Houston, LSU and St. John’s headline field for 2023 Charleston Classic

ESPN Events has announced the eight-team field - Dayton, LSU, Houston, North Texas, St. John’s, Towson, Utah, and Wake Forest - that will compete in the 2023 Shriners Children’s Charleston Classic. The annual men’s college basketball tournament will be played November 16, 17 and 19 at TD Arena in Charleston, S.C.

Seven of the eight teams in the field are coming off winning records in the 2022-23 season. Houston comes to Charleston as a new member of the Big 12 Conference. Last season they finished with one of the best records in school history (33- 4) and won their second straight American Athletic Conference regular-season championship. They capped off their successful season by earning the #1 seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

North Texas finished the 2022-23 season with a 31-7 record and won the National Invitation Tournament. St. John’s will be led by new coach Rick Pitino. During his 35 seasons as as collegiate head coach, the Hall of Famer has a 834-293 overall record. Pitino was the first coach to take three different schools to the NCAA Final Four and first coach to win an NCAA Championship at two different schools.

The field includes six of the 40 winningest coaches based on career Division I winning percentage among active coaches: St. John’s Rick Pitino (.708), Wake Forest’s Steve Forbes (.700), Houston’s Kelvin Sampson (.673), Dayton’s Anthony Grant (.647) and Utah’s Craig Smith (.614). Matchups, times and ESPN platform designations for will be announced at a later date.

Owned and operated by ESPN Events, the Shriners Children’s Hospital Classic is in its 15th year. Past Classic champions include College of Charleston (2022), St. Bonaventure (2021), Florida (2020) and Virginia Tech (2019).