Michigan State opens PK80 tournament with Georgetown, could face North Carolina
The brackets are set for the PK80 tournament, and Michigan State will face Georgetown in the opening round.
The 16-team tournament in Portland, Oregon, is a celebration of Nike founder Phil Knight’s 80th birthday. The Spartans and Hoyas will be in the eight-team “Victory” bracket that opens play at Moda Center on Nov. 23 with games between Connecticut and Oregon, Arkansas and Oklahoma, and North Carolina and Portland. Tip-off times are not yet determined.
Second-day games in MSU’s bracket will be played at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland. The Spartans would face either UConn or Oregon that day in either the winner’s or loser’s bracket.
More:
Izzo Hall of History a part of Breslin Center facelift
Eron Harris won't quit on professional basketball dreams
The opening day of the eight-team “Motion” bracket features: Duke vs. Portland State, Butler vs. Texas, Florida vs. Stanford and Gonzaga vs. Ohio State. It will be run as a separate tournament from MSU’s bracket.
Each bracket will crown a champion on Nov. 26. All 16 teams are guaranteed three games apiece. All-session and Moda-only ticket packages are available at pkinvitational.com. Single-session tickets go on sale at 1 p.m. ET on June 9 at ticketmaster.com or by phone at 800-745-3000.
ESPN’s networks will televise all the games.
MSU’s women’s team also will play Connecticut on Nov. 25 as part of the four-team PK80 women’s field. Oregon will face Oklahoma in the other game of the one-day doubleheader at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Oregon.
One more game: MSU announced it has a non-conference home game scheduled for Dec. 9 against Southern Utah. The Spartans open the season against Duke in Chicago as part of the Champions Classic on Nov. 14, and they also have early-season games scheduled against Oakland on Dec. 16 at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit and against Long Beach State on Dec. 21 at Breslin Center.
Sporting News poll: The Sporting News issued its “Way-Too-Early” preseason college basketball poll Wednesday, and MSU is listed as its No. 2 team. The magazine puts Arizona at No. 1.
“Yes, last season was underwhelming (20-15) for Spartans fans,” Ryan Fagan wrote. “But look at all those guys in the ‘key returnees’ list, and you start to see why Michigan State is ranked this high. The return of Miles Bridges was relatively surprising; he was projected as a lottery pick in most mock drafts, and players rated that highly usually don’t come back to college. Anyway, he’s back as the resident star (he averaged 16.9 points and 8.3 rebounds per game), which is nice because aside from him, the Spartans will have size, they’ll have shooting and they’ll have ball-handling. And incoming big men Jaren Jackson (6-11) and Xavier Tillman (6-9) will be ready to make an immediate impact.”
MSU is listed at No. 1 by NBC Sports on its preseason poll. The Spartans are No. 2 according to Fox Sports and No. 3 by CBSSports.com, ESPN and Yahoo! Sports.