Previewing the 13 Early Season Tournaments Tipping Off Thursday - Sunday

13 tournaments tip off, with many finishing between Thursday, 11/16 - Monday, 11/20. Tipping off on Thursday will be the Legends Classic Presented by Old Trapper, Myrtle Beach Invitational, and the Shriners Hospitals Charleston Classic. Come Friday we have the Arizona Tip-Off (Cactus & Desert Divisions), Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship, Continental Tire Main Event, and U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam. While Saturday and Sunday bring us the Hall of Fame Tip-Off, Cayman Islands Classic, Empire Classic Benefiting Wounded Warriors, and the Jacksonville Classic (Coast & Bay Brackets). 🏀

I'm not going to preview all 13 of these tournaments, but I'll hit a few highlights based upon the teams playing and our pool picks. On Thursday, the Shriners Hospitals Charleston Classic is an 8 team tournament with some interesting teams competing. Our pool picks are 65% on Houston, but we have at least 1 person covering 5 of the 8 teams. Not saying the other 2 tournaments tipping off Thursday are not good or impactful to our pool, but this will be a fun tournament to watch. 👀

Friday brings us the Continental Tire Main Event, which only has 4 teams, but they are some powerhouse teams. Saint Mary's, San Diego State, Washington, and Xavier face off in this quick tournament. 41% of our pool picks are on last year's March Madness runner up, San Diego State, but we are spread across all 4 teams. The Beag is all alone on Washington, but if the first tournament taught us anything, it is any team can be great for 2 games. It's also fun when tournaments are in Vegas! 🎰

Finally, over the weekend, we have the Empire Classic Benefiting Wounded Warriors, which is another 4 team event. A bit less fire power than the previous tournament we just reviewed, but still very interesting teams with Indiana, Louisville, Texas, and UConn. Surprisingly, only 53% of our pool picks are on March Madness champion UConn and even more surprising, we have 3 people on Louisville. I love college basketball pools.

This will be the last blog post/standings update until Monday, 11/20, as I will be in Vegas for the next few days. Once I do update the standings, I expect that we'll see significant separation between the top and bottom of our pool considering 40% of the tournaments will be complete. For those at the bottom, it will be more difficult to come back than it is in the conference tournament pool due to the lack of bonus point opportunities, but with over half these tournaments still not started, nobody will be mathematically eliminated. Enjoy watching wall to wall college basketball this week! 😵