NCAA Basketball: 2023 Fort Myers Tip-Off preview, predictions

Feast Week is upon us, and the 2023 Fort Myers Tip-Off is set to deliver four high-quality NCAA Basketball matchups in the Sunshine State from Nov. 20 through Nov 22.

The Fort Myers Tip-Off, which started in 2018 and is entering its sixth year in the college basketball early-season tournament scene, has had some extremely entertaining games in the past, such as Tyree Appleby’s buzzer-beater over Ohio State in 2021 to Gonzaga hanging 102 points on Kansas in 2020.

Take a look at Tyree Appleby’s infamous buzzer beater in 2021:

This year, headlining the 2023 Fort Myers Tip-Off field includes the Wisconsin Badgers, Virginia Cavaliers, West Virginia Mountaineers and the SMU Mustangs. Although this year’s field lacks a top-ten matchup or the traditional firepower of the Maui Invitational or the Battle 4 Atlantis, it is still set for highly-intriguing matchups and storylines, nonetheless.

Certain storylines to monitor include: Reece Beekman versus Chucky Hepburn, the emergence of Virginia’s Ryan Dunn, Jessee Edwards and Quinn Slazinski lifting a short-handed West Virginia squad and SMU’s guard play of Chuck Harris and Zhuric Phelps.

Not only are there intriguing storylines to monitor, but this year’s field will present an opportunity for all four teams to earn resume-boosting victories with hopes of carrying that momentum into the rest of the regular season.

Here, we will preview all four teams in this event and will offer a prediction on who will come out victorious. Because there is no initial, sure-fire favorite here, it seems feasible to foresee that this event could provide last-second drama — or even a Tyree Appleby-like finish to crown a champion in the 2023 Fort Myers Tip-Off. First, let’s preview the teams.