Happy Thanksgiving! College football certainly offers much to be thankful for this weekend; Alabama vs. Auburn (and the underrated USF vs. UCF), but college hoops has some tasty treats as well. The Holiday Break has always been the unofficial kick-start of the college hoops season with a ton of excellent pre-conference tournaments and an opportunity to see most of the best teams in the nation challenge themselves in neutral floor settings. But never before have we seen an early season tournament quite on par with the PK 80 – Phil Knight’s birthday celebration brain-child with a massive 16 team field; all taking place in Portland and all 16 teams playing their opener on actual Thanksgiving Day.

 

Here’s a Look at the Bracket: 

VICTORY BRACKET (all posted times on the PK80 site are PST, I’m listing in EST below)

Portland vs. North Carolina (2:30 EST)

Arkansas vs. Oklahoma (5:00 EST)

UConn vs. Oregon (9:00 EST)

Michigan St. vs. DePaul (11:30 EST)

 

MOTION BRACKET

Portland State vs. Duke (1:30 EST)

Butler vs. Texas (4:00 EST)

Florida vs. Stanford (7:00 EST)

Ohio State vs. Gonzaga (9:30 EST)

 

First off, if the idea of a shoe company mogul sponsoring a massing college basketball tournament amidst all the scandal swirling around the sport, much over shoe contract payments/bribes to assistant coaches…well…I got nothing for ya (other than a cheeky, “touche”). But if you can compartmentalize like an big kid and simply enjoy AWESOME HOOPS, then game on, my friend!

The favorites are obvious, Duke and Michigan State in their respective brackets, but it will be anything but an easy road to victory after their first game. The only downside of this tournament is that each bracket will crown a champion with no “pay off finale.” Given that most major conferences are represented in each bracket, including most obviously Duke and North Carolina, the possibility of a pre-conference/conference game is eliminated. SO sadly, no Duke vs. UNC or no Duke vs. Michigan State early rematch. That might have to wait until March…

 

VICTORY BRACKET BREAKDOWN:

Both Michigan State and North Carolina should advance with ease. The other two games are much more competitive. Oklahoma and Arkansas is a big non-con matchup for both schools. Oklahoma has designs on returning to the NCAA Tournament in a wide-open Big Twelve (outside of Kansas, and maybe West Virginia) and Arkansas’s Mike Anderson has only been to one NCAA Tournament with the Hogs as he enters his seventh season. Last season’s run to March that concluded with an almost-win over eventual champion North Carolina in the Round of 32 probably bought him a little time, but a backslide this year could make his seat warm.

UConn and Oregon is also a matchup of teams who have enjoyed a nice decade of basketball prominence (two decades for UConn) but who are both shells of their recent vintage squads. Oregon and UConn are both bubble teams at best right now as we head into the season, so a few early quality wins mean a ton.

In the semifinals, I’ll take North Carolina to beat Oklahoma in a better-than-expected game. If you can catch the Sooner and double-digit points, I’d jump on it. The point guard matchup between Joel Berry and McDonald’s All-American Trae Young will be fun. Young had 23 assists in his first two games (and averaged 41.0 ppg as a high school senior). Oklahoma is much better than last year’s 11-20 complete rebuild, but I think North Carolina edges them out. In the bottom of the bracket, look for Michigan State to use the fuel from a disappointing final few minutes against Duke to power them to a blitzing win over Oregon, who will fight hard in their pseudo-home arena, but will lack the talent to knock off Sparty.

In the Final, if we get Michigan State vs. North Carolina, and I think we will, there are much worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon. In the battle of the titans, I’ll take the Spartans to cut down the nets.

 

MOTION BRACKET BREAKDOWN:

This bracket might have been a little more intriguing last year when Gonzaga was a bonafides National Title contender, but this is still a ridiculously loaded bracket. Butler and Texas is as good of a basketball as we will see all day today (well, thanks in part to an insane opening day in the Bahamas which saw Purdue and Arizona lose to Tennessee and NC State respectively…) and Ohio State vs. Gonzaga is a really interesting game if one can stay awake for a likely-after midnight tipoff tonight…

Duke should advance with ease. But other than that, you have three real basketball games. I like Florida to handle Stanford with some comfort, but Butler vs. Texas is a toss up and Ohio State is not the lost reclamation project in Year One of the Holtzman Era that some have projected. I’ll take Texas in a tight one, and Ohio State in an upset.

In the Semi’s, I think we will finally get a Thanksgiving bracket to hold its form and offer up a Sunday afternoon with a North Carolina vs. Michigan State and an underratedly-awesome Florida vs. Duke matchup. It might be boring, but I’ll take the favorite again. Duke looks to be the best team in the country, though I do expect Florida to give them every bit as good a game as Michigan State did two weeks ago.

 

THREE BEST THURSDAY PLAYS:

Ohio State +6.5 over Gonzaga – Technically this might be a Friday play by the time the last game of the PK80 tips off, but I like the underdog value of Ohio State. Sure, they haven’t played anyone en route to their 4-0 record, but they have manhandled the opponents they’ve faced. Gonzaga still looks like a tournament team, but they don’t look like they’ve even come close to replacing the leadership and playmaking of Williams-Goss and the massive inside presence of Karnowski and Collins at this point in the season.

Seton Hall -3.5 over Rhode Island – Seton Hall is sneaky, sneaky good. They’ve already pummeled Indiana (I know, so did Indiana State…) and enter 4-0. Desi Rodriguez has been sensational and Khadeen Carrington has slid nicely into the lead guard role, averaging over five assists and a 3:1 assist to turnover ratio. Meanwhile, Rhode Island struggled in a loss at Nevada – a good team, but not on the level of Seton Hall. I expect the Pirates to play well tonight at the Barclays

Duke -23 over Portland State – Coach K may be known as a great man, but he isn’t known as a benevolent one when it comes to playing overmatched opponents. Don’t expect Duke’s rotation to expand much until maybe the final few minutes this afternoon, even as the score snowballs. Portland State may be playing close to home, but this ain’t a road game for Duke, who tends to make themselves at home in neutral floor settings. Portland State will be confident they can hang around. They enter at 4-0 with nice wins over Portland and Utah State and UC Irvine. But Duke and their three future first rounders (minimum) and in my less-than-humble opinion, National POY front-runner, Grayson Allen, are a whole different animal. Look for Duke to cruise by 30-plus.