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The Biggest Early Season Tourney in Years is Coming Next Year

Texas Joins a Loaded Field in 2017

NCAA Basketball: Big 12 Conference Tournament-Texas vs Baylor Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Although it hasn’t officially been announced, Twitter has found and started circulating a link to the 2017 Phil Knight Invitational. Portland, Oregon will host what may be the biggest NCAA hoophead summit this side of March Madness. Go down the list of teams in this tournament — technically, it’s two 8-team tournaments — and you’ll quickly surmise just how stacked the deck is for anybody with aspirations of bringing home a title.

  • Arkansas
  • Butler
  • Connecticut
  • Duke
  • Florida
  • Georgetown
  • Gonzaga
  • Michigan State
  • North Carolina
  • Ohio State
  • Oklahoma
  • Oregon
  • Portland
  • Portland State
  • Stanford
  • Texas

Mike Finger sums it up nicely:

Short of adding Kansas and Kentucky, this field couldn’t get much more intimidating. Texas will have a real chance to stake its claim on the 2017 season before Longhorns fans run out of T-Day leftovers. Keep your eye on this tournament next season, it’s going to easily be the highest-profile event of the non-conference schedule for most basketball fans.