Paradise Jam Bracket Set, Buffs Begin With Quinnipiac

BOULDER – The bracket for the 2017 Paradise Jam has been set with the University of Colorado tipping off against Quinnipiac in a first round game on Friday, Nov. 17, at the University of the Virgin Islands Sport & Fitness Center in St. Thomas, U.S. V.I.

Game times will be announced on a later date, although the Colorado-Quinnipiac contest will be the first of the evening session and third overall on opening day.

Quinnipiac, a school of 10,000 students in Hamden, Conn., is a member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The Bobcats are coming off a 10-21 campaign in 2016-17, finishing eighth in the MAAC with a record of 7-13. Colorado has never faced Quinnipiac in men's basketball, in fact, the Buffaloes have only played one game against a current MAAC team, a 35-34 win over Canisius on Dec. 29, 1945.

Drake and Wake Forest will follow in the final first round game and will comprise the next opponent for the Buffaloes and Bobcats. The winners will have a day off and play in a semifinal game on Sunday, Nov. 19. The losers will open consolation play on Saturday, Nov. 18.

Wake Forest was 19-14 in 2016-17 and placed 10^th in the Atlantic Coast Conference at 9-9. The Demon Deacons were one of the final teams selected to the NCAA Tournament, losing a First Four match up with Kansas State, 95-88, in Dayton, Ohio. Drake was 7-24 last season, tying for ninth in the Missouri Valley Conference at 5-13.

Colorado head coach Tad Boyle and Wake Forest head coach Danny Manning were teammates at Kansas (1984-85). Boyle and Manning will be on the same coaching staff, along with Kentucky's John Calipari, for the 2017 USA Basketball Men's U19 World Cup team in Egypt this summer. Drake will be led by Niko Medved, a former Colorado State assistant (2007-13) who took over the Bulldogs' program last month after a four-year stint as the head coach at Furman.

Colorado and Drake have met four times, with the Bulldogs holding a 3-1 series lead. The last meeting, also the Buffaloes' lone win, was an 82-80 decision in Boulder on Nov. 24, 1996. Colorado and Wake Forest have met just once, an 89-72 Buffaloes win in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Jan. 9, 1991.

In the top half of the bracket, Mercer will face Liberty while Drexel will take on Houston. The championship, third place and final consolation games will take place on Monday, Nov. 20.

Colorado completed the 2016-17 season at 19-15 overall, finishing seventh in the Pac-12 at 8-10. The Buffaloes competed in postseason play, past the conference tournament round, for a school-record seventh-straight season by participating in the 2017 NIT.

Paradise Jam Bracket Set, Buffs Begin With Quinnipiac

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