College Basketball: 2017 Advocare Invitational bracket features intriguing matchups
By Taylor Sturm
The bracket for the 2017 Advocare Invitational has been released, and there are intriguing matchups across the board.
The 2016 Advocare Invitational was won by the eventual National Championship runners up the Gonzaga Bulldogs, who defeated the Iowa State Cyclones 71-73. Five of the eight featured teams would eventually make it to the 2017 NCAA Tournament, including Iowa State, the Florida Gators, the Seton Hall Pirates, the Miami Hurricanes, and Gonzaga.
The 2017 edition of the Advocare Invitational features the West Virginia Mountaineers, Marist Red Foxes, Nebraska Cornhuskers, UCF Knights, Missouri Tigers, Long Beach State 49ers, Oregon State Beavers, and St. John’s Red Storm. Each team will face the team listed before them in the first round, and you can find the bracket here when it is officially updated.
West Virginia should be the favorite in this tournament, but keep an eye on UCF and Missouri.
The Tigers brought in a phenomenal recruiting class that features multiple five-star recruits, including the No. 1 player in the Class of 2017 – and that doesn’t even include Jontay Porter of he officially decides to reclassify! New coach Cuonzo Martin will have the talent to do something big with this team, as long as they can learn to mesh well together.
UCF, on the other hand, is one of the biggest sleepers in college basketball The Knights have several returning veterans, a good coach, and won 24 games last season. While I still think the Wichita State Shockers win the AAC, it would not be surprising to see the Knights pull it out.
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The 2017 Advocare Invitational contains some interesting matchups between potential Sweet 16 teams, so get ready for one of the more underrated holiday tournaments of the 2017-18 college basketball season.