Winners and Losers from College Basketball's Early-Season Tournaments

The early-season tournaments are in the books. They pitted many of the country’s elite teams against one another in relatively low-stakes environments.

The prospect of a salty matchup between Florida and Wisconsin in the Battle 4 Atlantis wooed viewers (fail). There was the equally delicious prospect of Arizona and San Diego State playing ball in Hawaii which lived up to the billing.

There were predictable elements in these tournaments like the rBGH-infused Wisconsin team winning its tournament, and there were disappointments like the defending national champions falling in Puerto Rico.

We can agree that all these teams—especially those from the more Nordic climes—were all winners for ditching to the gentle breezes of equatorial islands. There were also losers for sure, so let’s get to it.

Read on to see who walked away from the early-season tournaments up or down, winners and losers.

Winner: West Virginia's 'Random' Press

Ricardo Arduengo/Associated Press

West Virginia got to be the first to tell Connecticut exactly where it could put its national championship by defeating the Huskies 78-68 in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off in San Juan.

As of this writing, the Mountaineers are still unbeaten at 7-0 and used a confusing and stifling defense to smother the Huskies.

“It's still a little random," WVU head coach Bob Huggins said, per The Hartford Courant's Dom Amore.

Yeah, random like a fox.

“It was just a regular press," said UConn’s Ryan Boatright. “We just had some careless turnovers that we can't have. Nineteen turnovers is way too many for us, we're a good ballhandling team, there's no excuse for having that many turnovers."

Which was entirely attributable to West Virginia.

WVU never trailed in its win over UConn, and if the Mountaineers can hone that swarming-nest-of-bees defense, they’ll be a nightmare for teams in the Big 12 and beyond.

Loser: UConn

Jessica Hill/Associated Press

Ryan Boatright lines up a free throw.

UConn, likewise, exits the early tournaments a loser. Since dropping the Puerto Rico title game to West Virginia, the Huskies lost another game to No. 7 Texas.

It would be unfair to criticize UConn too much early on. As it stands, the Huskies are unranked while they ran into now-No. 16 WVU and No. 7 Texas.

Thankfully the Huskies have what could be a reprieve in Yale on Dec. 5, but on Dec. 18 it will stare down the quintuple-barreled shotgun that is Duke, a team that just beat No. 2 Wisconsin on the road.

For UConn, it exits Puerto Rico bruised, but not broken.

“They challenged every dribble, every pass," head coach Kevin Ollie said, via The Hartford Courant's Dom Amore. "They did a real good job pressuring us. We had some bad turnovers, some live turnovers which we were trying not to have. All of our guys are going to learn from this.”

Winner: Wisconsin

Tim Aylen/Associated Press

Wisconsin is good. Anyone who watched its early games came away knowing that this could be a Final Four team.

Behind the mismatch nightmare that Battle 4 Atlantis tournament MVP Frank Kaminsky provided, the Badgers sneaked by a pesky Georgetown team, 68-65, and then defeated Oklahoma 69-56 in the final. And it wasn’t all Kaminsky.

Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis wrote:

"

Wisconsin also got help from its other primary reserve, Bronson Koenig, the 6-3 sophomore guard who chipped in 14 points against the Hoyas while helping the Badgers overcome a nine-point deficit midway through the second half. Sophomore forward Vitto Brown did not get a lot of minutes in the Bahamas, but coach Bo Ryan told me on Friday night that he expects Brown to be a bigger part of the action moving forward.

"

Davis went on to say that Wisconsin isn’t deep on the bench, but it doesn't have to be. It has a lineup of big guards and forwards that can shoot and, above all, have experience.

Their lack of depth will only be a problem if a player of significance comes down with an injury late in the season. If this team can stay healthy, it promises to be a title contender.

Loser: Notre Dame

Fred Beckham/Associated Press

Not everybody got to visit the Caribbean. Some were holed up in Uncasville, Connecticut, home of the Mohegan Sun casino. Grab yourself a perfect margarita and a delectable burger with any number of melted cheeses at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. 

Well, the Irish left Uncasville with a sour taste in their mouths after losing the Providence Friars, 75-74, in the final of the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic. That is Notre Dame’s only loss of the season to date.

Notre Dame couldn’t account for LaDontae Henton, who scored 38 points and nine of his team’s final 11 to beat the Irish.

All Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey could do was tell Henton, per The Associated Press (via USA Today), “Fabulous game. You've become a hell of a college player. Go win the Big East now.”

What does this mean for Notre Dame? Probably nothing much. The Irish bounced back just fine and defeated a talented Michigan State team in overtime in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, 79-78.

Winner: Arizona's Stanley Johnson

Eugene Tanner/Associated Press

Stanley Johnson lifted the Arizona Wildcats over San Diego State in a thrilling final of the Maui Invitational, 61-59.

It wasn’t an easy road for Arizona to reach the final. It struggled against Kansas State in the semifinal and was pushed to the brink the entire game against the Aztecs.

Johnson tallied 18 points, nine boards and three steals in the win for the highly touted Wildcats.

