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View Full Version : Thanksgiving Sweet 16 (in 2017): PK80 Features Duke, UNC, MSU, UConn, and more



DavidBenAkiva
09-21-2016, 04:35 PM
http://pkinvitational.com/

The Phil Knight Invitational will take place Thanksgiving 2017 and feature 16 of the most well-known teams in the country (well, 14 of them and Portland and Portland State). It's actually two tournaments over 3 days with multiple teams from several power conferences. Teams from the same conference will be in opposite sides of the tournament and will not play each other. This is all to celebrate the 80th birthday of Nike founder Phil Knight. Pretty neat stuff!

Teams: Arkansas, Butler, UConn, Duke, Florida, Georgetown, Gonzaga, Michigan State, UNC, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon, Portland, Portland State, Stanford, and Texas
Location: Portland, Oregon
When: November 23-26, 2017
Format: 2 8-Team Tournaments

It's pretty neat stuff.

blazindw
09-21-2016, 05:03 PM
This seems really cool. Here are the conference breakdowns so we can see who could end up on opposite sides of the bracket:

SEC - Arkansas, Florida
AAC - UConn
Big East - Butler, Georgetown
B1G - Michigan State, Ohio State
ACC - Duke, UNC
Pac 12 - Oregon, Stanford
Big Sky - Portland State
WCC - Portland, Gonzaga
Big 12 - Texas, Oklahoma

Dev11
09-21-2016, 05:09 PM
This sounds incredibly fun, and certainly helps put to bed early concerns about a weak schedule. Duke has to play 2-3 really good teams on the west coast no matter what.

I wonder which school is most upset about getting left out. Assuming we're only talking about Nike schools (sorry Maryland, Indiana, Kansas, Notre Dame, UCLA, Wisconsin, etc), who do you think? Michigan, Arizona, Syracuse, and Kentucky all come to mind.

JasonEvans
09-21-2016, 05:20 PM
Top Nike schools not invited --

Arizona, Kentucky, Syracuse, Villanova, Virginia, and UNLV. There are many more. I know that they probably felt limited to no more than 2 teams from each conference, but taking Arkansas over Kentucky or Stanford over Arizona is a real head-scratcher. My bet is that Kentucky and Arizona had already committed to other tournaments in 2017.


I wonder which school is most upset about getting left out. Michigan, Arizona, Syracuse, and Kentucky all come to mind.

Michigan is not a Nike school according to wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nike_sponsorships#Basketball).

-Jason "it would be really cool if all 16 of these teams were playing in a big tourney, but I can live with two strong 8-team tourneys" Evans

Olympic Fan
09-21-2016, 05:22 PM
Just to be clear, as I read this, there are two eight-team tournaments.

Almost certainly teams from the same conference will be in separate tournaments, so no Duke-UNC, no Oregon-Stanford, no Butler-Georgetown, no Arkansas-Florida, no Texas-Oklahoma.

Am I reading this right?

tbyers11
09-21-2016, 05:29 PM
Top Nike schools not invited --

Arizona, Kentucky, Syracuse, Villanova, Virginia, and UNLV. There are many more. I know that they probably felt limited to no more than 2 teams from each conference, but taking Arkansas over Kentucky or Stanford over Arizona is a real head-scratcher. My bet is that Kentucky and Arizona had already committed to other tournaments in 2017.



Michigan is not a Nike school according to wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nike_sponsorships#Basketball).

-Jason "it would be really cool if all 16 of these teams were playing in a big tourney, but I can live with two strong 8-team tourneys" Evans

As good as Butler is, I'm betting Villanova was already committed as well. I can't see Nova (especially after winning this year) being left out for Butler


Just to be clear, as I read this, there are two eight-team tournaments.

Almost certainly teams from the same conference will be in separate tournaments, so no Duke-UNC, no Oregon-Stanford, no Butler-Georgetown, no Arkansas-Florida, no Texas-Oklahoma.

Am I reading this right?

Yes, you are correct. To put one low major one each side of the bracket I believe that Portland State will have to go with Gonzaga and Portland will pair with UConn. The other conference pairs get separated into opposite brackets.

SCMatt33
09-21-2016, 05:35 PM
Top Nike schools not invited --

Arizona, Kentucky, Syracuse, Villanova, Virginia, and UNLV. There are many more. I know that they probably felt limited to no more than 2 teams from each conference, but taking Arkansas over Kentucky or Stanford over Arizona is a real head-scratcher. My bet is that Kentucky and Arizona had already committed to other tournaments in 2017.



Michigan is not a Nike school according to wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nike_sponsorships#Basketball).

-Jason "it would be really cool if all 16 of these teams were playing in a big tourney, but I can live with two strong 8-team tourneys" Evans

Michigan just started with Jordan Brand this year. They made a huge deal out of it because they are the first school to use Jordan Brand for football. They probably got left out because exempt tournaments can't have more than one team per conference, so that limits this event to two, one for each bracket, meaning they didn't make the cut above OSU and Michigan St.

