The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas continues to be an attraction for major NCAA basketball and another event will be added to a stacked schedule this fall.

Bd Global Sports will host the “Islands of the Bahamas Showcase” November 17-19 at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium.

The event will feature eight mid-major NCAA Division I programmes over the course of the weekend.

Teams

Several teams confirmed their participation in the event during their non-conference schedule release including the Bradley Braves, Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, Iona Gaels, Northern Kentucky Norsemen, Texas-San Antonio Norsemen, Vermont Catamounts, Weber State Wildcats. An eighth team will be named later to replace Duquesne, who were named to the original field but will not participate.

Bd Global, an event management and public relations firm, has become one of the largest providers of college basketball content in the United States and it’s previous work in the Bahamas has included two new Web.com Tour events. Last January, they opened the tour with The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay which was played January 8-11 followed by The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club on Winding Bay on January 22-25.

Exciting

“This is a very exciting time for our business, and a natural evolution for us into the international sports and media marketplace,” Brooks Downing, founder and president of Bd Global Sports said when the golf tournaments and partnership in the Bahamas was announced, “We are finding unique opportunities throughout North America and the Caribbean to create first-class platforms that will elevate brands and meet the goals and objectives for cities and communities to generate economic activity through sports.”

According to its website, bdG’s primary focus has been largely in NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball. Last season alone, its tournaments ranged from the first college basketball game at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (Duke vs. UNLV), to neutral-site tournaments, to round-robin events held at home sites. In the next six weeks, bdG has contracted 12 basketball events that feature 68 NCAA Division I teams playing a total of 127 games. bdG has established an impressive list of clients, including Nike, Gatorade, Bayer, Novartis, Papa John’s, and MGM Resorts International, among others. With an intense focus on charity through all of its event relationships, bdG continues to work closely with Coaches vs. Cancer, Play4Kay and the Lee Memorial Children’s Hospital in Southwest Florida.

The Bahamas currently hosts the Bahamas Basketball Federation’s Summer of Thunder Series, the Battle 4 Atlantis and the Junkanoo Jam.