CHICAGO -- It started five years ago as a chance for eight of the top college basketball programs to show off in a few games at the United Center. The idea was to invite the final eight teams from the previous year's NCAA tournament for a two-day event and call it the Great Eight.
The concept has worked well for five years, and for the second straight year, the Utah basketball team will be part of the Great Eight tournament. The Utes play Rhode Island Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. MST (ESPN-TV) before the Duke-Michigan State game. Tuesday night, top-ranked Connecticut meets unbeaten Washington, followed by Kentucky vs. Kansas.You might notice that some of the Elite Eight teams from last March are missing this week. Final Four teams Stanford and North Carolina aren't playing and neither is Arizona, which was knocked out by Utah in the round of eight. Those teams apparently had other commitments this week or preferred not to come, so their spots have been taken by Washington, Kansas and Michigan State, which were knocked out in the Round of 16 a year ago.
However, there isn't much to complain about with this year's Great Eight field, which is still a Who's Who of college basketball for this season.
Five of the eight participants are ranked in the Top Ten, while Washington is No. 15 and Utah No. 21. Only Rhode Island, the Utes' opponent, is unranked.
You really can't call the Great Eight a tournament, however. The winners and losers don't play, although think about what a great tournament this would be with seven ranked teams going at it. In some ways it's like an NCAA regional, with several outstanding teams playing at a neutral location. Only in this one, you can lose and still keep playing.
GREAT EIGHT NOTES: Utah's players and coaches flew out Monday night and were to practice Tuesday afternoon at the Chicago Bulls training facility . . . Utah's Andre Miller is a preseason all-American guard, and he'll be joined by several of the nation's other top guards. Michigan State's Mateen Cleaves is a consensus preseason all-American, and other top guards include Kentucky's Wayne Turner, Duke's William Avery and Connecticut's Khalid El-Amin . . . The Connecticut-Washington game will be a rematch of last year's NCAA tournament game, won by the Huskies on a shot by Richard Hamilton at the buzzer . . . Kansas and Kentucky, two of the nation's all-time best basketball programs, will play for the first time since 1990.