Kansas basketball is set to compete against quality competition in the Wooden Legacy tournament next season during the week of Thanksgiving.
After winning the Maui Invitational last season, Kansas basketball will look to win the Wooden Legacy. The tournament will feature four teams with rich basketball heritage including Kansas, UCLA, Georgetown, and Virginia. While the specific dates haven’t been set yet, the tournament will be during a two-day period sometime during Thanksgiving week per ESPN.
The Wooden Legacy will be played in the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, with tickets already on sale.
Overall, the field is looking pretty strong next season based on way-too-early rankings. Virginia has the highest ranking according to NBC Sports at No. 4 with Kansas hot on their heels at No. 6. UCLA also cracked the top 25, coming in at No. 23.
The bracket for the tournament has yet to be released; however, it’s probably safe to assume that Kansas and Virginia won’t be put on the same side, at least for now. That means that the Jayhawks will likely face either UCLA or Georgetown to start, with the former being more likely since they’re rated higher as of now.
The Kansas Jayhawks regularly rank in the top 20 in terms of strength of schedule, and next season probably won’t be any different.
Kansas already has a gritty non-conference schedule next season featuring Kentucky in addition to Big East powerhouse Creighton. For Kansas basketball, this tournament offers the Jayhawks another great chance to grab some resume-building wins fairly early in the season which could be a huge factor in the NCAA Tournament seeding later in the season.
Obviously there’s quite a bit of time between now and the next college basketball season. Given the severity of COVID-19, changes could be made to the tournament, so it’s best to keep an eye on how things develop in California to see how likely it is that the tournament is played.