NCAA Thanksgiving Week Hoops Recap
With all of the Holiday happenings this week in the US, it might have been easy to forget that there was also sports on. Many times Thanksgiving is more synonymous with football since there are traditionally games on Thanksgiving Day.
Unfortunately, being a Lions fan, there isn't much to get excited about when they play on Thanksgiving. The good news is, Michigan State was in the Atlantis tournament this past week adn they actually did pretty decent. I will get to that in a second though.
On Tuesday the Maui Invitational got started and unranked Wisconsin took down #12 Houston by two points. In the Hall of Fame classic, there were no upsets of ranked teams on Tuesday.
On Wednesday there were a handful of games including the opening games of the Battle for Atlantis. Michigan State was up against Loyola Chicago who made it to the sweet sixteen last year in the national tournament.
Michigan State wasn't playing super great in the first half. They looked really sloppy and there wasn't much to get excited about. They did end up winning and advanced to the semi-finals with that win.
In other games on Wednesday #22 Uconn upset #19 Auburn in two overtimes to start off their Battle for Atlantis run. Unranked Iowa State beat #25 Xavier in the NIT Season TipOff tournament. There were no other upsets beyond that.
On Thanksgiving Day, (still) unranked Michigan State took out #22 Uconn in the semifinal game of the Battle for Atlantis tournament. The end was a bit controversial with a block that was called a foul, but I think Michigan State played really well. They looked really good on the court and they played a much cleaner game than we have been used to with the Spartans as of late.
In other Thanksgiving Day upsets, unranked Iona took down #10 Alabama in the ESPN Events Invitational.
Sadly on Friday, Michigan State fell to #6 Baylor in the final game of the Battle for Atlantis. I have to admit. I don't feel too bad about it. For the first half Michigan State was toe to toe with Baylor. They didn't play horrible in the second half either, they just couldn't get anything to fall.
If Michigan State doesn't at least find themselves in the #20 to #25 range, it will be a real shame. They deserve to be ranked even if it isn't super high.
Unranked Dayton took down #4 Kansas in the ESPN Events Invitational. That #4 spot seems to be really rough. Michigan was sitting there and got upset by an unranked team earlier in the year as well.
Back to the NIT Season TipOff Iowa State continued to play Cinderella upsetting #9 Memphis. Also in what was probably the biggest shocker of the day, #5 Duke beat #1 Gonzaga by three points. Sorry @bigtom13 that has to be a heartbreaker. Good thing it is a long season and these early season losses are more of learning lessons than season enders...
Today (Saturday) there are only 4 ranked matchups, but I will cover those on Monday. Stay tuned.
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Here in Australia we have adopted most U.S. culture, i.e. Halloween is massive and gets bigger each year. I wonder if we'll gather and have a thanksgivings turkey down the track
Could be! That would be interesting if you did. I think there are calls in the US to actually get rid of the holiday, but I don't really see that happening. People will still gather either way and sports will always go on!
Hey. Some really good basketball going on. Not the least of which was Gonzaga v Duke. That was a thunderous game in front of a huge crowd in Vegas.
I'm pretty sure that loss isn't going to haunt Gonzaga, and will most likely help. At least this year they don't have to carry that 'undefeated season' around their necks. The other thing we saw this week is strength out of the WCC. BYU and St. Marys both showed that it won't be easy there. People will say that it is, but... The league might put 3 in the tourney, and St, Marys might not be the third.
This is a fun time of year for a sports junkie.
Yeah, it really is a pretty exciting season so far. I don't think that this will hurt Gonzaga too much either. They seem to be a really solid team and they should bounce back with little issue.