Rush The Court

Earlier this week, we took a look at four SEC teams in action at various tournaments around the country. Today we’ll take another look at three other teams that will be in action over the next few days (we won’t mention LSU, which was blown out by Wichita State in its opening round matchup of the Battle 4 Atlantis on Wednesday).

• Advocare Invitational (Lake Buena Vista, FL) – Florida. The Gators have easily disposed of four solid opponents in racing to a 4-0 start. They have been good on both ends of the floor and rank as the nation’s 11th best team overall, per KenPom. Things will get tougher today when Florida faces the defending Big East champion, Seton Hall. The Pirates are off to a 3-0 start of their own, including a nice win at Iowa. The teams appear to be evenly matched, and it should be a terrific game. Florida has thus far benefited from the solid production of graduate transfer Canyon Barry, who leads the team in scoring (13.3 PPG) off the bench. The Gators are also getting excellent play from Devin Robinson and preseason all-SEC pick KeyVaughn Allen, but could use more consistency from point guards Kasey Hill and Chris Chiozza. If the Gators can beat the Pirates, they could earn an interesting match-up with Gonzaga in the semifinals, with Iowa State after that. So while Florida is off to a great start so far, we will know a lot more about the Gators after this weekend.

• DirecTV Wooden Legacy (Fullerton and Anaheim, CA) – Texas A&M. Billy Kennedy’s club is coming off a close home loss to USC last Friday and will return to action on Thursday against Cal State Northridge. The Aggies are heavy favorites to win that game before drawing either New Mexico or Virginia Tech in the tournament semifinals. UCLA lurks on the other side of the bracket, and Texas A&M would love a shot at the surging Bruins. While we are still learning about what the Aggies will be this year, forward Tyler Davis has lived up to the preseason hype. Davis leads the team in scoring (13.7 PPG) and rebounding (7.3 RPG) in only 21 minutes per contest. One glaring weakness so far has been Texas A&M’s production behind the three-point line. D.J. Hogg (42.1%) has been solid, but no other player is making teams pay for doubling Davis. They will need someone to step up this weekend if they expect to leave Southern California with multiple wins.
• Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational (Las Vegas, NV) – Vanderbilt. The Bryce Drew era has gotten off to a rocky start in Nashville, with the Commodores getting blown out by Marquette before getting shocked at home by Bucknell earlier this week. Today they will face a Butler team that took care of that same Bucknell team by 26 points. Vanderbilt has struggled on the defensive end this season and will need to be much better if it is to have any chance of pulling off the upset. If the Commodores can get by the Bulldogs, a championship game match-up with Arizona likely awaits. While the early season has so far been a struggle for Drew’s club, this weekend offers a chance to get things going in the right direction.