NCAA Notables: Preseason Tournaments

They say you can learn a lot about a man based on how he performs in a preseason college basketball tournament.

Charleston Classic
Big winner: Colorado. HUGE winner. Over the course of four days, Colorado accumulated almost as many quality non-conference wins as the entire Pac-12 Conference did all of last year. The Buffaloes beat a solid Dayton team 67-57, then upset #16 Baylor 60-58 in the semifinals. And they sealed the deal in the championship game against Murray State, winning 81-74. The inside-outside combination of fierce rebounder Andre Roberson and leading scorer Askia Booker looks formidable. All the attention in the Pac-12 is focused on UCLA and Arizona; Colorado might sneak up on some people.
Don't forget about: Everyone else in this field. Murray State beat two teams from major conferences and went to the finals. Baylor might drop in the polls because of its loss to Colorado, but there's no shame in that, and they showed resiliency by topping St. John's in the consolation game. And speaking of St. John's, they acquitted themselves well in their two losses, so well that Jay Williams called them the most athletic team in the country. Very strong showings all-around.

Puerto Rico Tip-Off
Big winner: Oklahoma State. Along with Colorado, the Cowboys are the biggest winners of the early tournament results. They won two games against quality opponents, Akron and Tennessee, before stunning #6 N.C. State in the championship game, 76-56. Freshman point guard Marcus Smart has already emerged as the leader of this team after putting up a monster stat line in the upset victory: 20 points, seven assists, seven rebounds, four steals, and four blocks.
As for N.C. State? In the immortal words of Dennis Green, "they are who we thought they were." They're terrifyingly good when they're on, as shown by their blowouts of Penn State and Massachusetts. But in the final, they were disjointed, totaling only seven assists and failing to shoot 30% from the floor. C.J. Leslie drifted and fouled out of the game on a technical. Jekyll, meet Hyde. The Wolfpack will be one of this season's biggest enigmas.
Don't forget about: Tennessee. Like St. John's in the Charleston Classic, the Volunteers didn't do anything flashy, but they were solid enough to suggest that they should be contenders in the middle tier of their conference. Their offense stalled against Oklahoma State but they hit their stride in a 83-69 consolation win against Massachusetts.

2K Sports Classic
Big winner: Alabama. Playing in Madison Square Garden, the Crimson Tide topped Oregon State 65-62 and then pummeled Villanova the next night, 77-55, to win the tournament. Trevor Releford (brother of Travis, who plays for Kansas) sunk all five of his three-pointers en route to 25 points. 'Bama was a tournament team last year and seems headed that way again. Along with Tennessee, they'll compose that decent middle tier in the SEC behind Kentucky, Florida, and Missouri.
Don't forget about: Villanova. The Wildcats shouldn't be shouldn't be too disheartened by the blowout loss to Alabama. They're off to a 3-1 start and should be much more of a factor in the Big East than they were last year, just like St. John's.

Coaches vs Cancer Classic
Big winner: Florida State. They shockingly lost their home opener to South Alabama but used this two-game tournament to get back on track. They beat BYU and Saint Joseph's on back-to-back nights in Brooklyn's new Barclays Center, and both of those opponents are quality teams. Most importantly, FSU found its notoriously-elusive offense. In the championship game, four Seminoles had at least four assists, a rather impressive feat.
Don't forget about: Saint Joseph's. It went unnoticed, but Florida State was "supposed" to play #20 Notre Dame in the final. They didn't, because Saint Joseph's upset the Fighting Irish in overtime in their semifinal, 79-70. A great under-the-radar win for the team picked to win the Atlantic 10 over well-known quantities like Temple, VCU, and Butler.

Paradise Jam
This one's still in progress, from all the way in the Virgin Islands, and it certainly hasn't lacked for drama. The favorites, #23 Connecticut and New Mexico, both ran into resistance in the semis. New Mexico was down by five to George Mason with 18 seconds remaining, but they sunk a three, stole an inbounds pass, and sunk another three with two seconds left to win. UConn had even more of a scare against little Quinnipiac, needing double overtime to advance to the finals.

If UConn can win this tournament, coupled with that earlier upset of Michigan State, the Huskies will have shattered everyone's wildest preseason expectations. New Mexico won't be a pushover; the Lobos are trying to remind everyone that the Mountain West isn't just a two-team race between San Diego State and UNLV.

Maui Invitational
One of the big-time tournaments, the Invitational has yet to start (it gets underway on Monday in Hawaii). Last year's Duke-Kansas final was the highlight of the preseason tournament slate. This year's bracket looks like this:

#11 North Carolina vs. Mississippi State
Butler vs. Marquette
Texas vs. Chaminade
USC vs. Illinois

While the winner of the Butler-Marquette game won't be a pushover, this is North Carolina's tournament to win. The bottom half of the bracket is less interesting, but both USC and Texas have their sights set on making some noise.

Progressive Legends Classic
Another tournament that starts on Monday, although this one is a simple four-team deathmatch. #1 Indiana should have no problem dispatching Georgia, but there's plenty of intrigue in the other game: #13 UCLA taking on Georgetown. UCLA's star freshman Shabazz Muhammad has been cleared to play, which makes rebuilding Georgetown a serious underdog. If UCLA advances to face Indiana on Tuesday in the Barclays Center, that would be one of the more highly-anticipated matchups of the early season. Especially since it could feature the top two picks of the 2013 NBA Draft, Muhammad and Cody Zeller. Much like the Kentucky-Indiana classic signaled the start of last year's college basketball season, UCLA-Indiana could do the same in 2012.