Thanksgiving in Florida? Wichita State basketball invited to marquee ESPN tourney

The Wichita State men’s basketball team is headed back to the Sunshine state for its annual holiday tournament.

Orlando, Florida will host the Shockers in the ESPN Events Invitational over Thanksgiving weekend, confirmed by a contract obtained by The Eagle through an open records request. WSU will play on Thursday, Nov. 28, Friday, Nov. 29 and Sunday, Dec. 1.

While the eight-team field is expected to be officially announced by ESPN later this month, beat writers for Nevada and Wake Forest have reported on social media that their respective teams will be in attendance. The bracket and schedule, along with travel information for fans, was released in August for last year’s event.

Last year’s field featured Iowa State, Texas A&M, Boise State, Florida Atlantic, Virginia Tech, Butler, Penn State and VCU, which combined for four NCAA tournament bids and three NIT appearances.

ESPN Events Invitational has historically produced extremely competitive fields, which means WSU will likely be included in its first marquee, eight-team event since the 2017 Maui Invitational.

If Nevada and Wake Forest are included in the field, both teams finished top-40 in the end-of-season Ken Pomeroy rankings this past season. Wake Forest is also currently led by Steve Forbes, a former WSU assistant who was on the sidelines for the Shockers’ historic 35-1 season in 2013-14.

It will also mark the third time WSU has played a multi-team event in Orlando in the last two decades.

The Shockers finished 0-3 in the 2015 AdvoCare Invitational, losing to USC, Alabama and Iowa; and finished 1-2 in the 2008 Old Spice Classic, beating Siena in between losses to Georgetown and Michigan State.

What we know about Wichita State 2024-25 basketball schedule

With a likely 13 games on WSU’s nonconference slate for the upcoming season, the Orlando tournament will account for three of those games.

But what about the other 10?

At this moment, WSU has signed contracts with three other opponents: Kansas State, Western Kentucky and DePaul.

The Wildcats are slated to make their first appearance in a game on WSU’s campus since Nov. 21, 2000 when they conclude a four-year agreement with a trip to Koch Arena on Saturday, Dec. 7. K-State has won the first three games — played at Intrust Bank Arena, Bramlage Coliseum, and Sprint Center — in the renewed in-state rivalry.

Another series coming to an end is a home-and-home with Western Kentucky. After the Shockers won 71-61 at Koch Arena this past season, they will travel to Bowling Green, Ky. to face the Hilltoppers at E.A. Diddle Arena. The two sides have until August to set a date for the game.

Western Kentucky went on to win the Conference USA tournament and reach the NCAA tournament this past season, which led to coach Steve Lutz being hired away by Oklahoma State. The Hilltoppers will be under the first-year guidance of Hank Plona, who had success at Indian Hills Community College in Iowa.

Meanwhile, another future opponent undergoing a transition is DePaul, which recently made headlines with its new coaching hire, Chris Holtmann, who took Ohio State to four NCAA tournaments in the past seven seasons.

Holtmann will look to turnaround a DePaul program coming off a 3-29 season, as the Blue Demons will host the Shockers at Wintrust Arena this season and then make a return trip to Koch Arena during the 2025-26 season. The two sides have until July to set a date for the game in Chicago this season.

The ESPN event in Orlando and the K-State game in the Roundhouse give WSU head coach Paul Mills a handful of marquee games already on the schedule. DePaul and Western Kentucky are currently enigmas, but offer two road tests before conference play.

The annual downtown game at Intrust Bank Arena still needs an opponent, while it’s likely the majority, if not all, of the remaining six nonconference games will be played at Koch Arena.

It’s a task that will likely come after WSU fills out its 2024 recruiting class with the final two spots. The level of competition Mills opts to complete his second nonconference schedule remains to be seen, as the finalized version of the schedule will likely not be released until July or August.