Players Era Day 2 notes: No. 17 Tennessee shuts down No. 3 Houston

Matt Norlander is on the Vegas Strip, bouncing back and forth between the two arenas hosting this year’s Players Era Championship. He will provide regular updates and insider information throughout each day of the event, so check back often. You can read his Monday notebook here.

LAS VEGAS – Among the many things the Players Era will bring to college hoops this week, there’s some extra clarity on which teams have the commodity ranks at the top.

And on Tuesday, we learned that Tennessee is once again one of the most physical and impressive defensive teams in the country. The biggest game of Day 2 was at the MGM Grand Garden Arena: No. 17 Tennessee 76, No. 3 Houston 73. The Vols atoned for their 19-point Elite Eight loss to the Cougars last season.

Tennessee was able to break the tie thanks to holding Houston scoreless for a seven-minute stretch in the second half, while also putting up 10 points during UH’s scoring drought.

The game had just as good an atmosphere as the first two days of Players Era.

Tennessee got 22 points from Ja’Kobi Gillespie, who led an all-around inspiring effort for Rick Barnes’ crew. It’s the definition of a grown man’s game.

“These guys figured it out on their own, and they were very talkative, very active in timeouts, and were able to play well with our post guys,” Barnes said. “Just being with them and hearing them talk, coaching each other, talking about adjustments that need to be made is a step in the right direction.”

However, Kelvin Sampson couldn’t hide his frustration afterwards. Tennessee shot 29 free throws to Houston’s 11. The Cougars usually control the conversation from a physical standpoint, but the Volunteers undoubtedly got the better of the Coogs on Tuesday night.

The game was also a breakthrough for Bishop Boswell, a 6-4 sophomore combo guard who played a key role in helping Tennessee keep Houston at bay just enough in the final five minutes. Boswell finished with 10 points, four rebounds and three assists. His on-ball defense was a beacon for Tennessee overall.

“He’s going to be one of the best defensive backs in the country and there’s no doubt that it’s a difficult role to buy into a player, to want to do it, but it’s all about the team,” Barnes said of Boswell. “He wants to win more than anything, and we knew throughout the entire recruiting process that he was a winner and that he would do whatever it took. We are asking him to fill an important role and he has embraced it.”

ISU’s Otzelberger says Players Era is more about profits than money

The Players Era Championship has generated more conversation, buzz, criticism and intrigue than anything else so far this season.

Part of that is because it has some obvious flaws. Now let’s discuss the biggest one.

On Tuesday, No. 15 Iowa State defeated Creighton with aplomb, 78-60. The Cyclones are 2-0 in the event after winning a compelling battle for No. 14 St. John’s on Monday.

But in the first hours after this victory, they had no idea when they would play on Wednesday, nor who their opponent would be.

That’s because Players Era’s 18-team format isn’t built on a bracket. If you don’t have bracket play AND you don’t have all the matchups predetermined, you’ll have to rely on the game scores to complete the rest of the schedule. The main deciding factor is the average margin of victory (with a limit of 20 points to avoid encouraging teams to carelessly run up the score). Iowa State’s average winning margin after two games is 9.5.

It won’t be enough to qualify for Wednesday’s championship game – and may not be good enough to even get third place, as we could have five of the 18 teams finish 2-0. If ISU’s plus-19 point difference is fifth, the Cyclones are not playing for additional NIL money.

The anomalous format of the event is not lost on some fans who have flown here to take in hoops on the Strip. As the final seconds faded away Tuesday, an Iowa State supporter sitting in Section 220 shouted at ISU’s Milan Momcilovic, “YOU GOTTA MAKE IT MAXIMUM! SHOOT IT!” He knew that one more basket could mean the difference between playing for first place or playing for third place. Momcilovic chose not to shoot.

I did a walk-and-talk with Cyclones coach TJ Otzelberger after the win to talk about the unusual (and criticized) tiebreaker scenarios at play in the game. The situation on Tuesday was made all the more clouded by the fact that Otzelberger says he owes his career to Creighton coach Greg McDermott, who gave him his first break by hiring him at Iowa State in 2006 (when McDermott was in his first season coaching that program).

“Going into it, you know respectful points are part of this,” Otzelberger told CBS Sports. “The respect I have for coach McDermott and his program means we are not going to put the game in a position where we try to run up the score and get extra points late to win by a bigger margin. To me, the relationship and character of our program is more important than that. The easy solution would have been if we had been up earlier.” [20]then it would have been fine, but that wasn’t the case. We want to do the right thing.”

Players Era’s margin of victory rule has left it vulnerable to easy criticism. And that noise has also overshadowed a more important element of the entire experience: winning games. Players are already paid to play in this event, so the deciding factor is really about who gets the chance to make the most money. But, as Otzelberger told me, the more valuable thing for his team is the Quad 1 wins that are up for grabs.

“You’re here to win games, you’re here to get better as a team and as a program,” Otzelberger said. “The most important thing is to come out and do your best to win the match. And I understand there are other factors and variables involved in this event, but we’re just going to focus on being at our best to win the match.”

ISU won without starting point guard Tamin Lipsey, who sat out because of a sore groin. His availability for Wednesday is questionable, Otzelberger said.

The Cyclones are off to their first 6-0 start since 2021-22 and are averaging 90.5 points. It looks like a top-10 team in the country.

Will it be enough to play for the championship on Wednesday? Sits tight. As many as five 2-0 teams can compete for two spots in the championship game. I’ll update this story throughout the night with the latest news as we learn more here in Vegas.

St. John’s bounces back strong

As frustrating as Monday’s 83-82 score was for St. John’s, it’s a good sign for Rick Pitino’s team. The Red Storm handed Baylor its first loss of the season with a cruise-control 86-81 victory. Both teams will meet their Wednesday opponents at the end of Tuesday evening.

“I think what I enjoyed most last night was seeing the devastation in the eyes of our players,” Pitino said. “And you really know a team with class. I don’t mean the way they conduct themselves off the field, which they do great, but a class team really concentrates, doesn’t drop its head and brings it, and these guys did that. I think we could have given the Knicks a game for the first seven, eight minutes before they lost by 40. So it was a brilliant first eight minutes of the game.”

Bryce Hopkins had 26 points and Oziyah Sellers added 22, providing the kind of offensive firepower that Pitino and his staff were hoping to acquire in the portal.

“I haven’t begged for players to shoot the ball that much, but I have begged these two guys to shoot more, and they did that tonight. They were both brilliant,” Pitino said.

The Big East has been rickety league-wide through the first three weeks of the season, and with Creighton off to an 0-2 start in Players Era, St. John’s leaving Vegas at 2-1 would be ideal to help offset the conference’s 18 total losses.

2025 Players Era Scores, Schedule

Monday’s results

Tuesday’s results, schedule

Wednesday’s program

Premiere Four (Field determined after Tuesday’s matches)

Consolation games, to be determined

Thursday’s schedule

Consolation games, to be determined