On another note, Kentucky was included in a preliminary list of teams released 8-10 months ago, but have apparently been replaced by Arkansas. I would imagine Kentucky simply chose to back out for whatever reason. As for Arizona, Oregon and Stanford both have extensive relationships with Knight as he attended both schools and has donated tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars to each. Again with the two per conference limit, Arizona never stood a chance to be in this.

Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15
09-21-2016, 05:45 PM
Awesome concept. Looks like a fun group of games. Go Duke!

gurufrisbee
09-21-2016, 08:56 PM
This might be the most excited I've been since Duke beat Wisconsin. Actually, it might be more than that.

Let me explain - I'm a 40 year old man. I've been a Duke fan for 30 years. But almost every second of it has been in the Pacific Northwest. The one time Duke came up here (thank you Kyle Singler) my mom was sick with cancer and needed constant care. So I have never been to a Duke basketball game. My daughters have Duke posters in their rooms. My classroom has pictures of Duke basketball players all over it. 90% of my wardrobe is Duke t-shirts. But I have never been to a Duke basketball game.

I don't have any idea how much tickets will cost (and as a public school teacher, it's a little scary). I don't know how available they will be. I don't know that my sister will ever speak to me again when she finds out I'm bailing on Thanksgiving at her house. But I will finally get to go and see Duke play live. I've never really been a "bucket list" kind of person - but if I was, this would be at the top of it and it's going to finally happen.

(Incidentally, if any of you have any connections with Duke people who might be able to get access to some tickets for this or a chance to meet the team while they are here - I will forever be grateful)

My wife keeps laughing at me. I'm sitting here unable to stop bouncing on the couch. I seriously cannot remember being this happy since my last daughter was born. This is so crazy.

MulletMan
09-21-2016, 10:15 PM
Does this strike anyone as a shot across the NCAA's bow? Kind of like, "Hey guys... we can do a basketball tourney with all the major conferences and even solid mid-majors without you... so watch your step or we'll take the cash cow."

Maybe a little?

BD80
09-22-2016, 07:27 AM
I am amazed that calipari isn't involved in this event.

Happy, but amazed.

OldPhiKap
09-22-2016, 07:43 AM
I am amazed that calipari isn't involved in this event.

Happy, but amazed.

He's a Dapper Dan man, and they've only got Fop in Portland.

luburch
09-22-2016, 07:46 AM
He's a Dapper Dan man, and they've only got Fop in Portland.

They can order it, but it'll take two weeks to get in. Bit of a geographical oddity.

I spent a solid 5 minutes looking at this tournament, wondering how on earth they added games to the schedule this late in the off-season, before I realized it was next season and not this season.

weezie
09-22-2016, 08:01 AM
Please enlighten as to the possible reasoning for Stanford over Arizona? Other than maybe scheduling issues?

SCMatt33
09-22-2016, 08:17 AM
Please enlighten as to the possible reasoning for Stanford over Arizona? Other than maybe scheduling issues?

I kind of buried it in my earlier post, but Knight went to grad school there and has made 9 figure donations to the business school.

msdukie
09-23-2016, 10:44 PM
On the front page, DBR postulates that there should be a tournament which would allow crossover games such as Duke-UNC to be played. I'm pretty sure that under current NCAA rules, teams from the same conference can no longer play each other in pre-conference tournaments.

BD80
09-24-2016, 07:26 AM
On the front page, DBR postulates that there should be a tournament which would allow crossover games such as Duke-UNC to be played. I'm pretty sure that under current NCAA rules, teams from the same conference can no longer play each other in pre-conference tournaments.

Like unc feels constrained by NCAA rules ...

Newton_14
09-24-2016, 09:46 AM
Like unc feels constrained by NCAA rules ...

Damn straight! NCAA Rules.... lol puhleeze. WE ARE unccheat!!! We scoff at your "rules " :)

SCMatt33
09-24-2016, 10:31 AM
On the front page, DBR postulates that there should be a tournament which would allow crossover games such as Duke-UNC to be played. I'm pretty sure that under current NCAA rules, teams from the same conference can no longer play each other in pre-conference tournaments.

There's no rule that stops such a tournament from existing. There is a rule however, that would prevent such a tournament from counting as what the rule book now calls a "Qualifying Regular-Season Multiple-Team Event". Basketball teams are limited to either 29 regular season games or 27 plus one of these events. Since these events are allowed to have up to four games per school and virtually all have at least three, the vast majority of teams choose the latter schedule as it gives them 30 or 31 games.

All that being said, there is nothing that prevent teams from competing in a non-qualifying tournament, it would just mean that every one of those games counts as a full regular season game. Let's say you wanted to restart the old Dixie Classic. No one would want to give up any games, so they all play in a different tournament earlier. Then you'd have 27 games left to schedule. Take away 18 for conference season and you're left with 9. Two more gone for muliyear obligations (B1G-ACC and either Champions or CBS Sports Classic for Duke and UNC respectively) and you now have 7. Were you to play a new Dixie Classic that would leave you with only four (and soon to be two) games in which to schedule a New York game, Guarantee games and anything else you might want to schedule. It's technically possible, but would come with substantial schedule costs.