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NCAA Basketball: Way-too-early ranking of 2022 PK85 Invitational games

By Holden Walter-Warner

PORTLAND, OR - NOVEMBER 23: General view of a rack of basketballs before the between the Portland State Vikings and the Duke Blue Devils during the PK80-Phil Knight Invitational presented by State Farm at the Moda Center on November 23, 2016 in Portland, Oregon. North Carolina won the game 102-78. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images)
PORTLAND, OR - NOVEMBER 23: General view of a rack of basketballs before the between the Portland State Vikings and the Duke Blue Devils during the PK80-Phil Knight Invitational presented by State Farm at the Moda Center on November 23, 2016 in Portland, Oregon. North Carolina won the game 102-78. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images) /
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NCAA Basketball (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images)
NCAA Basketball (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images) /

Here at Busting Brackets, we love prematurely ranking anything and everything related to NCAA basketball. In February, we ranked the field for the 2022 PK85 Invitational and the previous season wasn’t even over yet!

With an announcement on Monday, we have a clearer vision of the Phil Knight Invitational bracket for the event. We previously knew the teams, but now we know the matchups.

These games are still months away. But as many college basketball rosters finalize after a busy offseason, we can rank these games based on how good it appears they’re going to be.

With the matchups released, how do we size up the 2022 Phil Knight Invitational and Phil Knight Legacy first-round games?

The competition is slightly different than most early-season tournaments in that it features 16 teams in two completely separate brackets. One can dream, but UNC and Gonzaga are now going to have to face each other in the Pacific Northwest during this event.

The Phil Knight Invitational field includes Alabama, Iowa State, Michigan State, North Carolina, Oregon, Portland, UConn, and Villanova. The separate Phil Knight Legacy field includes Duke, Florida, Gonzaga, Oregon State, Portland State, Purdue, West Virginia, and Xavier.

We’re going to lump the two fields together into these rankings because, hey, why not? They’re extremely similar events named for the same Nike tycoon. Besides, every game is airing on an ESPN network during the same Thanksgiving stretch between Nov. 24 and Nov. 27.

Without further ado, here are the best games in the first round of the Phil Knight tournaments – starting with the worst ones.

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