2020 paradise jam

[Blake]

Seems we are playing in the Paradise Jam next year. 6 of the 8 spots have been filled.

https://twitter.com/goodmanhoops/status/1202695544415621121

 

[Da Coach]

Seems we are playing in the Paradise Jam next year. 6 of the 8 spots have been filled.

https://twitter.com/goodmanhoops/sta...95544415621121

Thanks for finding and posting that. We posted about Bradley tentatively in the 2020 Paradise Jam, but at that time there were only 2 teams known-
https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/s...tournament-nov-25-27-2019?p=489422#post489422

The 2019 field included these 8 teams: Illinois State and Valparaiso, along with Fordham, Nevada, Grand Canyon, Cincinnati, Bowling Green, and Western Kentucky.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...acket_day3.pdf

The 6 teams named so far for the 2020 Paradise Jam- Colorado State (Mountain West), St. Bonaventure (Atlantic-10), Bradley (MVC), Long Beach State (Big West), Florida International (CUSA), and Weber State (Big Sky), do not include any teams from the Power 6 conferences. There are still 2 spots open, but I am not expecting they will add Power Conference teams. The big conferences are increasing the number of their conference games and cutting back the number of non-conference games, and fewer of them are playing in these early season tournaments to avoid the chances of an at-large killing loss to one of the midmajors.

But it will be nice to take a trip to the Virgin Islands and see 3 Bradley games against decent opponents!

 

[Da Coach]

Bradley releases official info about 2020 Paradise Jam.
https://bradleybraves.com/news/2020/...adise-jam.aspx

In addition to the teams we posted above, Cleveland State and Buffalo are among the 8 teams.

The 8 teams participating in the 2020 Paradise Jam in St. Thomas-
Bradley
Buffalo
Cleveland State
Colorado State
Florida International
Long Beach State
St. Bonaventure
Weber State

The tournament begins with games played Friday, November 20, and continues with games Saturday, November 21 and Sunday, November 22. The championship game will be Monday, November 23.
Actual game times, matchups, and bracket for the 2020 U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam will be announced in the spring, following the conclusion of the 2019-20 basketball season.
2020 U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam website-
www.paradisejam.com.

 

[Da Coach]

Bradley is all set for the 2020 Paradise Jam, but looking ahead, this might be a nice early-season tournament to try to get an invite to for 2021-
The Inaugural 2021 Dubai Basketball Classic, an 8-team event to be held Nov. 25-27, 2021 in Dubai, UAE.

 

[LittleBrave]

Wow - these are some solid teams here! At least half of them anyhow.

Buffalo
Col St
Bonnies
LB St (I think!)

and Weber St seems to make the NCAA tournament more often than not out of their conference.

 

[Mikovio]

Looks like Colorado State dropped out of the Paradise Jam to play in a Vegas event.

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/sta...973898246?s=20

Will be tough to get a decent replacement this late but there are a few decent uncommitted teams out there:

https://www.bloggingthebracket.com/...rnaments-mte-thanksgiving-holiday-tournaments

ACC (3/15): Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest

American Athletic (3/11): East Carolina, SMU, Tulane

Big Ten (3/14): Iowa, Maryland, Rutgers

MW (4/11): Air Force, Fresno State, San Jose State, Wyoming

Pac-12 (1/12): Washington

SEC (2/14): Georgia, Kentucky

WCC (4/10): Loyola Marymount, Pacific, Pepperdine, San Diego

 

[64NIT]

They will probably want another mid-major as the original line-up had four mid-majors before Colorado State dropped out.

 

[Mikovio]

Agree, it'll likely be another Mountain West team.

 

[Da Coach]

Looks like Colorado State dropped out of the Paradise Jam to play in a Vegas event....
https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/sta...973898246?s=20

Sources: Little Rock will replace Colorado State in the 2020 Paradise Jam. Rest of field: Bradley Buffalo Cleveland State FIU Long Beach State St. Bonaventure Weber State

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/sta...32446878740483

Instead of posting an updated press release, The Paradise Jam organizers (Basketball Travelers, Inc.) just altered their January 30 web page announcement about their 8-team field. It originally listed Colorado State as one of the 8 teams in the 2020 Paradise Jam tournament, along with Bradley, Buffalo (MAC), Cleveland State (Horizon), FIU (CUSA), Long Beach State (Big West), St. Bonaventure (A-10), and Weber State (Big Sky).
But now they have removed the reference to Colorado State and replaced it with Little Rock, thus confirming that Little Rock will be the replacement for Colorado State in the 2020 Paradise Jam.
https://basketballtravelers.com/news...announced.aspx

Little Rock had a pretty good season in 2019-20- they were 21-10 overall. They went 15-5 and won the Sun Belt Conference regular season, but their conference tournament was cancelled. Their 2019-20 RPI was 94, one of the better RPIs of the teams in the Paradise Jam.
https://lrtrojans.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule

Little Rock should be pretty good next season. They had only 2 seniors on this past season's roster and they both redshirted, so they they appear to be returning everyone for next season. They are coached by former Chicago prep star Darrell Walker, who played 10 seasons in the NBA.

Here are the final 2019-20 RPIs and NET rankings for the 8 teams in the 2020 Paradise Jam field-
RPI
Bradley 87
St. Bonaventure 88
Little Rock 94
Buffalo 112
FIU 164
Weber State 266
Cleveland State 283
Long Beach State 285

NET
Bradley 102
St. Bonaventure 122
Little Rock 140
Buffalo 146
FIU 170
Weber State 273
Cleveland State 304
Long Beach State 306

 

[Tommy]

RPI
Bradley 87
St. Bonaventure 88
Little Rock 94
Buffalo 112
FIU 164
Weber State 266
Cleveland State 283
Long Beach State 285

NET
Bradley 102
St. Bonaventure 122
Little Rock 140
Buffalo 146
FIU 170
Weber State 273
Cleveland State 304
Long Beach State 306

Thanks for creating the NET ranking system, NCAA. It's really a big improvement.

 

[Da Coach]

Yes, the NET seems to universally rank mid-majors significantly lower than the old RPI formula, which of course is exactly what the NCAA and the Power 6 guys wanted.