The 2018 Wooden Legacy tournament features a solid group of NCAA Basketball teams. Which one is the favorite to cut down the nets at the end?
Thanksgiving in America is a time for everyone to get together with their families. This holiday also has an added meaning for sports fans everywhere. Not only does everyone get to enjoy great food, you get wall to wall sports action with Football and now college basketball.
Thursday marks the start of this years Wooden Legacy tournament in Fullerton, California. Every year the tournament does a great job of getting a nice mix of power conference teams to go up against mid major teams. The tournament this year is no exception. This year’s participants, when compared to previous participants in this event. The tournament field looks to be a little lighter than in years past.
The Big Ten, ACC, Big East and Pac-12 are the major conferences that are represented. The Wooden Legacy always has a Pac-12 representative. The reason is simple, the tournament is named after the greatest college basketball coach of all time in John Wooden. Wooden coached UCLA who belongs to the Pac-12. The 8-team field also features 4 teams from a mid-major conference. One of those teams always being from southern California. This year the conferences represented are the Atlantic 10, Mountain West, Western Athletic and Big West.
The three-day event takes fans up to the end of feast week. In the past this tournament has been one of the more exciting tournaments of the week. It obviously is not going to be able to compete with the Maui Invitational, but that tournament is in a league of its own. The Wooden Legacy is going to bring exciting basketball.
Part of this tournaments appeal is the ability of the smaller mid major schools to pick up early quality wins against power schools. Even if the teams don’t win, they still get the experience of playing a big-name school and the ability to have their games televised on the large networks. Televised games for a lot of the smaller schools is not something that is expected but is always welcomed as it gives them much-needed exposure to the nation.