Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Early-season tournament preview, part III: Thanksgiving weekend

You know how we do.

Battle 4 Atlantis
Nov 25-27
8 teams in your standard format
The matchups:
Gonzaga vs. Washington
Texas A&M vs. Texas
Syracuse vs. Charlotte
Michigan vs. UConn
The stakes:  This is the one field where it's not completely awful if you're in the losers bracket.  Almost everyone is a quality win chance.  The best team is probably Gonzaga, but as long as they beat Washington, a loss won't harm them too badly.  Charlotte might (and I stress might) be the only weak link here, so the loser of Michigan/UConn won't be too happy.  Just sit back and enjoy.

Great Alaska Shootout
Nov 25-28
8 teams in your standard format
The matchups:
San Jose St vs. Toledo
San Diego vs. Loyola(Chi)
Middle Tennessee vs. Alaska-Anchorage
Drexel vs. UNC-Asheville
The stakes:  Man, what happened to this tournament?  The winner will get 3 neutral site wins over not-terrible teams...yippee.  Meh.

Advocare Invitational
Nov 26, 27, 29
8 teams in your standard format
The matchups:
Alabama vs. Xavier
Wichita St vs. USC
Notre Dame vs. Monmouth
Iowa vs. Dayton
The stakes:  Sneaky good field.  And sneaky competent teams.  Even among the lightweights, USC beat New Mexico and Monmouth won at UCLA and Drexel.  Iowa/Dayton is incredibly high stakes - the losers bracket won't be terrible, but there's a lot of resume value in the winners bracket in this tournament.  Both fancy themselves as tournament teams, so winning this first game is critical.  And Notre Dame can't sleep on Monmouth.  And what an opportunity for Alabama, because they need all the at-large help they can get.  Xavier can't afford to lose that either, as a probable bubble team.  And Monmouth with a chance to really leap in the at-large convo.  Remember they're in the MAAC, who has occasionally been good enough to support an at-large bid for their best team.  Meanwhile, Wichita needs some resume help to erase a loss to Tulsa.  This is by far the most impactful tournament this year.

Wooden Legacy
Nov 26, 27, 29
8 teams in your standard format
The matchups:
UC Irvine vs. Boise St
Boston College vs. Michigan St
Evansville vs. Providence
Santa Clara vs. Arizona
The stakes:  Well, there's a clear top 4 and bottom 4, and we know the top 4 teams must hold in the quarters.  That's self-explanatory.  Evansville is maybe the one team who can upset the apple cart.  Once we're past those, Arizona/Michigan St seem on a collision course for a signature win chance at each other...both Boise and Providence will have obvious chances to get that signature win for themselves.

NIT Season Tip-Off
Nov 26-27
4 teams in your standard format (wait, just 4?  Man have times changed for this tourney)
The matchups:
Arkansas vs. Georgia Tech
Stanford vs. Villanova
The stakes:  Yawn.  Villanova has to roll twice and can't afford anything less.

Las Vegas Invitational
Nov 26-27
4 teams in your standard format:
The matchups:
West Virginia vs. Richmond
California vs. San Diego St
The stakes:  The best two teams ended up on the same side of the draw.  Kind of works out well for resume impact, in that a loss isn't as harmful as normal and you get your guaranteed shot at the best possible win.  We'll see if either WVU or Richmond matter in March.

Emerald Coast Classic
Nov 27-28
4 teams in your standard format
The matchups:
Iowa St vs. Virginia Tech
Illinois vs. UAB
The stakes:  Iowa St should feel great shame if they don't win twice.  UAB must beat UI to feel even remotely confident they can make an at-large run.

Corpus Christi
Nov 27-28
4 teams in your standard format
The matchups:
Southern Illinois vs. UTEP
Colorado St vs. Portland
The stakes:  No impact, really, unless one of these teams surprises us with an at-large run.

Barclays Center Classic
Nov 27-28
4 teams in your standard format
The matchups:
Cincinnati vs. Nebraska
George Washington vs. Tennessee
The stakes:  I think Cincy and GW are the best teams, and I think Nebraska and Tennessee are most likely to slip into the lower division in their conferences.  The stakes should be obvious to infer from that.

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