The
Paycom Wooden Legacy is an annual early-season men's
college basketball competition that began in 2013. It is named in honor of basketball coach
John Wooden
John Robert Wooden (October 14, 1910 – June 4, 2010) was an American basketball coach and player. Nicknamed the Wizard of Westwood, he won ten National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championships in a 12-year period as head ...
, whose
UCLA Bruins teams won 10 national championships over the 12 seasons from
1964
Events January
* January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
* January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...
to
1975
It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe.
Events
January
* January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...
.
History and format
The Wooden Legacy was formed in 2013 by a merger between the
Wooden Classic
The John R. Wooden Classic was an annual college basketball event hosted by the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Named after coach John Wooden, the event featured a December neutral-site doubleheader until its final two editions, which were si ...
and
DirecTV Classic
The DirecTV Classic was an eight-team college basketball tournament held during Thanksgiving week at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. The tournament began in 2007, and was owned and operated by ESPN Regional Television. Games ...
. From 2013 through 2019, eight teams competed in the Wooden Legacy in a three-day, 12-game bracketed tournament, with the games televised on the
ESPN Networks (ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3). From 2013 to 2016, the first two rounds were played at
Titan Gym on the campus of
Cal State Fullerton in
Fullerton, California, and the final day of competition took place at the
Honda Center in
Anaheim
Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...
, California. From 2017 to 2019, all games were played at Titan Gym.
Beginning in 2020, plans called for the Wooden Legacy to have a two-day, four-team format,
[Anonymous, "Hoyas to Participate in Paycom Wooden Legacy in 2020," guhoyas.com, November 26, 2019 4:42:00 PM EST Retrieved March 21, 2020]
/ref> with all games played at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim.[ The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 tournament.][Anonymous, "ESPN cancels college basketball bubble plans in Orlando," ''The Athletic'', October 26, 2020 Accessed March 7, 2021.]
/ref> The four-team, two-day tournament format instead debuted in 2021, with the semifinals and championship game televised by ESPN2 and the third-place game by ESPNU.
Brackets
* – Denotes overtime period
2022
* Fresno State
* Saint Mary's
St. Mary's, St. Marys, or St. Maries may refer to the following places:
Australia
* St Marys, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
** St Marys railway station, Sydney
** North St Marys, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
* St Marys, South Austra ...
* Vanderbilt
* Washington
The tournament is set to take place from November 23-24, 2022.
2021
2020
Originally, Georgetown, Kansas, UCLA, and Virginia committed to play in the 2020 Wooden Legacy.[Pierson, Tracy, "Report: UCLA to Face Seton Hall in Wooden Legacy," October 10, 2020 Accessed March 7, 2021]
/ref> In August 2020, the Pac-12 Conference
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...
announced the cancellation of all sports events for its member schools until January 1, 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, threatening UCLA's participation; despite this, UCLA never withdrew from the Wooden Legacy. In the first round, Georgetown was expected to face Kansas and UCLA to play Virginia. In September 2020, ESPN announced plans to move the college basketball nonconference events it planned to run in November and December 2020, including the Wooden Legacy, to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, in an effort to keep players and staffs safer during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The announcement prompted Georgetown and Virginia to withdraw from the tournament, and Seton Hall and Boise State
Boise State University (BSU) is a public research university in Boise, Idaho. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding baccalaureate and master's degrees It became a publ ...
replaced them.[ Ultimately, however, ESPN canceled all the 2020 tournaments, including the Wooden Legacy, in late October 2020.][
]
2019
2018
Campus Site Games
2017
Campus Site Games
2016
*
2015
2014
2013
References
External links
Official Site
{{Thanksgiving
College men's basketball competitions in the United States
College basketball competitions
Sports competitions in Anaheim, California
Recurring sporting events established in 1994
Thanksgiving (United States)
1994 establishments in California