USC, Oklahoma, Seton Hall, Iowa in the new tournament in San Diego

The group hosting the Holiday Bowl is expanding with a college basketball tournament that will feature the first fields of Southern California, Oklahoma, Seton Hall and Iowa during the Thanksgiving holiday.

The Rady Children’s Invitational will take place November 23-24 at UC San Diego’s 4,000-seat Lion Tree Arena and will be televised by Fox Sports.

The idea for the hoops tournament came about after the Holiday Bowl promoted a football game between Notre Dame and the San Diego Navy in 2018.

The San Diego State men’s basketball team is number one, and a large student body attends home games.

“We can do a lot more than just the Holiday Bowl,” Mark Neville, CEO of Sports San Diego, said Tuesday. “One of the things we came up with was having a basketball tournament. It was natural for us, because our mission is to stimulate tourism, economic benefits, civic pride and popularization of San Diego. If we’re going to get in, we want to do better.”

Neville said that Purdue, who had been ranked No. 1 on the Associated Press Top 25 for several weeks and is currently ranked No. 5, has been signed for the 2024 tournament.

Steve Fischer, a former San Diego and Michigan State coach, serves as the tournament’s ambassador and helps build teams for future fields.

Fischer said his first trip to San Diego was at the 1975 Final Four when UCLA won the title in John Wooden’s last game as coach.

“When I arrived here, I ran to the lobby, called my wife Angie and told her: “If there is a piece of Heaven on Earth, I found it. We’re going to save up enough money to spend our holidays here,” Fischer said at a press conference at a restaurant in San Diego Bay.

“Look, I have lived here for 24 years and this is my home. So having this place to start and all these other amenities we have to offer, no pun intended, it’s a slam dunk that this event will become one of the most spectacular in the country as it grows in status as part of the liberated event in our college basketball world,” Fischer said.

The Ready Children’s Hospital in San Diego is one of the largest children’s hospitals on the West Coast.

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