More than 30 colleges await Connecticut basketball ‘bubble’

UNCASVILLE, CONN. » A resort casino on tribal land in Connecticut is completing plans to host more than 30 college basketball teams as it becomes a modified bubble for several early season tournaments, including two moved from New York.

The Mohegan Sun has teamed with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, which holds its men’s Tip-Off Tournament and Women’s Challenge there every year, and the Gazelle Group, which runs the Empire Classic and the Legends Classic in New York.

The organizers plan to hold those tournaments and several other “pods” of games, which will get names in the next few weeks, at at the Mohegan Sun, which is owned by the Mohegan Tribe and includes a 10,000-seat arena that is home to the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun.

“It’s a single site, secluded location, with enormous square footage for social distancing,” said Greg

Procino, vice president of basketball operations for the Hall of Fame. “There are a lot of things that will work in our favor, “

Rick Giles, the president of the Gazelle Group, expects about 35 teams from more than a dozen conferences will participate at what they are dubbing “Bubbleville” between Nov. 25 and Dec. 5, with up to seven games a day.

There will be at least nine “pods” of games, beginning with the Empire Classic on Nov. 25-26, which will include Villanova, Baylor, Arizona State and Boston College.

UConn, USC, Virginia, Florida, St. John’s, UMass, Vanderbilt, BYU, Louisville,

North Carolina State and other men’s and women’s programs also have agreed to play, organizers said.

Southern California coach Andy Enfield said the Trojans are expected to be in a pod with BYU, UConn and Vanderbilt.

“It’ll be a great event once we get there,” Enfield said.