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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:
Rank those 16 teams at https://t.co/Hgss1j64FI in terms of hoops tradition, and Texas might not make the Top 10. Crazy great bracket.
— Mike Finger (@mikefinger) September 21, 2016
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.