NCAA Basketball: Key early-season tournament games for 2021-22 season
Saint Louis versus Buffalo
Not all good things come easy and they do not all originate from major conferences. In order for these two talented mid-major teams to meet in the Cancun Challenge on Wednesday, Nov.24, Saint Louis will have to defeat Illinois State after Buffalo defeats Stephen F. Austin. While nothing is a guarantee, the opportunity to see an A-10 contender versus the potential MAC champion is worth crossing your fingers for.
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The Atlantic 10 Conference will put some quality basketball on display during the 2021-22 season and the Saint Louis Billikens will be right in the middle of it. Head Coach Travis Ford will have three starters returning as Jordan Goodwin (14.5 ppg) and Hasahn French (9.2 ppg) depart, Fred Thatch will move into the starting line-up and so will Francis Okoro – who is finally healthy – after missing last season with an injury after transferring from Oregon. Gibson Jimerson who started 16 games will also become a permanent fixture in the starting line-up.
With a non-conference game versus Memphis prior to the Cancun Challenge and a match-up versus Auburn a week before Christmas, if the Billikens will have a chance to not only defeat the nationally ranked teams, but a team they will be battling for a tournament seed against.
Buffalo will be returning eight of their top 10 scorers and despite third-leading scorer Jayvon Graves (14.2 ppg) being one of them, the Bulls are still one spot higher than Saint Louis on the bustingbrackets.com mid-major top 25 at No.15. If you are not excited to see a team who finished 12-5 in the MAC and lost in the MAC Championship game to Ohio it is because you only get excited to see power conference teams. If that is the case, check out the Bulls when they play Michigan on Nov. 10, 2021.