MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State will play Providence on Friday, Nov. 17 in the second game of a first-round doubleheader to open the 2023 Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship at the Baha Mar Convention Center, Arts & Entertainment Center in Nassau, The Bahamas.
The Wildcats and Friars will tip off at 5 p.m., CT on Friday, Nov. 17, following a matchup between Miami (Fla.) and Georgia at 2:30 p.m., CT. The winners of the first-round games will play in the championship game at 1:30 p.m., CT on Sunday, Nov. 19, while the consolation game will start at 11 a.m., CT.
All games of the tournament will air on CBS Sports Network.
Various ticket packages for the Baha Mar Hoops Championship can be found at www.bahamarhoops.com. Among these is a VIP package, which includes a four-night stay at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, two (2) courtside tickets to all games of the Bahamas Championship, two (2) tickets to the tournament’s VIP reception (Saturday, Nov. 18) with dinner and open bar included, round-trip ground transportation from the airport and resort, two (2) daily breakfast voucher and personal concierge service. (Airfare not included in the packages.)
Tournament passes, which include tickets to all four (4) game of the tournament are available for purchase separately at www.bahamarhoops.com.
The Baha Mar Resort is just a 55-minute flight from Florida, opening in 2017, and includes the Grand Hyatt, SLS and Rosewood hotels. The resort includes a casino, a state-of-the-art convention center, an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course, a $200 million water park and a collection of more than 45 restaurants and lounges.
Fans can reserve a room at the official team hotel – the Grand Hyatt at Baha Mar – here.
This will be the third year of the Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship with Louisville defeating Maryland in 2021 and future Big 12 foe UCF defeating Santa Clara in the 2022 edition. K-State is the third Big 12 school to play in the tournament, following UCF and Oklahoma State, which both played in 2022.
This will mark K-State’s first appearance in the Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship; however, the Wildcats have won tournament championships in their last two visits to the Caribbean, including the 2018 Paradise Jam in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands and the 2022 Cayman Islands Classic in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.
This will be just the second meeting with Providence and the first since an 87-80 win in the 1977 NCAA Tournament. The Friars earned their seventh NCAA Tournament bid in the last 10 seasons in 2022-23 before losing to Kentucky in the first round, posting a 21-12 record, including a 13-7 mark in BIG EAST play. They will be led by first-year head coach Kim English, who played against K-State during his playing career (2012-15) at Missouri.
K-State has met Georgia on 4 occasions, including 3 times in the last 10 years (2014, 2015, 2018), while the Wildcats have never played Miami. The Hurricanes won a school-record 29 games, tied for the ACC regular-season title and advanced to their first Final Four this past season under head coach Jim Larranaga. The Bulldogs went 16-16 in head coach Mike White’s first season, a 10-game improvement from the 2021-22 season.
Led by Naismith National Coach of the Year Jerome Tang, the Wildcats compiled a 26-10 record in 2022-23, which included a tie for third place in the Big 12 and the school’s 13th trip to the Elite Eight. The 26 wins are the third-most in school history and the most since winning 27 in 2012-13.
The rest of the 2023-24 men’s basketball schedule will be released as it becomes official.
ABOUT BAHA MAR HOOPS
Baha Mar Hoops is the largest regular-season event in college basketball with the 2023 edition featuring 20 men’s and women’s teams competing in 24 games over 10 days during the Thanksgiving holiday. In addition to the Bahamas Championship (Nov. 17 and 19), the organizers will host an eight-team Nassau Championship (Nov. 24-26) as well as a Pink Flamingo Championship (Nov. 20 and 22) for some of the top women’s programs.
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