On Thursday, Friday, and Sunday from Orlando, eight teams will compete in one of the better early season tournaments college basketball has to offer this year, including four ranked teams and plenty of big name talent.
Here's a look at the teams and Thursday's opening round matchups (all first round games on ESPN2).
No. 12 Tennessee vs. Siena—12:00 PM
The Vols are off to a 3-0 start with impressive wins over in-state foes who are all picked to contend for their conference championships. Even without Chris Lofton and several other contributors from last season's SEC Championship team, Tennessee has looked good by mixing their returning experience with new blood.
The Vols are getting what they needed and then some from returning big men Tyler Smith (averaging 19 points, six rebounds, and four assists per game) and Wayne Chism (averaging nearly a double-double with 11 points and almost 10 boards per game).
The new faces have worked well at both ends of the floor in Bruce Pearl's controlled chaos system, led by juco transfer Bobby Maze at the point (nine points, seven assists per game) and freshman Scotty Hopson (11 points per game).
J.P. Prince continues to shine as the Vols' sixth man, and several other young faces have made key contributions. Sophomore center Brian Williams had 21 points and 12 rebounds against Tennessee-Martin.
Siena is best known around SEC country for dismantling a good Vanderbilt team in the opening round of last year's NCAA Tournament as a 13-seed. The Saints (as in Bernard) return all five starters from that team and are again favored to win the MAAC. They're 2-0 and receiving votes in the AP Poll after soundly beating Boise State and Cornell.
The Saints may not appear to have the size to challenge Chism and Tyler Smith, but they more than make up for it with experience and scoring: Kenny Hasbrouck, Edwin Ubiles, and Alex Franklin are scoring 49.2 points per game between them from the guard/wing positions.
Aside from the obvious experience questions in this matchup, a big question will be tempo: The Vols love to run and are built to do so, but Siena can also score in bunches that way. Teams that have tried to run with Bruce Pearl's Vols over the last three years have usually paid for it.
If Siena can disrupt the pace just enough while still finding quality scoring opportunities for themselves, the Saints can easily make it two straight over ranked SEC foes.
The tournament will be a great experience for the young Vols, but you have to hope that experience comes with some wins this weekend along the way too. A great opening round game.
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