April 12, 2012
Tournament website | More information on ESPN events
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech will be among six 2012 post-season teams over Thanksgiving weekend when it competes in the 2012 Anaheim Classic. The eight-team event will be held November 22, 23 and 25 at the Anaheim (Calif.) Convention Center, adjacent to Disneyland.
The tournament field features six teams that competed in the 2012 postseason – California (24-10), Saint Mary’s (27-6) and Xavier (23-13), who each played in the NCAA Tournament; Drexel (29-7), who played in the NIT; and Drake (18-16) and Rice (19-16), both of whom played in the CollegeInsider.com tournament – as well as Georgia Tech (11-20) and Pacific (11-19).
Tech has played in a number of big early season events in recent years, including the 2003 Pre-Season NIT (champions), the 2006 Maui Invitational (runner-up), the 2007 Paradise Jam, the 2010 Puerto Rico Classic, the 2010 Legends Classic (runner-up) and the 2011 Charleston Classic.
Tech has also ventured to the West Coast a number of times, most recently December of 2008 for regular season games against Pepperdine and Southern California. Before that, Tech made three different trips to California during the 2000-01 season, playing in the Wooden Classic (a win over UCLA), the Stanford Invitational and a first-round game in the NCAA West Regional (loss to Saint Joseph’s). Other California tournaments in which Tech has competed include the 1966 and 1969 Bruin Classics in Los Angeles, the 1983 Casaba Club Classic in Stockton and the 1995 Cable Car Classic in San Jose.
“We’re excited to be going out to Anaheim,” said head coach Brian Gregory. “This event gives us a great opportunity to evaluate ourselves as a team against a talented field early in the season. With only two seniors on our roster, it’s important to have these early season challenges not only as a barometer, but as a learning tool for future games.”
Tech has a prior history with only three of the other teams in the Anaheim Classic – Rice (9-5, last meeting in 1973), California (0-2, last meeting in 1950) and Xavier (0-2, last meeting in 1956).
Gregory has all five starters, plus three other letterwinners, returning from last year’s team, led by 6-2 senior guard Mfon Udofia, 6-11 junior center Daniel Miller and 6-8 junior forward Kammeon Holsey, and will have five newcomers on next year’s roster.
Tech’s entire 2012-13 schedule will be announced in August.
Tournament field • No. 10 seed Xavier played through to a South Region Semifinal before dropping a decision to Charleston Classic participant Baylor (No. 3 seed). Head coach Chris Mack has led Xavier to three straight NCAA Championship appearances and two Sweet Sixteen finishes. • St. Mary’s was a No. 7 seed in the Midwest Region and fell to Purdue in the second round. Head coach Randy Bennett had led the Gaels to five straight 25-win seasons • As a No. 12 seed, Cal participated in a First Four game of the NCAA Championship, falling to USF. Head coach Mike Montgomery has led Cal to the postseason in each of his four seasons in Berkeley including three NCAA appearances. • Drexel moved on to the quarterfinals of the NIT, falling to UMass, which will play in the 2012 Puerto Rico Tip-Off. Drexel won the Colonial Athletic Association regular-season title and advanced to the finals of the tournament. • Drake and Rice faced-off in the second round of the CollegeInsiders.com Tournament with Rice advancing and eventually falling to Oakland in the quarterfinals • In the final ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, Xavier was ranked No. 24 and Saint Mary’s earned votes
Tournament information
The 2012 Anaheim Classic will feature 12 games through three days. Each team will compete in one game per day, advancing through a bracket-tournament format. The two teams that remain undefeated will face off in a championship game Sunday, Nov. 25. The Big West will again serve as the event’s sponsoring conference.
The Anaheim Classic is owned and operated by ESPN Regional Television (ERT), a subsidiary of ESPN.
The inaugural event was played in 2007, with USC capturing the title. In year’s following, Wake Forest (2008), West Virginia (2009), UNLV (2010) and Saint Louis (2011) were all tournament winners.
Travel information Fans can purchase official hotel accommodations and game tickets by clicking the links above or by calling 888-632-6951. Additional information can be found on the Anaheim Classic website, also found above.
ESPN Regional Television/Event Ownership
The nation’s largest syndicator of collegiate sports programming, ESPN Regional Television (ERT) annually produces more than 1,200 sporting events. Content includes action from NCAA football, basketball and Olympic sports, NHRA and professional and amateur golf, accounting for more than 3,400 live and/or original hours of programming. ERT’s owned and operated events reach over a million fans a year and provides more than 200 additional hours of programming.
In addition to event ownership, ERT is the production headquarters for ESPNU; syndication rights-holder and producer of national, regional and local shows for college conferences (SEC, BIG EAST, Big 12, Mid-American, WAC) and manages the Big 12 Corporate Partner Program.
