Busting Brackets
Fansided

NCAA Basketball: Top 5 early-season 2019-20 non-conference tournaments

By Ben Andreatta

LAHAINA, HI - NOVEMBER 21: The Gonzaga Bulldogs players and coaches pose for a photo after winning the 2018 Maui Invitational against the Duke Blue Devils at the Lahaina Civic Center on November 21, 2018 in Lahaina, Hawaii. (Photo by Darryl Oumi/Getty Images)
LAHAINA, HI - NOVEMBER 21: The Gonzaga Bulldogs players and coaches pose for a photo after winning the 2018 Maui Invitational against the Duke Blue Devils at the Lahaina Civic Center on November 21, 2018 in Lahaina, Hawaii. (Photo by Darryl Oumi/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 6
Next
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – MARCH 22: The Virginia Commonwealth Rams mascot performs against the UCF Knights in the first half during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – MARCH 22: The Virginia Commonwealth Rams mascot performs against the UCF Knights in the first half during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

Emerald Coast Classic

Dates: November 29th-30th

Florida State Seminoles (ACC)

Tennessee Volunteers (SEC)

Purdue Boilermakers (Big Ten)

VCU Rams (A 10)

(Involved in campus games and session one)

Jacksonville State Gamecocks (OVC)

Chicago State Cougars (WAC)

Alabama State Hornets (SWAC)

Chattanooga Mocs (SoCon)

This tournament is set up into two brackets/sessions. Session two includes Florida State, Tennessee, Purdue, and VCU. The Rams and Boilermakers are both at the back-end of the preseason top 25 but all three games in this tournament should be good ones.

Tennessee and Rick Barnes are likely to be a middle of the pack SEC team after losing a lot of talent. Florida State is coming off back to back Sweet 16 appearances but they, like Tennessee, have a lot of pieces to replace.

VCU is very highly regarded this will be their second test of the season against what should be a solid Purdue team. Purdue will have Virginia to look forward to at the end of this tournament just a few days later. We’re going to learn a lot about Matt Painter and company.

A difficult one to predict this far out and realistically all four teams realistically have a chance to win this one. A chance for a team to add two quality wins to their resume for the tournament. I’m going to pick Florida State to win it all in somewhat of an upset prediction. I think despite Leonard Hamilton having to replace a lot of good pieces that he’s still got a really good team.

Winner: Florida State

Home/NCAA Basketball News