As part of the series of annual early season tournaments, the Puerto Rico Tip-Off is an eight man tournament that started today. Wichita State even played in it a couple of years ago. This year, the field is Kansas State of the Big XII, Georgetown of the Big East, VCU of the Atlantic 10, Michigan of the Big 10, Northeastern of the Colonial, Charlotte of Conference USA, Florida State of the ACC, and Long Beach State of the Big West.
With these tournaments, every team will play three games. If a team lost a quarterfinal game, they are relegated to the loser's bracket. There are two loser bracket games. If you lose that game, you are relegated to a seventh place game. The winner of the loser bracket's games play in a fifth place game. Meanwhile, the winners of the quarterfinal games play in the semifinals. The losers of the semifinals play in a third place game, while the winners play in the championship game. The Maui Invitational is like this as well.
The top of the bracket was Kansas State vs. Charlotte and Georgetown vs. Northeastern. The bottom half was Michigan vs. Long Beach State and VCU vs. Florida State. I thought that VCU would beat Georgetown in the final. That being said, let's look at the quarterfinal games today.
Charlotte 68, Kansas State 61
I shouldn't be surprised by this now; Kansas State did lose their home opener to a Big Sky team. Still, this is a very undignified loss and Kansas State will likely miss the NCAA Tournament with those two losses on their schedule, unless they can turn it around quickly. As for how Charlotte won, Kansas State shot 37% from the field, including 19% from beyond the arc. Kansas State also went 12 of 19 from the free throw line. Charlotte outrebounded Kansas State 46-34
Northeastern 63, Georgetown 56
Once upon a time, early in the second half, Georgetown was leading 40-26. One 14-0 run later the game was tied. Down the stretch, Northeastern dominated the interior and this fueled the upset of the Hoyas.
#14 Michigan 85, Long Beach State 61
Finally something that makes sense. Long Beach State has finally far off of its status as trendy upset pick in the Tournament and may not even win their own weak conference.
Florida State 85, #10 VCU 67
Jaw-dropping. That is all I had to say about this. VCU actually made it look better than it was; at one point towards the end of the game, Florida State was up by a staggering 30 points before VCU closed the game on a 12-0 run. Florida State tore up VCU on the interior and I saw many of the Seminole's plays end in emphatic dunks. VCU had terrible field goal defense as well; they allowed Florida State to shoot 54% while shooting 29% themselves.
The Loser's Bracket is Kansas State vs. Georgetown and Long Beach State vs. VCU. The semifinals are Northeastern vs. Charlotte and Michigan vs. Florida State.
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