The Players Era Festival may only be in its second year of existence, but it's already one of the biggest stories in college basketball.
The MTE (Multi-Team Event) has quickly outshone traditional Feast Week events like the Maui Invitational and Battle 4 Atlantis by courting some of the sport's biggest programs.
How has it accomplished this kind of notoriety in such a short period of time? It's spent a lot of money. Each program that's participating — 18 this year and 32 next year — will receive a $1 million infusion to their NIL warchest. Not for the winner, literally every participant receives a cool million.
The event will be played this week at two venues in Paradise, Nevada, and utilize an international-style group play model. What bettors need to know is that every team is locked into two set matchups, with the top-performing teams advancing to the third-place and championship matches.
How does one get there? You’ll need to go 2-0 in your set matches and have the largest margin of victory (followed by points scored, points allowed as secondary tiebreakers).
This unique caveat positions one high-scoring team as a valuable long shot this week.
Why Alabama Will Win the Players Era Festival
If you’re searching for a high-variance team in this field, look no further than the Crimson Tide of Alabama.
Their style of play lends itself to going “nuclear” and winning by 25-30 points on any given night.
Nate Oats' philosophy is to run-and-gun, playing up-tempo while firing 35 3s per game. This style of play has followed him for his entire career from Buffalo, NY, to Tuscaloosa, AL.
This season's team is already in mid-season form, ranking second nationally in 3-point attempts per game.
Beyond the Tide bombing away from long range, what I like about this year’s squad is Labaron Philon Jr.’s ability to take over a game. The sophomore is simply a star, and he doesn’t need to take more than five or six triples to put up big stats.
He can put it on the deck, blow past defenders, get to the tin or kick it out to one of his sharpshooting teammates. And Alabama has five shooters knocking down 3-point attempts at a 35% clip or higher.
This is the kind of tournament you want to hitch your wagon to a star, and Philon is my guy here, particularly at this price point.
According to Evan Miya, Philon is one of four elite (A+ rated) playmakers at the point guard position in the SEC. The difference between him and the other three is that he’s the only SEC point guard who can take on the scoring load as well as facilitating.
Only three high-major guards average over 20 points and 5.5 assists per game, including Philon.
And the final piece of this puzzle is the point-differential component. If Alabama drew a snail in its fixed matchups like Houston, Rutgers or Notre Dame, I would've been less bullish on this play. It’s far more difficult for Alabama to win going away in a lower-possession matchup.
Luckily, the Tide drew a pair of up-tempo teams on Monday and Tuesday. Gonzaga can be lured into an up-and-down game, no problem, and then UNLV, which is living up to its Runnin’ Rebels name, plays at the 14th-quickest tempo in the country.
A Monday win over Gonzaga will likely reduce Bama’s odds into the 5:1 range, but I still think it’s worth a play anywhere north of 4:1 come Tuesday afternoon.
Pick: Alabama to Win Event (11:1)
