Kansas State, Northwestern, Pittsburgh, Bradley playing in 2019 Fort Myers Tip-Off

Kansas State, Northwestern, Pittsburgh and Bradley will be the men’s basketball teams in the 2019 Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans Fort Myers Tip-Off field, event organizer Intersport announced Wednesday.

This year’s first event has featured 2018 NCAA Final Four team Loyola-Chicago along with Boston College, Wyoming and Richmond. Loyola-Chicago and Boston College will play for the title tonight at 7:30 p.m. That game, as well as the 5 p.m. contest between Richmond and Wyoming, will be televised live on FS1. 

Intersport will announce next year's tournament dates and game pairings at a later date.

Charles Besser, president and CEO of Intersport, has a home in Naples.

“He has a fondness for this area and said this is the perfect destination for an event like this,” said Drew Russell, Intersport’s Executive Vice President of Sports Properties and Media Assets. “When we first came down here, Suncoast Credit Union was beams and girders.

“There are 25-plus tournaments like this around the country. Our focus is to become the premier holiday tournament. A number of them have a decades head-start on us. But the experience we want to put on for the people coming to Fort Myers will only continue to grow.”

Russell said upcoming NCAA legislation on these tournaments will play a role in how quickly the event will grow to eight teams. Based on the first two events, the focus seems to be on getting teams from the Northeast and Midwest, which is a major part of Lee County’s winter visitors.

What I Like: Charlie Besser, President & CEO, Intersport

“Teams schedule very far out, so it’s a challenge to get in a rotation,” Russell said. “Talking to the folks in Lee County, the Northeast, and Midwest along with Minnesota, those are the areas we want to take advantage of. We’d love to get the likes of the Big Ten, ACC, Big East, all those power conference schools.”

Played at Suncoast Credit Union Arena, a $28 million facility built in 2016, Monday’s attendance was 1,600, according to Russell. Intersport also is partners with Fox, which broadcast all four games this season.

“That’s why we chose Suncoast Arena,” he said. “It’s less than two years old and has an intimate environment. The future goal is 3,400 people packed in that arena.”

2019 Field

Kansas State, Northwestern, Pittsburgh, Bradley – the four programs visiting in 2019 - boast of a combined 65 NCAA Tournament appearances and seven Final Four berths They are a combination of teams who have had recent and past NCAA tournament success.

Kansas State lost to Loyola-Chicago in the South Regional final for a spot in the Final Four last season. The Wildcats, under coach Bruce Webber, beat Creighton, Maryland-Baltimore County and Kentucky to reach the Elite Eight.

This season, K-State (5-0) is ranked No. 12 in the country after beating Kennesaw State, Denver Eastern Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Missouri. In his seventh season in Manhattan, Weber has 12 NCAA tourney appearances and more than 400 career wins in his career.

Northwestern made its first NCAA Tournament appearance ever in 2017. After beating Vanderbilt, the Wildcats nearly made the Sweet 16 but their valiant comeback against eventual national runner-up Gonzaga fell short, 79-73.

This season, the Wildcats have senior center Derek Pardon, who holds the Northwestern record for career field goal percentage (.621) and stand-out player Vic Law, a senior forward, who became the 36th player in NU history to surpass 1,000 points earlier this season. The Wildcats also welcome a strong first-year class, ranked the best recruiting class in NU's history, according to 247Sports.

Pittsburgh had been an NCAA regular under Ben Howland and Jamie Dixon but have had losing seasons the past two years.

New coach Jeff Capel hopes to turn the Panthers’ fortunes. Capel spent the previous seven seasons at Duke, where he helped guide the Blue Devils to a 200-55 (.784) record, seven NCAA Tournament appearances, the 2017 ACC Tournament championship, and the 2015 National Championship.

Entering the 2018-19 season, Pitt returns five players who started 13 or more games a year ago.

Bradley has appeared in just eight NCAA tournaments but has made noise in many of them, including two Final Fours, finishing as the national runner-up in 1950 and 1954.[2] They last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2006, reaching the Sweet Sixteen.

Brian Wardle is in his fourth year at Bradley. He ranks second among Division I coaches younger than 40 with 133 career victories. One of just four schools in the country to improve by at least five wins in each of the last two years, Bradley finished the 2017-18 season with a 20-13 record and earned a top-five seed for the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in 2018.

“This year’s field we announced in the summer,” Russell said. “We’re excited to have the chance to promote this event for a year.”