LAS VEGAS – The second day of the Players Era Championship is done and dusted. At the conclusion of Tuesday’s games, we now have the championship and third-place games scheduled in addition to the entire schedule for Wednesday and Thursday’s additional consolation games. 

No. 7 Michigan and No. 12 Gonzaga will be facing off in the championship game at 9:30 EST/6:30 PST, while No. 17 Tennessee will be facing off with No. 24 Kansas in the third-place game. The complete schedule is as follows:

Wednesday

• Syracuse vs. Iowa State – MGM Grand Garden Arena, 10 a.m., TNT
• Notre Dame vs. Houston – MGM Grand Garden Arena, 12:30 p.m., TNT
• Kansas vs. Tennessee – MGM Grand Garden Arena, 4 p.m., TNT
• St. John’s vs. Auburn – Michelob ULTRA Arena, 5 p.m., truTV
• Gonzaga vs. Michigan – MGM Grand Garden Arena, 6:30 p.m., TNT
• Baylor vs. SDSU – Michelob ULTRA Arena, 7:30 p.m., truTV
• Maryland vs. Alabama – MGM Grand Garden Arena, 9 p.m., TNT

Thursday

• Oregon vs. Creighton – Michelob ULTRA Arena, 11 a.m., truTV
• UNLV vs. Rutgers – Michelob ULTRA Arena, 1:30 p.m., truTV

Game 10: Notre Dame 68, Rutgers 63

Top Performer: Markus Burton (ND) | 21 points, six rebounds, five assists, three steals

Markus Burton continued to assert himself as one of the premier scorers in college basketball, albeit it came against a Rutgers team that’s been playing like they’ve spent too much time at Hakkassan the last few nights. 

Jokes aside, Burton torched the Scarlet Knights with an impressive 9-of-13 shooting clip overall, making 2-of-4 from 3-point range. Notre Dame will certainly be punching above their weight class in Wednesday’s consolation game as it drew No. 3 Houston, but it should also serve as experience that could prove valuable in a weakening ACC.

Game 11: No. 16 Iowa State 78, Creighton 60

Top Performer: Joshua Jefferson (ISU) | 18 points, 10 rebounds, five assists

Jefferson, a graduate of Henderson’s Liberty High School, continued a strong week for natives of the Las Vegas Valley at the hometown tournament this week. Jefferson pushed Iowa State to a dominant 18-point win, making 7-of-14 attempts from the field overall while grabbing four of his 10 rebounds on the offensive glass. 

As we noted in the Day 1 roundup, Iowa State coach TJ Otzelberger also has ties to Vegas after a not-so-ceremonious departure from his post as the UNLV head basketball coach in search of greener pastures at Iowa State. Considering the literal geographic location of each program as well as their respective trajectories since that fateful moment in 2021, the pastures really were greener.

Game 12: No. 24 Kansas 71, Syracuse 60

Top Performer: Flory Bidunga (KAN) | 13 points, 10 rebounds, five assists

When news broke that Kansas wouldn’t be bringing top NBA draft prospect Darryn Peterson to Las Vegas this week on account of a hamstring injury, there was understandably some disappointment that one of the most exciting forces in college hoops’ recent memory wouldn’t be joining us for the premier event of this year’s Feast Week. 

Maybe it was all just meant to be. Over the course of the last few days, it’s hard to argue that any player in the field has raised their stock with the NBA personnel in attendance quite like Kansas forward Flory Bidunga. Bidunga showed plenty of promise for the Jayhawks as a freshman but lacked the polish and experience necessary to make him a can’t-miss talent in the first round of next June’s NBA Draft.

For the second straight night, Bidunga notched a double-double to pace Kansas while making an efficient 5-of-8 of his attempts from the field. Senior guard Tre White also registered a stellar performance, leading Kansas in scoring with 15 points, 10 rebounds and three assists while shooting 4-of-9 from the field.

Game 13: No. 14 St. John’s 96, Baylor 81

Top Performer: Bryce Hopkins (SJU) | 26 points, five rebounds, five assists

The Johnnies played Iowa State tough on Monday and came up just a point short, and it seems like all that frustration was taken out on Scott Drew and the Baylor Bears on Tuesday. Providence transfer Bryce Hopkins notched a season-high 26 points and Oziyah Sellers added 22 to pace Rick Pitino’s boys in a decisive wire-to-wire victory against a program that isn’t too far removed from the pinnacle of the sport.

