We get to Feast “Week” in full force with a loaded slate of basketball, just not a lot of games that we know about already.
FEAST “WEEK” IS GOING STRONG, BAYBAY! We’ve got Big East teams in the Maui Invitational, the Battle 4 Atlantis, the Cancun Challenge, the Players Era Festival, and all sorts of action across all sorts of arenas. The only downside of Feast “Week” is that we’re can’t actually highlight games that we don’t know if we’ll actually get to see them! Keep your eyes on the schedules down below, and we’ll update them as the various tournament proceed.
Not much in the way of highlights because of the unknown future, but we will get 24 women’s basketball games this week and 23 men’s games, so let’s hit the top spots that we can talk about.
Monday, November 25: DePaul Blue Demons vs #8 Oklahoma Sooners (4:30pm Central, FloSports) — I skipped on highlighting a DePaul/Texas game last week, because 1) I don’t think DePaul is very good and 2) I didn’t expect them to have much of a chance against the Longhorns. They lost by 30, and this one isn’t expected to go well, either. No matter their result here, Jill Pizziotti has to take her team up against another ranked opponent in the other side of the Ball Dawgs Classic, and so I’m highlighting this for a slightly different reason: Is DePaul administration aware that this program has been going downhill since the start of the dumbest pandemic of our lifetimes? Because they’re letting the women’s basketball team schedule like they’re still on a 17 year NCAA tournament streak, and that’s just not the case.
Tuesday, November 26: #21 Creighton Bluejays vs San Diego State Aztecs (1pm Central, TBS) — I don’t think I would have put this one on the highlights before Friday night, but after the Bluejays got husked by Nebraska at the CHI Center, I think we have to note their first Players Era Festival contest. This is their next game after Ryan Kalkbrenner put up (and missed!) just one field goal attempt in an entire basketball game that Creighton lost by double digits. I think they should probably respond in some kind of way, eh?
Wednesday, November 27: #21 Creighton Bluejays vs #20 Texas A&M Aggies (5:30pm Central, Max) — And this is why Tuesday’s game for the Bluejays is particularly notable. That one is their next game after getting kicked around by Nebraska, and then they have to turn around and play this one a little more than 24 hours later. Even with Kalkbrenner being very tall, Creighton’s not a great rebounding team and the Aggies crash the offensive glass extremely heavily and well. By the way: The Players Era Festival is doing a “Play two preset games out of a group, then we’ll make standings, and then you’ll play a crossover game against the other group” setup.
Wednesday, November 27: Seton Hall Pirates vs #6 USC Trojans (6pm Central, truTV) — The Pirates have been inching up the difficulty meter in terms of their opponents as the season has gone along, and they took their first loss on Thursday against a Princeton team that’s weirdly undefeated against Big East squads. ANYWAY, Faith Masonius & Friends take another step up here as they tangle with JuJu Watkins and the Trojans out in Palm Springs for the Acrisure Holiday Invitational. USC is heavily favored, but that’s why you play the games.
Thursday, November 28: Providence Friars vs VCU Rams (10am Central, FloSports) — The Friars were picked to finish third in the Big East by the coaches’ poll this year, and so far, at 1-3 against Division 1 opponents before a Sunday clash with Delaware, Erin Batth’s team has not lived up to that hype. They’ll be in Mexico for the Cancun Challenge over Thanksgiving weekend, with three preset games in three days. This is the first one, and they’ll play Wisconsin and San Diego State on Friday and Saturday. Three top 100 (or close enough) opponents in consecutive days, if the Friars want to prove that the poll is right and the computers (#97 on BartTorvik.com, #138 on Her Hoop Stats) are wrong, then now’s the time.
Thursday, November 28: St. John’s Red Storm vs RV Harvard Crimson (11am Central, FloSports) — This is actually a sneaky good game on the schedule, as Harvard is sitting in the top 60 of the BartTorvik.com rankings on Sunday morning, which is actually ahead of St. John’s at #73. But that’s not why I’m putting this on here. St. John’s hosts Stony Brook on Sunday, November 24. St. John’s visits Penn State on Monday, December 2nd. This game is in between. It is the only game in between. Head coach Joe Tartamella intentionally scheduled a game at Noon in New York on Thanksgiving, meaning he’s keeping his team on campus for this game instead of letting them head home for the holiday. And by the way! They can easily lose this game, one that’s kiiiinda important for their NCAA tournament hopes as they haven’t played a notable opponent in that regard yet, and because it’s at noon on Thanksgiving, good luck getting anyone to show up for it. What are you doing, Joe? Heck, what is Harvard doing, as they’ll play Stony Brook 24 hours earlier? At least Providence gets to be in Cancun on Thanksgiving.
Here’s the full men’s basketball schedule for the week, as up to date as possible.
Here’s the full women’s basketball schedule for the week, as up to date as possible.