The Acrisure Invitational, a new multi-day college basketball tournament will be headlined on Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 2023, with a nationally-televised game featuring Michigan State and Arizona. The headline game, the Acrisure Classic, will air live on FOX following the Detroit Lions game against the Green Bay Packers.
The Acrisure Classic, the final round of the Acrisure Invitational, will be played at Acrisure Arena in Greater Palm Springs, Calif. The Spartans and the Wildcats will tip off at 1:30 p.m. PST (4:30 p.m. EST) on Thanksgiving Day. The tournament is sponsored by Acrisure, the global fintech leader.
Arizona is led by head coach Tommy Lloyd, who boasts an NCAA record 61 wins over his first two years in Tucson and back-to-back Pac-12 Tournament titles. The up-tempo style of play that Lloyd brought to the desert has seen Arizona lead the country in assists over the last two years while scoring 83 points per game. The Wildcats will return one of the top big men in the country in first team All Pac-12 center Oumar Ballo, who averaged 14.2 points and 8.6 rebounds while shooting 64.7% from the field last season, the eighth-best percentage in all of college basketball. Also back is Pelle Larsson, a do-it-all wing who averaged 9.9 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists while shooting 83.5% at the free throw line on more than 130 attempts. Rising sophomore point guard Kylan Boswell will lead the backcourt after garnering Pac-12 All-Freshman team honors in his debut season.
Michigan State finished the 2022-23 season with a 21-13 overall record, including an 11-8 mark in the Big Ten Conference, and was selected to play in the NCAA Tournament for the 25th-straight season, the second-longest active streak in Division I men’s basketball. The Spartans won a pair of games in the NCAA Tournament and reached the Sweet 16 for the 15th time under Head Coach Tom Izzo. The Spartans return guard Tyson Walker, an All-Big Ten Second Team selection, fifth year forward Malik Hall and several key letterwinners as well as welcoming one of the nation’s top recruiting classes.
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