College Basketball Weekly: Chaos for Rick Pitino & Feast Week arrives

Feast Week is here, marking college basketball’s busiest week of matchups of the entire non-conference slate.

Following every meaningful game is a fool’s errand for most. But below, we’ll recap every single result worth knowing about from this past week while looking ahead at the full Feast Week slate to come over the next seven days.

Let’s start with the noteworthy scores from the week behind us:

Notable Results

*Important results since last Monday (11/18)*

(AP Ranking)

(3) Gonzaga 80 @ SDSU 67
(6) Purdue 58 @ (15) Marquette 76
(25) Illinois 87 @ (8) Alabama 100
Virginia 42 @ (11) Tennessee 64
(13) Baylor 99 vs. (22) St. John’s 98
Miami 69 vs. Drake 80
Seton Hall 69 vs. VCU 68
Syracuse 66 vs. Texas 70
Vanderbilt 73 vs. Nevada 71
Texas Tech 77 vs. St. Joseph’s 78
(22) St. John’s 80 vs. Virginia 55
Nebraska 74 @ (14) Creighton 63
UCF 70 vs. Wisconsin 86
(12) Duke vs. (17) Arizona 55
(24) Rutgers 77 @ Kennesaw St. 79
(22) St. John’s 63 vs. Georgia 66

Rick Pitino’s stressful week

The 72-year-old icon ran a gamut of emotions in the Johnnies’ four games since last Sunday. Of course, a week ago, St. John’s handled New Mexico at home as a serenade of “Who’s Your Daddy” chants rained down on Richard Pitino, Rick’s son and head coach of the Lobos.

St. John’s competed in the Game of the Year so far Thursday evening, blowing one lead after another in an eventual 99-98 double overtime loss to Baylor in round one of the Baha Mar Championship. It was even more painful than it sounds, too. The Red Storm held an 18-point first-half lead and even led by five with seven seconds left in the second OT before Baylor sandwiched two 3-pointers around a pair of missed St. John’s free throws, with the second 3 coming at the buzzer to win, 99-98.

BEARS WIN IT AT THE BUZZER IN DOUBLE OVERTIME!#SicEm | #CultureofJOY pic.twitter.com/nZR4HN7wVd

— Baylor Men’s Basketball (@BaylorMBB) November 22, 2024

In the second game of the Baha Mar tournament, St. John’s found extra gas in the tank despite the 50-minute marathon the night before and came out to whoop Virginia, 80-55, to secure third place in the event. Following the Baha Mar, St. John’s stayed in the Bahamas to face Georgia on Sunday morning, who pulled off the neutral court upset, 66-63.

Speaking of the Dawgs…

SEC hits the ground running

Kentucky asserted itself as a contender early in Mark Pope’s first season with a neutral court victory over Duke, but the entire SEC started out spectacularly, particularly among the typical bottom-feeders.

Alabama rebounded from their Purdue loss in Mackey Arena to beat Illinois at home, although preseason All-American Mark Sears scored zero points in the win and is off to a bizarre start in ’25. Meanwhile, Tennessee has mowed down Louisville, Virginia and a tired Baylor squad in decisive fashion already.

Elsewhere, LSU just put together a solid showing at the Greenbrier Tip-Off, Georgia beat St. John’s to advance to 5-1, and Vanderbilt picked up wins over Oklahoma State and Seton Hall. Florida and the Mississippi schools are a combined 16-0 to add to the conference’s good headlines as well. Much like on the football field, this year’s SEC could be messy and competitive at the top.

Shaka Smart has another contender

Smart continues to reshape his image at Marquette, now boasting a squad that looks to make it three straight top-three seeds in the NCAA Tournament. Kam Jones is certainly an All-American contender and leads a veteran backcourt who’s arguably the best in the country. You’ve got a superstar leader in Jones, an ace defender and secondary ballhandler in Stevie Mitchell, a three-level scorer and elite athlete in Chase Ross, and there’s still another key backcourt piece yet to return from injury. This club is 6-0 with wins over Purdue, Maryland and Georgia already. Look out.

Feast Week begins!

First, we’ll recap the early Multi-Team Events (MTE) from this past week before looking ahead to the full slate of action to gorge on alongside Thanksgiving celebrations.

Greenbrier Tip-Off: Feast Week is as fun as it is weird. For instance, the Greenbrier Tip-Off took place in a ballroom at a pristine golf club in West Virginia that once hosted the Ryder Cup and is owned by West Virginia Governor and soon-to-be U.S. Senator Jim Justice, who was sitting courtside in a pink velvet throne alongside his tank-sized English Bulldog named Babydog.

Wisconsin won the favor of Babydog and Justice this year, defeating LSU and then an undefeated Pitt club to advance to 7-0. Look out, Big Ten, because the Badgers look as strong as any club in that league with wins over Arizona, UCF and Pitt already. Plus, they have one of the best scorers in the nation so far in transfer wing John Tonje. LSU, meanwhile, rebounded with a thrilling triple-overtime victory over UCF thanks to a pair of huge buckets from trampoline-footed freshman Vyctorious Miller which closed it out.

Charleston Classic: The revamped Drake Bulldogs took down Miami and FAU to advance to the title game, where they’ll face Vanderbilt late Sunday evening. Meanwhile, a touted Miami Hurricanes team looked much like they did early in the 2024 campaign and dropped all three games to Drake, Oklahoma State and VCU.

Full Feast Week Event List

Now, a look ahead at events to keep an eye on this week. The teams in each event are listed in order of who they’ll match up against first. Example: UConn and Memphis face off in the first game of the Maui Invite. Come back next week and we’ll rank the winner of every single MTE winner.

Maui Invitational (Mon-Wed): UConn, Memphis, Colorado, Michigan St, Auburn, Iowa St., Dayton, North Carolina

Fort Myers Tip-Off (Mon-Wed): Michigan, Virginia Tech, Xavier, South Carolina

Sunshine Slam (Mon-Tues): Clemson, San Francisco, Penn State, Fordham

Players Era Festival (Tues-Sat): SDSU, Creighton, Oregon, Texas A&M, Houston, Alabama, Rutgers, Notre Dame

Acrisure Holiday Invitational (Tues-Wed): SMU, Cal Baptist, Fresno State, Washington State.

Acrisure Invitational (Thurs-Fri): TCU, Santa Clara, Washington, Colorado State

Acrisure Classic (Thurs-Fri): USC, Saint Mary’s, New Mexico, Arizona State

Terry’s Chocolate Vegas Showdown (Tues): Kansas, Duke, Furman, Seattle

Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis: Louisville, Indiana, West Virginia, Gonzaga, Oklahoma, Providence, Arizona, Davidson

ESPN Events Invitational: Minnesota, Wichita State, Florida, Wake Forest

Rady Children’s Invitational: Purdue, NC State, BYU, Ole Miss

Thanksgiving Hoops Showcase: Arkansas vs. Illinois

Arizona Tip-Off (Cactus Division): Butler, Northwestern, UNLV, Mississippi State