<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">BRISTOL, Conn. (AP) -- West Virginia, which reached the regional semifinals of the NCAA tournament last season, headlines the eight-team field for the inaugural ESPNU Classic to be played Thanksgiving weekend at Orlando, Fla. Three other teams from last season's NCAA field of 65 -- Arkansas, Montana and Southern Illinois -- are also in the field for the tournament, which was announced Thursday by ESPN Regional Television, which will own and operate the event, and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, the sponsoring conference. The other teams in the field are Marist, Minnesota, Virginia Tech and Western Michigan. The tournament will be held Nov. 23-25 at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex. ESPN Regional Television owns and operates three other basketball events -- the O'Reilly Auto Parts All-College Classic, Pape Jam and the Spartan Clash.</div> http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/bask...c.ap/index.html
What an odd mix of teams that is. West Virginia shouldn't be anything special once they lose Pittsnogle and Gansey, Arkansas shouldn't be anything special if Brewer stays in the draft, and Minnesota loses half their team. The headliner should actually be Southern Illinois. They only lose two players from their MVC championship team from last season, and neither one of them was a contributer. Outside of the Salukis, Virginia Tech is the only other team I see in the field with top 25 potential.
I'm going to take Virginia Tech to win the tournament. They have basically everyone returning- Zabian Dowdell and Jamon Gordon are two versatile combo guards, who really impressed at times last season, while Coleman Collins has shown flashes of dominance in the paint as a freshman last season and I expect him to explode this season. Deron Washington also showed great athleticism, and was solid in the offensive and defensive departments. I could see this team squeeking into the top 25 if they stay consistent. But consistency has been a problem the past few years for this team.
