America East Basketball: Teams Playing In-Season Tournaments

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In five months, the college basketball season will be in full swing. Teams in the America East Conference are busy putting the final touches on their schedules for the 2023-24 season. For most teams, that includes in-season tournaments that take place during the holidays. The league will have programs spending a portion of the holidays playing roundball somewhere. These events are a good test for teams trying to identify what kind of team they possess with league play right around the corner. With that, let’s take a look at where some America East teams are heading for the holidays.

The defending regular season and tournament champions the Vermont Catamounts will spend November 16-19 in Conway, SC playing in the Myrtle Beach Invitational. This eight-team event is hosted by Charleston out of the CAA. This is a solid mid-major tournament that will also feature Coastal Carolina from the Sun Belt, Furman from the SoCon Conference, Liberty out of C-USA, Saint Louis from the A-10, Wichita State of the American Athletic Conference, and Wyoming from the Mountain West Conference. Each team will get three games in this event.

The team that challenged Vermont all last season, and met them for the conference tournament championship, the UMass Lowell River Hawks will spend Thanksgiving north of the border playing in the Northern Classic. The eight-team event is scheduled for November 24-26 in Laval, Quebec. This will be the first time that UMass Lowell will play hoops in Canada as a division one member. Joining them in Laval will be Bowling Green from the MAC, Canisius from the MAAC, Dartmouth from the IVY, Lipscomb from the ASUN, UNC Asheville Big South, Western Kentucky C-USA, and Wofford from the SoCon. This field will present the River Hawks with a good early season test.

The Maine Black Bears will head to Jacksonville on November 16-18 to play in the North Florida tournament. This is a four-team tournament that will have Northwestern State from the Southland Conference and Presbyterian from the Big South Conference. To go along with the Black Bears and North Florida. This is a tournament that may not present any star power in terms of teams playing in it. Still, it is a tourney that the Black Bears could do some damage in.

The University of Maryland-Baltimore County will be hosting its own event on November 17-19 in Catonsville, MD for the second year. As of this writing, there are only three teams that have signed on to play in the tournament. Loyola, MD. from the Patriot League and Sacred Heart of the Northeast Conference. They will join UMBC in the field. There is one team that will be added at a later date.

The Albany Great Danes will play in a tournament called the Northeastern Triangular event in November. The exact dates for this are still being worked out at this time. This is a three-team field with each team getting the chance to host one game. The Great Danes will be joined by Army from the Patriot League and Quinnipiac from the MAAC. Each team should get two games under their belts.

The Bryant College Bulldogs are tentatively set to play in the Continental Tire Main Event In Las Vegas on November 17 and 19. This is scheduled as a six-team event. As of now Saint Mary’s from the West Coast Conference, San Diego from the Mountain West, Washington from the Pac-12, and Xavier out of the Big East are in with the Bulldogs. One more team needs to be found to round out the field. This event is still a work in progress, so no one really knows who’s playing and who’s not. So stay tuned on this one. The four teams mentioned are to be the host schools for this tournament with Bryant being a visitor to one of these teams.

There are still three America East schools in Binghamton, NJIT, and UNH that have yet to find a tournament for the holidays. There is still time for them to find one or maybe host their own.