Thanksgiving in Florida

The Cardinal will spend the weekend after Thanksgiving in Southwest Florida as part of the third-annual Gulf Coast Showcase (there's also a mens' tournament on the three days before Thanksgiving).

The women's tournament will be held from Nov. 27-29 at Germain Arena in Estero, Florida. The Cardinal will be joined at the event by:

The Dayton Flyers
The Louisville Cardinals
The LSU Tigers
The Maine Black Bears
The Marist Red Foxes
The Missouri State Lady Bears
The Purdue Boilermakers

The tournament format is an eight-team playoff, with winners playing winners and losers playing losers in the second and third rounds, to determine places one through seven.

Game times and the first-round pairings have not been announced yet.

Click here for the Gulf Coast Showcase announcement of the tournament fields.

For complete information, go to the Gulf Coast Showcase website. There you can find information about buying tickets (which go on sale on May 15) and travel packages (which will be announced on May 1).

If you want to consider making your own travel arrangements:

Map of Germain Arena in Estero, from which you can search for nearby hotels. If you zoom way out, you'll find that Estero is a suburb of Fort Myers and about 10 miles south of the nearest major airport – Southwest Florida International Airport.

TripAdvisor review of the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort & Spa, the official host resort for each of the participating teams.