2012 Legends Classic (College Basketball Tournament)
Venue: Barclays Center (Brooklyn, New York)
Teams: Georgetown, Indiana, UCLA, Georgia
Dates: November 19 & 20
The 2012 Legends Classic will start off the NCAA Basketball season with a bang. The four teams that have been selected to compete this year have a combined total of 117 NCAA Tournament trips. Representing the Pac-12 will be the UCLA Bruins, the Big Ten: Indana Hoosiers, SEC: Georgia Bulldogs, and the Georgetown Hoyas will represent the Big East.
The series will be broken down into four games on November 19th, then the championship and third-place matches on November 20th.
Georgetown - Has been in the top 20 teams in the last 14 weeks and is expected to return 11 players, 3 of which are starters - Holis Thompson, Market Starks, and Nate Lubick. Georgetown currently has 27 NCAA Tournament appearances with a National Championship win and under head coach John Thompson III the Hoyas have won 20+ games in six of the past seven seasons.
Indiana - After coming of a re-building stretch, head coach Tom Crean lead the Hoosiers to their first 20-win season in four years. With Five National Titles and 35 NCAA Tournament appearances losing is not what Indiana is used to. With four starters coming back for the 2012-13 season, three of which were the top scorers, Indiana should be looking at another productive year.
UCLA - Will be welcoming back 12 players, including 3 starters and adding top-ranked local recruit Kyle Anderson. The Bruins have a intimidating track record with 11 Titles, 18 Final Four Appearances, and 44 trips to the NCAA Tournament. In his nine years as head coach, Ben Howland has won 206 games and doesn't look to be slowing down this year.
Georgia - Is the youngest team in the Classic with 11 underclassmen filling the roster. In 2010 they made it to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008. The Bulldogs will look to freshman Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and sophmore Donte' Williams for leadership as well as head coach Mark Fox, who has only been at Georgia for three years but has six 20 win seasons in his last seven prior to becoming head coach for Georgia.