As a result, St. John’s will be presented with an interesting test against first-year head coach Steven Pearl and the Auburn Tigers in their consolation game on Wednesday. If I were to place my own wager, I feel comfortable in the assessment that Pitino will coach circles around Bruce’s kid. 

Game 14: No. 17 Tennessee 76, No. 3 Houston 73

Top Performer: Kingston Flemings (HOU) | 25 points, four rebounds, three assists

It took nearly two entire days of action, but we finally have a Top Performer from a losing team. Freshman Kingston Flemings established himself as a name to watch this season with a stellar scoring output on Tuesday, making 10-of-15 attempts from the field overall and 3-of-4 attempts from beyond the arc. 

On the Tennessee side of things, Ja’Kobi Gillespie continued his case for the overall tournament MVP with a 22-point, four-assist outing to lead the Volunteers to go along with his 32-point outing in Monday’s blowout win over Rutgers. Unfortunately, the point differential tiebreaker that determines Wednesday’s championship game has them tabbed as the third-place team, meaning they’ll have to settle for the third-place game against Kansas at 3 p.m. on Thursday.

Game 15: No. 7 Michigan 102, No. 21 Auburn 72

Top Performer: Morez Johnson (MICH) | 15 points, five rebounds, three assists

The seventh-ranked Wolverines became the first team to officially clinch their spot in the Players Era final on Thursday with a resounding 30-point win over first-year head coach Steven Pearl and the Auburn Tigers. The Wolverines’ +40 point differential was the second-best through two games, behind the Zags’ astounding +50 differential. 

Forward Morez Johnson Jr. was Michigan’s most impressive performer for my money, making 6-of-7 attempts from the field in an uber-efficient scoring performance. 23-year-old forward Yaxel Lendeborg, a UAB transfer and surefire first-round draft pick in June, led the team with 17 points en route to the decisive victory but did so less efficiently than Johnson.

Game 16: No. 12 Gonzaga 96, Maryland 56

Top Performer: Braden Huff (GONZ) | 20 points, three rebounds, three assists

If there’s been one major takeaway from the first two days of the Players Era Championship, it might just be the year for Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs to become the first mid-major national champion since UNLV in 1990. It would be ever-convenient timing, since their status as a power conference school will be a contested subject of debate, depending on your opinion of next year’s rehabilitated Pac-12 conference.

Junior forward Braden Huff paced the Zags to a win and an appearance in Thursday’s final by making 9-of-10 attempts from the field overall and 1-of-2 from 3-point range. Not to mention, Gonzaga now sits atop the KenPom rankings after Wednesday’s dominant performance.

Game 17: San Diego State 97, Oregon 80

Top Performer: Reese Dixon-Waters (SDSU) | 22 points, two assists, one rebound

After seeing San Diego State get absolutely humiliated by Michigan in a 40-point loss on Monday, the initial takeaway was that the Aztecs were joining the rest of the Mountain West in futility as a fitting tribute to their last year in the conference. It turns out, San Diego State isn’t as bad as they looked in their opener, which didn’t bode well for an Oregon squad that’s one of five teams to start 0-2 in the tournament. 

Reese Dixon-Waters led the Aztecs with an impressively efficient 9-of-13 performance from the field, while BJ Davis added 21 points off the bench on a torrid 6-of-7 from the field overall and 3-of-4 from 3-point range.

Game 18: No. 8 Alabama 115 UNLV 76

Top Performer: Aden Holloway (ALA) | 26 points, four rebounds, four assists

I had a pretty good feeling this game would turn out the way it did, in large part because UNLV plays a very similar style of basketball to Alabama with slower, less experienced players and a severe depth advantage. Even if UNLV wasn’t among the teams most battered by injury at any level of American collegiate basketball to this point, they still would have had a sub-zero chance of winning this game trying to keep up with Nate Oats’ and Alabama’s frenetic, fast-paced offense.

That Alabama offense was led by Aden Holloway, who made 9-of-14 attemprs from the field and 5-of-6 from 3-point range,

Getting out ran on Tuesday doesn’t mean UNLV should slow it down, though. In fact, they should use this game and the example Alabama set as the benchmark for where they someday hope to get their offense under the aggressive Pastner.