The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Men's Basketball to participate in PK80
09.21.2016 | Men's Basketball
16-team college hoops event in honor of Phil Knight to be held over three days during 2017 Thanksgiving week in Portland.
PORTLAND — The creation of PK80 – Phil Knight Invitational, a 16-team, early-season men's college basketball tournament honoring Nike co-founder and 2012 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Phil Knight in advance of his 80th birthday, will take place over Thanksgiving week in 2017 from Portland, Ore. One of the largest regular-season tournaments in college basketball history, sporting a field featuring some of the top schools in the nation, will be played Thursday, Nov. 23, Friday, Nov. 24 and Sunday, Nov. 26 from the Rose Quarter's Moda Center and Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Participating schools include Arkansas, Butler, Connecticut, Duke, Florida, Georgetown, Gonzaga, Michigan State, North Carolina, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon, Portland, Portland State, Stanford and The University of Texas.
Two eight-team events – consisting of three games per team – will run simultaneously in the two buildings with the crowning of two bracket champions. All games from Portland will be televised on ESPN networks.
"We are very appreciative of our relationship with Phil Knight and Nike," Texas coach Shaka Smart said. "Obviously, this relationship has grown tremendously over the last decade with Nike's support of Texas and Kevin Durant and provided so many benefits for our student-athletes and UT as a whole. We are really excited about the opportunity to participate in the PK80 event in Portland next Thanksgiving and to be able to compete against such a great field of quality opponents."
Ticket information and tournament bracket will be announced at a later date. Interested fans should visit the event's web site to sign up for ticket updates. PK80 was created on behalf of the schools and is owned and operated by ESPN Events, a division of ESPN, in conjunction with the Rose Quarter.
Field Highlights
- The schools have combined for 23 National Championships, more than 85 Final Fours, more than 380 NCAA Championship appearances and more than 680 NCAA Championship wins.
- Ten of the 16 schools have won a NCAA title
- Nine of the past 13 National Champions are in the field
- Thirteen of the 16 schools have made at least one Final Four appearance