Chaos for Rick Pitino & Feast Week Arrives

On By Littum

The week of festivities is here, marking college basketball’s busiest week with matchups of the entire non-conference.

Following any meaningful game is a fool’s errand for most. But below we’ll recap every single result worth knowing from the past week as we look ahead to the full festive week schedule to come over the next seven days.

Let’s start with the notable results from the week behind us:

Remarkable results

*Important results since last Monday (18/11)*

(AP Rank)

(3) Gonzaga 80 @ SDSU 67
(6) Purdue 58 @ (15) Marquette 76
(25) Illinois 87 @ (8) Alabama 100
Virginia 42 @ (11) Tennessee 64
(13) Baylor 99 vs. (22) St. John’s 98
Miami 69 vs. Drake 80
Seton Hall 69 vs. VCU 68
Syracuse 66 vs. Texas 70
Vanderbilt 73 vs. Nevada 71
Texas Tech 77 vs. St. Joseph’s 78
(22) St. John’s 80th against Virginia 55
Nebraska 74 @ (14) Creighton 63
UCF 70 vs. Wisconsin 86
(12) Duke vs. (17) Arizona 55
(24) Rutgers 77 @ Kennesaw St. 79
(22) St. John’s 63 vs. Georgia 66
(19) Wisconsin 81 vs. Pittsburgh 75
Drake 81 vs. Vanderbilt 70

The 72-year-old icon ran with a range of emotions in the Johnnies’ four games since last Sunday. Of course, handled St. John’s a week ago in New Mexico at home as a serenade of the “Who’s Your Daddy” song rained down on Richard PitinoRick’s son and head coach of the Lobos.

St. John’s competed in the Game of the Year so far Thursday night, blowing one lead after another in an eventual 99-98 double overtime loss to Baylor in the first round of the Baha Mar Championship. It was also even more painful than it sounds. The Red Storm held an 18-point lead in the first half and even led by five with seven seconds left in the second OT before Baylor made two 3-pointers around a pair of missed St. John’s free throw, where the second 3 came at the buzzer to win, 99-98.

In the second game of the Baha Mar tournament, St. John’s added gas in the tank despite the 50-minute marathon the night before and edged out Virginia, 80-55, to secure third place in the event. After Baha Mar, St. John’s in the Bahamas to face Georgia on Sunday morning, which took the neutral court 66-63.

Speaking of Dawgs…

The SEC hits the ground running

Kentucky asserted itself as a contender early Mark Pope’s first season with a neutral court win over Duke, but the entire SEC started spectacularly, especially among the typical bottom-feeders.

Alabama bounced back from their Purdue loss in Mackey Arena to beat Illinois at home, though the preseason All-American Mark Sears scored zero points in the win and is off to a bizarre start in ’25. Meanwhile, Tennessee has already mowed down Louisville, Virginia and a tired Baylor team in decisive fashion.

Elsewhere, LSU just put on a solid showing at the Greenbrier Tip-Off, Georgia beat St. John’s to move to 5-1, and Vanderbilt picked up wins over Oklahoma State and Seton Hall. The Florida and Mississippi schools are a combined 16-0 to add to the conference’s good headlines as well. Just like on the football field, this year’s SEC could be messy and competitive at the top.

Smart continues to reshape his image at Marquette and now boasts a team that looks to make it three straight top-three seeds in the NCAA Tournament. Cam Jones is surely an All-American candidate and leads a veteran backcourt that is arguably the best in the country. You have a superstar leader in Jones, an ace defenseman and secondary ball handler Stevie Mitchella scorer at three levels and elite athlete i Chase Rossand there is still another key backcourt piece yet to return from injury. This club is 6-0 with wins over Purdue, Maryland and Georgia already. Take care.

The festival week begins!

First, we’ll recap the early Multi-Team Events (MTE) from the past week, before looking ahead to the full slate of action to throw in alongside the Thanksgiving celebrations.

Greenbrier tip-off: The festival week is as fun as it is weird. For example, the Greenbrier Tip-Off took place in a ballroom at a pristine West Virginia golf club that once hosted the Ryder Cup and is owned by West Virginia Governor and soon-to-be U.S. Senator Jim Justice, who sat courtside in a pink velvet throne at side of his tank-sized English bulldog named Babydog.

Wisconsin won Babydog and Justice’s favor this year, defeating LSU and then an undefeated Pitt club to move to 7-0. Watch out, Big Ten, because the Badgers look as strong as any club in that league with wins over Arizona, UCF and Pitt already. Plus, they have one of the best scorers in the nation so far in the transfer wing John Tonje. LSU, meanwhile, rebounded with a thrilling triple-overtime win over UCF thanks to a pair of huge buckets from the trampoline-footed freshman Sejherre Møller which shut it out.

Charleston Classic: The revamped Drake Bulldogs took down Miami and FAU to advance to the title game where they will face Vanderbilt late Sunday night. Meanwhile, a popular Miami Hurricanes team looked much like they did early in the 2024 campaign, dropping all three games to Drake, Oklahoma State and VCU.

The entire festival week’s event list

Now, a look ahead at events to watch out for this week. The teams in each event are listed in order of who they will match first. Case in point: UConn and Memphis meet in the first game of the Maui Invitational. Come back next week and we’ll rank the winner of each MTE winner.

Maui Invitational (Mon-Wed): UConn, Memphis, Colorado, Michigan St., Auburn, Iowa St., Dayton, North Carolina

Fort Myers tip-off (Mon-Wed): Michigan, Virginia Tech, Xavier, South Carolina

Sunshine Slam (Mon-Tues): Clemson, San Francisco, Penn State, Fordham

Players Era Festival (Tues-Sat): SDSU, Creighton, Oregon, Texas A&M, Houston, Alabama, Rutgers, Notre Dame

Acrisure Holiday Invitational (Tues-Wed): SMU, Cal Baptist, Fresno State, Washington State.

Acrisure Invitational (Thurs-Fri): TCU, Santa Clara, Washington, Colorado State

Acrisure Classic (Thurs-Fri): USC, Saint Mary’s, New Mexico, Arizona State

Terry’s Chocolate Vegas Showdown (Tues): Kansas, Duke, Furman, Seattle

Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis (Wed-Fri): Louisville, Indiana, West Virginia, Gonzaga, Oklahoma, Providence, Arizona, Davidson

ESPN Events Invitational (Thurs-Fri): Minnesota, Wichita State, Florida, Wake Forest

Rady Children’s Invitational (Thurs-Fri): Purdue, NC State, BYU, Ole Miss

Thanksgiving Hoops Showcase (Thurs): Arkansas vs. Illinois

Arizona tip-off (Thurs-Fri): Butler, Northwestern, UNLV, Mississippi State