IN OUR BACKYARD

BASKETBALL Tournaments

Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational, Orleans Arena, Thursday and Friday Play4kay Showcase, Mandalay Bay Events Center, Thursday-saturday Global Sports Classic, South Point Arena, Friday and Saturday

HOCKEY Golden Knights

vs. San Jose Sharks, T-mobile Arena, 3 p.m. Friday; at Arizona Coyotes, Glendale, Ariz., 5 p.m. Saturday; vs. Dallas Stars, T-mobile Arena, 7 p.m. Tuesday

MOTOR SPORTS

A one-handed dunk by senior guard J.P. Macura with 22 seconds left seemed like the perfect way for No. 15 Xavier to punctuate an 80-70 road win against Wisconsin on Nov. 16.

Only Macura wasn’t finished.

Just 10 seconds later, with the clock stopped for a foul, Macura mocked the Kohl Center crowd with a “Gator Chomp,” the signature move of a Florida program that knocked the Badgers out of the Sweet 16 last season.

The Badgers lasted one fewer round than the 11th-seeded Musketeers, who seemingly blossomed out of nowhere to reach coach Chris Mack’s first

Elite Eight. Macura’s chomp added swagger to a spotlight already on this year’s team as Xavier heads to the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational at Orleans Arena on Thursday and Friday.

“I really like the makeup of our team because there’s an infusion of some talented freshmen, but we also have some veteran leadership,” Mack said. “It’s a fun team to coach.”

The win against Wisconsin,

which upset the Musketeers in the 2016 NCAA Tournament, validated high preseason expectations and brought added attention to the program. The most notable reaction came from professional golfer and Wisconsin resident Steve Stricker, who tweeted after the game that he was “embarrassed” for Xavier and said he had “never seen some of the bush league things I saw tonight.”

Much of Stricker’s ire was likely directed at Macura, but the 6-foot-5-inch guard isn’t just a trash talker. He’s a tone-setter.

Mack credited the “hyper-competitive” senior with helping the team get after each other during preseason practices and setting a