future early season tournaments? | The Boneyard

future early season tournaments?

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BUHusky

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We all knew the field for this year's Puerto Rico tipoff wasn't stellar, but it seems like the actual tournament itself is a clunker. Slippery floors (which is a legitimate safety concern) and double rims... It's amateur hour out there.

Anyway, I know UConn is in the middle of the tournament right now, still I can't help but think ahead.

2015: Battle 4 Atlantis (tentative?) - Back in September Amore had article that mentioned the tentative plan was for UConn to return in 2015 (http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-mens-basketball/hc-uconn-men-basketball-0914-20140913-story.html). Looks like Cuse and Gonzaga might be there too, which is a great start. It's still very young, but when you look at the past few fields (and payout) it's clear this tournament is quickly supplanting Maui as the premier early season tournament.

2016: TBD - Interesting to note that Maui had UConn on a solid 5 year plan (2000, 2o05, 2010), but it looks like that ended with UConn not being picked for 2015 (maybe because of Atlantis?). Maui in 2016 would be nice (if they pick UConn of course), but an MSG oriented tourney would be solid too and convenient for local fans. The Orlando Classic (previously called the Old Spice Classic?) also seems to be picking up marquee teams of late.

2017: Nike Tournament - This mega event of 2 separate tournaments for Phil Knight's 80th birthday is supposed to be the early season tournament(s) to end all early season tournaments. The beast of a field was announced in August of 2012 (http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bas...s-commit-16-team-mega-event-honor-phil-knight), however, I haven't heard a peep about it since then, so I hope everything is still a go. Conference realignment might require shuffling that field a bit because there are now 3 (new) Big East teams and 1 AAC team. Maybe they swap out post-Brad Stevens Butler and replace them with another AAC, MWC, or A-10 team.

Anybody have further info, especially for 2016?
 
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