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Pairings For Four Early Season Men?s Basketball Events Announced

The schedules for four early-season tournaments involving Big 12 men’s basketball teams have been announced.  Baylor, Colorado, Kansas State and Texas A&M have learned the pairings for each of the 2009 events.

Baylor will face the Alabama Crimson Tide on Thursday, Nov. 26, in game three of the 2009 Old Spice Classic on ESPN2.  Tip-off is slated for 5:30 p.m. CT.

The fourth annual Old Spice Classic, which will be held Thanksgiving weekend at the Milk House at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, will include 12 games in three days and will be broadcast on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. The 2009 event features eight schools, including six that reached the postseason a year ago.  Baylor advanced to the NIT final in New York City in 2008-09.

Colorado will begin the 2009 EA SPORTS Maui Invitational with a matchup against Gonzaga.  Maui's oceanside Lahaina Civic Center will again be the venue for the eight-team competition during Thanksgiving week from Nov. 23-25.

Arizona, Cincinnati, Maryland, Vanderbilt and Wisconsin will join CU and Gonzaga, along with Tournament-host Chaminade University to compete for the Wayne Duke Championship Trophy.

Kansas State will play Boston University in the first round of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tip-Off.  The Wildcats and Terriers, who will be meeting for the first time in their respective histories, will play in game four of the tournament on Thursday, Nov. 19 at 6:30 p.m. CT.  Contests will take place at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in the Hato Rey district of San Juan.

K-State returns four starters and eight lettermen from a squad that produced a 22-12 overall record and finished in a tie for fourth place in the Big 12 in 2008-09.  The Wildcats advanced to the second round of the NIT, where they lost to top-seeded San Diego State. 

Texas A&M will match up with Clemson in the third annual 76 Classic on Thanksgiving Day, November 26.  The game will take place at the Anaheim Convention Center, adjacent to Disneyland.

The 76 Classic field also includes Butler, Long Beach State, Minnesota, Portland, UCLA, and West Virginia. Seven of the eight teams reached the postseason in 2008-09, including six in the NCAA Tournament.  No eight-team, regular-season tournament has ever had more than seven teams from the previous postseason. The 2008 Old Spice Classic also had seven; while the EA Sports Maui Invitational has had seven postseason teams five times, most recently in 2004.