Game matchups for the inaugural Cayman Islands Classic women’s basketball tournament were announced Tuesday by Caymax Sports LTD.
Eight teams will compete in the tournament held November 24-25 at John Gray Gymnasium, just minutes away from world famous Seven Mile Beach.
Reigning national champion LSU headlines an impressive field which includes four schools ranked in the top 13 of the final 2023 USA Today/WBCA Coaches poll.
No. 4 ranked Virginia Tech, which also played in the Final Four, along with No. 9 UConn and No. 13 UCLA also are in the tournament that includes Kansas, which captured the recent WNIT championship. Niagara, Tulane and Virginia round out the field.
“The inaugural Cayman Island Classic is an unprecedented collection of fabulous programs and coaches,” said Joanne P. McCallie, Executive Tournament Director. “We look forward to welcoming the teams to compete in such an incredibly competitive field while experiencing memorable team building opportunities throughout the beautiful Cayman Islands.”
Virginia will face Tulane in the opening game at 11 a.m. ET Nov. 24 followed by LSU playing Niagara at 1:30 p.m. ET.
The evening session features Virginia Tech playing Kansas at 5 p.m. ET with UConn meeting UCLA in the final game at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Saturday’s tournament games start with Virginia Tech playing Tulane at 11 a.m. ET followed by UCLA against Niagara at 1:30 p.m. ET.
LSU faces Virginia at 5 p.m. ET with the final game of the tournament set for a 7:30 p.m. ET tip off with UConn playing Kansas.
LSU beat Iowa, 102-85 in the championship game of the 2023 NCAA Women’s Tournament in Dallas, Texas, with the game averaging 9.9 million television viewers for the most watched women’s college basketball game ever. LSU (34-2), the No. 3 seed in the Greenville 2 Region after finishing the regular season second in the SEC, erased a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit with a 22-3 run in the national semifinal to defeat No. 1-seed Virginia Tech, 79-72. It was the fourth championship in as many title game appearances in Kim Mulkey’s coaching career (previous wins at Baylor in 2005, 2012 and 2019), as she became the first women’s basketball coach to win NCAA championships at multiple schools.
UConn, under Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma, is the most successful women’s basketball program in the nation, having won a record 11 NCAA Division I National Championships and a women’s record four in a row, from 2013 through 2016. The Huskies have taken part in every NCAA tournament since 1989 including a record 14 consecutive Final Fours. UConn recorded a 31-6 mark this season advancing to the Sweet 16 of the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
Virginia Tech accomplished many firsts this year: 31 wins, an ACC championship, a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and appearances in the Elite Eight and Final Four before falling to eventual national champ LSU in the semifinal round.
UCLA went 27-10 this past season — the most wins at the school since 2017-18 — while advancing to the Sweet Sixteen of the 2023 March Madness Tournament before falling to top-seeded and defending national champion South Carolina, 59-43
Kansas capped off a 25-11 season by winning the program’s first-ever WNIT championship with a 66-59 win over Columbia.
Tulane posted an 18-14 record this past season, while playing in the WNIT for the third straight year.
Virginia, under first year head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton, went 15-15 while receiving an invitation to postseason play for the first time in five years. But the Cavaliers declined the WNIT due to a limited number of healthy bodies
Niagara enjoyed an 18-13 record—the first winning record at the school since the 2004-05 season — while advancing to a postseason tournament (WNIT) for the first time in school history.
For more information, please visit www.CaymanIslandsClassic.com. For travel packages, visit https://caymanislandsclassictravel.com/ or call 1-877-669-8903.
To watch games on Flo Hoops, visit https://flosports.link/3sd963n