Following the inaugural tournament in November 2023, the 2024 Rady Children’s Invitational returns to LionTree Arena on the UC San Diego campus on Thursday.
NC State, Ole Miss, Purdue and BYU headline the second annual tournament. Purdue and NC State faced off in the 2024 Men’s NCAA Tournament Final Four in Glendale, Arizona. Purdue beat NC State 63-50 to advance to the National Championship, where they fell to UConn.
The teams enter the tournament with only one defeat between them, a Purdue loss to 15th-ranked Marquette on the road. The Boilermakers also scored a win over Alabama, ranked second in the nation at the time, in an early-season non-conference matchup.
Purdue is the only team in the tournament ranked, as they currently sit at No. 6 in the Associated Press Top 25. NC State, though, enters the tournament having won four of its five games by double-digits.
BYU and Ole Miss travel to San Diego hoping to build off commanding victories to start the season, as they both have had only one game come down to a single-digit margin.
Sports San Diego announced in September that the tournament had sold out.
NC State vs. Purdue tips off at 1 p.m. while BYU and Ole Miss will get started at 3:30 p.m. PST, and both games will be broadcast on FOX or FS1.
A tip-off party will be hosted from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday with an opportunity to step onto the court the night before the tournament starts. Tickets for the tip-off party are limited, but still available here.
Sports San Diego revealed the 2025 tournament participants, including Kansas, this week.
