Carolina now has even more competition in Vegas.

The Las Vegas Invitational has a great field this year, featuring UNC, Texas, Michigan State and UCLA, all of whom will be ranked in the preseason national polls. The teams will play their opening round games on Thanksgiving Thursday; the winners and losers square off sometime Friday.

Exactly what time those teams play becomes a big question for the tourney organizers, who not only want a sellout at the Orleans Arena but also great TV ratings on Fox Sports 1. Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods threw a monkey wrench into their plans by announcing their $9 million challenge match for Friday, November 23, at the Shadow Creek Golf Course — in Vegas.

College basketball fights for a following that time of the year, anyway. Thanksgiving Day already has a doubleheader, or is it a triple-header, of NFL games. So the first day of the Las Vegas Invitational will already have stiff competition.

The PGA, which owns the rights to the Mickelson-Woods match, has not decided exactly what time they will play and how many spectators they will allow at Shadow Creek to serve as the gallery in this made-for-TV special. They don’t want these two veteran superstars of the game playing on an empty golf course, but since it is pay-per-view over the Turner and AT&T networks, they want most of the people watching from somewhere else.

With match-play of 18 holes and likely TV commercials interspersed, the PGA is expecting a five-hour telecast. Phil and Tiger won’t tee off in the morning, for sure, but at a time when the back nine finishes during late afternoon on the East Coast, unless the PGA installs lights on the course for prime time.

Whatever happens, the buzz of this match will overshadow everything else going on in Vegas, including what may be the best field for a holiday college basketball tournament ever. Question is, will the tourney try showing highlights of the golf along with highlights of the games on their one giant video board in the arena.

The exhibition golf match has great interest because it’s unique and in a different format. Even at the hoop games, fans will find a way to watch on their phones and other devices. So cheering may be for a ball going in the basket – and the hole.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Related Stories
‹
Chansky's Notebook: Bailing Out
Roy Williams probably had reasons for the soft statements. Carolina fans reacted strongly to the video of a team party after the win over Duke. Only Armando Bacot and Day’Ron Sharpe were in the video, but a statement from players and managers said it was supposed to be a closed event that other students and […]
Chansky's Notebook: Please, Go In!
UNC men's basketball faces what is an early season must-win at Georgia Tech. Art Chansky says a look at the statistics is painful, but not terminal.
Chansky's Notebook: Leaky Steps Up
Dean Smith used to say he’ll be happy with a one-point win. The legendary UNC basketball coach struggled spiritually between playing well according to his teachings, regardless of outcome, and winning no matter how poorly you play. Since his job was to win and he was so competitive, he chose the latter. If he was […]
Chansky's Notebook: Rock(et) Star
Ben Kiernan was UNC’s MVP of the Notre Dame game. When Mack Brown went over the 31-17 loss, he gave mixed reviews to the two main branches of his Tar Heels’ play. He said the offense was good in the first half and then “went dead” in a scoreless second half. He praised the Tar […]
Chansky's Notebook: Goals and Ambitions
Garrison Brooks has both opportunity and pressure. On paper, the ACC looks as weak as it has been in some time due to widespread losses to graduation and early departures to the NBA, and no sure-shot superstars in the incoming recruiting classes. A beneficiary of this development is Brooks, the Carolina senior who was second-team All-ACC last year and earned the league’s […]
Chansky's Notebook: A COVID Debate
Clemson was livid that Florida State wouldn’t play the game. Let’s be lawyers, and make a case for each of the teams that did not play its scheduled game over the weekend. Clemson had traveled to Florida State when it learned a player with mild symptoms who had practiced with the team all week tested […]
Chansky's Notebook: Draft Dodgers
Carolina and Duke players have lost ground in the NBA draft. Like everything else with sports in the COVID era, the NBA draft goes off tonight after being postponed for five months. And if you look at the various mock draft boards, certain things jump off your screen. First of all, about half the names […]
Chansky's Notebook: A Two-Thirds Bet?
What if Phil Mickelson and Mack Brown amended their bet? With the Masters being moved back to this weekend due to COVID, perhaps the three-time champion should revisit the fun bet he made with Carolina’s football coach back in 2003. The famed lefthander was still seeking his first Green Jacket when he partnered with the Texas football coach at the […]
Chansky's Notebook: Kudos To Carolina
UNC teams did a commendable job beating the odds. Who among us thought the ACC would be playing football and other fall sports last summer? With the pandemic upon us and the medical experts still learning, the seasons looked like a long shot. While other conferences pumped the breaks and/or called off football, the ACC […]
Chansky's Notebook: Extra Motivation
Carolina’s schedule could be working to its advantage. When the COVID-revised list of games came out, it looked troublesome for the Tar Heels with Virginia Tech and Florida State basically bookending Notre Dame and Miami with four rivalry games in a row right in the middle. Coaches usually don’t like that because it takes a […]
›