Schedule Update: The Legend of the Legends Classic

MassLive.com reports that the Gazelle Group is still scrambling and moving teams around in the Legends Classic field. While UMass, Toledo and Cornell were originally scheduled to fill the Amherst region, due to travel/geographic concerns, Toledo was since moved to the East Lansing region with Michigan State and Valparaiso.

Meanwhile, as Cornell and UMass remain in the Amherst region, MassLive.com reveals that Drexel may take the Toledo vacancy and join the Big Red and the Minutemen in the Mullins Center.

The Dragons of the CAA were originally scheduled to play in the New Jersey region with Rutgers and Vermont.

MassLive is also reporting that the Legends Classic field will includes 16 teams. However, the information we received was that that UMass, Rutgers, Florida and Michigan State will each host the Classic's regional rounds with just three teams in each of the four regions. After each region completes round robin play (2 games for each participating team), the four host schools automatically advance to Newark, Jersey's Prudential Center for the "semifinal" rounds. In fact, the semifinal matchups are already determined. UMass will face Rutgers while Florida will take on Michigan State.

The remaining eight schools move on to the "consolation" rounds where they are guaranteed 2 additional "consolation" games. Accordingly, all twelve teams play 4 games each.

Hosts of the consolation games have yet to be determined.

Below is a glimpse of what the Legends Classic field would look like if Drexel agrees to head to Amherst:

Amherst Region
UMass (host)
Cornell
Drexel

Piscataway NJ Region
Rutgers (host)
Vermont
Team 3 tba

Gainseville Region
Florida (host)
Team 2 tba
Team 3 tba

East Lansing Region
Michigan State (host)
Toldeo
Valparaiso

MassLive's report is below:

Bruiser Flint might return to the Mullins Center during the 2009-10 University of Massachusetts men's basketball season - if Drexel plays the Minutemen in Amherst.

"It's remote, but possible," UMass associate athletic director Tim Kenney said Thursday. "I know Bruiser and Derek Kellogg have talked about it, but we're still waiting to hear the schedule."

Now the coach of the Drexel Dragons, Flint coached UMass from 1996-2001. He was also a UMass assistant when Kellogg, the current UMass coach, played from the Minutemen from 1991-95.

UMass and Drexel might meet in the Legends Classic, a 16-team tournament run by the New Jersey-based Gazelle Group. UMass will be one of four regional hosts for the 16-team field.

Each team in the four-team Amherst "pod," will play two games apiece. Initial plans called for UMass to play Cornell and Toledo between Nov. 18-21.

Drexel is a late addition to the tournament. Kenney said UMass is still scheduled to play Cornell, but the opponent for the other game in Amherst is undetermined.

Since being forced out at UMass in 2001, and subsequently being hired by Drexel, Flint has not returned to the Mullins Center in an official capacity.

With 86 victories in five years, he remains No. 3 on the all-time UMass coaching victories list. Flint's 1997 and 1998 teams are the last Minutemen squads to reach the NCAA tournament.