Eli Boettger | @boettger_eli | 02/21/2020
College basketball is headed across the pond in 2020 with a new early season tournament taking place in London in December.
Kentucky, Michigan, Marist and UMBC will compete in the inaugural Hall of Fame London Showcase at London’s storied O2 Arena on Dec. 6, according to a release by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday.
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“The Basketball Hall of Fame is proud to celebrate the game on a global scale and we couldn’t be more excited to host four Division-I men’s teams in London this December,” said John L. Doleva, President and CEO of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
The sport continues its expansion beyond American borders: Hall of Fame London Showcase will join several other college basketball multi-team events outside of the United States. The Cancun Challenge (Cancun, Mexico), Battle 4 Atlantis (Paradise Island, Bahamas), Junkanoo Jam (Bimini, Bahamas) and the Pac-12 China Game (Shanghai, China) are already set for the 2020-21 season while recent years have also featured games in Canada.
“This series with Michigan checks off a lot of boxes when we’re looking at teams to schedule,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “The first thing is, to add an opponent like Michigan and to do so at a point in the schedule while we’re beginning to find out who we are as a team will be important in our development.”
Tickets will be made available to the general public on Thursday, Feb. 27 at 10 a.m. London time via AXS.com.
Eli Boettger is a college basketball writer and founder of HeatCheckCBB.com. He has previously worked for Sporting News, DAZN and USA TODAY SMG.
Boettger’s content has been featured by Bleacher Report, NBC Sports, FiveThirtyEight, Yahoo Sports, Athletic Director University, Washington Post, Illinois Law Review and Notre Dame Law Review, among other publications. Boettger is also a current USBWA member.
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