Holiday season sends hoops tournaments to exotic places, and I'm not complaining

Thinking out loud — while wondering, when people ask me silly questions, is it my legal obligation to reply with sarcasm?

• It may be the holiday season coming up for you, but for these eyes and ears, it’s the season for MTEs. That stands for Multiple Team Events, as in nonconference college basketball tournaments. The Friars are in the Bahamas for one of these this week, the Baha Mar Hoops Nassau Championship.

This is a big-time tournament, with Kansas State, Miami and Georgia on the invitation list. But hey, let’s not forget about Maui (a future PC destination in 2025), or Atlantis, or Orlando, or Charleston, or New York or Anaheim.

Sure, the perks of traveling to these venues are obvious. But from a pure hoops standpoint, it’s gold, Jerry, gold. Mid-to-low major teams jockey for slots; high majors usually pick and choose where they’d like to go and you can return to a venue once every four years.

It’s also a fabulous opportunity to see great, early-season college basketball. Big names face big names, like this week in Nassau. And the little guys get their shot at madness before March.

With the ever-increasing size of some leagues around the country thanks to realignment — and greed (looking at you, Big 10) — it could be these golden early-season gems become more and more rare by the year.

The Gavitt Games series of contests between the Big East and Big Ten is likely finished because the Big Ten can’t agree on which team from the conference's bloated league should play.

And those coaches also might have a severe case of: “Why do we need to play those guys-itis” when they look at their own conference schedules and consider getting thumped by a Big East school.

Wonder if Wisconsin’s Greg Gard is thinking about that after getting twisted into knots by Providence running past them this week?

• In the meantime, while we can, I’ll take a nice helping of hoops along with my turkey over the next week or two. It’s all gravy before the main course comes around next month.

• Devin Carter showed up pretty well for the FS1 TV cameras against the Badgers at the AMP Tuesday night. He led PC with 21 points, hitting a few 3s, and shut down Wisconsin’s top guard, preseason all-Big Ten pick Chucky Hepburn. Carter earned a spot on the Big East honor roll for the week.

• Our hoop buddy, Kevin McNamara, posted an interview last week with the AMP’s Larry Lepore, who revealed that cameras, pointed at the student sections, are coming to the building. A word to the not-so-wise — have your bail money ready.

• Brown will play in an MTE next week, also in the Bahamas. Rhody’s Rams, off to a 3-0 start to the season, face Northwestern from the Big Ten in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off at Mohegan Sun, followed by a matchup with an SEC or Pac-12 team.

• Not for nothin’, but URI newcomer Jaden House was chosen as the first Player of the Week in the Atlantic 10. A healthy 23.5 points per game in his first week as a Ram? He’s the first Ram in 12 years to average 20-plus points in the first two games of the season.

• Jared Grasso made it official, resigning his position as head basketball coach at Bryant. We knew it was coming. Likely, so did the Bulldogs. Wish him well, but from what we’ve heard in this corner, it was the right move for him to make.

• Phil Martelli Jr. now gets his shot to lead the team through the America East this season. The Bulldogs gave Rutgers a fight before losing in Piscataway, N.J., last weekend by nine. Final Four team Florida Atlantic and the Big East’s Xavier Musketeers are coming up.

• It’s been a bumpy early ride in the Big East for some, including St. John’s (welcome back to the big time, Coach Pitino) and Villanova. The Johnnies were run out of the Garden by Michigan, while the Wildcats played Penn at the Palestra — and lost their first Philly Big 5 game in four years.

No shame in either of those, but the Red Storm’s gigantic roster makeover will need some time to learn cohesiveness before it live up to the preseason hype.

• X post of the Week I, from @benvolin: “Feels like the '90s today. Patriots only have 6 points and the stadium reeks of cigarettes.”

• X post of the Week II, from @fbgchase: “Today is the first time the Patriots have held an opponent to less than 300 yards and 10 or fewer points and lost since week 2, 2001, vs. NYJ — the Mo Lewis/Tom Brady game. New England had won 71 straight games when allowing opponents under 300 yards and 10 or fewer points.”

• So, you’re saying there’s a problem with the offense?

• Jack Jones’ release from the Patriots last week should have happened after he tried to carry guns in his baggage onto a plane at Logan Airport over the summer. That he wasn’t let go shows you how much the team figured it would need him.

