NCAA Basketball: 2018 Hall of Fame Belfast Classic preview and predictions

In only its second year, the Hall of Fame Belfast Classic has expanded to eight teams. Who will take home the titles this year?

The Hall of Fame Belfast Classic is one of the newer events added to the list that take place away from the U.S. mainland. In its second year, the tournament sees teams travel to Belfast, Northern Ireland. Last season, the inaugural event, which hosted in part by the MAAC, was a four-team event that featured Towson, LaSalle, Manhattan, and Holy Cross. The Towson Tigers took home the championship after defeating LaSalle in the semifinals and beating Manhattan 56-55 in the championship. The third-place game saw LaSalle get the best of Holy Cross.

With the success of last season’s event, organizers decided to expand the tournament from four teams to eight. All of the action, which takes place from Nov. 29-Dec. 1 will once again take place at the SSE Arena, with teams divided into two brackets, Samson and Goliath.

The MAAC’s Marist Red Foxes join the Dartmouth Big Green out of the Ivy, the Long Island-Brooklyn Blackbirds from the Northeast Conference, and the America East Conference’s Albany Great Danes in the Samson Bracket. The Goliath bracket will consist of the Milwaukee Panthers from the Horizon, the Mid-American’s Buffalo Bulls, the San Francisco Dons from the West Coast Conference, and the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks out of the Southland Conference. The tournament carries a good cross section of mid-major teams across college basketball.

Here is a look at this year’s event, including a breakdown of each of the eight contests, storylines within each of the two brackets, the player to watch in each bracket, and a wild guess at how every game will play out.