The Plan Of Having College Hoops Games All Day, Every Day For The First 2 Weeks Of The Season In Orlando Should Have You Feeling All Tingly Inside
[Source] - ESPN runs 10 nonconference events in November and December, and at least eight of them are expected to take place in Orlando this year. The Champions Classic, Charleston Classic, Myrtle Beach Invitational, NIT Season Tip-Off, Wooden Legacy, Orlando Invitational, Jimmy V Classic and Diamond Head Classic are expected to move to Disney.
There will be events overlapping during those two weeks, with up to three games going on at once.
There is also the potential of "crossover" games, where teams from different events could play against one another outside of their scheduled event or game. One intriguing possibility would include Baylor and Gonzaga, two preseason national championship contenders who agreed in August to face each other in nonconference play this season. Both are scheduled to play in the Jimmy V Classic, but not against each other.
Clean up on aisle Reags please. Maybe it's the fact it's the morning, maybe I just miss college hoops, either way. I'm all horned up after reading this report. There's a reason we love conference tournament week, the NCAA Tournament and the typical Thanksgiving schedule. We get hoops all day every day. We get 13 hours of nothing but college hoops right in our faces. You want to watch big names? They are on TV. You want to watch mid-majors, we got tournaments for them too! Just sitting there gambling (responsibly of course), ignoring family arguments and watching hoops. It's a staple around Thanksgiving and we're getting even more of it this year. Why? These are the teams currently invited to this bubble based on the tournaments:
Champions Classic: Duke, Michigan State, Kansas, Kentucky
Charleston Classic: Charleston, Florida State, Houston, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Seton Hall, Tennessee, VCU
Myrtle Beach Invitational: Charlotte, Dayton, Loyola Chicago, Missouri, Nebraska, Penn, Pitt, Utah State
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NIT Season Tip-Off: Arizona, Cincinnati, St. John's, Texas Tech
Wooden Legacy: Georgetown, Kansas, UCLA, Virginia
Orlando Invitational: Auburn, Belmont, Boise State, Gonzaga, Michigan State, Siena, Saint Louis, Xavier
Jimmy V Classic: Gonzaga, Tennessee, Baylor, Rutgers
Diamond Head Classic: Arizona State, Hawaii, North Texas, Oklahoma, San Diego State, Saint Mary's, Seattle, Temple
Now if it happens like Borzello is talking about, look at some of those possible matchups outside of the tournaments. Mark Few has already been quoted saying he plans on having the toughest nonconference schedule Gonzaga ever has had simply because you can't do that many buy-games with the lack of fans and money there. You're going to have to play controlled environments like this and invite a few teams at once, so you're typically playing major programs who can afford the travel and such. If this goes off as planned, it's huge for teams like Charleston, Charlotte, Dayton, Loyola, Utah State, even Saint Mary's. They have more and more chances to pick up quality wins, which is something that they didn't always have before.
Oh and if that's not enough. Matt Norlander over at CBS has this:
A 100-PLUS team Vegas event in December? Fuck. Yes. Give me all of this. Again, we have to get creative with scheduling this season so the more things pop up like this, the more traction it's going to get. Sure we might not get 100-plus teams, but maybe we get 20. Simply put give me as many day time basketball games as possible. There's nothing better.
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64 days away. It's so close. Get us to that first game, whatever it might be. Goddamn I love this sport.