NCAA Basketball: Early tournament games in 2020-21 to get excited about

LSU vs Green Bay at the Gotham Classic

When Green Bay, Syracuse, Jacksonville State, Mercer, and LSU descend upon the Gotham Classic, two particular teams will garner attention. While LSU Basketball is looking to go from Robin to Batman in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and improve upon their second-place finish. Green Bay resembles Robin a bit less as they finished third in the Horizon. They, however, have questions that will be interesting if answered.

2020-2021 will be a season of attempting to stay relevant for Green Bay. The Phoenix will be losing seniors: Jayquan McCloud (17 ppg), Kameron Hankerson (11 ppg), and Cody Schwartz (8 ppg). Those three seniors were key members that led them to an 11-7 conference record and a third-place finish. Luckily for Green Bay, no underclassmen have declared for the NBA draft or have entered the transfer portal, so they will return Amari Davis and PJ Piper.

The LSU Tigers look prepared to move on from being Robin and battle Kentucky for the role of Batman in the SEC. Will Wade will do this with the help of the ‘Son of Superman’, as Shareef O’Neal is transferring from UCLA to the college his father played at. If that gift was not enough, the Fighting Tigers have the sixth-ranked recruiting class with letters of intent signed by five-star guard Cameron Thomas as well as three-star recruits Jalen Cook and Bradley Ezewiro. In addition, coach Wade has a hard commit from two four-star players in 6’3 point guard Jalen Cook, and 6-6 forward Mwani Wilkenson.

The intrigue around LSU is already high as fans wait to hear word from two underclassmen about declaring for the NBA Draft. Skylar Maya who ranks in the top-50, as well as Trendon Watford, is ranked top 80. Neither has officially declared and if they choose to return to LSU for another year of development under coach Wade and his staff, seeing them at the Gotham Classic will be even more exciting.