As Feast Week’s future may be in limbo, two of college hoops’ titans feel the sport remains in a great place

As college basketball’s annual feast week of multi-team events and marquee matchups is upon us, the state of the sport has once again come under fire.

The exponential growth of the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas, quadrupling in size from an eight-team soirée last November into an anticipated 32-team behemoth next season, has indelibly changed the complexion of Thanksgiving week tournaments as we know it, and not necessarily for the better. Longtime early-season strongholds such as the Maui Invitational, and even the Battle 4 Atlantis, have fallen victim to the high-roller lure of the Players Era, which offers guaranteed money to each team that participates, bankrolls that insulate the coffers of each program to aid name, image and likeness compensation. Older fans will remember the Great Alaska Shootout being perhaps the most notable November MTE once upon a time before its men’s tournament ceased operation in 2017 (the women’s edition continues on).

But while NIL and the transfer portal wreak havoc on the purity of the game every year, sometimes every day, those still on the front line soldier on, and do so with arguably the strongest fortification the sport has seen in recent memory.

St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino, no stranger to the evolution of college basketball through his half-century of experience, extolled the virtues of the game recently and heralded the talent within, most notably international players who come stateside because the financial compensation can be more lucrative than that from professional club teams.

“I am so impressed with college basketball, more so than I’ve ever been in my coaching career, in terms of execution and talent,” Pitino remarked. “The influx of foreign players not going to the pros — and I’m talking about Division I pro teams in Europe, because they get paid more money here — has made our game so much stronger. Other players staying in college has made the game so much stronger.”

St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino believes college basketball’s talent and infusion of international players has helped keep game strong amid changing landscape. (Photo by St. John’s Athletics)

Pitino praised Arizona, the current No. 2 team in the country, for the international presence on the Wildcats’ roster, but also for its ability to go into Gampel Pavilion last week and prevail in a daunting road environment against fellow Top 5 program UConn.

“You watched three Arizona players who were freshmen, but two of them were foreign players who played professional basketball, probably for three or four years,” he said. “They’re very experienced players. I think college basketball right now, from an execution and talent standpoint, is at its zenith. I don’t think it can get any better.”

Pitino and St. John’s will face similar competition throughout the non-conference season, with the Players Era festival preceded by a home game against Alabama. The Red Storm will also face Mississippi and Kentucky in December, the latter at a neutral site in Atlanta as part of the CBS Sports Classic. It is the quality of opponent, he posited, that boosts the standing of the game and its effect on the overall image of the sport.

“Connecticut had two players out and played awesome (against Arizona),” Pitino said. “We played a terrific game against Alabama, Alabama goes into Illinois and beats a team ranked ahead of them, Gonzaga’s been incredible. So college basketball is in great shape. I know everybody wants to knock NIL and the transfer portal, but I’m talking about what takes place between the lines of college basketball. It could not be better.”

One of the Hall of Fame coach’s most notable adversaries shares a similar sentiment about the state of the game, but does believe it can be marketed much more effectively to further promote its greatest strengths compared to the NBA or any of the four major professional sports.

“TNT and truTV, I love what they’re doing with college basketball,” UConn head coach Dan Hurley said, complimenting two of the Big East Conference’s newest network broadcast partners. “They’ve got legitimate studio shows, I think they’re doing a great job covering the sport. They’re talking to players postgame on the court and I love how they’re covering the game.”

Dan Hurley, shown here cutting net following UConn’s 2024 national championship, loves Game 7-feel of college basketball, but believes it could be better marketed. (Photo by Jaden Daly/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

“We’ve just gotta market it better,” he insisted. “It’s gotta get covered more, it’s gotta get covered better. Morning talk shows should be talking about, ‘who’s the current best team in the country?’ You can’t take 10 minutes, 15 minutes with these morning talk shows on FS1 or ESPN? You can’t take 10 minutes away from talking about the backup quarterback on the (Detroit) Lions? You don’t want to talk about college basketball and some of the great players in this amazing freshman class? Get excited about college basketball before March Madness. It’s like, the fucking best shit.”

Hurley came under criticism during the offseason for veering away from participating in MTEs, largely because it was assumed that decision was attributed to UConn losing all three of its games in last year’s Maui Invitational. But the fact of the matter is by doing so, he was able to improve the Huskies’ schedule going into league play. Matchups with BYU, Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Florida and Texas will broaden UConn’s resume, a critical piece of the puzzle come Selection Sunday, where the Big East’s non-league performance affected seeding last year and only saw three teams make the field of 68 the season prior.

The willingness to schedule true home-and-home matchups (UConn visits Arizona next season and hosts Kansas, and will wrap up a home-and-home with Texas in December) and neutral-site tilts in professional venues (UConn meets Illinois next year at the United Center in Chicago) is conducive to the elimination game atmosphere Hurley feels is a breeding ground for fans to fall in love with it.

“I think people love college basketball,” he heartily declared. “One, because every game is Game 7. I would just say with college basketball in the regular season, non-conference or regular season conference play, literally every game feels like Game 7. Every game feels like that because you’re playing to get in the NCAA Tournament, you’re playing for seeding in the NCAA Tournament literally every time you step on the court. Every game feels like it’s life or death, and people love sports that way.”

“Our Arizona game, our BYU game, games that are happening all across the country, all these big teams are playing against each other. If you’re a fan and you’re at TD (Garden) for that game, or you’re at Gampel — even though I’m a sore loser and it sucked losing — that was an awesome game to be at if you’re a sports fan. You just don’t get that anywhere but college basketball, because every game is like that with that urgency. And that’s how people love their sports.”