“We have a lot of guys who don't like losing here, and I'm the same way," Johnson told The Associated Press (via ESPN).

Arizona is relying heavily on its freshmen early on, and Johnson stands above them all, averaging 14.1 points and 6.4 rebounds per game—both team highs.

What Johnson proved was that he has the skill and potential to lead this team even at his relatively inexperienced age.

Arizona expects to do great things this season, and Johnson gave them more evidence that he can shoulder the pressure of expectations.

Loser: Florida's Offense

Phil Sandlin/Associated Press

Florida is skidding down the water slide of the AP poll, and it isn’t awesome.

The Gators were seventh in the preseason poll, fell to eighth, then 18th after its dismal showing in the Battle 4 Atlantis. Now? Florida is out of the AP rankings. These Gators have no teeth.

They more closely resemble soldiers from The Quest for the Holy Grail running away under a barrage of catapulted livestock.

Florida finished sixth in the Bahamas. Sixth.

Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated wrote, “There’s no way to sugar coat this. The Gators are a really, really bad offensive team right now. It’s hard to believe, but in their first six games this season, Florida has yet to score 70 points."

The Gators shot just 33 percent from the field and 6-of-27 from the three-point line. Florida now sits at 3-3, and if it doesn’t start to clean up its game (260th in the land offensively), this could be one of the more disappointing seasons under head coach Billy Donovan’s run.

Winner: Duke's Jahlil Okafor

Lance King/Getty Images

Jahlil Okafor has garnered a ton of attention early this season, and for good reason. He’s strong on the low block with the deft touch of Tim Duncan. This from an 18-year-old shooting 65 percent from the field so far.

Okafor's box score while defeating Stanford in the Coaches Versus Cancer Classic didn’t levitate off the page, but it was a double-double—10 points, 12 rebounds.

Okafor was at his best down the stretch when his team needed him. He scored eight of his 10 points late in the game.

“He's a target. From last night, we forced too much," Duke’s head coach Mike Krzyzewski said of Okafor, per The Associated Press (via ESPN.com). "He forced it. He didn't pass it out. We showed him and told him to kick it out. Tonight he was a facilitator and still got buckets."

The curious case of Okafor will continue to grow as he reaches the stature of a Titan. Duke, too, will continue to be a Top Four team for the greater part of this season thanks to the big body in the middle.

Loser: St. John's Losing at Home

Alex Goodlett/Getty Images

Kudos to St. John’s for hanging with then-No. 10 Gonzaga in the final of the NIT Tip-Off Classic. That’s the moral victory of this episode, whether the Red Storm want to hear that or not.

Head coach Steve Lavin told The New York Post's Zach Braziller, “We know if we stay out of foul trouble and we shoot free throws more proficiently, this is a game we’re winning. We expect to win.”

The Red Storm went 14 for 23 from the line. Yes, maybe they should have won. And it was a home game!

St. John’s plays half its games at Madison Square Garden and still lost by seven, 73-66.

Perhaps what the Red Storm can learn from this game is that they can hang with Top 25 teams. That could be a big boost of confidence, but talking to them about it, this loss didn’t feel good. Not one bit.

“We don’t like moral victories,” St. John’s guard Phil Greene said. “We felt like we should have won the game.”

Winner: LaDontae Henton and His 38 Points

Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

This was tangentially alluded to in an earlier slide, but it definitely bears repeating. Providence’s LaDontae Henton had one of the best, if not the best individual performance through the first quarter of the season.

Henton took Notre Dame to the woodshed for 38 points in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic, thus accounting for more than half of his team’s 75 points.

“When the final buzzer went off, I had to recollect when LaDontae committed to us," said Providence coach Ed Cooley, per The Associated Press (via USA Today). "He was our first recruit. I'm really, really proud of him. He's grown up. I've seen him become a man.”

Henton, a senior, is averaging 21.4 points per game for the Friars while shooting a sizzling 52 percent from the field.

After starting the season 6-0, Providence came back down to earth with a 58-38 loss to No. 1 Kentucky on Nov. 30. That’s going to happen to many teams facing Kentucky this year, but Henton will always have that 38 he dropped at Mohegan Sun.

Loser: Iowa State's Downward Cyclone

David Purdy/Getty Images

Iowa State, one of the more offensively dynamic teams in the country, failed to win the CBE Hall of Fame Classic, losing to Maryland, 72-63.

Here was the sentiment entering the game, courtesy of Maryland coach Mark Turgeon, “Should we just forfeit?"

Good thing the Terps didn’t. Instead, Maryland handed then-No. 13 Iowa State its first loss of the season in a game where the Cyclones were heavily favored.

"Our spacing was just brutal," Cyclones coach Fred Hoiberg said. "We weren't getting to the corners on the break — we just weren't playing for each other tonight."

Iowa State is the 16th-best scoring team in the country; they also average 18.6 assists per game, good for 10th.

The Cyclones will bounce back from this, but losing to an unranked Maryland team on a court that was basically in Iowa’s backyard in Kansas City, Missouri, puts them on the losing side of things.