Nov 21, 2023 - News

San Diego hopes for a new Turkey Day hoops tradition

Andrew Keatts

USC Trojans guard Isaiah Collier celebrating — USC Trojans guard Isaiah Collier celebrates during a win over the Brown Bears on Nov. 19 at Galen Center in Los Angeles Photo: Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

We've got our typical full slate of football on Thanksgiving Thursday, but San Diego could also be looking at a new college hoops tradition.

Driving the news: Four perennial NCAA Tournament teams are playing in the inaugural Rady Children's Invitational, which kicks off with two games Thursday and another two Friday at UCSD's LionTree Arena.

Thursday: The University of Oklahoma vs. University of Iowa at noon; Seton Hall University vs. University of Southern California at 2:30pm.

Friday: Oklahoma vs. either Seton Hall or USC at 12:30pm; Iowa vs. either Seton Hall or USC at 3pm.

Zoom in: Two-day passes for the event start at $60, and $5 from each ticket goes to Rady Children's Hospital.

Organizers already announced next year's participants as they work to build the event into a mainstay among other major Thanksgiving weekend basketball tournaments: Arkansas, BYU, Notre Dame and Purdue.

Zoom out: Fresh off winning the Continental Tire Main Event tournament in Las Vegas, SDSU's men's team is headed up the coast for a big game of its own.

The 4-1 Aztecs are facing the 2-2 Cal Bears on Saturday at 4pm for the showcase game in the SoCal Challenge at the Pavilion in San Juan Capistrano.

While we're here: In our season preview, we said the big question facing the Aztecs would be how the offense copes with the graduation of Matt Bradley, last year's leading scorer.

Five games in, the answer has been emphatic: TCU transfer Jaedon LeDee has dominated to start the season, averaging 26.8 points a game.

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San Diego hopes for a new Turkey Day hoops tradition

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