A College Hoops Marathon

November 18th. 14 games. 23 hours. Also known as the College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon. What a way to kick off the season.

ESPN has always struggled with a way to start the college basketball season, and despite the fact that this isn't even the official opening of the season (Nov. 14th is), this is still a great way to build hype for the year to come. Some of the highlights (full schedule after the jump):

-UMass at Memphis, midnight (all times east coast): UMass coach Derek Kellogg was Calipari's lead assistant last year at Memphis, who is trying to prove that they are still contender.

-Fresno St. at St. Mary's, 2 am: Patty Mills gets some national pub, despite the late start (which actually starts on Nov. 17th locally)

-Liberty @ UNC-Asheville, noon: Stephen Curry's little brother, Seth, starts his college career at Liberty, although without Asheville's Kenny George the game loses some of its appeal.

-NIT Regional Finals at Purdue (7 pm), Boston College (7:30 pm), Oklahoma (9:30 pm) and Arizona (11:30 pm).

-And the showcase game, and first College Gameday match-up, Kentucky at UNC, 9 pm: Patrick Patterson versus Tyler Hansbrough should be fun to watch.

This is also probably a good time to announce that this will be the first BIAH live-blog of the season. Yes, all 23-plus hours.

• Midnight: UMass at Memphis (ESPN)
• 2 a.m.: Fresno St. at St. Mary's (ESPN)
• 4 a.m.: Idaho St. at Hawaii (ESPN)
• 6 a.m.: College Hoops Tip-Off Special (ESPN)
• 10 a.m.: Penn at Drexel (ESPN)
• Noon: Liberty at UNC-Asheville (ESPN)
• 2 p.m.: Iowa at Kansas (women) (ESPN)
• 4 p.m.: Centenary at Baylor (ESPN)
• 6 p.m.: Richmond at Syracuse (ESPN)
• 7 p.m.: NIT Regional Final-Purdue (ESPNU)
• 7:30 p.m.: NIT Regional Final-Boston College (ESPN2)
• 8 p.m.: College GameDay-Chapel Hill (ESPN)
• 9 p.m.: Kentucky at North Carolina (ESPN)
• 9 p.m.: Florida Gulf Coast at Kansas (ESPNU)
• 9:30 p.m.: NIT Regional Final-Oklahoma (ESPN2)
• 11:30 p.m.: NIT Regional Final-Arizona (ESPN2)