Gary Parrish

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- I'll be spending the next four days less than a mile from Disneyland, where the eight-team 76 Classic has somehow put together the best field of any early season tournament given how all eight schools involved have reasonable expectations to make the NCAA tournament.

Butler is the Horizon favorite, Long Beach State is the Big West favorite, and West Virginia, Clemson, Minnesota, Texas A&M and UCLA are each expected to, at the very least, earn an at-large bid. The only 76 Classic participant not in my preseason Projecting the Field is Portland. But the Pilots are 3-0 and widely viewed as Gonzaga's biggest threat in the West Coast Conference. They already own a win over Oregon. They could get their second victory over a Pac-10 team Thursday when they close the first day of action with a game against Ben Howland's Bruins.

"If you're a collegebasketball fan, this is a great time of the year," said Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon. "This is a fantastic field. When we [agreed to be a part of it], we knew it was going to be a good field. But they've added a couple of teams since then. There are four teams in the Top 25, and we're not one of them, and we like to think we're pretty good. So it's a great field."

The four Top 25 teams in the field are No. 8 West Virginia, No. 12 Butler, No. 19 Clemson and No. 22 Minnesota. All five power-conference schools involved (West Virginia, Clemson, Minnesota, Texas A&M and UCLA) plus Butler made the NCAA tournament last season. Click this link to check out the bracket.