For Sacred Heart, the Las Vegas Invitational is about much more than Las Vegas. It’s a 10-day road trip throughout the Western United States.
The Pioneers arrived in Tucson on Wednesday night, will play UA on Friday, then travel Saturday to San Francisco in advance of a Monday game with Santa Clara.
Both the UA and Santa Clara games are unbracketed games in the Las Vegas Invitational multi-team event, while Sacred Heart will also fly from the Bay area to Las Vegas on Tuesday and spend two days preparing for bracketed tournament games on Nov. 24 and 25.
Even though it’s a long trip, Sacred Heart coach Anthony Latina said he’s fond of the format. Like many multi-team events, it creates four games for the “price” of three against the NCAA scheduling maximum, and for Sacred Heart, it allows a high-major matchup but also two neutral-site games in Las Vegas against comparable teams.
“It’s a good little tournament for us,” Latina said. “It’s a good trip, a good chance to bond for the guys and a good opportunity to play. You can test yourself at Arizona and then go to Vegas to play teams at our level.”
