Stellar field includes Stanford, No. 1 Duke

PORTLAND, Ore. — The hometown teams have the toughest paths in the PK80 tournament.

Portland State will face top-ranked Duke on Thanksgiving Day. The Portland Pilots open the tournament against defending NCAA Tournament champion North Carolina.

Portland head coach Terry Porter, the former Trail Blazers guard, said his team is looking at the game as an opportunity.

“Our guys are excited for the challenge,” Porter said on his radio show this week. “They’ve embraced it. I told them, ‘You’ve got to smell the roses along the way and go out and compete.’ ”

Porter noted that Portland (2-1) might be the only team in the nation that will play both participants in last year’s NCAA title game, because the Pilots also face Gonzaga in WCC play.

The No. 17 Bulldogs (3-0) join the Blue Devils (5-0) and the ninthranked Tar Heels (3-0) in the PK80’s stellar 16team field. The event, officially called the Phil Knight Invitational, honors the 80th birthday of Nike’s co-founder. Nike’s corporate headquarters are in Beaverton, Ore., just west of Portland.

Stanford opens against No. 7 Florida on Thursday night and, depending on Thursday’s results, will play either Gonzaga or Ohio State on Friday. The Cardinal (3-2) will play again Sunday.

Other teams in the field: fourth-ranked Michigan State, Oregon, Arkansas, Butler, Connecticut, Oklahoma, DePaul and Texas.

The teams are divided into two groups of eight, playing at the Moda Center and the adjacent Memorial Coliseum. It runs through Sunday, with a break on Saturday for college football. Anne M. Peterson is an Associated Press writer.