PHOENIX, Ariz. (June 10, 2020) – The Northern Arizona men's basketball team will head south down I-17 for a non-conference game versus San Diego on Dec. 19 as part of the third annual Jerry Colangelo Classic. The one-day quadruple-header will be hosted at Talking Stick Resort Arena in downtown Phoenix.
"It's quite an honor to be selected to play in this event associated with the Basketball Hall of Fame and Mr. Jerry Colangelo," said head coach
Shane Burcar. "It's an opportunity for our players to play in front of a Phoenix Crowd with so many NAU alumni. We're excited to bring our brand of Lumberjack basketball from Flagstaff down to the Phoenix area."
The matchup between the Lumberjacks and the Toreros will be one of four games, featuring three of the state's four Division I programs, on Saturday, Dec. 19. In addition to NAU vs. San Diego, the other games will include Gonzaga vs. Texas Tech, Arizona State vs. BYU and San Francisco vs. Grand Canyon.
The Jerry Colangelo Classic is one event in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's series of collegiate events, which continues to grow in an effort to celebrate the game outside the museum walls.
NAU and San Diego will be meeting for the 19th time on the hardwood and the third time in the last five years. The Toreros' 79-51 victory on Dec. 9, 2017 in San Diego was their third consecutive win over the 'Jacks.
Ticket information, game times and additional television broadcast details will be released at a later date. The Basketball Hall of Fame will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation closely in the coming months and will provide updates as needed.
The Lumberjacks' complete 2020-21 schedule will be announced at a later date as well. Last month, the Big Sky announced that the conference basketball schedules would be trimmed from 20 games to 16 for this upcoming season only.
