2017 Wooden Legacy match-ups announced, St. Mary’s favorites?
By Taylor Sturm
The matchups for the 2017 edition of the Wooden Legacy basketball tournament has been announced, and there are some solid games all around.
Thanksgiving is known for food, football, and college basketball tournaments. Multiple tournaments tip-off the week leading up to the holiday and the week of the holiday itself. One of these is the Wooden’s Legacy tournament, which recently announced the pairings for the 2017 edition of the tournament.
In the first game on November 23, the St. Mary’s Gaels will take on the Harvard Crimson in a match-up of arguably the two best teams in the tournament. That game will be followed by Saint Joseph’s taking on the Washington State Cougars, the Georgia Bulldogs taking on Cal State Fullerton, and the San Diego State Aztecs taking on Sacramento State.
You can view the entirety of the bracket here.
St. Mary’s and San Diego State would be pegged as my two favorites to make it to the tournament finals with Harvard being a sleeper pick. Like all of the other holiday tournaments, there are multiple consolation games for teams that do not make it out of the first-round.
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If I had to choose a winner, St. Mary’s looks to be the best team in the field. Picked over the Gonzaga Bulldogs to win the WCC by many, the Gaels legitimately could be one of the most underrated teams in college basketball. A big tournament win – even against few big-name teams – would do wonders for their confidence and their national recognition moving forward in 2017-18.