An eight team, four-day event held at the Coleiseo de Puerto Rico
Now in year number three of the ESPN sponsored Puerto Rico Tip-Off, it looks like the good folks at O'Reilly Auto Parts have struck gold once again with a strong tournament field. Last season's eight team bracket featured Missouri, Xavier, Memphis and USC, four teams went on to reach the NCAA Tournament. That group served as a vast improvement from the inaugural year, when lower tier schools like Miami, Providence and Arkansas were the headliners. Following with the trend, the 2009 field brings some of the nation's most respected programs together for a chance to win this.
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Unfortunately, Thursday's opening game between #21 Dayton and #19 Georgia Tech was hardly the offensive battle that everyone was expecting. The Flyers managed to edge out a 63-59 win, but there was plenty of sloppy basketball being played as the two teams combined for 47 turnovers and 60% on their free throws. The two future NBA draft picks poised for stardom, 
Dayton's Chris Wright and Tech's Derrick Favors, barely even made an impact. Wright may not even have a game this bad again all season (7 pts on 2-7 shooting, 3 rebs, 5 turnovers), and Favors just looks uneasy on the defensive side of the floor right now. The fact that Dayton couldn't sink the three ball (9-29) didn't really hurt them, since Georgia Tech bricked nearly half their attempts from the charity stripe (11-20). Let's just chalk this one up to being early season basketball at its finest.
Up next for Dayton is the winner of the Villanova/George Mason game (currently playing). You can catch all coverage of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off on ESPN2 and ESPNU over the next few days.
2009 Puerto Rico Tip-Off
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Tournament Field
Bracket
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