Chaos is coming for Rick Pitino & Feast Week

In the second game of the Baha Mar tournament, St. John’s found extra energy in the tank despite the 50-minute marathon the night before and defeated Virginia 80-55 to secure third place in the event. After Baha Mar, St. John’s remained in the Bahamas to face Georgia on Sunday morning, which pulled off the neutral-field upset, 66-63.

Speaking of Dawgs…

The SEC gets started immediately

Kentucky asserted itself as a contender early on Mark Popes The first season had a neutral victory over Duke, but the entire SEC got off to a spectacular start, especially among the typical bottom-feeders.

Alabama bounced back from the Purdue loss at Mackey Arena to beat Illinois at home despite being a preseason All-American Mark Sears scored zero points in the win and had a bizarre start to 1925. Meanwhile, Tennessee had already decisively mowed down Louisville, Virginia and a tired Baylor team.

Otherwise, LSU just had a solid performance at the Greenbrier Tip-Off, Georgia beat St. John’s to move to 5-1, and Vanderbilt picked up wins over Oklahoma State and Seton Hall. Florida and the Mississippi schools are a combined 16-0, which also contributes to the conference’s good headlines. Much like the football field, this year’s SEC could be chaotic and competitive at the top.

Smart continues to rebuild his image at Marquette and now has a squad looking to finish among the top three seeds in the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year. Came Jones is certainly an All-American candidate and leads a veteran backfield that is arguably the best in the country. They have a superstar leader in Jones, a top defender and second-tier ball handler in Stevie Mitchella three-tier goalscorer and top athlete in Chase Rossand there is another key player in the backcourt who has not yet returned from injury. This club is 6-0 and has already picked up wins against Purdue, Maryland and Georgia. Danger.

The festival week begins!

First, we recap last week’s early Multi-Team Events (MTE) before taking a look at all the action we can enjoy alongside the Thanksgiving festivities.

Greenbrier tip: The festival week is as funny as it is strange. The Greenbrier Tip-Off, for example, took place in a ballroom at a pristine West Virginia golf club that once hosted the Ryder Cup and is owned by West Virginia governor and future U.S. Senator Jim Justice, who sat courtside with a pink velvet throne next to his tank-sized English bulldog named Babydog.

Wisconsin won the favor of Babydog and Justice this year, defeating LSU and then an undefeated Pitt club to go 7-0. Watch out, Big Ten, because the Badgers look to be as strong as any club in this league and have already picked up wins over Arizona, UCF and Pitt. They also have one of the best goalscorers in the country in the transfer area John Tonje. Meanwhile, LSU rebounded with a thrilling triple-overtime win over UCF thanks to two big throws from the freshman who went down on the trampoline Victorious Miller which concluded it.

Charleston classics: The revamped Drake Bulldogs defeated Miami and FAU to advance to the title game, where they will face Vanderbilt late Sunday night. Meanwhile, a celebrated Miami Hurricanes team looked much like it did at the start of the 2024 season, losing all three games to Drake, Oklahoma State and VCU.

Complete list of events for the festival week

Now a look at the events to keep an eye on this week. Teams in each event are listed in the order they compete against first. Example: UConn and Memphis face off in the first game of the Maui Invite. Come back next week and we will determine the winner of each MTE winner.

Maui Invitational (Mon-Wed): UConn, Memphis, Colorado, Michigan St, Auburn, Iowa St, Dayton, North Carolina

Fort Myers Tip-Off (Mon-Wed): Michigan, Virginia Tech, Xavier, South Carolina

Sunshine Slam (Mon-Tue): Clemson, San Francisco, Penn State, Fordham

Players Era Festival (Tuesday-Sat): SDSU, Creighton, Oregon, Texas A&M, Houston, Alabama, Rutgers, Notre Dame

Acrisure Holiday Invitational (Tues-Wed): SMU, Cal Baptist, Fresno State, Washington State.

Acrisure Invitational (Thurs-Fri): TCU, Santa Clara, Washington, Colorado State

Acrisure Classic (Thurs-Fri): USC, Saint Mary’s, New Mexico, Arizona State

Terry’s Chocolate Vegas Showdown (Tuesday): Kansas, Duke, Furman, Seattle

Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis (Wed-Fri): Louisville, Indiana, West Virginia, Gonzaga, Oklahoma, Providence, Arizona, Davidson

ESPN Events Invitational (Thurs-Fri): Minnesota, Wichita State, Florida, Wake Forest

Rady Children’s Invitational (Thurs-Fri): Purdue, NC State, BYU, Ole Miss

Thanksgiving Hoops Showcase (Thursday): Arkansas vs. Illinois

Arizona Tip (Thurs-Fri): Butler, Northwestern, UNLV, Mississippi State