NCAA
Alabama to Join Eight-Team Field in 2022 Phil Knight Invitational
Alabama basketball has the No. 1 strength of schedule this season in all of college basketball thanks in large part to the tough slate of non-conference opponents. Head coach Nate Oats is not afraid to see what his team is made of early on, and it doesn't appear that the Crimson Tide is going to get any less aggressive in its scheduling in 2022.
ESPN Events announced that Alabama will be a part of the 2022 Phil Knight Invitational in Portland, Oregon. The Crimson Tide are one of eight elite teams participating in the tournament over Thanksgiving week this upcoming fall. The tournament is set up to honor the 85th birthday of Nike founder Phil Knight.
Along with Alabama, the other teams include Connecticut, Iowa State, Michigan State, North Carolina, Oregon, Portland and Villanova. This is the first year the event will feature eight teams, and the games will be played in three different sites around the city— Chiles Center at the University of Portland, the Rose Quarter’s Moda Center home of the Portland Trailblazers and Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Alabama will play Michigan State in the opening round of the tournament on Nov. 24 at 9:30 p.m. on ESPN. Oats spent a decade as a high school coach in the state of Michigan and often talks about what he learned from Michigan State coach Tom Izzo while he was in the area.
The Crimson Tide is one of four teams currently ranked in this year's top-25 along with UConn, Michigan State and Villinova. Alabama is no stranger to playing in big time Thanksgiving week tournament recently playing in the ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando, Maui Invitational, Bad Boy Motors Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas and tournaments in New York City and Las Vegas.
Alabama is also supposed to play the back halves of home-and-homes with Memphis and Houston next season along with a neutral site game against Gonzaga in Birmingham.
