Turkey and Hoops

The Maui Invitational tips off today in ... Maui. Here are the first-round matchups:

St. Joe's vs. No. 7 Texas
Indiana vs. No. 8 Notre Dame
Chaminade vs. No. 1 North Carolina
Oregon vs. Alabama

Here's how the bracket looks.

There's a good chance we'll see Notre Dame-Texas on Tuesday and North Carolina-Notre Dame/Texas on Wednesday. Those four hours of hoops will be enjoyable to say the least. It could determine how seriously we take Notre Dame and/or Texas early in the season.

Another big tourney tips off today, too
The CBE Classic in KC kicks back into action tonight with two semifinal matchups: No. 18 Florida-Syracuse and Washington-No. 24 Kansas. I don't think it's too crazy to say at least three of those teams are probably Tournament teams. The question is, like we asked above, how serious are thes guys?

Elsewhere
-- No. 2 UConn took care of business against No. 17 Miami, 76-63. I was right about Jack McClinton -- he had 27 points and five boards -- but the Huskies never trailed and led by as many as 15.

-- Little Rhody had another nice performance Sunday, topping VCU, a major CAA contender and probable bubble team, in the battle of the Rams.

-- Xavier beat No. 13 Memphis, 63-58. Xavier has wins against Missouri, Virginia Tech and Memphis now. Not a bad way to start building that resume.

-- Missouri beat No. 19 USC, 83-72. That's two tough losses for USC early in the season. Luckily for USC, it looks like the Trojans still might be at least the second or third best team in the Pac-10.

-- The Big East is good. Even its cellar-dwellers get results.