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Providence to Open 2015 Wooden Legacy Against Evansville
Jon Rothstein of CBSSports.com is reporting that the first round matchups for the 2015 Wooden Legacy tournament have been set. The Friars will open against Evansville of the Missouri Valley Conference with the other first round matchups — to be held at Titan Gym on the campus of Long Beach State — are Arizona vs. Santa Clara, Boise State vs. UC Irvine and Michigan State vs. Boston College.
That final game is the only one that matches teams from two major conferences in the first round. That also means that the only way the Friars would play Boston College twice during the season is if they both reached the finals of this tournament.
If chalk prevails it would appear college basketball fans could be treated to a championship game of Arizona vs. Michigan State. Both are expected to be top 15 teams in the preseason polls. Ed Cooley and the Friars would like to have something to say about that though as they would likely get Arizona in the second round should they get past Evansville. The Purple Aces went 24-12 a season ago and will again be led by returning leading scorer DJ Balentine. Balentine was a 1st team All-Missouri Valley Conference player for the second straight season, led the conference in scoring at 20.1 points/game — good for 15th in the nation — and was named the MVP of the CIT. Evansville defeated Northern Arizona to take the title of the 2015 CIT and returns all their key players from that team last season.
The times of the games have not yet been released, per Rothstein. The final games on Sunday of the event will be held at the Honda Center in Anaheim. A win over the Purple Aces should give Providence an early-season crack at a top 15 team on a neutral court and having Cooley go head-to-head with his USA Basketball boss in Sean Miller will add to the storylines over the Thanksgiving weekend. In another schedule note, multiple sources have confirmed to pcbb1917.com that the other two dates for December games are December 2nd and December 12th. It is unknown at this time which opponent falls in which date. There is also the potential for 1 additional non-conference game to be added to the slate.
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[…] ICYMI – Providence to Open 2015 Wooden Legacy Against Evansville […]
[…] first round of the 2015 Wooden Legacy Tournament presented by DIRECTV — Evansville — has been known for a couple of weeks now. Today it became official with the release of the bracket for the entire field. Providence gets the […]