A trip to a tropical island in the middle of November? Yes please. A trip to see eight teams with a ton of potential and an equal amount of questions to answer…well, maybe not as appealing to the non-college basketball junkie out there. That’s the fate of this season’s Puerto Rico Tip-Off Classic.
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However, on Tuesday one of the more intriguing college basketball tournament brackets was released by ESPN and it sets up some very interesting potential matchups throughout the tournament.
The first round will see Texas A&M take on Dayton, College of Charleston take on UConn, New Mexico vs. Boston College and George Mason vs. West Virginia.
Headlining the field is Dayton, who made a surprise run to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament last season.
If the Flyers were to get past Texas A&M, we could see a matchup against UConn in the semifinals.
However, for the rest of the field—especially Texas A&M, George Mason and West Virginia—this tournament is all about finding a way back to national prominence. All three programs have made dramatic runs in multiple NCAA tournaments in the past decade, but in the past few seasons have fallen back to the crowd.
The Aggies finished last season just 18-16 and were bounced by Illinois State in the CBI quarterfinals. George Mason on the other hand, well they were 11-20 and 4-12 in the Atlantic-10. West Virginia was 17-16 and lost in the first round of the NIT tournament.
While this tournament may not feature NCAA tournament star power, it does feature some teams with great potential to be NCAA tournament teams. For some, this early season tournament could be a major step towards that goal.