JERSEY CITY, N.J. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | For the first time in the 87-year history of the New Jersey City University men's basketball team, the Gothic Knights will play a regular season game west of the Mississippi River as NJCU head to Las Vegas for the prestigious 10th annual D3hoops.com Classic, which will be held December 27-30 at the South Point Arena at the northern end of the Vegas Strip. NJCU will play two games on December 28 and 29.
 
On December 28, NJCU meets Central College out of the American Rivers Conference at 8 p.m. Pacific/11 p.m. Eastern. On December 29, the Knights face off with Wisconsin-River Falls, member of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) at 6 p.m. Pacific/9 p.m. Eastern. NJCU flies from Newark to Las Vegas on the morning of December 26.
 
"We were excited just to be invited," head coach Marc Brown said in November. "This is something we have seen Ramapo do the last few years. My coaching staff and my guys have always been interested in the tournament and once the opportunity became available we jumped on it. We are excited to be there. The one thing I am concerned about is we will be heading out there coming right off of a week off and then traveling across the country, but we are excited about the opponents we are going to face—two good teams—and are looking at this as a springboard to the second half of the year."
 
"From a chemistry perspective, this will be a good experience. When guys are coming to college you want them to have an exciting college basketball experience. This is going to add to that experience. Being in a tournament like this visually does something for the program. I'm excited to coach against some coaches I normally wouldn't see during the season and test my strategies, what we do offensively and defensively against these different teams from different parts of the country."  
 
HOW TO FOLLOW:
In all, six men's and 10 women's teams will be heading to Vegas. All 16 games of the D3hoops.com classic are being broadcast live on www.D3hoops.com. NJCU rival Ramapo College participates in the tournament nearly every season and will also be attending. Sport Tours International is the tournament organizer.
 
Ira Thor, NJCU's Assistant Director of Athletics for Strategic Communications and Marketing, who has broadcast national events throughout his career, has annually broadcast this tournament for a number of years. He will be back in Vegas calling the action, alongside Pat Coleman, the Executive Editor of D3sports.com and D3hoops.com and Dave McHugh, the Broadcast Director for D3sports.com and D3hoops.com.
 
HISTORICAL NOTES TO KNOW:

• For the first time in 53 years, NJCU will play regular season games outside of the Eastern Time Zone. It marks NJCU's first regular season appearance outside of the Eastern time zone since the 1966-67 season—when the then Jersey City State College Gothics competed in the Central Time Zone in Troy, Alabama. On December 12, 1966, JCSC defeated Oakland City College (Ind.), 66-58. On December 13, 1966, host Troy State edged JCSC, 46-45.
• NJCU has never played a game in the Mountain Time Zone. 
• NJCU will compete in the Pacific Time Zone for the first time since the 1979-80 NCAA Division III Tournament West Regional at Humboldt State in Arcata, California. JCSC won both of those games, defeating Beloit College on February 29, 1980, 66-55, then upsetting host Humboldt State (Calif.), 74-73, in the Sweet 16 on March 1, 1980. The Gothics came home to Jersey City and lost a week later to eventual national champion North Park College (86-63) on March 8, 1980 in the Elite 8.
• NJCU will fly as a team in a game that counts for the first the 1992 Final Four (March 20-21, 1992) in Springfield, Ohio.
• NJCU will fly for the first time as a team for the first time since the Summer of 1999 on a non-traditional season trip to France.

 
NJCU vs. Central College (Iowa):

• NJCU and Central will meet for the first time in their histories. 
• It will be NJCU's first-ever meeting with any member of the American Rivers Conference which was rebranded in August, 2018, while they were an active league member. Prior to August, 2018, the league was known from 1927 until August 9, 2018, as the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC).
• Other members of the nine-team league include Buena Vista, Coe, Dubuque, Loras, Luther, Nebraska Wesleyan, Simpson and Wartburg.
• Nebraska Wesleyan became a member of the American Rivers/IIAC in 2016. NJCU and Nebraska Wesleyan have met once 30 years prior to NWU becoming a league member. On March 15, 1986, the schools met in the NCAA Division III Tournament national consolation game during the Final Four weekend in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Prairie Wolves edged JCSC, 97-93, after the Gothics pulled its starters late, to get its reserves some Final Four exposure.
• The Dutch come in at 4-5 overall and will face St. Scholastica on December 27 before meeting NJCU on December 28. 
• Central is no stranger to the NJAC. Two years ago the Dutch rallied to shock Ramapo College, 74-69, on December 29, 2017 in the same arena at that year's D3hoops Classic.

 
NJCU vs. Wisconsin-River Falls:

• Likewise, NJCU and Wisconsin-River Falls will meet for the first time in their histories. The Falcons (6-3) are coming off an upset of No. 8 ranked Nebraska Wesleyan, 84-82, in their last action on December 21.
• On paper, this could be the marquee game of the entire men's tournament as the top two public school conferences in Division III, the New Jersey Athletic Conference and WIAC, square off.
• It will be NJCU's first meeting with any member of the WIAC since losing to Wisconsin-Platteville in the 1992 NCAA Division III Final Four in the national third-place game in Springfield, Ohio. Platteville won that game, 72-61, on March 21, 1992. 
• NJCU has never faced any other members of the eight-school WIAC and never met a school during the regular season. Other members of the WIAC include UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh—the defending NCAA national champion—along with UW-Stevens Point, UW-Stout and UW-Whitewater.  

 
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