Gonzaga, Virginia standing tall after tournaments

PARADISE ISLAND, BAHAMAS >> Experienced Gonzaga and Virginia sent not-so-subtle reminders not to discount talented, veteran-led teams.

While Duke and its vaunted freshmen class were the talk college basketball for the first two weeks of the season, Gonzaga and Virginia walked away with titles to cap off Thanksgiving holiday tournaments.

The Zags held off the much-ballyhooed Blue Devils to win the Maui Invitational — and replaced them as the No. 1 team in the country on Monday — in what could have been a preview of a late-March showdown. At the other end of the spectrum were the fourth-ranked Cavaliers, who beat Wisconsin to win the Battle 4 Atlantis in a low-scoring game featuring teams content to grind it out with defense and clock-melting stretches that limited the number of possessions and magnified any mistake.

Both styles worked. “We said we want to learn something as every team would as they come into this tournament,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said after Friday’s win against the Badgers and preseason Associated Press All-American Ethan Happ.

Experience also showed for No. 5 Nevada and No. 9 Michigan State in winning separate brackets at the Las Vegas Invitational, with both being led by upperclassmen (Wolf Pack fifth-year senior Caleb Martin and Spartans junior Cassius Winston) who earned MVP honors. And in Michigan State’s case, that title came by maintaining poise well enough to rally from 19 down against No. 17 Texas.

Here are some takeaways from those holiday tournaments:

Maui’s top trio

Maui had the best field of the week with Duke, Gonzaga and Auburn, so there were plenty of measuringstick moments among legitimate Final Four contenders.

No team was more impressive than Gonzaga — in any tournament.