After Rick Pitino expressed concerns about the format of the Players Era Festival, the non-conference college basketball event has dramatically changed its format entering its third year.
ESPN has agreed to a multi-year deal with Players Era to be its exclusive broadcast rights holder after two years with TNT Sports, which was the first of two massive changes.
The tournament has also made the decision to split the event into two brackets after the tournament has expended to 24 teams for the upcoming season. The first bracket will be played the week of November 16 and features eight teams: Auburn, Florida, Houston, Kansas, Notre Dame, Rutgers, UNLV, and West Virginia.
The other bracket, which will be 16 teams, will be played the week of November 23 and features a loaded field of Alabama, Baylor, Creighton, Gonzaga, Iowa State, Kansas State, Louisville, Maryland, Miami (FL), Michigan, Oregon, San Diego State, St. John’s, Tennessee, TCU, and Texas Tech.
Schedules, dates, and times will be announced later in the offseason.
Last year, St. John’s dropped a heart breaker in its opener against Iowa State before convincingly defeating Baylor. The tournament explained that the consolation games would be determined by team’s records and point differential, which would have St. John’s set to play Houston.
The team started its preparation for a matchup against the Cougars, however, the tournament announced the night before the final day of the event that the Red Storm would play Auburn. After a back-and-forth first half the Johnnies were outclassed in the second half and left Las Vegas 1-2, which started its season 4-3.
St. John’s will look much different this upcoming season in Las Vegas, after the departures of Zuby Ejiofor, Dillon Mitchell, Bryce Hopkins, and Dylan Darling and its roster is currently comprised of many international recruits that will be joining its returning core of Ian Jackson, Ruben Prey, and Lefteris Liotopolous.
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