ESTERO, Fla. – Three top-25 teams from the preseason AP poll highlight the sixth-annual Gulf Coast Showcase women’s tournament to be played on Nov. 23-25 at Hertz Arena. No. 11 Texas, No. 16 Missouri and No. 21 Duke will all be in-action in Southwest Florida on Thanksgiving weekend.
Texas will open play on Friday, Nov. 23 at 5 p.m. against preseason MAAC favorite and defending champion Quinnipiac. The second game of that session will feature Missouri facing a Michigan program that was just outside the top-25 rankings.
On the men’s side, four ranked teams in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top-25 will compete at Hertz Arena. No. 5 South Dakota State is once again the favorite in the Summit League. The Jackrabbits will joined by No. 11 Louisiana, No. 13 Toledo and No. 24 UC Irvine. Local favorite FGCU also will make the 2.5-mile trek from campus to Hertz Arena. The Eagles will open tournament play on Monday, Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m. ET vs. Toledo.
For the fourth consecutive year, the tournament will support the Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida. The hospital is the only children’s hospital between Tampa and Miami and provides vital health care for the region’s sick and injured children and their families. The hospital’s new $242 million facility provides 300,000 square feet of space, 128 pediatric and NICU beds with space to expand to 160 beds, a 17-bay emergency department, a freestanding pediatric pharmacy and in-hospital school classroom.
Ticket and Fan Travel Information
Tickets for the 2018 Gulf Coast Showcase are on-sale now at GermainArena.com or through Ticketmaster. All-Tournament passes for either the men’s tournament or women’s tournament are available for $74, $99 or $149 per tournament with single session tickets ranging from $10 General Admission to $45 Courtside for each two-game session. Each day of the tournament will feature an afternoon session (starting at 11 a.m.) and evening session (5 p.m.) and tickets will be good for both games of a given session.
Fan travel information, including preferred hotel rates at the official tournament resort hotel – the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point – is available on www.GulfCoastShowcase.com.
