Las Vegas – Syracuse will play Iowa State Wednesday at 1 p.m. Eastern Time in its final game of the Players Era Festival. The game will be televised by TNT.
Tournament organizers sent out an email at about 9:30 Pacific Time (12:30 a.m. ET) detailing the Wednesday and Thursday games.
Nobody except tournament organizers is exactly sure how that matchup was devised. The games were set before the San Diego State and Oregon game finished.
Whatever the rationale, it was interesting news for the Orange, who will play early Wednesday and then head home to Syracuse instead of waiting a day to play on Thanksgiving.
On the other hand, SU will play three very good teams here. And oddly, organizers did not abide by their own seeding criteria and waited until 12 hours before tip time to tell SU and Iowa State they would be playing the first game on Wednesday morning.
SU, 0-2 in the PEF, will face an Iowa State team that nearly played itself into the final four here.
The Cyclones are essentially the fifth-place team. They are 2-0 in Las Vegas, having beaten St. John’s by a point and crushed Creighton by 18. Iowa State, 6-0, is ranked 15th in the most recent AP Top 25. The St. John’s game was the only close contest it has played all season.
The Cyclones are the nation’s sixth-best defensive team, by KenPom standards. But they can score, too. They shoot 36.5% from the 3-point line and 59.9% from inside the arc.
Iowa State might be without its star point guard, Tamin Lipsey, who left Tuesday’s game against Creighton with a lower-body injury. His status for Wednesday is unknown. Lipsey averages 18.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 3.2 steals per game.
The Cyclones’ next best player is Joshua Jefferson, a 6-foot-8 forward who averages 18.3 points and 8.3 rebounds.
Michigan will play Gonzaga for the PEF title on Wednesday.
