{"id":47417,"date":"2020-11-10T18:34:23","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T23:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=47417"},"modified":"2020-11-10T18:34:30","modified_gmt":"2020-11-10T23:34:30","slug":"college-basketball-returns-to-southwest-florida-with-the-beachbubble-on-thanksgiving-weekend-gulf-coast-showcase-features-14-mens-womens-teams-competing-nov-25-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2020\/11\/college-basketball-returns-to-southwest-florida-with-the-beachbubble-on-thanksgiving-weekend-gulf-coast-showcase-features-14-mens-womens-teams-competing-nov-25-29\/","title":{"rendered":"COLLEGE BASKETBALL RETURNS TO SOUTHWEST FLORIDA WITH THE #BEACHBUBBLE ON THANKSGIVING WEEKEND Gulf Coast Showcase features 14 men\u2019s & women\u2019s teams competing Nov. 25-29"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A college basketball season unlike any other tips off on Wednesday, Nov. 25, and will include a slate of games at Hertz Arena in bdG Sports\u2019 #BeachBubble at the Gulf Coast Showcase. Over the course of Thanksgiving weekend, the Kentucky-based promoter will play host to eight men\u2019s and six women\u2019s teams in Southwest Florida and put on 21 games at Hertz Arena and FGCU\u2019s Alico Arena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA announced in mid-September that the start of the college basketball season would be delayed until Nov. 25. That change prompted a whirlwind of changes to existing team schedules and event fields across the country. Unlike most events, bdG Sports, which has managed the Gulf Coast Showcase men\u2019s and women\u2019s tournaments at Hertz Arena since 2013, was able to retain the majority of their participants to put forth an eight-team men\u2019s tournament strictly for mid-major programs while also attracting six of the premier women\u2019s teams in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have built these men\u2019s and women\u2019s fields with the health and safety of our teams first and foremost in mind,\u201d said Brooks Downing, President of bdG Sports. \u201cWe have instituted a comprehensive safety plan with the focus on our three pillars of the host resort, game venue and ground transportation. Our partners at Hertz Arena, FGCU, Hyatt Regency Coconut Point, Naples Tours and Transportation, Summit One Source, which provides our testing, and Loop Insights, which provides contact tracing, have all bought in from day one how important it is that we do this right and in a manner which protects the players and coaches as best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a compressed window over Thanksgiving week \u2013 typically the men play each year on Monday through Wednesday, followed by the women\u2019s tournament on Friday through Sunday \u2013 FGCU was in position to welcome the women\u2019s event once it became evident that the two tournaments would overlap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe teams were insistent on keeping these events on Thanksgiving weekend, and Ken Kavanaugh and Karl Smesko put us in position to keep both of these events in Fort Myers,\u201d Downing said. \u201cWith Coach Smesko\u2019s team already slated to play in this year\u2019s field, it just made the most sense to utilize Alico Arena to play host to the women\u2019s slate of games.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The men\u2019s tournament will get the action started first with a traditional eight-team tournament bracket at Hertz Arena. The first-round match-ups on Wednesday, Nov. 25 are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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