Rush The Court

Ten of the 14 Big Ten teams will play in early-season tournaments over the next 10 days. Most of the action will occur in the heart of Feast Week between November 21-28, but a pair of teams will get things started this weekend. Michigan is already in New York City for the 2K Classic while Penn State will travel to Connecticut on Saturday to play in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off. Here’s a quick guide to this weekend’s festivities.

2K Classic Benefiting Wounded Warrior Project

• Teams: Michigan, Marquette, SMU, Pittsburgh
• Capsule: Michigan beat Marquette convincingly last night and has started the year 3-0. The Wolverines are getting excellent balance in scoring across its starting lineup, with four players averaging double figures but only one instance of an individual breaking 20 points (Derrick Walton hit for exactly 20 against Howard). Michigan advances to play SMU, also 3-0 after a surprising win over Pittsburgh, in the 2K Classic championship game tonight.
• Key Player: Duncan Robinson: Robinson needed to find his shooting stroke and a 3-of-4 performance from three-point range last night could set him on his way. As a whole Michigan hasn’t shot the ball all that well yet from the perimeter (36.8 percent from three), but expect this team of excellent shooters to eventually push that number toward 40 percent.
• Prediction: The Wolverines will win this event. SMU notched a nice win over Pitt, but Michigan utterly dismantled a Marquette team that looked great last week against Vanderbilt.

Hall of Fame Tip-Off

• Teams: Penn State, Duke, Rhode Island, Cincinnati
• Capsule: Penn State is 2-1 after losing its opener to Albany, but despite boasting an offense that is scoring 82.7 PPG, the Nittany Lions will have their hands full with the #1 team in the nation Saturday. It is still unknown right now if the Blue Devils will suit up at least one of their three injured freshmen (Jayson Tatum, Marques Bolden, and Harry Giles) for the event, but it shouldn’t matter in terms of the outcome of this game. Penn State’s focus instead should be earning a split in this event by beating its Sunday opponent — either Rhode Island or Cincinnati. Winning at least one game at the Mohegan Sun will go a long way toward proving the Albany loss was something of a fluke and that this team can actually be pretty good.
• Key Player: Tony Carr: The freshman point guard has gotten off to a quality start in his first three games this season (14.4 PPG, 4.7 APG, 50% from three). If he can continue to play at this level, Penn State can show that it is primed to contend for a spot in the top half of the B1G this season.
• Prediction: Penn State is likely to lose both games here. It wouldn’t be shocking if the Lions won their second game against one of the two offensively-challenged teams, but they’ll probably lose to Duke by 10 and take Rhode Island or Cincinnati to the brink before losing a close one.