KU and Gonzaga, last year’s No. 1 and 2 teams, to meet on Thanksgiving Day in Florida
Kansas will meet Gonzaga and Saint Joseph’s in the 2020 Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans Fort Myers Tip-Off, event organizers announced Friday.
The Jayhawks will play Gonzaga at 12:30 p.m. Central time on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26, and Saint Joseph’s at 1 p.m. on Nov. 27. Both games will be played at Suncoast Credit Union Arena in Fort Myers, Florida.
The KU-Gonzaga game, matching last year’s No. 1-ranked team in the final AP poll (KU) and the No. 2 team (Gonzaga), will be shown on FOX Sports. The St. Joe’s-KU game will be shown on FS1.
FS1 will televise Game 2 of the Thanksgiving Day doubleheader between Saint Joseph’s and Auburn. That will follow the KU-Gonzaga contest.
Gonzaga will meet Auburn at 10 a.m. Nov. 27 on FOX.
Gonzaga, a 31-win team last year, is led by preseason All-American Corey Kispert along with all-conference players Joel Ayayi and Drew Timme. The Zags’ freshman class includes top-10 prospect Jalen Suggs.
Zags coach Mark Few owns a 599-124 career record in 21 seasons. He has guided the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament every year, including the 2017 national championship game, and to a No. 1 ranking in three of the last four seasons.
Saint Joseph’s is led by Ryan Daly, a third team all-A-10 Conference performer last year, who finished the season as the league’s scoring leader at 20.6 points per game. The 6-5 senior guard also averaged 6.9 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game.
Because of social distancing restrictions inside the arena, a limited number of fans will be able to attend the Fort Myers Tip-Off. There will be no public sale of tickets. Fans interested in attending should submit a ticket request form at www.fortmyerstipoff.com/tickets. Fans will be contacted on a first-come, first-served basis based on the submission date of their ticket-request form.
Meanwhile, an official announcement on the Champions Classis is expected early next week. KU will meet Kentucky on Dec. 1 in Indianapolis, Jon Rothstein of CBSsports.com reported Friday. Meanwhile, Michigan State will travel to Duke for the other game of the one-day Classic. It was originally scheduled to be played Nov. 10 in Chicago.
Here is the updated KU schedule for the 2020-21 season:
NOVEMBER
26-Gonzaga in Fort Myers, Florida, 12:30 p.m.
27-St. Joseph’s in Fort Myers, Florida, 1 p.m.
DECEMBER
1-Kentucky in Indianapolis (not official yet)
5-North Dakota State
8-Creighton
11-Omaha
13-Tarleton State
17-at Texas Tech
22-West Virginia
JANUARY
2-Texas
5-at TCU
9-Oklahoma
12-at Oklahoma State
16-Iowa State
18-at Baylor
23-at Oklahoma
26-TCU
30-at Tennessee
FEBRUARY
2-Kansas State
6-at West Virginia
8-Oklahoma State
13-at Iowa State
16-at Kansas State
20-Texas Tech
22-at Texas
27-Baylor
MARCH
10-13-Big 12 Tournament, T-Mobile Center
This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 12:31 PM with the headline "KU and Gonzaga, last year’s No. 1 and 2 teams, to meet on Thanksgiving Day in Florida."
