Four SEC teams are scheduled to take part in a college basketball quadruple-header in December at State Farm Arena, an event of the sort that Atlanta has not experienced in more than a decade.
The four games will be Clemson-Alabama, Mississippi State-Dayton, LSU-South Florida and Auburn-Memphis, split into two sessions Dec. 12. The games were announced Thursday as part of Holiday Hoopsgiving, which in recent years has become a nationally recognized high-school basketball event played in Atlanta. This is the first time that event director Chris Williams has added college games.
The Hoopsgiving event also includes Tech’s previously announced game at State Farm against Kentucky, which will be played Nov. 27 (the day after Thanksgiving).
“We wanted to bring in a college basketball event to the city because I feel like the city desires it,” Williams said.
Williams, also the coach of the powerhouse Game Elite AAU team, compared the showcase event with the Chick-fil-A Kickoff games that have become a fixture of the college football calendar under the watch of Peach Bowl CEO Gary Stokan.
Williams sees it as an opportunity to “show the country it’s not just a football state, but (also) a basketball state, especially with all the big-name kids coming out of here.”
The basketball season is fraught with uncertainty, given the uncertainty of the return of sports in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. But, Williams said, coaches of the teams involved have expressed their commitment to the event and want to return in years to come. The games will be broadcast by ESPN, Williams said.
It’s an intriguing set of teams. Had the NCAA tournament not been canceled in March, at least four of the 10 teams (Auburn, Dayton, Kentucky and LSU) would have had spots. Two more (Mississippi State and Memphis) had outside shots.
The collection of participants, particularly Kentucky, lends immediate credibility to the event and attests to Williams’ connections through his AAU team. The Wildcats are scheduled to play Tech for a second consecutive season after the Yellow Jackets lost at Rupp Arena in December. At past SEC tournaments held at the Georgia Dome, Kentucky fans showed up en masse to “Catlanta.”
Auburn, which has a large fan base in Atlanta, has effectively recruited metro Atlanta under coach Bruce Pearl. Williams said that Pastner has told him that “if he could get a great game in State Farm, he wants to play in it every year.”
“We have so many great fans and alumni in Atlanta, and I’m challenging them to sell the place out,” Pearl said in a statement.
Dayton finished the season in the top five. Memphis coach Penny Hardaway signed the country’s top recruiting class of 2019.
The event recalls the Cotton States Classic, a four-team event that was played at the old Omni starting in 1980. It later changed names, notably the Kuppenheimer Classic. Tech and Georgia were regular participants. The last event in that vein was in December 2004.
Williams will continue to hold the high-school basketball showcase event and has added a “Push Play Teen Summit” to bring attention to career opportunities in sports and technology in esports.
Tickets have yet to be put on sale.
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