NCAA Basketball: Analyzing the 4 teams in 2020 Phil Knight Invitational

Gonzaga, Oregon, BYU, and USC will compete in the 2020 Phil Knight Invitational. Here’s a look at the four NCAA Basketball teams in the tournament, with matchup predictions.

Ever since the immense popularity of the PK80, a Thanksgiving NCAA Basketball tournament that took place at various basketball arenas in Portland in 2017 in honor of Nike co-founder Phil Knight’s 80th birthday, the city of Portland has been clamoring for more big-name basketball games early in the college basketball season.

The event spawned the Phil Knight Invitational, which has become a regularly occurring mini-tournament over the past few years. However, 2020 is the first year it really features some big names.

So as not to compete with the mega-Thanksgiving tournaments, the PKI is being hosted the weekend before Thanksgiving and will feature two PAC-12 and two WCC schools, with Gonzaga set to face USC and Oregon facing BYU.

All four teams are expected to be NCAA tournament teams in 2021, and each of them has a very real possibility of being top-7 seeds if things go their way.

Each program dealt with a fair amount of loss from last year’s squad, with each of USC and BYU losing most of their scoring, and Gonzaga (Killian Tillie) and Oregon (Payton Pritchard) losing key pieces from last year’s squad as well.

Still, these coaches have each put together very strong recruiting classes and have canvassed the transfer market well, and these should be a pair of really fun non-conference games for fans of west coast basketball to take in next winter.

Here is a look at each of the four teams who will be playing in the 2020 Phil Knight Invitational, as well as predictions for the two games.