Buzzketball Central: DirecTV Wooden Legacy Tournament

John Wooden

Buzzketball is headed to the west coast to play in the Wooden Legacy tournament over the Thanksgiving break. This Tournament honors the late John Wooden, who was a three time All American, leading Purdue to a National Championship as their point guard in 1932. Considered one of the greatest coaches of all time, he led UCLA to ten national championships over a twelve year period back in the late 60's and early 70's. He had an incredible 664-162 record as a head coach, an amazing .807 winning percentage.

The Setting

The first two rounds of games will be played on the campus of Cal State Fullerton at the Titan Gym. The third and final round of games will shift to the Honda Center in Anaheim, home to the Anaheim Ducks. The Hokies will get three games regardless of how they perform as this event plays down to a seventh place game

The first round of games will be held on Thanksgiving (November 24th) starting at 2PM EST, with a slate of four games, the last starting at 11PM. Three of the four second round games will be held on November 25th, the first starting at 3PM, the last at 9:30PM. The fourth game will be at noon on Saturday, November 26th. (No the Hokies won't be in this game so it doesn't interfere with football). The final round of games start at 2PM on the 27th, going until 11PM Tipoff for the 7th place game. The championship will be at 830PM on ESPN.

Who is in the field?

Listed by Bracket/First Round Opponents. Rankings are based on KenPom Rankings.

#32 Texas A&M Aggies (SEC)– Come in 2-1, with wins over #295 Northwestern State and #293 American and a close loss to #55 USCwest.

Vs

#181 Cal State Northridge Matadors (Big West) – Come in 2-2 with wins over Div III Pomona Pitzer and #122 Northern Illinois and losses to #21 UCLA and #65 Stanford.

#45 Virginia Tech Hokies (ACC) – Come in 3-0, with wins over #331 Maine, #274 High Point and #242 VMI. Obviously a very weak schedule for the Hokies coming in but that seems the case with most participants here.

Vs

#81 New Mexico Lobos (Mountain West) – Come in 3-0 with wins over #265 Idaho State, #300 Houston Baptist and #149 New Mexico State.

#38 Dayton Flyers (Atlantic 10) – Come in 2-1, with wins over #285 Austin Peay and #70 Alabama and a loss to #13 St Mary's.

Vs

#76 Nebraska Cornhuskers (Big Ten) – Come in 3-0 with wins over #263 Sacramento State, DIV III University of Mary, and #157 Louisiana Tech

#147 Portland Pilots (West Coast) – Come in 3-0 with wins over #251 UC Riverside, #250 San Jose State, and Div III Lewis and Clark.

Vs

#21 UCLA Bruins (Pac 12) – Comes in 4-0 with wins over #200 Pacific, #181 Cal State Northridge, #288 San Diego, and #159 Long Beach State. Currently ranked #16 in the AP Top 25. Won the only game between participants 102-87 over Cal State Northridge.

All four first round games show an obvious advantage in terms of rankings, but its early in the season so take that into account.

I will have more on our individual opponents closer to game day.

If the Hokies were to win out, this would be the tentative schedule:
November 24th 430PM ESPN – New Mexico
November 25th 540PM ESPN 2 – Winner of Texas A&M v Cal State Northridge
November 27th 830 PM ESPN – Winner of bracket of Dayton, Nebraska, Portland, UCLA

Just wanted to get this little primer out there before most folks get wrapped up in the holidays.