The Wisconsin Badgers prepare for the Greenbrier Tip-Off, which features four undefeated teams

MADISON, Wis. – The official name of the preseason tournament is the Greenbrier Tip-Off, an inaugural event contested in the scenic resort town of White Sulfur Springs, WV. It might as well be called the “transfer portal invitation”.

All four teams—Wisconsin, LSU, Pittsburgh and UCF—are led in scoring by a transfer player, a quartet of players whose programs are ranked first in their respective conferences.

“I’m excited to go in there,” the graduate transfer said John Tonjeleading no. 19 in Wisconsin (5-0) with 22.6 points per match. “Hopefully we can try the red shirts and get into the flow of an away game, just see how we can bring our own energy, build a routine coming out of a hotel and make sure we can travel with our basketball brand.”

The Badgers play the other semifinal on Friday against UCF (4 p.m./CBS Sports Network) at Colonial Hall inside the Greenbrier Report. Pittsburgh and LSU play in the first semifinal. Third place and the finals are on Sunday.

Wisconsin tries to play a multi-team event (MTE) every season and has done so annually since 2005 (minus the 2020-21 COVID year). It’s a chance to take a team outside the comforts of home, test them against quality competition and compete in a tournament with a short turnaround between games.

Competing in events in hot spots like the Bahamas, Las Vegas, Hawaii, the US Virgin Islands and in Ft. Myers, Fla., last year, and usually against fields with at least one team ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 in the preseason, the four-team field wasn’t much celebrated when it was announced or when preseason predictions came in. Only Pittsburgh (seventh) was predicted to finish in the top half of its league, while UCF (11), Wisconsin (12) and LSU (14) were considered afterthoughts.

They enter the weekend 18-0 overall, with each school owning one win over a Power-Four conference team.

Alongside the Badgers’ win over No. 9 in Arizona, the Golden Knights had the biggest nonconference win when they beat No. 13 Texas A&M on college basketball’s opening night.

Like many schools, UCF (4-0) had a roster shakeup with four players entering the portal and bringing in six new ones, including guards Jordan Ivy-Curry (17.8 ppg) and Keyshawn Hall (17.5 ppg) . One player who didn’t leave was guard Darius Johnson, who is shooting 50 percent from the field and averaging 14.5 points.

Pittsburgh (5-0) lost leading scorer Blake Hinson, freshman guard Bub Carrington and starting center Federiko Federiko to the NBA Draft and transfer portal from a team that narrowly missed the NCAA Tournament. The starting pitching of returning transfer starter Ishmael Leggett (17.6) and new additions Damian Dunn (15.2) and Jaland Lowe (13.6) has paced the Panthers as the trio combined to average 46.4 points per game. game at 51.0 percent (80-157). Lowe recorded a triple-double in Monday’s win over VMI.

Drafted third last in the SEC, the Tigers lost four players to graduation, two to the transfer portal and one to the NBA draft, but reloaded with three impressive pickups from the portal.

Senior Cam Carter started 70 games the past two seasons with Kansas State and scored 20 points against his former team in an 11-point victory. He leads the team in scoring (17.8) and has paired well with graduate guard Jordan Sears, a first-team All-Ohio Valley pick in 2023 and 2024 at Tennessee-Martin was the only active Division I player last season to record at least 650 points, 140 rebounds, 140 assists and 75 three-pointers.

Wisconsin is 7-1 in the last three seasons in the MTEs and won the 2021 Maui Invitational, the 2023 Ft. Myer’s tip-off. The Badgers finished third in the 2022 Battle 4 Atlantis after losing in an overtime tip-in to No.3 Kansas at the buzzer.

“I think it’s a pretty good team bonding experience,” senior Max Klesmit said of the Thanksgiving tournaments. “You learn a lot about each other early on. I look at it as a tournament mindset, going into a neutral venue where fans will travel from wherever their college is from. I think it’s a good early test to see how it’s going to be on a neutral floor. There is no real home field advantage. Everyone has to bring their own energy, whether it’s on the bench or the five guys on the floor. You learn more about each other and who really loves to play basketball.”