Best preseason tournament this year, IMO.

#8 West Virginia vs Long Beach St 11/26, 2pm
#22 Clemson vs Texas A&M 11/26, 4:30pm (ESPN2)
#24 Minnesota vs #11 Butler 11/26, 8:30pm (ESPN2)
Portland vs UCLA 11/26, 10:30pm (ESPN2)

Good representation from around the country, and even some of the "lesser" teams (Texas A&M, Portland) are better than status quo this year.

Its a very good tourney, I think Butler may pull it out. WVU without their best player is probably not a top 15 team, but still very good. Im looking forward to this tourney more than the Maui that is for sure.

Outside of the Coaches vs Cancer, or whatever it's called now, this is by far the best preseason Tourny.

Are you talking just this year, wildcats?

Because I'd say Maui is the best and most fun preseason tournament going. I absolutely love when Duke is in it -- the Devils are 12-0 in the event all-time, with tournament championships in '92, '97, '01 and '07. Every game is packed in three short days, and there is nothing better than potentially watching your club play three days in a row. That's heaven. Plus, it's usually filled with heavyweight matchups and all the big boys. At the '01 Maui, aka the Ball State Classic, Kansas, UCLA and Duke were all out on the island. That was a great, great tournament. I remember all the talk that Ball State, had they been able to knock off Duke after stunning both Kansas and UCLA in the Maui's first two rounds, was going to be elevated to number one in the country.

The Maui Invitational was pretty much started after tiny Div. II Chaminade knocked off the Ralph Sampson-led, number one-ranked Virginia Cavaliers in 1982. Lots of history there.

Rec..I mean just by the teams that are in the tournaments this year.

Maui is the benchmark when it comes to preseason tournies.

That's what I figured.

Not to hijack...

But the best part about these tournaments for me are be able to hear the coaches coach. I'm watching the Paradise Jam online right now(Purdue/Tennessee) and you can hear both coaches, Painter and Pearl. I love hearing the chatter of the players also.

This has been a great game. I'm watching it on Fox Sports.

72-70 Purdue with under a 1 minute left.

Tennessee just missed a HUGE opportunity there to take the lead.

Wayne Chism has been at Tennessee since Blossom was on.

Big miss there for Purdue at the free throw line. 72-70 Boilers with 32.1 left in the Paradise Jam Championship
.

I wonder why this game is hidden on a station not too many have. Weird. Big time game, between the country's sixth and ninth-ranked teams.

Tennessee brings it within one, 73-72, with 17.6 left. Purdue's shooting two after a quick Vol foul.

Blossom blanks badly on a three from out top after Purdue misses both free throws. Wow. Good look, though, as Chism can drill that.

The Boilermakers take the 2009 Paradise Jam Championship.

Tennessee fans are screaming at their players it looks like. At least a few. Yikes. Guess they're in denial that Tee Martin is now about 34.

reclegend22 wrote: I wonder why this game is hidden on a station not too many have. Weird. Big time game, between the country's sixth and ninth-ranked teams.

My guess is because it's the Paradise Jam or whatever. Not one of the bigger events, but it had a pretty good field.

Glad we are playing a legit tourney this year. We need to see how good Clemson is. Beating Winthrop 100-66 doesn't really tell us much about how the team is progressing.

ohiotiger33 wrote: Glad we are playing a legit tourney this year. We need to see how good Clemson is. Beating Winthrop 100-66 doesn't really tell us much about how the team is progressing.

I feel the same about Minnesota. Their non-conference schedule is abysmal this year, so I'm hoping they can get a W against Butler on Thanksgiving and get a chance against UCLA in the next game. That would at least give them two decent games, with the possibility of a third.

Minny just got a pretty big win over a very good Butler team. Congrats to Tubby and the guys, they are for real this year.

Really good win for Minnesota today! Really excited about this one.

ohiotiger33 wrote:Glad we are playing a legit tourney this year. We need to see how good Clemson is.

True.

Can't wait for January 3. A little revenge, baby. Going to be sweet.

Well we now know that we have a lot to work on in the coming month before ACC play. Bad game by the Tigers today, but not a season-ending loss by any means. Lack of shooting production killed tonight.

Meanwhile, UCLA is well on its way to dropping to 2-2 with another loss to a West Coast Conference team.

Down 31-18 to Portland.

Howland can't expect to go to the Final Four every year.

UCLA is traaaaaash.

Jeez, how bad is the Pac-10?

Pac-10 "sleeper" Oregon State has already lost to Texas A+M Corpus Christi and Sacramento State.

It looks like a 2 bid league at best right now.