• And he still pouted his way off the team, after the trip to Germany. As long as a house cleaning is coming, sweeping out low-to-bad character guys, no matter how talented they may be, needs to be a priority. Like it used to be. Just sayin’.

• Mac Jones? You’re owed an apology. From the media and uber-critical fans, sure. But mostly from Patriots’ management and coaching who did much to mess you up in the first place.

But, dude, I could have thrown that pass to 6-foot-6 Mike Gesicki in the end zone. We all could have.

• The 2022 Patriots draft class doesn’t look too good, does it? Cole Strange and Bailey Zappe are the standouts of note. We’ll let you judge their merit.

• This isn’t meant to pile on the Pats but the odds have been set on BB’s firing by bookies.com and have Belichick at +400 as the lead choice over Matt Eberflus of Chicago.

• He won’t be fired in-season. But out-of-season? Somehow, I think there will be a meeting of the minds over this issue and the minds will come up with a “time-to-move-on” scenario — no matter how much the coach or the Krafts want Don Shula’s win record.

• X post of the Week III, from @JoeDSports: “That Giants-Patriots game will be a doozy. A friend suggested it be flexed to a Tuesday morning at 6 a.m.”

• Hey, Buffalo Bills? Welcome back to mediocrity and irrelevance. They missed you.

• In the “believe-it-when-I-see-it” department: It sounds like a plan, but a potential new Revs’ soccer-specific stadium being built in Everett on an old waterfront power-plant site still has hurdles to clear. And just how high will those hurdles be? That gets decided by the Massachusetts Legislature — with their hands held out, of course.

• My buddy, “Big E,” says he can totally keep secrets. It’s just the people he tells them to who cannot.

• In my next life, I want to come back as a fired football coach at Texas A&M. Jimbo Fisher’s buyout, following his dismissal this week, is a staggering $77 million. Guaranteed. An Aggie joke if there ever was one.

• Jim Harbaugh appears to be ready for a return to the NFL. Michigan’s orchestration of a sign-stealing scheme, which led to a three-game suspension for Harbaugh by the Big Ten, has a little Belichickian flavor to it, am I right?

• Bryant men’s soccer earned a home game in the NCAA Tournament last week, following a standout 16-1-2 America East championship season. Kudos to Fall River native and head coach Ruben Resendes for plowing the road after leading D-II Franklin Pierce to the NCAA title a year ago.

• The PC women’s soccer team dropped a 1-0 match at Mississippi State in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, wrapping up a 10-5-5 season.

• Providence’s cross country and track and field teams are regulars at the NCAAs and this year is no exception. Ray Treacy’s women make their third straight appearance this weekend in the national meet, held this year in Charlottesville, Va. On the men’s side, Michael Morgan and Abdel Laadjel earned spots in individual title races.

• Oh, and Nate Leaman became the winningest coach in PC hockey history last week, with his 249th career victory placing him just ahead of Lou Lamoriello.

• Five different goal-scorers for the Bruins on Tuesday night against Buffalo is certainly spreading the puck around. At 10-1-1 with 21 points and leading the Atlantic Division — are we headed for a déjà vu all over again at the end?

• Need an up-and-comer to watch on the AMP ice? Defenseman Dan Renouf had five points for the P-Bruins last weekend. He already has eight for the year. He had 11 all of last season.

• Are the Celtics still in this NBA tournament?

• WooSox owner Larry Lucchino told retired sportscasters Mike Lynch and Bob Lobel on their recent podcast that he’s looking for a local buyer to purchase his team. Anyone in Rhode Island want to step up and make things right with the world?

• Johnny C from the Bucket sent me this note Monday: “The Pats joined J.C. Jackson and worked from home yesterday.”

• Johnny, a fair amount of snark and sarcasm detected there in your 10 words. Might be a future in the news release writing business for you someday soon — or in the TV analysts’ booth, or on sports radio or writing a newspaper column.

Interested in having your questions on Rhode Island sports (and, yes, that includes the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics) answered in a somewhat timely fashion? Think out loud and send your questions, comments and local stories to jrbroadcaster@gmail.com. We’ll share mailbag comments/Facebook posts/threads right here! Join me on Twitter/X, @JRbroadcaster, on Facebook, www.facebook.com/john.rooke, and on Instagram and Threads @JRbroadcaster.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Holiday season is a time for nonconference college basketball in faraway venues