Tom Izzo is getting ready for the third installment of the Champions Classic. On Tuesday, Nov. 12, from the United Center in Chicago, you’ll see four of the top five teams in the nation: No. 2 Michigan State vs. No. 1 Kentucky (6:30 p.m.) and No. 5 Kansas vs. No. 4 Duke (8:30 p.m.). The inaugural game was held at Madison Square Garden in 2011 followed by the Georgia Dome in 2012.
The Champions Classic game between Kentucky and Michigan State is the first 1-2 matchup of Associated Press ranked teams since Feb. 23, 2008 (Memphis vs. Tennessee) and it will be the earliest ever meeting between teams ranked in the top 2.
Tom Izzo, Michigan State head coach:
“Three years ago I said the Champions Classic was like having a Final Four in November. Just look at this year’s event, and it’s possible the collection of teams is even better than most Final Fours. Combining these four elite programs in one event has provided a great tip-off event for the college basketball season, providing excellent exposure not only for the schools involved, but also the sport during a crowded time on the sports calendar.”
Tom Izzo makes a great point.
The sports calendar is sort of imbalanced, but once it gets moving, it has a lot of velocity.
For about four months in the summer you have pretty much nothing but baseball. And that lull is extremely brutal.
But once college football starts– boom! The NFL is the very next week. Hockey preseason starts two weeks after college football. NBA and college basketball media days begin and within a four week span “what am I ever going to write about?” has turned into “what topics will I have to cut?” Izzo’s right that mid-November is the most crowded time on the sports calendar; with college hoops coming last.
Then again college basketball season is always something that never gets here soon enough for me. I prefer college hoops over college football. And I should; I attended two college hoops power houses (University of Illinois ’99, Michigan State MBA). College basketball, not the NBA or NFL or college football “is my bag baby.”
I love college hoops as much as I despise Facebook Fan pages. I like to watch college basketball as much as I like to ignore invitations to “Like” Facebook Fan Pages. I enjoy watching March Madness as much as I enjoy never clicking on mommy-blogs. (Seriously, is the mommy-blogger craze over yet??)
The two times I went on spring break in college I don’t recall anything about the partying I did in Cancun or Key West, but I can tell you the exact score of the 2001 Michigan State versus Penn State Big Ten Tournament game. I don’t remember the names of any of the girls I hooked up with on spring break, whether they were hot or ugly or mediocre. Or even if they were any good in bed.
They probably were as refined and classy as the lovely young lady pictured below I’m sure.
But I vividly remember the Maryland vs Duke ACC Quarterfinal game that went into double-overtime.
The point is, even paying hundreds of dollars to go escape the winter chill and enjoy the alcohol and sunshine; I was still more into watching college basketball.
If March “comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb” then college hoops “comes in with crickets chirping and leaves with a nation obsessed and desperately wanting more.”
It’s perfect that the only month with a well known cliche is the banner month for college hoops. It’s a very unique sport in the fact that no one outside of the states of Kentucky, Indiana and North Carolina cares about it when it commences in October (too many sports, especially football going on now). Yet everyone is fixated on it for one month of the year, when it ends.
Well, I’m different.
I’m a college basketball nerd, year round.
And next Tuesday’s preconference game will be as big as any preconference game Tom Izzo has ever coached in. Bigger than the aircraft carrier game. bigger than any Big Ten/ACC Challenge. And that means a lot given that State always schedules an extremely difficult non-conference schedule every year.
“We’ve been known to schedule as tough a nonconference schedule as anyone in the nation the past 14 years,” Tom Izzo said.
The CC features three of the top four all-time winningest men’s college basketball programs: Kentucky (first – 2,111), Kansas (second – 2,101) and Duke (fourth – 2,001).
· A combined 17 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship (since 1939): Kentucky (eight), Duke (four), Kansas (three) and Michigan State (two).
· A total of 24 NCAA Final Four appearances in the past 21 years: Duke (seven), Michigan State (six), Kansas (six) and Kentucky (five).
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the world; with regular weekly segments on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and RSS