The AdvoCare Invitational tipped off Thanksgiving day and proved to be a mini-NCAA Tournament with a bunch of early upsets. Teams learned a lot early on.
March is a long way away. It is not even January and talking about the NCAA Tournament seems like a bit of a reach. Resumes have not even begun to get collected — so many teams still have winning records.
Of course, none of this true — except March being a long way away, it isn’t THAT far. And those resumes are still getting built with every game.
In Orlando this weekend, NCAA Tournament thoughts are at least dancing around. With teams like Wichita State, Notre Dame, Iowa, Dayton and USC, the chance to prepare and build for March existed.
It probably did not start off as some teams would have believed as the first day of the AdvoCare Invitational at Disney’s Wide World of Sports saw a couple of upsets of ranked teams and tournament favorites.
For an up-and-coming team like USC? This was the perfect opportunity to build that resume and challenge some top teams.
“This tournament is outstanding with eight good teams. We just played Monmouth at home, even though they are a mid-major team and you have the seven other teams that are bigger conferences, but they have eight really good teams here at this tournament, it’s as good as I have seen it. For us to come down to compete, I know we will have three terrific basketball games.”
The Trojans and coach Andy Enfield began looking more and more like his famous “Dunk City” team from Florida Gulf Coast in the 72-69 win over the heavily favored Wichita State.
Freshman forward Bennie Boatwright hit 5 of 9 3-pointers to score 22 points and Katin Reinhardt hit two critical 3-pointers late in the second half to keep the Shockers at a distance.
The Trojans took control of the game early by pushing the pace and pressuring the undermanned Shockers into 15 turnovers. USC had its own problems to clean up before taking on Xavier on Friday with 23 turnovers.
But this was a win the team can hang its hat on even with Wichita State playing without star guard Fred VanVleet and relying almost solely on Ron Baker (25 points, 6-for-10 shooting from beyond the arc).
“We are maturing as a basketball team,” Enfield said. “Last year, we were the youngest team in the country in the power-5 conferences. And we played like it. Those runs last year would have resulted in a 10-point loss. This year, we are a better basketball team, we are more experienced and we understand it’s a game of runs and we’re figuring out how to win close games. I was very proud of our players because we didn’t play great today offensively, but we competed on both ends of the floor.”
The AdvoCare Invitational has not gone how many teams expected. Some very good teams have had to learn a lot about themselves.
KenPom No. 29 Notre Dame fell to KenPom No. 116 Monmouth 70-68 in the opening round. No. 43 USC defeated No. 28 Wichita State. No. 42 Dayton defeated No. 26 Iowa.
Only No. 21 Xavier was spared (blowing out No. 103 Alabama) was spared of at least a nominal upset on the opening day of the tournament.
Yes, March Madness arrived in Orlando sooner than expected. The disappointment of playing a good game and it still being a loss is a reality this weekend.
“I felt like we played pretty good,” Wichita State guard Ron Baker said. “Everyone played as hard as they could. Like I said, there are just a couple things that didn’t go our way. We turned it over in tough positions, gave up offensive rebounds at the wrong time and didn’t hit our open looks when it came down to it.”
These tournament games though have plenty of value. Winning it is nice, but these potential tournament teams — five of the eight teams in this tournament field are in Joe Lunardi’s very early Bracketology.
That competition is forging who these teams are and who they are going to be once conference play picks up. These games boost RPI for sure, but key wins — like USC’s win that give the team a matchup with Xavier and another potential team in the final or another good team in the third place game.
The Trojans have to feel very confident they will get the confidence and experience they need from this tournament. This young team is still gaining experience and figuring itself out.
The same could be said of many of the other teams in the tournament.
Xavier came into the tournament highly ranked with some experienced players and the pedigree of a solid team. The Musketeers played perhaps one of the weaker teams in Power-5 conferences in the Crimson Tide, but still had to fight to get by.
Alabama, coached by former NBA coach Avery Johnson, bothered Xavier plenty with its size and physicality in its backcourt play. Eventually the Musketeers switched to a 1-3-1/1-2-2 zone to stymie the Crimson Tide, pick up some turnovers and generate points — 25 points off 18 turnovers.
“I don’t know many teams that don’t go on little scoring droughts,” Xavier coach Chris Mack said. “Obviously, we’re not rooting for those But if you completely crumble on the other end of the floor, you can find yourself in a hole that you can’t dig yourself out of. I think our team took a little step forward today because we didn’t let it affect us on the defensive end.”
Mack said the lack of time to adjust between games really teaches a coach a lot about his team. He can see how they respond to adversity and difficulty and how quickly they can make adjustments and put losses behind them.
Playing on consecutive days as Xavier will when the team takes on USC on Friday is not a simulation of the NCAA Tournament, but the whole tournament atmosphere and having the chance to win is very representative of the March experience.
Even at this early stage of the season, Mack said winning is the primary objective. Learning only comes secondary.
For a team like Xavier that went to the Sweet Sixteen of last year’s NCAA Tournament, the program is focused keenly on repeating that success.
“I think we are headed in the right direction,” Xavier guard Trevon Blueitt said. “But I don’t think we are where we need to be at this point.”
The Musketeers will not get there until they work on their consistency and effort and, in their minds win this tournament. That is their preparation.
Wichita State is in that boat too. With injuries that have ravaged the team early in the season, some young players are learning how to step up and fill in. The Shockers are not as precise as the nation is used to seeing, although they are still very talented.
For other teams more on the bubble and trying to grow some more, there is still work to do too. And all the upsets only show how close and far these teams are.
Even for the upstarts, there is plenty of work to do. And the tournament provides another opportunity to get that work in.
“We’re certainly not a great team yet,” Enfield said. “We have a lot of things to work on. This is a great win for us at this point to beat a top-20 team in the country. It means a lot. But it also shows why they came to USC. This is our goal to build a program with young, talented players and let them go play.”
And as the tournament continues to its finale Sunday, the foundation toward March is laid. The journey is well under way.
