), Drexel (74), Ole Miss (83), Virginia (141), TCU (208), Drake (217), Winthrop (222), Norfolk State (270).

(19) Puerto Rico Tip-Off (8-team bracket/Nov. 17-18, 20): Purdue (12), Temple (30), Wichita State (60), Colorado (65), Iona (68), Alabama (80), Maryland (98) & 1 team TBD.

(20) South Padre Island Invitational (8 teams/preliminary rounds, then 2 brackets of 4 on Nov. 25-26): Northern Colorado (99), Northern Iowa (112), Iowa State (138), Providence (154), Western Carolina (172), Southern U (344) & 2 teams TBD.

(21) Unnamed Exempt Tournament (5 teams/round robin): Ohio State (2), Florida (8), Wright State (124), North Florida (148), Jackson State (249).

 

[Pewterschmidt]

The 2011 Maui Invitational could be the strongest field ever for that tournament. Other than Chaminade, Tennessee looks to be the only non-NCAA tourney team in the field and I could make an argument that 6 of the 8 will be ranked in the preseason top 25 (hard time with Georgetown). It's a strong field when a 1st round game will almost guarantee to include 2 ranked teams.

 

[SelectionSunday]

Updated

Va Tech will be in NIT Season Tip-Off.

 

[From the Barn]

I miss the days when the great alaska shootout was THE tournament. Now, it isn't even worth having.

 

[SelectionSunday]

Great Alaska Shootout

It certainly for the most part has fallen off the map.

The GAS certainly isn't like it was in 1994, when the Gophers beat 3 eventual NCAA qualifiers (Arizona, Villanova & BYU) on their way to the championship.

 

[SelectionSunday]

Another new tournament

The 8-team Battle for Atlantis in the Bahamas over Thanksgiving weekend will include UConn, Florida State, likely Ivy favorite Harvard & UMass. This according to Andy Katz.

 

[Seany]

I miss the days when the great alaska shootout was THE tournament. Now, it isn't even worth having.

Yeah, the GAS used to be quite the big deal back in the day. That was a lot of fun, seeing all those big teams squared off against each other in a group of 8. I used to watch that when I was a kid and the Great Alaska Shootout was the best show in town outside of the NCAA Tournament. The early 80s through the early 90s when that tournament was at its peak, it was amazing how loaded the field was every single season, and it was quite the honor for a team to even be invited. They hosted all those great teams back then and the best of the best, Georgetown, UNLV, Kentucky, Indiana, N. Carolina, Michigan, Arizona, Viginia, Kansas, UConn., Arkansas, Illinois, UCLA, Maryland, Seton Hall, Michigan St., Syracuse, Vanderbilt, Missouri, Oklahoma, St. Johns, Duke, Providence, Houston, NC State and on and on and on, and I believe that 5 times within about a 10 year span, they counted the defending nation champion amongst their field. And then they fell on hard times, and now it is really rough and it's basically just the barest shadow of its former self. They actually cut back to a 6 team field last season before returning to a field of 8 this past season, but whereas once the bluebloods couldn't wait to travel up to Anchorage and play in that tourney, now the tourney is reduced to having to scrap and scrape just to land some pretty second-rate programs, like Southern Utah, and Drake, and Houston Baptist, and Ball and Weber States, and attendance has fallen through the floor in accordance with how diminished in stature the Shootout has become.

I had read a very interesting article a couple of years on the history of the Great Alaska Shootout, cause I had been quite taken by that tournament as a kid, and I had always wondered how it came to pass. How did such a great tournament end up in Anchorage, Alaska in the middle of winter? Anyway, the tournament was started by the coach of the U of Alaska-Anchorage back in the mid 70s, because his program was wallowing and he wanted to do something to try and right the ship a little bit and get his program on the map. The NCAA back then held teams to a maximum limit of 28 regular season games and no more back then, but this guy was really on the ball and took advantage of a loophole in the NCAA rules that stated that only games played within the contiguous 48 states would count against that 28 game limit, so basically coaches were presented with the opportunity to get 3-4 'free' games for their teams, and naturally they jumped at that opportunity.

But then the NCAA relaxed its rules regulating number of games played back in the 90s, which allowed all these other competing tournaments to spring up all over the place, and suddenly the idea of flying 12-16 hours to snowy Anchorage to play in a tournament lost its attraction, not so surprisingly. That's 'progress' I guess, although it's good that a lot more fans get to enjoy the in-season tournament atmosphere now than did back in the days when the GAS was king.

The ironic thing was that they had no idea how it was going to go over and whether it would even fly or would sink like a lead balloon, and no clue as to whether they'd be able to get high profile and good teams to come up to Anchorage, but man did they and then some. They had great fields, but of all those heavyweight (at least heavyweights back then and many still are) teams listed above, the vast majority of them have not appeared in a Shootout field since its halcyon days of 20-30 ago, and it is amazing to think that it has been that long. Time flies!