ROCK HILL, SC – The Winthrop men's basketball team has been invited to play in the 14th annual MetroPCS Orange Bowl Basketball Classic in Miami, FL on Dec. 29 as part of a college doubleheader pitting the Eagles against the Miami Hurricanes and two-time NCAA Champion Florida against Temple.
The doubleheader classic will be played at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise during FedEx Orange Bowl Festival Week.
"We are very excited to be a part of this outstanding event," said Winthrop head coach Randy Peele. "The quality of the teams in this even is outstanding and should provide fans with two excellent college basketball games. I hope as many of our fans as possible will be able to travel to Miami during the holidays to support us."
Game times have yet to be determined; however Winthrop fans, who travel to Miami, will be able to watch two games for as low as $10. Tickets can be purchased through the Orange Bowl Committee Ticket Office at (305) 341-4701 or by visiting www.orangebowl.org.
This will be Winthrop's first appearance in the Orange Bowl Classic and the fourth all-time meeting with Miami. Winthrop will be looking to even the series at 2-2 under Peele, who served as an Eagle assistant coach for the past four years and helped lead the school to a 29-5 record and a first-round NCAA victory last year over Notre Dame. He takes over a program that has captured three-consecutive Big South Conference championships and made three trips to the NCAA tournament during his four years on the Eagle coaching staff.
Last year, a record crowd of 15,709 fans at the BankAtlantic Center saw the Florida Gators earn a hard fought victory over the UAB Blazers, 75-70, en route to their second-consecutive NCAA Championship. The Miami Hurricanes fell to the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 82-67.
For more than a decade, the Orange Bowl Committee has delivered exciting college basketball action to South Florida. The Classic’s traditional anchor schools – Miami, Florida and Florida State – have taken on the nation’s most celebrated and successful programs, including: Louisville, North Carolina, Indiana, Georgia Tech, UNLV, Gonzaga, Michigan, Nebraska, UAB, Xavier, Charlotte, Ohio State, Temple, Tennessee, DePaul, and Providence.
Frank Haith’s Hurricanes have been associated with the Classic since its inception. During Haith’s tenure at Miami, the Hurricanes faced Louisville in the OB’s first-ever nationally-televised basketball game in 2005.
