Rick Pitino head coach of the Louisville Cardinals men’s basketball team and his players will not be participating in the 2012 Maui Invitational. According to Card Chronicle Louisville has declined the trip to Maui in 2012 and will instead be in the tournament three years from now. Marquette has already taken Louisville’s place for the 2012 Maui Invitational.
Instead Louisville will now be playing in the 2012 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas. This tourney is in the beginning stages, with the field including defending national champion UConn this year. What makes the Atlantis tournament so special? Well it will be paying all the participating schools two million dollars; that is probably the most of any tournament pay out of all the pre season tournaments.
At first this looked like a real dumb decision to me, but when you look at the bottom line it’s not. In today’s world it’s all about the money. In college athletics many athletic departments lose money. So this was a very smart business decision by Louisville; why not get two million dollars to play in a tournament and it’s in the Bahamas not bad. Both the Bahamas and Hawaii would sound great to me no real difference.
At least for now Maui will always be the best competition and most popular pre season tournament, but over time the Atlantis tournament could change that. It helps when teams likes Louisville and UConn are in the field. Really these tournaments are great, but Louisville will get its best competition in the toughest conference in America the Big East.
Tags: Louisville, Rick Pitino
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