BRONX, N.Y. – The Fordham men's basketball team will take on Penn State in the opening round of the 2024 Sunshine Slam, it was announced this morning by the Gazelle Group.
The Rams and Nittany Lions will tip off at 4 p.m. on Nov. 25 inside Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Fla. The other opening round matchup in the Beach Bracket will pit Clemson and the University of San Francisco.
Tickets for the 2024 Sunshine Slam are available now at ticketmaster.com.
The Sunshine Slam is gearing up to be the Rams' toughest in-season tournament in nearly three decades. Last season, Penn State, Clemson and San Francisco all finished 77th or better according to KenPom.com. The Tigers advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in program history, upsetting Arizona and Baylor in the process. The Dons finished third in the WCC standings behind Gonzaga and Saint Mary's, won 20-plus games for the third straight year and earned a bid to the NIT. Penn State won 16 games in its first season under the direction of former VCU head coach Mike Rhoades, who led the Rams to three NCAA Tournament bids in six seasons.
Fordham is entering its third season under the direction of Keith Urgo, the 2023 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year. Urgo's 38 wins through two seasons are the most by a Fordham head coach through two years since Johnny Bach won 40 games from 1950-52. The Rams return 61.6 percent of their scoring from last season led by Japhet Medor and Will Richardson at 9.8 points apiece. Fordham also welcomes back its leading rebounder (6.3 rpg) and shot blocker (2.3 bpg) in Abdou Tsimbila, who spent part of the summer with the Cameroon National Team in Olympic qualifying. In 2023-24, Tsimbila finished the season ranked 18th nationally in blocks per game.
Urgo is no stranger to the Rams' semifinal opponent in Daytona Beach, having spent a decade on Pat Chambers' staff in State College, including the final eight seasons as the program's associate head coach before coming to Fordham.
Fordham and Penn State will meet for the fifth time in the history of the two programs. The teams last faced off in November of 2014, a win for the Nittany Lions. Fordham's lone win in the series came in February of 1932, a 38-37 overtime victory for the Rams inside the seven-year-old Rose Hill Gym.
